Welcome To The Spring 2019
HAPPILY FAMILY ONLINE CONFERENCE NOTES
Do You want to Watch the conference?
25 videos, audio MP3 downloads, transcripts and all notes
Day One
Dr. Christine Carter
Raising Resilient Adolescents and Teens in the Tech Age
“Dr. Christine Carter, author of The Sweet Spot and Raising Happiness, has a unique perspective on how we can find fulfillment, success, and lasting joy in our busy lives. At work, she translates the latest scientific findings–from positive psychology, sociology, research on productivity and elite performance, organizational and management theories, and neuroscience–into action plans for her readers.
Christine Carter is a sociologist and Senior Fellow at UC Berkeley’s Greater Good Science Center, where for many years she was the Executive Director. After receiving her B.A. from Dartmouth College, where she was a Senior Fellow, Dr. Carter worked in marketing management and school administration, going on to receive her Ph.D. in sociology from UC Berkeley.
Dr. Carter has appeared on dozens of television and radio shows, including the “Oprah Winfrey Show,” the “TODAY” show, and “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart.” She has also been quoted or featured in hundreds of newspapers and magazines, including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and Real Simple.
She lives with her husband, four kids, and dog Buster in Marin County, California.”
Summary:
It can be tough to raise an adolescent or a teen right now. Join us while we have a lively conversation with Dr. Christine Carter. Christine explains why adolescents and teens in industrialized countries are not doing as well and are less resilient. How can we help our kids cope with everyday discomforts? Christine offers science based tools for how can we soothe our kids and soothe ourselves. Plus we all do a bit of over-sharing from our own parenting and where we’ve compromised with our teens.
Links:
Website
Dr. Christopher Willard
Busy Parents Practice Mindfulness with Young Children
Dr. Christopher Willard is a psychologist and educational consultant specializing in mindfulness. He has been practicing meditation for 20 years, and leads workshops nationally and internationally. He has presented at TEDx conferences and his thoughts have appeared in the New York Times, The Washington Post, mindful.org, and elsewhere. He is the author of several books including Child’s Mind, Growing Up Mindful, and Raising Resilience. He teaches at Harvard Medical School.
Summary:
Dr. Christopher Willard shares some practical ideas about how to practice mindfulness meditation when you are a busy parent and how you can introduce young children to meditation. Christopher explains some of the science behind mindfulness. He talks about why breathing and staying in the present is so important, what happens to your brain when you meditate, and how mindfulness is connected to happiness.
Links:
Dr. Ann-Louise Lockhart
Is this ADD/ADHD, ODD, Anxiety, or a “Behavioral Issue”?
Dr. Ann-Louise Lockhart is a Pediatric Psychologist. She is Board Certified in Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology. She is the Founder and Owner of A New Day Pediatric Psychology. Originally from St. Croix in the U.S. Virgin Islands, she considers herself a “dual-citizen” of Texas and the Caribbean. She specializes in treating ADHD, Depression, Anxiety, and medical diagnoses.
Summary:
Dr. Ann-Louise Lockhart talks about the differences between ADHD, oppositional defiant disorder, anxiety, and behavioral issues, and what we can do for our kids to help them develop the skills that they need. Ann-Louise’s warm, down-to-earth style is reassuring for parents who are worried about their child. She talks about when to get a child assessed, how to find appropriate professional, and she shares examples of how to handle everyday struggles, such as bedtime.
Links:
Dr. Dan Peters
Parenting a Gifted or 2E Child
Dr. Daniel Peters is a psychologist, author, Co-founder of Parent Footprint, host of the “Parent Footprint Podcast with Dr. Dan” and the Executive Director of the Summit Center, specializing in the assessment and treatment of children, adolescents, and families, with gifted, talented, and creative individuals, as well as anxiety, learning differences, dyslexia and more. He is a regular contributor to The Huffington Post and Psychology Today, and he speaks regularly at national conferences.
Summary:
Dr. Daniel Peters talks about what it means to be gifted or 2E. He answers many essential questions: Are gifted kids more likely to be sensitive or have emotional issues? How do you get support from the school for a gifted child? How do you help a child who is a perfectionist, or who has unrealistic expectations, to have a growth mindset? If your child is performing above her same aged peers in any realm this is an important conversation.
Links
Michelle Garcia Winner
The Importance of Social Thinking in our High-Tech World
“Michelle Garcia Winner, is a speech language pathologist who specializes in helping people with social learning challenges. She is the founder and CEO of Social Thinking®, a company dedicated to helping children and adults develop their social competencies to meet their personal social goals.
Michelle coined the term “Social Thinking” and has created unique treatment frameworks to help educators, clinicians, professionals, and parents appreciate that social capabilities are integral to a person’s success in life, socially, academically, and professionally.
Michelle maintains a private practice, The Center for Social Thinking, in Santa Clara, California, and has written or co-authored more than 40 books about the Social Thinking Methodology. “
Summary:
Michelle Garcia Winner defines social competencies and social thinking, and how they are different than social skills. Michelle explains that children and adults can develop anxiety, sadness and depression because they lack social learning, and how even kids and adults who are skilled verbally and intellectually, might still struggle with social competencies. Yet, social competencies–problem solving, working as a team, understanding someone else’s perspective, etc–are extraordinarily important for kids to succeed academically and make friends, as well as for adults to succeed in the workforce and in relationships. Michelle also talks about the impact that screens have on social learning. She shares about the many free resources that are available on her website to help kids and adults increase their social competencies.
Links:
Do You want to Watch the conference?
25 videos, audio MP3 downloads, transcripts and all notes
Day Two
Jennifer Miller
Food, Meals, & Social-Emotional Development
For over twenty years, Jennifer Miller has worked with educators and families to help them become more effective with children through social and emotional learning. She is author and illustrator of the blog, Confident Parents, Confident Kids and writes for numerous publications. She's an expert contributor to NBC Universal's Parent Toolkit. She has contributed to two books, “Smart Parents, Parenting for Powerful Learning” and “Building Powerful Learning Environments from Schools to Communities.” She does coaching, webinars, curriculum development, consultation and workshops in Ohio and nationally. She has her master’s degree in Instructional Leadership with a focus on social and emotional development. She lives with her husband and nine-year-old son in Columbus, Ohio.
Summary:
Jennifer Miller talks about the connection between eating and social-emotional development. She tackles topics including picky eating, sensory sensitivity, avoiding food power struggles, meal time behavior, connecting as a family, eating disorders, and encouraging nutrition. If family mealtime is a struggle, or if you’re worried about your child developing healthy eating habits this presentation is for you!
Links:
Dr. Carrie Contey
Handle Any Situation with Self Aware Parenting
Carrie Contey, PhD is a parenting coach, speaker and author. Her background in prenatal and perinatal psychology offers a unique perspective on children, parenting, family life and what it means to be a healthy, happy, whole human being. In her work with thousands of parents all over the world, she guides, supports and inspires her clients to live with a wide-open and courageous heart so that they can approach parenting with both skill and spaciousness.
Summary:
Dr. Carrie Contey views parenting as a journey. But rather than offering quick tips and tricks that might not work for your situation, she offers you a framework to understand and relate to your child, and be guided by your own inner wisdom. You may ask, “What do I say when this happens?” or “How do I handle that?”. The answers become clear, when you can tune in to your own wisdom, your thoughts, and your feelings. In this talk, you will be drawn in by Carrie’s warm smile and deep wisdom.
Links:
Leslie Potter
Rethinking Boundaries: A New Way Of Looking At Them
Leslie Potter is a psychotherapist, parenting coach, and spiritual inquirer. She became a mom at 44, when she adopted her daughter. Her life’s work is sharing with other parents how they can shift from a controlling fear based relationship with their child to a loving enjoyable reality. She created Purejoy Parenting to help families understand their child’s behavior, accept their feelings, and allow the relationship to flourish.
Summary:
Leslie Potter speaks with wisdom and clarity about what boundaries are, and how to create them for our kids and for ourselves. She shares relatable stories and examples of young children and teens. Leslie shows how we can support our kids and create safety, while also giving them the freedom and space they need.
Links:
SafeSeat Practice – Free Audio: How to Stop Beating Yourself Up in Your Parenting
Mercedes Samudio
Shame-Proof: When Families & Communities Move Beyond Shame
Mercedes Samudio, LCSW is a parent coach, speaker, and bestselling author who helps parents and children communicate with each other, manage emotional trauma, navigate social media and technology together, and develop healthy parent-child relationships. Mercedes started the #EndParentShaming movement as well as coined the term Shame-Proof Parenting – using both to bring awareness to ending parent shame.
Summary:
Parenting is inherently a vulnerable process. You might feel judged by your family, your community, your partner, or you might even judge yourself. Mercedes Samudio knows about the shame that parents and kids feel. She helps parents and kids move beyond the feeling of being “not enough”. Mercedes knows how to build shame-proof communities that embrace everyone, reject the myth of the “perfect family”, and celebrate individual’s strengths.
Links:
Dr. David Treleaven
Trauma-Sensitive Mindfulness
David Treleaven is an acclaimed author, educator, and trauma professional whose work focuses on the intersection of mindfulness and trauma. David has offered workshops on trauma-sensitive mindfulness at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) and the Center for Mindfulness at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, as well as keynote speeches at the Omega Institute in New York and the Institute for Mindfulness in South Africa in Johannesburg. Trained in counseling psychology at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada, he received his doctorate in psychology from the California Institute of Integral Studies and is currently a visiting scholar at Brown University.
Summary:
There is a large body of scientific evidence showing that mindfulness is good for lots of things–reducing stress, increasing happiness and contentment, etc. However for children and adults who have experienced trauma, mindfulness can also evoke a traumatic stress. This conversation with Dr. David Treleaven is essential if you work with or parent a child who has a history of trauma. In this interview we talk about how to recognize the symptoms of traumatic stress and how to adapt mindfulness practices appropriately.
Links:
Do You want to Watch the conference?
25 videos, audio MP3 downloads, transcripts and all notes
Day Three
Dr. Joseph Lee
Decreasing Anxiety by Being a “Good Enough” Parent
Joseph Lee is a psychiatrist with a practice in Southern California. Early in his practice he saw that his patients were clearly getting better, but didn’t seem to be quite “well.” His search to help people truly thrive, led him to a truth-based perspective that he’s been applying personally and professionally, built around developing self-worth, meaningful relationships, and lifelong optimal healthiness. Becoming a parent, made him more intentional about every aspect of his own life – trying to figure out the best way to raise his kids, while maintaining his own health and wellbeing.
Summary:
Dr. Joseph Lee explains, whether you are an adult or a child, why some anxiety is a good thing, but too much has detrimental effects. When you are feeling anxious, what can you do? Part of the solution is having courage. Being courageous means that you still have fear and anxiety but you choose to act anyway. Dr. Lee assures us that kids don’t need perfect parents, far from it! “Good enough parenting” actually is, according to the research, good enough!
Links:
Todd and Cathy Adams
Parenting with a Partner: When Your Child is High Needs
“Cathy is a self-awareness expert, podcast host, & author focused on parenting and the personal empowerment of women and young girls. She’s a Licensed Clinical Social Worker, Certified Parent Coach, Certified Elementary School Teacher, Certified Yoga Teacher, and she teaches in the Sociology Department at Dominican University and Elmhurst College.
Todd is the co-host of the Zen Parenting Radio podcast and a certified life coach who focuses on supporting guys in finding a healthy work/family balance. He focuses on marriage, parenting, career, overall self-awareness and life enjoyment.”
Summary:
Parenting a high needs child can add stress to a marriage or committed relationship. In this conversation, Cathy and Todd Adams share personal stories about their own partnership and answered tough questions. How do you prioritize between your relationship, your child’s needs, and your own needs? How do you get on the same page? What if you don’t agree with what your partner is doing? How do you deal with conflict?
Links:
Ann Douglas
When Your Child has a Mental Illness
Ann Douglas is the author of Happy Parents, Happy Kids, Parenting Through the Storm and numerous other books about parenting, including the bestselling The Mother of All Books series. She is also the mother of four children who have struggled with a variety of different mental health, neurodevelopmental, and behavioural challenges — and who are all currently thriving.
Summary:
Talking to Ann Douglas is reassuring and hopeful because she’s been through it ALL! She talks about how to know when to get your child tested, what to do while you wait for the results, how to explain your child’s diagnosis to them, how to deal with your own feelings about your child’s diagnosis, how to get support for yourself, and how to care for all your kids when one is taking up a lot of time. Ann offers practical tools and relief for anyone parenting through a storm.
Links:
Dr. Amy Saltzman
Using Mindfulness to Ease Stress and Difficult Emotions
Dr. Amy Saltzman is a holistic physician, mindfulness coach, long-time athlete, a devoted student of transformation, wife, mother and occasional poet. Her passion is supporting people of all ages in achieving peak performance and finding flow. She offers individual holistic medical care, and both individual and team mindfulness coaching, in person and online, to athletes, coaches, children, adolescents, parents, teachers, therapists, and high tech executives.
Summary:
Mindfulness helps us find a “still quiet place”, like the place between ourselves and our thoughts and feelings, or the space between stimulus and response. Dr. Amy Saltzman doesn’t just tell us about mindfulness, she shows us, by guiding us through a simple meditation–that could be used with toddlers through adults! We know that childhood is stressful, and parents are stressed too. Amy shows how to bring simple, scientifically backed practices to families to ease stress and difficult emotions.
Links:
Eric Bowers
The Heart and Science of Healthy Relationships
Eric Bowers is a counselor, artist, musician, poet, blogger, workshop facilitator, public speaker, and the author of Meet Me In Hard-to-Love Places: The Heart and Science of Relationship Success. Eric’s mission is to help people do the healing work that allows them to follow their dreams and deepest callings and build successful relationships in all areas of their lives. He believes that healing work is a potent source of energy, creativity, power, and beauty, and that the brightest of lights that are waiting in the darkest of places.
Summary:
Eric Bowers explains that the unfinished parts of our childhood are likely to come up in our current relationships, but that our current relationships are also well-suited to help us heal. We asked him… How do we know when something needs to be healed? How do we have curiosity and compassion for ourselves (and our partners or children) in those difficult times? How can we soothe ourselves in tough situations? How do we have healthy connections and boundaries with our kids? Eric insightfully answers these questions in the context of Non-Violent Communication and Interpersonal Neurobiology.
Links:
Do You want to Watch the conference?
25 videos, audio MP3 downloads, transcripts and all notes
Day Four
Lenore Skenazy
Free Range Kids in a High Tech Age
Lenore Skenazy is a blogger, columnist, and author. She got massive media attention and was dubbed, “America's Worst Mom” when she let her then-9-year-old son take the New York City Subway home alone. In response, Lenore founded the book, blog, and movement “Free-Range Kids” and a new non-profit organization “Let Grow”, with the aim of “fighting the belief that our children are in constant danger from creeps, kidnapping, germs, grades, flashers, frustration, failure, baby snatchers, bugs, bullies, men, sleepovers and the perils of a non-organic grape.”
Summary:
In this hilarious conversation, Lenore Skenazy explains why kids growing up today in the US (and many other English speaking countries) have very little freedom in comparison to their parents, even though crime is at a record low. Computers and phones give parents the ability to monitor children (their location, their vital signs, their grades, etc) in unprecedented ways, however these technological advances might impact our relationship with our kids, slow their development, and actually not keep kids any safer or help us parents be any calmer! Lenore talks about how the Let Grow non-profit program is changing schools and communities at no cost, and making it easy, normal and legal to give kids freedom.
Links:
Dr. William Stixrud & Ned Johnson
The Self Driven Child
“Dr. William Stixrud is a clinical neuropsychologist and a faculty member at Children’s National and the George Washington University School of Medicine. He lectures widely on the adolescent brain, motivation, and the effects of stress, sleep deprivation, and technology overload on the brain.
Ned Johnson is the founder of PrepMatters, a tutoring service in Washington, DC. He is a sought after speaker and teen coach for study skills, parent-teen dynamics, ad anxiety management and his work has been featured on NPR, the U.S. News and World Report, Time, the Washington Post and the Wall Street Journal.”
Summary:
Are you concerned about your child succeeding in the world, getting into a good college, getting a job? Look no further than Dr. William Stixrud and Ned Johnson’s reassuring presentation. They assure parents that there is no narrow road to success, that failures will lead to learning and growth, and that one of our most important roles as parents is to be a non-anxious presence. We can help kids feel less anxious by giving them more control to pursue their goals. We can trust that our kids have a desire and drive to succeed, and with our support and respect, that they will find their way in the world.
Links:
Debbie Reber
Differently Wired: Raising an Exceptional Child in a Conventional World
Debbie Reber is a parenting activist, New York Times bestselling author, keynote speaker, and the founder of TiLT Parenting, a website, top podcast, and social media community for parents who are raising differently wired children. Her newest book, Differently Wired: Raising an Exceptional Child in a Conventional World, came out in June 2018. After living abroad in the Netherlands for the past five years, Debbie, her husband, and 14-year-old son recently moved back to the NYC area.
Summary:
Today, 1 in 5 kids has a learning disability or is neurologically atypical in some way. Debbie Reber talks about what she’s learned while raising a “differently wired” son. She shares how to parenting from a place of possibility instead of fear, how to let go of what others think in order to follow her own inner wisdom, and how to get support by creating communities with other parents.
Links:
Amy Lang
How (and When) to Talk to Kids about Sex
“Amy Lang is a sexuality and parenting expert, and a regular guest on multiple media outlets such as The Wall Street Journal, Salon.com, CNN, The Atlantic and the Seattle Times, and podcasts like The Savage Lovecast, Tilt Parenting and The New Family. Amy has worked with parents and professionals from Alaska to Australia, including the Boys & Girls Club, The Air Force Youth and Family Services programs, YMCAs and multiple PTAs and preschools. Parents and professionals appreciate that she is a fun, smart and sassy speaker.”
Summary:
[To our listeners: This is an open conversation about sexual health. Body parts are mentioned and there is a little bit of cursing. Please put on headphones if needed.] Amy Lang explains how important and protective it is to educate children about their sexuality, even at a young age. How do we have these uncomfortable conversations? What do kids need to know at each stage of development? What about consent and pornography? Oral sex? Rape? Tampons? Amy explains what to talk about and how to say it, in this lively, reassuring conversation.
Links:
Janine Halloran
Coping Skills for Anxiety, Stress, and Anger
Janine Halloran is a Licensed Mental Health Counselor, the founder of Coping Skills for Kids, and a mom of 2. For the past 15 years she has worked primarily with children and adolescents and she’s seen the value of learning healthy coping skills early in life, so kids they will be more resilient and manage stress better, even as they grow up. Coping Skills for Kids provides products and resources to help kids learn to cope with the daily challenges of life.
Summary:
Kids have feelings! Learning how to cope with feelings and develop self awareness is a vital life skill. Janine Halloran shares simple, yet powerful tools to get kids back to peace and calm, so that kids and parents can problem solve together. Janine’s wealth of experience, her tools, and her reassurancing presence is especially useful if you have a toddler or elementary-aged child. And her tools can be adapted for teens and even adults.
Links:
Do You want to Watch the conference?
25 videos, audio MP3 downloads, transcripts and all notes
Day Five
Dr. Daniel Siegel
Brainstorm: The Power and Purpose of the Teenage Brain
Dr. Daniel Siegel is a clinical professor of psychiatry at the UCLA School of Medicine and the Executive Director of the Mindsight Institute. He has authored or co-authored several books including Parenting from the Inside Out, the Whole Brain Child, No Drama Discipline, The Yes Brain, and most recently, Aware.
Summary:
The message parents get in our culture is to fearfully anticipate the teen years, and then just try to survive them. Dr. Daniel Siegel looked at the research about the adolescent mind and wrote his book–Brainstorm–to tell a different story. He writes that “the adolescent period of life is in reality the one with the most power for courage and creativity. Life is on fire when we hit our teens. And these changes are not something to avoid or just get through but to encourage.” Dan talks about the myths of the teen brain and why it’s such an exciting stage of human development.
Links:
Cecilia and Jason Hilkey
Getting Along: Creating Strong Siblings
Cecilia Hilkey, MA and Jason Hilkey have worked professionally with children and families for 20 years. They’ve taught parents and educators to use compassionate methods to talk to kids, worked with children with special needs, and even taught together in the same preschool classroom.
They founded Happily Family to respond to the needs of parents and teachers who wanted access to current research about the brain, and more communication tools to use with the kids in their lives. Their popular blog, classes and conferences touch the lives of tens of thousands of people each week.
Cecilia and Jason have been featured in local and national media including Kiplinger’s magazine and elephant journal. They regularly present at schools and conferences including CAEYC. They have received grants from the Maternal Child and Health Bureau, California First 5, and the Awesome Foundation.
Summary:
This LIVE presentation will air HERE on Monday, May 20 at 12 noon Pacific/ 3pm Eastern and will be available afterwards as a replay.
Cecilia and Jason Hilkey will reveal the 3 ingredients of healthy sibling relationships. They will share current research about siblings and their experience working with high needs kids, and raising two girls. They know firsthand what can happen in a family when someone has a physical, emotional, or learning disability. They tackle tough topics like… jealousy, fighting, how to intervene during a conflict, how to have different expectations for different kids, how to explain a sibling’s diagnosis, and how to create strong siblings for life!
Links:
Katherine Reynolds Lewis
The Good News About Bad Behavior
Katherine Reynolds Lewis is an award-winning independent journalist, author and speaker based in the Washington D.C. area. Her book, The Good News About Bad Behavior, explains why modern kids are so undisciplined and tells the stories of innovators who are rebuilding lost self-control, resolving family conflict and changing the trajectory of young lives. Katherine is a certified parent educator with the Parent Encouragement Program in Kensington, MD.
Katherine contributes to The Atlantic, Fortune magazine, Parents, USA Today’s magazine group, the Washington Post and Working Mother magazine. She and her husband Brian are the parents of three children.
Summary:
Katherine Reynolds Lewis describes 3 current factors that are contributing to a decrease in the well being and mental health of children. That’s bad news! But the good news is that the solutions are do-able. Katherine talks about how we can help our children develop social, emotional, and problem solving skills, contribute to their family and community, and we can shift the focus of our parenting to collaboration, rather than punishments and rewards. She encourages us to allow our children to learn through their failures, while also supporting them before and after the experience.
Links:
Dr. Brian Stafford
Parenting as Soulcraft: The Work of Bill Plotkin
Brian Stafford is a Guide and Director for Strategic Initiatives for the Animus Valley Institute, a nonprofit organization of 10 to 15 guides based in Durango, Colorado. Since 2008, Animas has led programs on dreamwork, shadow work, the cultivation of ecological identity, deep imagery journeys, and other topics. Animas founder Bill Plotkin and the other Animas guides have created and shaped over 40 contemporary practices that assist people of Western cultures in their quests for more meaningful, fulfilling, and culturally engaged lives aligned with nature.
Summary:
Brian Stafford says that people come to Bill Plotkin’s work and the programs at the Animus Valley Institute to learn how to grow to their full potential. One of the things that we are missing in our culture is a deeper connection with nature. Brian talks about the importance of early exposure to nature and nature rites of passage. He shares with us the sequence of stages the very healthiest, most self-realized humans go through. He talks about how to embrace and heal our fragmented or wounded parts of ourselves. He shows how powerful nature is as a healer, to make us whole, and how parenting can be a doorway to our own personal growth.
Links:
Jacqueline Green
Maintaining Mental Health while Parenting
Jacqueline Green is a parent coach, and the creator and host of the Great Parenting Simplified (formerly called the Great Parenting Show). Since its founding in 2010, GPS has had over 150 top parenting experts and has grown its audience to over 35,000 parents from 94+ countries. Jacqueline has been interviewed by national newspapers and magazines, and has been on major radio and TV, including the Huffington Post Live.
Summary:
Jacqueline Green shares her personal struggle with mental health as a mom raising two children in the midst of a difficult marriage, and her eventual divorce. She not only tells us how she got through it, but she lights a path for others who are also dealing with challenging circumstances. Jacqueline shares what she’s learned on the way, what her kids have learned, and the 5 tools that she still uses to move from surviving to thriving.
Links:
Do You want to Watch the conference?
25 videos, audio MP3 downloads, transcripts and all notes
HOME | TERMS & CONDITIONS | © 2024 HAPPILY FAMILY | PRIVACY POLICY | CONTACT US