Encounter Hope - Interactive Workshop 2

Following on from our successful first workshop we are now trialling workshop 2 and are inviting interested parents and professionals to join us.

We will be asking for your feedback as we work in collaboration with parents to develop our programme and therefore this is being offered at a special rate.

Building on the content we brought you last time, we will be taking a deeper look at the development of posture, muscle tone and using both sides of the body, both in isolation and a coordinated way.

These are key foundational skills that often become hijacked or disrupted when stress responses are impacting the nervous system in infancy and beyond. This can be due to various factors, and we won’t be focusing so much on individual causes or diagnosis but more on simple solutions for repair.

This is the second in a series of workshops, but you can attend this session as a stand-alone session, you don’t need to have attended Workshop 1.

We have been looking at the impact of trauma and stress responses in infant nervous systems on motor and sensory systems development and the relationship between this and regulation, sensory processing, executive function and more.

In this workshop, we will be demonstrating additional simple movement and sensory solutions to transform the imprint of stress related response and trauma. This will build on the tools from Workshop 1 but can be used in isolation.

There is a bi-directional relationship between developmental trauma and underdeveloped sensory and motor systems, and we will explain more about this at the workshop as we look further at how to facilitate repair.

You will learn skills that enable you to provide key elements of therapy at home. Providing regular small doses to support your child to rebuild foundational movement and sensory patterns.

You will have time and space to learn, explore and practice the techniques yourself so you can use them at home. Enabling you to support your child in the safety of your own home.

We will also share our own experiences of applying these simple body-based tools to bring full body regulation, trauma processing and attachment building, blending theory with clinical experience.

Who will be speaking?

Andrea Richards MSc – An occupational therapist with specialisms in trauma, attachment building, sensory integration, and developmental movement.

Michelle Herring MBE - A single adoptive parent to a child with SEN and developmental trauma, and a parent therapy 'provider'.

Why are we doing this?

For the past two decades there has been a seminal shift in how society understands early life brain development and the neurobiology of trauma. This has been exciting and has now become part of mainstream culture with neurology terms becoming part of everyday language. The transition has been radical and exciting, yet many families still report that although they understand more about their child’s reactions, they still don’t feel equipped to manage it. Drawing on our experience of working together over the last few years we think it is time to equip families to move beyond the theory and have some very practical things they can do to support repair and rebuild.

Format of the session

A two-hour interactive training workshop, with opportunities to learn a key set of tools and movements.

You may find it helpful to wear trousers or clothing that’s easy to move in. You don’t have to engage in the movements but may find doing at least some helps your learning.

This is the second in a series of workshops that are designed to equip you to support your child in your home environment.

We will be audio recording the main part of the session for our personal use only; as this is part of our research and development of our programme.

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