The Calgary Conference on Developmental and Emotional Challenges with Children and Adolescents

Live Streaming from Calgary, AB | November 18 - 20, 2025

Presented by Gordon Neufeld, Ph.D., Patti Ashley, Ph.D., LPC, Tamara Strijack, M.A. and Carissa Muth, Psy.D., CCC, R.Psych

Sponsored by Sunshine Coast Health Centre & Georgia Strait Women's Clinic

$30.00$244.00

Up To 18 Hours  |   Pre-approved for CEU’s

$244.00
$244.00
$244.00
$30.00

Description

LIVE STREAM: November 18 – 20, 2025 from  8:30am – 4:00pm (Calgary, AB) Please adjust your start time according to your specific time zone. 

ON-DEMAND: Recorded footage & course content (certificate, videos, quiz) will be available until December 22, 2025. Please allow 3 – 10 business days for footage to be processed. Extensions cannot be granted under any circumstances.


November 18, 2025  |  Day One

Recognizing and Addressing the Emotional Roots of Behaviour Problems: A Working Model for an Array of Troubling Symptoms

PRESENTED BY Gordon Neufeld, Ph.D.

Are there really 298 different disorders plus countless other syndromes of problem behaviour? Could it be that we have been missing something more fundamental about how the brain works and thus what can go wrong? Could there possibly be a common denominator across the spectrum of troubled experience and behaviour? Dr. Neufeld insists that there now are enough puzzle pieces to reveal not only the emotional roots of our troubled experience and problem behavior, but even the particular emotions giving us the most trouble in today’s society. Using the lens of development, he also helps us understand how these problems first develop in childhood and what they look like at their beginnings. In distilling these dynamics to their essence, he also opens the doors to reversing these problems in both childhood and adulthood.   

November 19, 2025  |  Day Two

Hidden Keys to Student Engagement: Optimizing Learning and Well-being

PRESENTED BY Gordon Neufeld, Ph.D.

No issue has ever been more important in education than how to engage students in the learning process. The lack of engagement of today’s students is therefore quite alarming. The downward trend has been noticeable for some time but has become even more acute after the pandemic. Teaching longer or harder has not been the answer. Changing curriculum is a never-ending exercise but also somewhat futile in making the needed difference. Restricting digital devices helps somewhat but doesn’t get to the root of the problem. Curiosity is fading: motivation is waning; mental health is deteriorating; and teacher burnout is escalating. This isn’t the complaint of only one school district or region; this phenomenon appears to be rather widespread. Dr. Neufeld insists that we cannot address a problem we do not truly understand. He will present a two-phase model of student engagement that will not only make sense of what is happening to today’s students, but also show us a way through, even with the hardest to reach students in our classes. We all want our teaching to translate into student learning. Our effectiveness and even our professional fulfillment depend upon it.

Addressing Developmental and Early Attachment Trauma

PRESENTED BY Patti Ashley, Ph.D., LPC

This training provides clinicians and educators with a comprehensive understanding of the impact of developmental and early attachment trauma on emotional, cognitive, and social development. Participants will explore the neurobiological and psychological effects of early adverse experiences, including disruptions in attachment, neglect, and abuse. The training will focus on identifying trauma symptoms, understanding trauma-informed care, and learning effective strategies to support healing in children, adolescents, and adults affected by early trauma. Through case studies, video examples, and practical tools, attendees will deepen their knowledge of trauma-responsive interventions and develop skills to facilitate recovery, promote resilience, and foster secure attachment in their professional practice.

Fostering Social-Emotional Learning in Children and Adolescents

This engaging and interactive professional development session is designed to equip educators with the knowledge, strategies, and tools needed to foster social and emotional learning (SEL) in children and adolescents. Grounded in research-based practices, this training explores the five core competencies of SEL—self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills, and responsible decision-making—and their vital role in student success both in and out of the classroom.

Participants will learn how to create emotionally supportive learning environments, build strong teacher-student relationships, and integrate SEL into daily routines and academic instruction. Through real-world examples, hands-on activities, and collaborative discussion, educators will walk away with actionable strategies to support students’ emotional development, resilience, and well-being.

November 20, 2025  |  Day Three

Preserving True Play in a Screen-filled World

PRESENTED BY Tamara Strijack, M.A.

We live in an age of technology, with information and entertainment at our fingertips, and at the fingertips of our children. While this reality may have its conveniences and advantages, it can also preempt the time and space needed for play in our children’s lives. Research is now confirming what age-old cultures have intuitively known all along, that play is actually a vital part of healthy development. What kind of play do children (and adults!) need in their lives? Is screen-play true play and how do we tell the difference? In this seminar, we explore these questions and discuss what we can do as caring adults to preserve true play in a world that is moving too fast.

This workshop is suitable for all those involved with children and youth: parents, teachers, helping professionals. Although the focus is children, the dynamics and insights apply to individuals of any age.

Reclaiming our Students

Children are more anxious, aggressive, and shut down than ever. Faced with this epidemic of emotional health crises and behavioral problems, educators are asking themselves what went wrong. Why have we lost our students? More importantly: how can we get them back? Based on the book [co-written by the presenter], Reclaiming Our Students, this workshop will support educators with insights and strategies for how to build, nurture, and protect the student-teacher relationship in order to create the emotional safety needed for our students to thrive. We will also explore some of the common roots of troubling behaviour, including aggression and anxiety. Walking through various scenarios, we will practice together the art of reading our students and responding to their needs, in order for them to be emotionally healthy and receptive to learning.

While the material is geared primarily towards educators (in traditional school, alternative education or home learning), it also applies to anyone working with children, either in a supporting cast or helping profession.

Practical Solutions to Address Anxiety Disorders with Children and Adolescents

PRESENTED BY Carissa Muth, Psy.D., CCC, R.Psych

As high as 20% of children in Canada will experience an anxiety disorder before reaching adulthood. For many of these children, symptoms of anxiety will impede their life and development to a degree that will create impairments into adulthood. Developmental vulnerabilities place children and adolescents at unique risk and also in need of specialized knowledge regarding the assessment and treatment of their anxiety symptoms. In this workshop, Dr. Muth will ground the assessment and treatment of anxiety for children and adolescent in a neurological understanding of human development. Presenting developmentally appropriate CBT and play therapy interventions, Dr. Muth will provide practical tools for working with children and adolescents with anxiety. Participants will walk away with the ability to identify anxiety symptoms and apply immediate interventions to address psychological symptoms and reduce the likelihood of continuation of issues into adulthood.

Why Attend?:

  • Practical Application: CBT is widely evidenced as the most effective method for treatment for anxiety for children and adolescents yet commonly misunderstood in application. This workshop will provide practical guidance for applying developmentally appropriate interventions for the cognitive (e.g. thought reframing) behavioural (e.g. imaginal and in vivo exposure) and physiological (e.g. addressing autonomic arousal) aspects of CBT.
  • Expanded Toolbox: While protocoled therapies are often more widely studied and, as such, evidenced, alternative methods have also demonstrated efficacy in addressing anxiety in children. This workshop will present an overview and easy to apply play therapy interventions to equip participants to utilize a myriad of interventions to meet a variety of client needs.

Executive Functioning Skills for Children and Adolescence

Planning, organizing, and emotionally regulating all are executive functioning that, when impaired, can significantly impact activities of daily living. In childhood this can range in presentation from the ability to complete homework, to the ability to refrain from anger outbursts. While executive functioning never fully develops until young adulthood, certain children are at risk for lifetime impairments. Risk factors include trauma, low socioeconomic status, stress or neurodevelopmental disorders such as ADHD or ASD. In this workshop, Dr. Muth will present tools that can be implemented in the therapeutic setting and have been evidenced to have a lasting impact on children with low executive functioning. Many skills have been suggested by professionals, such as exercise, computer games, music, but only a few have been found to have a lasting impact once the intervention ceases. For children with low executive functioning, particular nontypically developing children (including children with neurodevelopmental disorders or behavior problems), improving skills in these areas can significantly improve their ability to flourish throughout their life.

Why Attend?:

  • Adopt Effective Interventions: Research has indicated that while many interventions temporarily improve executive functioning skills, not all techniques have lasting impact or allow children to apply skills to a variety of situations. This workshop will provide participants with practical interventions that have been evidenced to have lasting impacts.
  • Increase Toolbox: Given the vast range of risk factors for impairment in executive functioning development, many children attending therapy would benefit from interventions, whether or not they have a neurodevelopmental disorder. As such, developing skills to address executive functioning deficits will be helpful for anyone working with children or adolescents.

Education and Clinical Professionals: K–12 Classroom Teachers, School Counsellors/Psychologists, Learning Assistance/ Resource Teachers, School Administrators, School Paraprofessionals including Special Education Assistants, Classroom Assistants and Childcare Workers. All other professionals who support students including but not limited to: Nurses, Social Workers, Psychologists, Clinical Counsellors, Family Therapists, Occupational Therapists, Speech Language Pathologists, Addiction Counsellors, Youth Workers, Mental Health Workers, Probation Officers, Police Officers, and Early Childhood Educators.

Parents, Caregiver, Foster Parents, Grandparents, and Extended Family raising a child.

Dr. Gordon Neufeld is a Vancouver-based developmental psychologist with over 50 years of experience with children and youth and those responsible for them. A foremost authority on child development, Dr. Neufeld is an international speaker, a bestselling author (Hold On To Your Kids) and a leading interpreter of the developmental paradigm. Dr. Neufeld has a widespread reputation for making sense of complex problems and for opening doors for change. While formerly involved in university teaching and private practice, he now devotes his time to teaching and training others, including educators and helping professionals. His Neufeld Institute is now a world-wide charitable organization devoted to applying developmental science to the task of raising children. He is a father of five and a grandfather to seven.


International workshop presenter, author, and psychotherapist Patti Ashley, Ph.D, LPC, has integrated 40 years of experience in special education, child development, and psychology into her wholehearted work as a psychotherapist, author, international speaker, and authenticity architect coach. She brings unique insights into the identification and treatment of shame, trauma, grief, and dysfunctional family patterns.

Dr. Ashley owns and operates Authenticity Architects in Boulder, Colorado. Her inimitable Authenticity Architects model facilitates long-term changes in the brain and nervous system, helping clients break through unconscious barriers and rediscover a sense of self-love, belonging, and connection.

Patti has counselled a myriad of individuals, couples, families and groups in mental health agencies, psychiatric hospitals, and private practice settings. She also has many years of experience developing continuing education courses for physicians, hospital wellness programs, universities, and other organizations.

Dr. Ashley holds a Doctor of Philosophy Degree in psychology from the Union Institute and University, a Master of Education Degree in early childhood from Old Dominion University, and a Bachelor of Science Degree in special education from James Madison University. She is the author of Living in the Shadow of the Too-Good Mother Archetype (2014), Letters to Freedom (2019), and Shame-Informed Therapy: Treatment Strategies to Overcome Core Shame and Reconstruct the Authentic Self (2020). 


Tamara Strijack, MA is a Registered Clinical Counsellor who lives and works in the Vancouver Island area. She is co-author (with Hannah Beach) of the book, Reclaiming our Students: Why our children are more anxious, aggressive and shut down than ever, and what we can do about it. Tamara has worked with children and adolescents in various roles over the last thirty years. She is currently the Academic Dean of the Neufeld Institute, where she develops and delivers courses on child development for parents, teachers and helping professionals. She is a keynote speaker, workshop facilitator, and educator of counsellors and educators in training. Tamara works primarily as a parent and educational consultant, helping put adults back in the driver’s seat in a way that facilitates growth and learning for the child. Connection, relationship and play continue to be central themes in all her roles, both personally and professionally.


Dr. Carissa Muth is a registered psychologist in Alberta and British Columbia and the Clinical Director at the Sunshine Coast Health Centre and Georgia Strait Women’s Clinic.  She holds Doctorate of Psychology, Master of Arts in Counselling, and Bachelor of Social Work degrees and ran a private practice in Alberta for the last ten years. With over fifteen years of experiences in the mental health field, Dr. Muth has provided psychological assessments, therapeutic treatments and conducted research in the field of substance addictions and co-morbid psychological disorders. With both a passion for learning and teaching, Dr. Muth has presented her research and expertise across the country at a variety of mental health conferences.

RegistrationEarly bird FeeRegular Fee
Individual 1 Day Enrollment$244.00N/A
Individual 2 Day Enrollment$484.00N/A
Individual 3 Day Enrollment$664.00N/A

All fees are in Canadian dollars ($CAD) and per person.

Group rates and student discounts are available. Please contact webinars@jackhirose.com for more information.

Fees are per person, seat sharing is not allowed. Please respect this policy, failure to comply will result in termination of access without a refund. For group rates please contact webinars@jackhirose.com

  • Canadian Psychological Association
    The Alberta College of Social Workers (ACSW) and the Newfoundland and Labrador Association of Social Workers (NLASW) accept CPA-approved continuing education credits