Overwhelming family stress...

Has profound short- and long-term impact on a child's brain structure and development, their physical and mental health, and their behavioral functioning.

You know.

You see it daily. Children who have experienced stressful times become difficult for parents and caregivers to manage. They hurt themselves, or others, they scream and fight. We’re talking about the child who throws books all over the classroom whenever the teacher turns her back. The youngest in a family, who demands all the attention. The child who becomes inconsolable when his dad leaves.

The four-year-old so defiant that his teachers call him a danger to his class and have asked to have him expelled.

These kids are said to tax the system. Cause extra work.

Somedays, the magnitude of reaching kids like these feels impossible.

Even though we now know the alarming rates of children who have experienced adverse childhood events, it doesn’t take a trained expert to see that society, with its expectations, marginalizations, rising numbers of school expulsions, and demands on both parents and their children, does not help the situation.

What's being done?

Take Michelle...

Michelle came to day camp in a tornado of fury.

From the minute she arrived, Michelle tormented the other children. She overturned their tables and spat in their jello cups. She hid their shoes and pulled their hair. She resisted every activity, and scowled and complained instead.

And then it was pool time.

She bellowed “No,” at first, but as she slowly dipped a toe into the water, she laughed. Laughed like kids are supposed to. Big peals of carefree joy.

Your heart would have lifted watching her face light up.

Soon, she slid into the water, splashing, mesmerised by the ripples she was making, until a fellow camper Henry, with good intentions, splashed back.

Just a gentle splash.

But Michelle acted like each drop was as hot as fire. She growled at Henry, and then grabbed his neck.

Michelle howled as she left camp early, with a note not to return.

She scrabbled and scratched and refused to get on the bus that would take her back home. She kicked against its metal doors, and all anyone could do was watch helplessly as she was carted away.

Was Michelle a lost cause?

You know in your heart she was not.

We know too.

But there was no-one there who could read her behavior and was resourced enough to respond in ways that would reach her.

Many times we’ve seen kids just like Michelle. Angry, aggressive kids who, when they have access to the supportive approach we are about to share, thrive. They build full lives, get good educations. They sing and dance and play and laugh.

Kids just like Michelle are perfectly able to recover from whatever experiences rocked their inner worlds so young, whatever experiences set them on edge and put their systems on high alert.

We see kids like these finally cast off the protective shield that so many call “unreachable behavior,” and become content, co-operative and confident.

Imagine if you knew just how to help parents decode a child’s difficult behavior and respond not to the hitting, disruption, or defensiveness, but to the scared, lonely child beneath. To watch that child emerge light and joyful.

Imagine reaching “the problem kid”, using nurturing, connective tools and gentle but firm limits that supports the child’s whole-self and shows them how to listen and cooperate.

And imagine knowing just how to listen and respond in a way that relieves stressed parents of their doubts, fears, and anxiety, guiding them to stable ground, where they can find the strength and hope they need to support themselves and their children through hard times.

There is a proven trauma-focused approach you could quickly implement in your work that gives you the tools and the understanding to reach kids like these, and see them not just recover, but thrive.

But just quickly, before we share how the approach works, do any of the following situations sound like you?

1. Stuck. Just Stuck.

So many of us are called to work that makes the world a better, safer place for children and their caregivers. It’s admirable work. Vital work.

Yet, can you say you are 100% confident that what you do truly helps?

Sometimes you have a moment where it all seems to click with a parent or a child. You see big leaps in their behavior or development. But other times it feels like hitting a brick wall. More times than most, their angry outbursts continue, in a system that has no time or compassion for big, loud emotions.

You’re back where you started: Stuck, and wondering if you’ll ever see progress again.

What you need: You’d love a solid framework that is accessible, reliable, and proven, with tools where you quickly see trust build and progress occur. Where families come to you saying,”I can’t believe this is so simple! I wish we’d known this years ago.”

An approach where you are 100% confident that what you suggest helps.

2. The stubby chalk in a box of new crayons

While parents and colleagues around you rely on the same coercive methods in their childcare, you’re railing inside.

You can see that the rewards charts and traditional punitive discipline strategies only heap more pressure on children already struggling.

You figure there must be a better way to reach kids like this, but you are unsure exactly what, and besides you’re getting tired of feeling like the only one seeking different solutions.

It feels hard to stand up and say once again that something needs to change, especially when what you see from co-workers or parents is disbelief, or worse, disdain.

What you need: is sound, scientific knowledge and experience using tools you know build the safety, security, and trust kids like this need, and a network of professionals who share the same views and see success using these tools supporting you.

With backing like that, you can say goodbye rewards charts, punitive punishment, shame and blame. You're confident you have a better, gentler way, (and you aren’t scared to show it).

3. Your own kids are driving you crazy.

You're asking yourself, "How can I inspire other parents or reach kids I'm working with when I feel like I'm failing myself?"

Your specialist training, countless books, and hours of research did not prepare you for raising your own kids and none of it is working out how you thought.

You’re dealing with tantrums that raise the roof and defiance on the daily and you doubt your own abilities as a parent.

And then, every day, you are expected to put on your professional’s hat and go help other kids or respond wisely to parents who come to you for reassurance. Who ask, “What can I do differently?”

You’ve never felt less sure of your ideas, and you're aren't sure what to do next.

What you need: When all of a sudden work and home is one gigantic heap of stress and worry, it’s impossible to show up at work energised and enthusiastic. That all changes when you have a framework you can use to get to the root of what’s throwing things off at home.

And hey, once you see the powerful changes in your own family, you’ll have that absolute certainty it can help others - and you’ll be just the right anchor of calm authority and comfort that inspires parents to take action, mend their relationships, and soar.

4. You. Are. So. Burnt. Out.

We hear you. Not only are you offering immense support and caring every day, you are doing it in a world that neither appreciates nor values the exhausting work of parenting and raising children.

Systems are broken.

Parents are more taxed than ever before.

We’re in the midst of a world-changing pandemic for Pete’s sake.

Financial burdens are heavy. Time is short. Patience is thin.

Where are you supposed to get the endless reserves you need to champion growth, healing, and new, positive beginnings? (It’s definitely not at the end of that 5th cup of caffeine. You know - you’ve tried!)

You go looking for training because somewhere, between the blanket you can't crawl out of each morning and the blanket of doom clouding your mind, you still have a faint glow of hope that things could be better.

That you could be better.

But, oh, the doubts. Can you even take on one more thing?

What you need: Burnout is overwhelming, but you can avoid it when you have a regular time for you. A place to learn and grow, with excellent, experienced mentors. A place that meets you right where you are. A place where everyone trusts in your goodness and your good work even when all you feel like doing is running away to become a yogi on some deserted island (and if you decide that’s your true path, hey, they’ll cheer you on).

When you set a boundary to bring that high-level generous energy into your life, and feel that warm support in place, you’ll be amazed by how your energy returns and revives your spirit.

Even better, you’ll see real breakthroughs at work that will give you an even bigger lift.

Close the isolation these families feel, and help them re-discover the joys of being together.

Find contentment knowing you have answers for parents and tools to make lives easier for families.

Use this set of science-backed holistic tools to foster strong bonds, healing, and lasting closeness.

You’ll see children happy to be in their world, and parents who know how special they are.

And, whenever you have a “what if” moment, you’ll have a proven system and actionable next steps to help.

Where did the Hand in Hand Approach Originate, and What Makes it So Unique?

Patty Wipfler, Hand in Hand's founder, began Hand in Hand Parenting feeling just like you. Despite having an education background and working with hundreds of children, she saw time and time again how mainstream methods failed kids that others labelled “difficult.”

She developed what was, and still seems some days, a set of revolutionary connecting play tools. We realise that could sound like hyperbole, but ask yourself this:

How many times after a child shouts in class do you hear a teacher say, “Let's play?”

Meet Patty

Patty saw, with her own eyes, children become increasingly more willing to be open, to interact, to become more co-operative as she brought these tools to her classrooms.

At that stage, Patty’s approach was not yet complete. It happened when Patty had her own kids, and was shocked when a kindly acquaintance asked how she was coping, and then listened, whole-heartedly, with warmth, as Patty cried and cried about how hard she found parenting. (So hard, in fact, she despised how harsh she'd become as a mom).

Patty, despite all her training and experience, felt lost until that day. But with her tears dried, she went home, back to her sons, and discovered something amazing.

She felt light. She was playful. She learned that being listened to had transformed her darkness.

This act of listening completed Patty’s approach. With parents and children, she listened to their upsets, their anger, their injustice, and she saw them change and feel that same light.

It’s what we still see, 30 years later, as parents across the globe bring these tools into their loud, messy, unique, gorgeous families.

And it’s what you will see when you bring them to your world, at home, and at work.

"This class challenged my thinking about what an appropriate consequence is. It gives alternatives to behavioral strategies aimed at extinguishing, shaping, or distracting children away from their feelings via rewards, punishments, and the punitive use of time-outs. It also offers an alternative to educational strategies, which often rush children towards “thinking” and “using words” too soon.

“It has been tremendously gratifying to weave this parenting strategy into my clinical work with parents, and into my home life with my own children.”

-Beth Ohanneson, MS, MFT

Introducing the Professionals Intensive from Hand in Hand Parenting.

Welcome to a program proven to give you practical, accessible trauma-informed tools and framework.

Bring more joy and happiness to parents and children, as you develop a deep understanding and appreciation of children’s emotions and inner worlds, alongside a framework of tools you can use to help them overcome their struggles, build loving, connected relationships, and thrive.

Over the past 10 years, our highly-trained mentors have worked with professionals just like you, who have:

Clinical therapists, childcare professionals, medical professionals, the clergy, and many other caretakers who come into contact with children in their work have used the Hand in Hand philosophy and tools.

They use the approach to:

Establish trust and connection with families they work with from day one. They see transformation happen more quickly than they ever believed, and feel deep satisfaction that children and parents they work with receive good, genuine support that makes each feel heard.

Draw from modern scientific findings about what happens to the human brain in moments of overwhelm, isolation, stress and fear, and predict and reliably use tools and strategies to support parents and children as they recover and repair from these moments, to living happier, more fulfilled lives.

Gain authority by clearly pinpointing when a child’s behavior indicates fear, trauma or sense of disconnect and use tools that reach these kids when punishment, rewards, and consequences do not.

Develop a warm, giving support system that energizes them and maintains their enthusiasm for this important but taxing work.

These science-backed tools and resources work with the whole family, taking them on a deep process of discovery far beyond band-aids on the cracks in their relationship to real healing, trust and connection.

If you’re ready to give children support and guidance that mends rifts, boosts connection and fosters resilience, read on or join us now.

What's included in the Professionals Intensive?

Inside this class, you’ll find all you need to begin using the Hand in Hand Parenting approach with families.

You’ll work with a highly qualified, experienced mentor in 8 weekly small-group mentoring calls to deep-dive into five simple, easily explained “Listening Tools.”

These strategies build closer connections, parent-to-child and parent-to-parent, and bring a trauma-lens to your work.

Here’s a look into the program, as it unfolds, week by week:

You’ll focus on the parent’s role and the hardships they face raising children in today’s society, as well as the toll it can take when children’s behavior becomes challenging for them.

By the end of this class, you’ll be able to confidently validate a parent’s emotional experience, efforts and caring, and bolster their understanding of their child's emotional world.

You’ll also practice one primary listening tool that you can use to create a warm sense of empathy and closeness with parents and kids, and that assists them in releasing stored tension and stress.

During this class, you’ll also:

Understand how “parent-child connectedness” promotes healthy child development, learning, and parental satisfaction.
Identify four negative effects on brain function and/or behavior that can result when a child feels unsafe, overwhelmed, injured, alone, or disempowered.
Explain three reasons a child can fall into off-track behavior, and outline a single non-punitive intervention that any parent can use to guide and restore their child’s ability to think and reason.
Anticipate and name five feelings that a stressed parent is likely to disclose, and share appropriate trust-building responses.
Coach parents through a process that clears their emotional stress and leaves them more receptive to taking action in their parenting and responding well to their children’s challenging moments.
List five physical signs that show a parent or a child has initiated the process of healing from past hurts.

Have you ever noticed feeling brighter after a good cry? In this module you’ll gain a deep understanding of why.

While it is more common to stifle crying you’ll discover why crying is a chief way to work through hard times.

We’ll show you the ways that you can work with a parent through their natural resistance to crying and upsets, and instead describe the overall purpose of crying and introduce a unique co-regulatory strategy that you, or a parent, can use to respond supportively when a child tantrums or cries.

You’ll also:

Demonstrate how to support an upset child using a warm, confident, parental tone, body language and gestures.
Clearly and warmly explain three negative effects on a child’s ability to learn and cooperate when parents stifle a child’s upsets.
Recount three positive effects that can occur when an adult listens supportively to a child who is highly emotional.
Be able to share four supportive phrases a parent can use to co-regulate with their child during their child’s emotional episodes.

Reach children who are prone to offtrack, challenging behavior.

By week three, you will have adopted two listening tools that help parents and children offload past tensions and begin to recover and find calm. Now, you will enhance these tools with a child-led play tool that increases a child’s regulatory capacity, builds their confidence and strengthens the parent-child bond.

You will see how you can extend this play tool with children in your care to move them supportively through moments of resistance or rigidity, to clear thinking and increased cooperation, and you will show parents, if you work with them, how they too can see the same transformations when they use this powerful bonding tool with their children.

Parents experience renewed energy and hope for their relationships with their kids, when you introduce them to this tool.

You’ll also:

Demonstrate four aspects of parental responses that make this regulatory-aiding play tool most effective.
Tailor your description of when to use this strategy to the exact incidents of stress that the parent has recounted.
Begin appreciating more fully the nurturing and reassurance that children feel when adults pour in love and connection, and how this play tool draws directs these feelings and helps a child heal from upset and disconnection.
Clearly cite and explain three current research-based sources that emphasize the importance of connection and co-regulation in promoting executive function.
Address three common barriers parents may have about using this tool, and identify three strategies for lowering those barriers.
Explain the phenomenon of “emotional safety,” and why a safer bond between parent and child promotes a deeper expression of emotion.
Vividly explain the purpose and benefits of child-led connection time to a stressed parent, the three ways children commonly use this tool to reveal their inner fears and worries, and the main actions that make up the tool.

Many parents and carers of children are incredulous when the idea of setting limits without blame, shame, or punishments is suggested. It can’t be done, they say.

In this class, you’ll learn all you need to turn that thinking around, and describe why this way of setting limits sets a child up to succeed over more traditional “control and punish” models. You’ll also demonstrate the three steps needed to make setting limits this way extremely effective.

You’ll also:

Review and discuss the benefits of authoritative parenting versus permissive or authoritarian approaches, and demonstrate the difference between authoritarian, control-oriented limit-setting, and setting limits with the goal of repairing a parent’s connection with their child.
Recount two positive effects that a connection-based approach to setting limits has on the regulatory abilities of a child prone to off-track behavior.
Offer a stressed parent at least two anecdotes illustrating the kinds of results parents can expect when they employ this simple strategy for setting limits.
Illustrate four vital aspects of an adult’s poise that signals caring, firmness, confidence, and the intention to connect with a child who is having a hard time.
Communicate at least two strategies that a stressed parent could use to handle their own frustration, anger or desperation.

Why does promoting a child’s laughter help so much when behavior gets challenging? In this class, we're talking a child's primary language: Play.

Play is an under-valued tool, especially in houses where tensions run high. In lesson five, we’ll share how connecting and transforming play can be with children who are struggling. You’ll learn how to re-introduce play to families, even when times are hard, and showcase how play can be fundamental in shifting patterns of ongoing challenging behavior.

Play gives you a powerful tool to use with children to break tension and gain their trust, and is a tool parents can use to foster a warmer, safer environment for children long-term.

You’ll also:

Discover why Hand in Hand views tickling as not true play and potentially damaging, and how to approach this thinking with parents. You’ll also share alternate strategies for eliciting laughter around children.
Understand the role of power in play and demonstrate at least three ways that a parent could take the less powerful role in play to help a child release stored tension through laughter.
Demonstrate to a stressed parent how they might bring limits playfully, and tailored specifically to a particular child and particular persistent behavioral issues.
Outline three signs that a child is working through an ongoing “emotional project,” and two ways a parent can adjust their routines to allow for this kind of healing opportunity.
Share experiences and anecdotes that illustrate the kinds of results parents can enjoy when they use listening tools in tandem to assist their child’s healing.

How do you know the tools you are teaching are working?

In class six, you'll apply tools and strategies into the Hand in Hand Parenting Connection Plan.

You’ll use this framework to address specific behavioral difficulties a child might display in varied settings, and to support a parent working through issues that create disconnection between them and a child.

The Hand in Hand Parenting Connection Plan gives you an action-oriented and measurable step-by-step plan you can use to guide and measure your impact and progress.

You’ll also:

Be able to help a parent devise a Connection Plan at home, suggesting adaptations of this plan that are appropriate for child care, medical, and other settings when necessary.
Use the Connection Plan Framework to help parents build attunement with their child and guide them to improving their child’s executive functioning.
Name three major underlying assumptions of behaviorism-based parenting approaches, and contrast them with three major underlying assumptions of Hand in Hand’s connection-based approach.
Explain when Time Out is an effective strategy, and cite this strategy’s main disadvantage and the benefits of creating a “Time In,” as a way for a parent to fulfil the one core human need to help a child in their challenging moments.
Clarify your understanding of how to use Hand in Hand Parenting with parents of children with special needs, and with the children themselves.
Note changes in your own parenting and/or in your work when using Hand in Hand Parenting strategies, and identify areas you would like to do further experiments and learning,
Identify adaptations of theHand in Hand Parenting approach for your situation, practice, or community and outline additional goals and objectives for your final two weeks of classes. You will also have a hand in crafting these classes to suit your main objectives.

Tailor your plan and expand your knowledge where it serves you most.

Classes 7 and 8 have a didactic backbone, fleshed out by your interests and needs and the interests and needs of your call group.

In our experience, requests for adapting Hand in Hand principles and tools for stressed adolescents, young adults and their parents are common and so this topic is usually the focus in Class 7.

A chief goal in this session is around mentoring parents. Encouraging them to rebuild trust and recognize the opportunities that exist to partner with their growing child and gain mutual respect and warmth.

You will see how it’s possible to adapt the tools to reach older children and young adults and provide their parents with a framework that gives immediate hope for growth with tools that provide support to build strong and healthy, respectful relationships long-term.

You’ll also:

Explain in simple terms the neurobiology of attunement and co-regulation, the effects of isolation on the human mind, and present the well-researched fact that children who become isolated from supportive adult attention face difficulties in learning and thriving.
Outline the fundamental differences between the Attachment Parenting approach and the Hand in Hand Parenting approach.
Locate research articles that validate Hand in Hand’s approach, and cite that research as you bring your work to into your field of expertise.
Identify and practice six ways that the tools can be adapted and used with older children to aid in their therapeutic process.

Where do you want this training to take you?

You’ll find the content of this class based on specific interests that you and the participants in your group call share, and on your experiences applying Hand in Hand Parenting in your families and work over the past 7 weeks.

Many times, the topic requested for this class is for adapting Hand in Hand Parenting for children and parents struggling after a history of early adversity.

You will help charter the direction for this learning during class 6, and if you choose to focus on this track you’ll immerse yourself in the deeply-rewarding practice of framing your work in this area through a trauma-lens. Expect to see sizeable breakthroughs as shifts in belief, hope, power and connection serve to heal in profound ways.

You’ll be:

Able to counter parental feelings of guilt, frustration, confusion, and isolation as you present key aspects, both emotional and economic, of the systematic neglect around parenting in our society.
Apply insights of Adverse Childhood Experiences research to better assess the therapeutic needs of a parent, and the most and least appropriate strategies for helping that parent connect effectively with their child.
Offer hope to parents affected by their own early adversity or that of their child using anecdotal evidence from therapists who have intensive experience using Hand in Hand-based work in these communities.
Experience and replicate a learning environment that upholds these three key objectives: That any question is a good question, that any feeling has importance and validity, and that every individual is given respect, warmth, and time for the group to support their exploration of their issues, their growth, and their value as a thinking person.
Practice ways to lower a parental burdens and soften their trigger points for intense feelings, without hurrying them toward solutions.
Develop skills to be able to listen at length to a parent’s story, told verbally and through non-verbal behavior and body language, and choose the Hand in Hand insight most compatible with a parent’s current strengths with increasing accuracy.
Understand the kind of emotional work it takes for a child to shed emotional residue and normalize these extremes of emotion to better equip a parent to anchor their child emotionally during their healing process.

See Everything That's Included for Yourself

Try It Risk Free Before Mentoring Calls Begin

We are thrilled to partner with you as you begin this transformative program.

When you join Hand in Hand Parenting Professionals Intensive today, you’ll gain access to your dedicated learning dashboard.

Take your time to go through the booklets, articles, recordings, and videos included in the intensive, and if you have questions, reach out.

We’re confident that the Professionals Intensive has every component you need to bring a proven, trauma-focused lens to your work, but if after reviewing the program, you do not feel this approach or these tools will add a measurable, trauma-focused framework to your work, simply email admin@handinhandparenting.org and let us know.

FAQS

All the A's for your Q's

Q. Is this really a complete system for bringing a trauma-informed framework to my work? How is it possible to implement so quickly?

A:

We know it’s sounds too good to be true. After all, as research around trauma has morphed we’ve seen first hand how far and deep the issue really is.

And we’ve seen few programs step up to offer real, workable solutions for professionals in the field like you who handle child anxiety, bullying, withdrawal, and baffling behavior that requires solutions.

Hand in Hand has been working in this area since long before the science caught up. For more than 30 years professionals have been bringing these tools into foster homes and adoptive families, NICUs, and underserved communities. We’ve worked with moms in jail, teen moms, immigrant parents, and entire schools who have struggled to serve their student populations.

Long before there were best practices established for trauma-sensitive caregiving, we saw these tools work to bond families.

The understanding you show parents, ripples through them to their children, giving families worn down by fighting and fear and misunderstanding the space and support they need to heal and recover.

This, you see, is trauma-informed response in practice.

Now, we do have the science to support the approach

The ARC Framework and the Hand in Hand Program meet the core components of trauma-informed caregiving as identified by the National Child Traumatic Stress Network, allowing you to boldly bring a trauma-lens to your work. Several of our methods are also endorsed by the World Health Organisation for good parental care.

And why so fast? Because each of the five Listening Tools in the framework works independently and in tandem you can begin using them right away and you will see results almost as soon as you begin to use them, in whatever situation you bring them to.

Q:

I Really Want To Take The Class But I'm Not Sure I Can Fit It Into My Already Packed Schedule. How Long Should I Allocate Each Week?

A:

Hearing you loud and clear. We know that you are a giver, and it gets easy to say yes to everything, plus we're aware that right now, where the world feels extra uncertain, home and work schedules are prone to collide.

Expect to spend between 4-6 hours per week working through the materials, including your mentoring group calls. It does pay to keep on top of the week’s modules because you will use your group sessions to really explore the focus topics.

That said, you can begin using what you learn from day one, (as in, the minute you log into your online learning space). Feel free to go ahead and read through the modules, videos, and audios ahead of schedule if that helps you better manage your time.

Even better, many participants say they readily look forward to connecting with peers in weekly call-groups and receiving support and understanding.

This time actually allows you to offload your struggles, whether that’s related to your time-stretched schedule or other things that keep you up at night.

You emerge calmer, and more energized, and knowing you have a supportive, wise community caring for you. In fact, many past call groups keep their weekly calls going long after their intensive.

It’s definitely the program’s secret sauce, and one that keeps on giving. Like you.

In just eight weeks, you’ll have built a wonderful supportive space for you when times get hard, and you’ll have a whole new and workable system to bring to your work.

And you'll be using them to bring powerful change year after year.

Q:

I have already have some training in trauma-driven and resilience-building classes. What does the Professionals Intensive give me?

A:

You have a great foundation, since the Hand in Hand philosophy is very much aligned with leading trauma-evidence training.

Where it differs is the very powerful lens it shines on children’s emotional functioning and behavior.

Both concrete and profound, the Hand in Hand Parenting Listening Tools can provide immediate support and relief to an overwhelmed parent, and offer the possibility of long-term transformation.

And you can implement these tools alongside other approaches you may use to work with adult and child clients, trauma-evidenced or otherwise, as a rich addition to your skills and knowledge.

Q:

I have read lots of books and hours of webinars on neurobiology, plasticity, and childcare practices. Will I still learn something new on the Professionals Intensive?

A:

You’ve already done an incredible amount to further your knowledge and bring expertise to your work.

While we're 99.8% sure that you won’t have come across Hand in Hand’s exact five-tool framework elsewhere, we do see that these tools give you a fantastic way to put lots of what you've learned theoretically into action with the close, personalised attention of an experienced professional to work with weekly.

The specific, immersive learning fast-tracks your progress so that you’ll be confident in applying the tools from day one.

Q:

I love working with children, and want to understand them more, but I don’t have clinical experience. Is the Professionals Intensive a good fit? I'm not sure I'm ready for lots of theoretical work.

A:

We’re so excited to have you here.

Participants on the Intensive come from a wide range of disciplines and experiences.

Some come from a clinical background, others are social workers, play workers, doctors, nurses or medical staff, teachers, learning specialists, classroom assistants, child minders and care staff.

Past participants have studied neuroscience, resilience programming, child-centred approaches, positive discipline, attachment, trust-based interventions, play therapy, The Feldenkrais Method, Somatic Experiencing, Adler, Dan Siegel, Montessori, RIE, and Psychodynamic theory.

But really there is one requisite.

Your love of working with children and families and your desire to understand what drives their behaviors and guide them towards good, fulfilling lives.

These tools are completely flexible, easy to learn, and useful in a wide variety of situations, which is why we say just about anyone can grasp them and use them, anywhere that calls for them.

All instruction is given without clinical jargon, and all of our materials have been created to feel accessible and connecting.

If you have a passion to connect better with children you work with, and are keen to help parents to connect on a greater emotional level with their children, you’ll find all you need here with us in the Intensive.

Q:

What should I expect from the Professionals Intensive mentoring groups?

A:

Here’s a birds-eye view of what’s in store over the 8-week course.

Each weekly session is a mixture of instruction, sharing of personal experience using the Listening Tools, mentoring in the use of the approach, and group listening time that is grounded in our approach. Usually calls last between 50 and 90 minutes each session.

You’ll learn from one another and from your own personal emotional work in the class, giving you direct experience of the tools as you practice them.

Calls are warm, open, and responsive. Many past participants so look forward to the support and connection gained through the calls that they continue them even once the intensive is over. We find them a wonderful way to dial back into the approach, and build support for the strenuous work you do.

Q:

Can you remind me what I get when I enroll today?

A:

When you join today, you get access to your own personal dashboard and the 8 modules that make up the intensive. Take some time getting familiar with this rich collection of resources.

Next, we’ll ask you to indicate your best availability and we’ll place you in a small-group mentoring call and introduce you to the professional leading your section.

You also get access to all the videos and materials from the Hand in Hand Parenting Starter Class. This 6-week introductory class on the Hand in Hand tools gives you a foundational knowledge of the Hand in Hand Tools, ahead of the learning that takes place on the Professionals Intensive. Feel free to dive into these classes anytime. You can begin using the tools from Day 1 (and it's good to think where you might like to start, in your own family, or at work.)

You already invest a great amount of time reading up and learning about new research and strategies that you can use to support children or families in your care, but you haven’t quite found a way to apply it all in a way that feels cohesive or consistent.

You sometimes feel that your job is all-consuming, and there are just not enough hours in the day or resources you need to try out everything you want to. Because of this, you feel that you could be missing vital ways to support the children you love and want to see succeed and do well. Not to mention you’d love more time and connection with them so that you might really see greater results.

You’ve felt overburdened and overwhelmed, which is why a class like the Professionals Intensive sounds ideal. It is short, it is proven, it is in-line with current scientific thinking, it is kind and connective, and it is easy to access and to apply right from day one. Plus it offers all you need for a solid foundation in trauma-informed caregiving now and for years to come.

You’re hopeful about that time when you have a reliable, proven approach to use in any situation you need. You’re excited to see the big breakthroughs, where children feel seen and heard, and where they cooperate, connect and thrive. You’re also looking forward to confidently helping parents see the causes of their child’s challenging behaviors, and the simple free tools they can use to turn the relationships they have with their kids around.

You’re excited to experiment with Hand in Hand’s five tools. Even if you’ve been discouraged or disappointed in your work recently, you’re feeling a wave of renewed optimism knowing that by this time tomorrow you can be dipping into a simple yet incredibly effective methodology, trying out the tools, with your own kids, or those you work with, and seeing changes in the way you all respond, connect and grow.

You feel confident knowing that when you hit “apply”, you can take the time before mentoring calls begin to look over your learning dashboard, watch illuminating videos, dip into the suggested reading, familiarize yourself with the approach, and feel excited about adding a profound new philosophy to your current skills. And if you aren’t thrilled about the ways the tools work and how your learning and community can grow with them, all you have to do is to send an email to admin@handinhandparenting.org and we’ll hit pause for you on your trauma-informed training, no questions asked.

Did You Nod Your Head To Any Of Those?

If you resonate with one or more of these, you’ll find the Professionals Intensive a perfect fit for your journey to trauma-informed, responsive care.

But just to be sure...

You now know that there is a proven trauma-focused program you can very quickly begin using to decode difficult behaviors and respond in a way that reaches these kids and their families in a supportive and transforming way.

You don’t need an arsenal of tools. You just need these five trauma-informed tools to help whenever behavior gets challenging.

The Professionals Intensive is for you if...

You want kind, empathetic tools to use with common fight or flight responses, like tantrums, crying, defiance, separation anxiety, attention issues, and refusals.
You plan to keep working with parents or children and want strategies to guide you, day in, day out, so that instead of feeling stuck, confused, or overwhelmed you feel confident and satisfied that you are giving good solutions, support, and making progress.
You lay awake at night wondering how to reach a certain child or spent hours looking for new strategies that might help.
You’ve exhausted all your current strategies and still don’t feel satisfied with their effects.
You have no idea how to respond when you need to give a medical exam and a child cries and cries, or you cannot settle a child ahead of a needed test or procedure.
You love your work but feel that you are close to burning out, and yet you’d hate to walk away from a profession that really needs dedicated professionals like you who want to make a difference.
Parents ask you, “Where am I going wrong,” “What did I do to cause this,” “Why is my child acting this way,” or “What can I do about my child’s behavior?” and you want to help them understand the root cause of their child’s challenging behavior, give them insight into their child’s emotional work, and offer them practical tools that can help.
And, if you’ve been with a wild, scared, or defensive child, known they are good but struggling, and wished you had a warm way to respond that would let them feel your trust and caring.

So, it's decision time...

At this point, about 75% of readers, like you, who work with kids, who lead care teams, who work in clinical practice, or schools and daycare, who run activities, see children as patients, or work with children in other ways will find their fingers hovering over their keyboards...

And then?

They’ll close the browser.

They’ll go away and think about it, and spend the next few hours or days asking "Will I, or won’t I?”

Maybe, they’ll open this page again and tease themselves with the idea of joining the Professionals Intensive...

And that's OK.

It’s fair to take time making a decision. It’s just that when the keyboard is closed, life takes over. Emails need answering. School calls. Your child needs feeding.

And, just like that, the moment for enrollment passes.

You Can Start Making A Difference Tomorrow

This is your invitation to join us for the next 8-week intensive and begin using a complete trauma-informed system.

Foster deeper connections, understanding and healing.

Empower parents to partner with their children and overcome challenging behaviors.

Help kids feel happy, stable, secure, and capable of reaching the highest highs.

Why not take us up on this challenge?

Over the next 8 weeks you’ll experience the profound and lasting changes that the five tools in this approach can bring to your work. They ensure that you meet parents and children where they struggle most and allow you to show up with compassion and solutions you can all use.

But...

You don’t have to wait 8 weeks to see these transformations.

Your mission, when you join us today, is to read the booklet and articles in class three, and try the Special Time tool at least once in the next 3 days.

Begin seeing new understandings and mindshifts by the weekend.

Sign up and take a look at your classroom materials now.

If you are convinced that these tools aren’t a valuable way to bring a trauma-informed lens and understandings about human emotions and help you every single day in your work, just let us know. We’ll be happy to return your investment.

Ready to get started?

Join Professionals Intensive now and see the difference these tools make before the weekend.

Begin your trauma-informed training today.

An important question for professionals

who want to do their best work helping families thrive in 2021…

If there was a proven, trauma-focused approach you could quickly implement in your work, with little time and expense, that is non-punitive, understands the whole child, and offers struggling families empathy, connection, and deep, lasting healing...

would you be excited to bring such a powerful program to your work?

Overwhelming family stress...

Has profound short- and long-term impact on a child's brain structure and development, their physical and mental health, and their behavioral functioning.

You know.

The four-year-old so defiant that his teachers call him a danger to his class and have asked to have him expelled.

These kids are said to tax the system. Cause extra work.

Somedays, the magnitude of reaching kids like these feels impossible.

What's being done?

Why, when we know more about trauma than ever before and when neurobiology shows us that kids, even after deep trauma, can not only heal but thrive, why are so many children slipping through the cracks?

We Have News...

Take Michelle...

Michelle came to day camp in a tornado of fury.

From the minute she arrived, Michelle tormented the other children. She overturned their tables and spat in their jello cups. She hid their shoes and pulled their hair. She resisted every activity, and scowled and complained instead.

And then it was pool time.

She bellowed “No,” at first, but as she slowly dipped a toe into the water, she laughed. Laughed like kids are supposed to. Big peals of carefree joy.

Your heart would have lifted watching her face light up.

Soon, she slid into the water, splashing, mesmerised by the ripples she was making, until a fellow camper Henry, with good intentions, splashed back.

Just a gentle splash.

But Michelle acted like each drop was as hot as fire. She growled at Henry, and then grabbed his neck.

Michelle howled as she left camp early, with a note not to return.

She scrabbled and scratched and refused to get on the bus that would take her back home. She kicked against its metal doors, and all anyone could do was watch helplessly as she was carted away.

What do you think? Was Michelle Unreachable?

Large parts of society say yes.

But what if things had been different?

What if...

A staff member had stayed close to Michelle, even when Michelle told her “your breath stinks,” and slapped her hand away when the counselor was calm and gentle.

What if...

Michelle had felt safe and heard and wanted? What if she could have stayed and enjoyed the pool? It had been her very first time at a pool.

What if Michelle had been asked not "What did you do," but told "I will be with you while it's hard."

Was Michelle a lost cause?

You know in your heart she was not.

We know too.

But there was no-one there who could read her behavior and was resourced enough to respond in ways that would reach her.

Many times we’ve seen kids just like Michelle. Angry, aggressive kids who, when they have access to the supportive approach we are about to share, thrive. They build full lives, get good educations. They sing and dance and play and laugh.

Kids just like Michelle are perfectly able to recover from whatever experiences rocked their inner worlds so young, whatever experiences set them on edge and put their systems on high alert.

We see kids like these finally cast off the protective shield that so many call “unreachable behavior,” and become content, co-operative and confident.

Imagine if you knew just how to help parents decode a child’s difficult behavior and respond not to the hitting, disruption, or defensiveness, but to the scared, lonely child beneath. To watch that child emerge light and joyful.

Imagine reaching “the problem kid”, using nurturing, connective tools and gentle but firm limits that supports the child’s whole-self and shows them how to listen and cooperate.

And imagine knowing just how to listen and respond in a way that relieves stressed parents of their doubts, fears, and anxiety, guiding them to stable ground, where they can find the strength and hope they need to support themselves and their children through hard times.

There is a proven trauma-focused approach you could quickly implement in your work that gives you the tools and the understanding to reach kids like these, and see them not just recover, but thrive.

But just quickly, before we share how the approach works, do any of the following situations sound like you?

1. Stuck. Just Stuck.

So many of us are called to work that makes the world a better, safer place for children and their caregivers. It’s admirable work. Vital work.

Yet, can you say you are 100% confident that what you do truly helps?

You’re back where you started: Stuck, and wondering if you’ll ever see progress again.

What you need: You’d love a solid framework that is accessible, reliable, and proven, with tools where you quickly see trust build and progress occur. Where families come to you saying,”I can’t believe this is so simple! I wish we’d known this years ago.”

An approach where you are 100% confident that what you suggest helps.

2. The stubby chalk in a box of new crayons

While parents and colleagues around you rely on the same coercive methods in their childcare, you’re railing inside.

You can see that the rewards charts and traditional punitive discipline strategies only heap more pressure on children already struggling.

You figure there must be a better way to reach kids like this, but you are unsure exactly what, and besides you’re getting tired of feeling like the only one seeking different solutions.

It feels hard to stand up and say once again that something needs to change, especially when what you see from co-workers or parents is disbelief, or worse, disdain.

What you need: is sound, scientific knowledge and experience using tools you know build the safety, security, and trust kids like this need, and a network of professionals who share the same views and see success using these tools supporting you.

With backing like that, you can say goodbye rewards charts, punitive punishment, shame and blame. You're confident you have a better, gentler way, (and you aren’t scared to show it).

3. Your own kids are driving you crazy.

You're asking yourself, "How can I inspire other parents or reach kids I'm working with when I feel like I'm failing myself?"

Your specialist training, countless books, and hours of research did not prepare you for raising your own kids and none of it is working out how you thought.

You’re dealing with tantrums that raise the roof and defiance on the daily and you doubt your own abilities as a parent.

And then, every day, you are expected to put on your professional’s hat and go help other kids or respond wisely to parents who come to you for reassurance. Who ask, “What can I do differently?”

You’ve never felt less sure of your ideas, and you're aren't sure what to do next.

What you need: When all of a sudden work and home is one gigantic heap of stress and worry, it’s impossible to show up at work energised and enthusiastic. That all changes when you have a framework you can use to get to the root of what’s throwing things off at home.

And hey, once you see the powerful changes in your own family, you’ll have that absolute certainty it can help others - and you’ll be just the right anchor of calm authority and comfort that inspires parents to take action, mend their relationships, and soar.

4. You. Are. So. Burnt. Out.

We hear you. Not only are you offering immense support and caring every day, you are doing it in a world that neither appreciates nor values the exhausting work of parenting and raising children.

Systems are broken.

Parents are more taxed than ever before.

We’re in the midst of a world-changing pandemic for Pete’s sake.

Financial burdens are heavy. Time is short. Patience is thin.

Where are you supposed to get the endless reserves you need to champion growth, healing, and new, positive beginnings? (It’s definitely not at the end of that 5th cup of caffeine. You know - you’ve tried!)

You go looking for training because somewhere, between the blanket you can't crawl out of each morning and the blanket of doom clouding your mind, you still have a faint glow of hope that things could be better.

That you could be better.

But, oh, the doubts. Can you even take on one more thing?

When you set a boundary to bring that high-level generous energy into your life, and feel that warm support in place, you’ll be amazed by how your energy returns and revives your spirit.

Even better, you’ll see real breakthroughs at work that will give you an even bigger lift.

If any of those stories ring true for you, we have news

A satisfying, transforming trauma-informed program like this is completely within your reach.

If you’ve made it this far down the page, you already know that bringing powerful change is something you are committed to providing in your work.