Has your child been bullied? Is your child demonstrating bullying type symptoms and you are unsure how to redirect them? From preschool to adulthood, your child has the potential to be bullied or be a bully. Learn how to talk with your child about bullying without losing your cool or having your child get defensive and cover up the truth.

This workshop will discuss bullying from both the victim’s and bully’s perspectives. You will get suggestions on how to improve your children’s safety and how best to work with school officials. The workshop also includes tips on positive communication skills to best support your child and conversation traps to avoid. Children who are bullied often experience low self-esteem and withdrawn behaviors that parents may feel helpless to deal with effectively. Parents will leave the workshop with new parenting strategies and a stronger awareness of how to deal with many types of bullying (emotional, verbal, physical and cyber bulling).

Tuesday, March 6th, 2012 6-7:30 pm Improving Communications With Your Teenager FREE

If you find yourself frustrated, at a loss for words and actions, this workshop will provide a no-nonsense, step-by-step approach to improving relationships in your house. These techniques are for parents committed to raising great kids without resorting to discredited, harmful, pain-and-fear-based methods of the past, while deepening your bond with your child(ren), and increasing cooperation. These skills will also help you communicate more effectively with everyone in your life, including your partner, boss, friends, coworkers, etc. When you change your approach to how you communicate with people, they often change their behavior (for the better!).

Tuesday, April 3, 2012 6-7:30PM Managing Meltdowns: Strategies for Tempering Tantrums FREE

Does the idea of taking your child to the supermarket make your stomach turn? Does your home feel more like a battleground where you and your child act out frustration than a nurturing environment? Are you looking for ways to discipline your child that have positive short and long term effects? The workshop on Managing Meltdowns and Tempering Tantrums, geared toward parents of toddlers and early school age children, addresses these issues and focuses on teaching parents ways of strengthening the parent-child relationship through non-punitive communications. Creative, empathic parenting is explored as are techniques for addressing specific challenging behaviors. Parents will look at their own experiences of being parented as well as the degree of effectiveness or ineffectiveness of various styles of parenting.