Upcoming events
Supporting Educators: Fall Webinar Series
Join Eva de Gosztonyi, Tamara Strijack and Catherine Korah for our 3 part webinar series offered this fall. Each 90 minute webinar will cover a different topic, offering insights into some of the common challenges found in classrooms today.
Webinar #1 - September 17, 2024 | 4:30 - 6:00pm Pacific Working with Special Needs Students: Am I doing too much or too little? Eva de Gosztonyi
Webinar #2 - October 24, 2024 | 4:30 - 6:00pm Pacific Cell phones, screens and social media: reclaiming our students Tamara Strijack
Webinar #3 - November 19, 2024 | 4:30 - 6:00pm Pacific Social Emotional Learning Vs. Nurturing Emotional Health and Growth: What's the difference? Catherine Korah
When: September 14, October 24, and November 19, 2024
Time: 4:30 - 6:00pm Pacific Time
Cost: $75 CAD per person. This includes access to all 3 webinars along with the recordings.
More information and registration can be found here.
Navigating Neurodiversity: Understanding and Supporting Challenging Behaviours in the Classroom
Description: Through the lens of neuroscience and attachment theory, this presentation will explore the intricacies of neurodiversity, including Hypersensitivity, Autism Spectrum Disorder, Giftedness, and Tourette Syndrome, and its implication within a classroom setting. Behavior, often regarded as a form of communication, can manifest in challenging ways, potentially disrupting the learning environment. A universal concern among educators revolves around navigating the "what to do when" scenarios associated with such behaviors. Gaining insight is key in helping educators foster an inclusive educational environment that supports the needs of neurodiverse learners, promoting positive outcomes for both students and staff.
Offered online February 28, 2024 |4:00pm - 5:30pm PST
Cost: FREE
Presenters: Catherine Korah and Eva de Gosztonyi
Catherine Korah is the coordinator of the Centre of Excellence for Behaviour Management (CEBM), which offers support and expertise to the English School Boards of Quebec to help them to increase their capacity to implement best practice approaches in prevention and intervention with students who have challenging behaviours. For over 15 years, she has worked in a number of educational settings with both elementary and secondary students. She has been actively involved in providing professional development, consultation, and liaising with various health and social service agencies. Catherine is very adept at finding developmentally friendly and trauma-informed solutions for students at all levels. To know more, visit https://www.cebm.ca/
Eva de Gosztonyi is a psychologist who has worked for over 48 years in schools across Canada, including Quebec, Manitoba, northern Saskatchewan and Yukon. For 22 years she worked as the Coordinator of the Centre of Excellence for Behaviour Management, a support to the 10 English School Boards of Quebec, helping them to provide effective interventions for children with behavioural challenges using the Neufeld paradigm. Eva believes that educators can foster the natural processes of development in their interactions and attachments with students in the classroom and in the school. In her presentations Eva weaves together theory and practice; learning and behaviour, to help those who work with children put into practice Dr. Neufeld`s paradigm so that they can most effectively help children and youth become the 'best that they can be'.
Reclaiming Play: Where it went. Why we need it. And what we can do to bring it back.
Description: We live in a world where play is being replaced with entertainment and skills-based activities.
We are now seeing the emotional side effects of the loss of play in the lives of children as aggression and anxiety in our young increases. Play provides a safe space to access our feelings and in doing so it serves a significant role in the unfolding of human potential. When we hear the word ‘play’, many of us think of young children and toys. This workshop will expand our understanding of what ‘play’ is (and what it isn’t) and its importance as a key driver of growth, learning and resilience.
Suitability: Intended for teachers, early childhood educators, helping professionals - anyone who leads and loves children. Focus will be on children ages 3 - 12.
Offered in-person: November 18, 2023 I 10am - 4pm PST I Mill Bay, British Columbia
Facilitators: Hannah Beach and Tamara Strijack
Cost: $250 + tax (where applicable)
Neufeld-Hirose Conference: Towards Flourishing Children & Youth
A Neufeld Institute Conference
co-sponsored by Jack Hirose & Associates
Featuring: Gordon Neufeld, Deborah MacNamara, Tamara Strijack, and Eva de Gosztonyi
Description: The Neufeld Institute is once again joining forces with Jack Hirose Seminars to present a live three-day conference in Saskatoon on November 6-8, 2023. Our theme is Towards Flourishing Children and Youth. Although there is significant alarm these days concerning the deteriorating mental health of our children, there is still much confusion about how to reverse this disturbing trend. The ultimate answers lie in providing the conditions that are conducive to the unfolding of human potential. Whether a medical or mental health professional, a therapist or counselor, a teacher or school administrator, a day care provider or early childhood educator, a youth and family worker, a concerned parent or grandparent, this conference will help set the stage for turning stress around, in our children, our students, and even in ourselves.
The IDEA Centre Educator's Symposium
Join Tamara Strijack, Eva de Gosztonyi, Hannah Beach, Deborah MacNamara and David McFall as they share practical ideas around supporting students and educators.
This symposium is a FREE opportunity to hear from our wonderful IDEA Centre team.
To learn more about the themes and topics presented, visit our Educator’s Symposium page.
The Bully Response: Insight and Intervention
Intervening with the Bully Response – Let’s find out what is really happening!
Bullying is not going away, despite over 25 years of conferences, anti-bullying legislation, national initiatives, a multitude of Anti-bullying programmes and events like Pink Shirt Day. So much time, energy and resources have been poured into trying to “tame the bully” and it is just not working. Why not? Because you cannot develop an effective intervention if you don’t understand the underlying reasons for the behaviour.
In this revised version of his course, “Bullies: Their making and unmaking”, Dr. Neufeld helps us to understand the origins of the Bully Response, proposing that it comes from a perversion of Alpha instincts. This way of looking at bullying then leads to interventions that can really make a difference.
During the facilitated discussions of the course material, Eva de Gozstonyi and Jeanie Alderson will share their experiences with how they used this knowledge to help schools to effectively intervene with the Bully response.
Time & Place
This online course is being offered in a Scheduled Online Class format through Neufeld's IDEA Centre for Educators starting on Tuesday, May 2, 2023 at 4:30 - 5:30pm PDT. The course will run weekly for five weeks.
Cost: $150.00
Cancellation notifications received up until one day before the start of the course are eligible for a refund, less a $25 administrative fee. Cancellation notifications received after the start of the course are not eligible for refund.
The Neuroscience of Play
an IDEA Centre webinar with Eva de Gosztonyi
Play is being given serious study by researchers all over the world. Studies show time after time that play promotes development in all parts of the brain particularly in the areas of the brain responsible for problem solving, getting along with others and, most importantly, emotional well-being. This webinar will look more deeply into the neuroscience of play to better understand its importance in the development of the whole child. Perhaps then we will relax and let our children and ourselves experience play not as a luxury but as an essential part of our human experience.
Eva de Gosztonyi, MA, is a psychologist who has worked for over 45 years in schools across Canada. For over 22 years she was the Coordinator of the Centre of Excellence for Behaviour Management, a support to the ten English School Boards of Quebec, helping adults in the school setting provide attachment-based and developmentally friendly interventions for students with behavioural challenges.
Managing Behaviour without Rewards
FREE WEBINAR with Eva de Gosztonyi
When students have difficulty managing their behaviours in the classroom our thoughts often turn to a reward system. In fact, a number of these systems are now available via the cell phone and Smart Board. What more could we ask for, other than for help in finding the best system to use and tips on how to make it work? However, developmental science and trauma research beg to differ. Not only do these systems lose their effectiveness over time, they are complicated to implement, and they rarely result in long-term change. Of even greater concern is that they often significantly affect the all-important child-adult attachment relationship, can increase anxiety even among the “well-behaved” and can cause discouragement and a sense of shame for the student who cannot do better despite best intentions. This presentation will provide an analysis of what works and does not work, and why. Then effective alternatives to help manage behaviour in the classroom will be proposed. These include how to increase the students’ desire to please their teacher, simple classroom modifications that can make behaving appropriately easier and suggestions for how to respond when behaviour is challenging.
Date/time: Tuesday October 25th, 2022 from 4:30pm to 6:00pm Pacific Time
Eva de Gosztonyi, MA, is a psychologist who has worked for over 45 years in schools across Canada. For over 22 years she was the Coordinator of the Centre of Excellence for Behaviour Management, a support to the ten English School Boards of Quebec, helping adults in the school setting provide effective interventions for students with behavioural challenges. Eva is a developmental psychologist who believes that we must value the natural maturational processes of our children and youth, respecting their immaturity and vulnerability and understanding that safe and caring attachments with adults are essential for their optimal growth. Her understanding of child development is primarily informed by the attachment-based developmental paradigm of Dr. Gordon Neufeld. The interventions that she suggests are guided by neuroscience, are trauma-informed and trauma-responsive, and they are attachment-based and developmentally friendly. Eva is on Faculty at the Neufeld Institute and is an authorized presenter of the Neufeld paradigm.
Reaching Troubled Kids: Cohort Series
a special Fall initiative for educators
and supporting professionals
When Dr. Neufeld first began providing professional development to educators, some 25 years ago, he had organized his material around the topic of Reaching Troubled Kids. The material was very well received by school systems throughout British Columbia and Canada. As a result of this material, Gordon became a ‘regular’ presenter for alternate education conferences where troubled kids were most likely to be found. Coming full circle, and now with the added insights available from neuroscience, Gordon has updated and reorganized this material to serve educators in today’s society, where troubled behaviour and troubled syndromes have unfortunately become the norm.
Tamara Strijack has been inspired to bring this revised material to the forefront for those involved professionally with children. She has designed a special series for this Fall:
October 6 – Orientation Session
October 13 – Plenary Session by Gordon Neufeld
October 20, 27, and November 3 – Follow-Up Sessions that focus on practical applications and implementations, all tailored to specific interest groups
All sessions take place between 2:00 to 3:30 pm PT and are recorded should one not be able to attend the live session.
The group cohorts include:
educators
school counsellors
clinical counsellors/mental health professionals
foster/adoption
early childhood support
Participants will be treated to remarkable insights regarding three hidden stories that exist in almost all troubled kids, regardless of how the trouble is manifest. These three hidden stories turn out to have a singular underlying theme, which, once understood, have surprising and very practical implications all those involved with students.
Neufeld Institute Conference 2022
Our annual Vancouver Neufeld Conference will once again be offered ONLINE.
We’re delighted to expand our local gathering of parents, educators and helping professionals to our global community for three days of keynotes, breakout sessions, dialogues and panels brought to you by over twenty presenters.
From Insight to Practice: Innovative Approaches in Education
FREE WEBINAR PANEL - REGISTER HERE
How do we support the emotional health and development of our students and create conditions conducive to learning? Join Hannah Beach, Eva deGosztonyi and Tamara Strijack as they share ideas and innovative approaches that schools and learning environments are actively doing around the world.
Let’s learn from each other!
Neufeld Institute Annual Conference 2021
Our annual Vancouver Neufeld Conference is moving to a 100% ONLINE event in 2021!
We’re delighted to expand our local gathering of parents, educators and helping professionals to our global community for three days of keynotes, breakout sessions, dialogues and panels brought to you by over twenty presenters.
The Science of Emotion
Save 10% off base tuition when you register at least one week in advance of course start date.
Emotion, long dismissed as a nuisance factor, is now confirmed to be at the core of development and well-being. Yet little is being taught about the nature of emotion or the implications for parenting, teaching, and treatment. To make sense of emotion is to make sense of us all. There is no better way to glean insight into oneself and others than through a working knowledge of the science of emotion.