Description
LIVE STREAM: April 29 – May 1, 2026 from 8:30am – 4:00pm (Victoria, BC) Please adjust your start time according to your specific time zone.
ON-DEMAND: Recorded footage & course content (certificate, videos, quiz) will be available until June 8, 2026. Please allow 3 – 10 business days for footage to be processed. Extensions cannot be granted under any circumstances.
April 29, 2026 | Day One
Making Sense of Anxiety in Children and Teens: A Developmental Approach to Alarm, Safety, and Emotional Well-Being
Presented by Deborah MacNamara, Ph.D.
8:30am – 11:45am
Anxiety is now the most common mental health challenge of childhood and adolescence. As many as one in five children and teens meet criteria for an anxiety disorder, with many more struggling below the diagnostic threshold. Anxiety rarely looks the same from one child or teen to the next. It can appear as worry, avoidance, obsessions and compulsions, phobias, panic, perfectionism, shutdown, irritability, or a range of perplexing behaviours that leave adults unsure how to help.
We cannot treat what we do not understand.
This three-hour presentation offers a fresh, hopeful, and developmentally grounded way of making sense of anxiety—one that moves beyond symptom management and behavioural control, and instead looks at what anxiety is doing, why it shows up, and what children and teens need to feel safe enough to grow.
Drawing on attachment science, neuroscience, developmental psychology, and Dr. Deborah MacNamara’s clinical experience, this presentation reframes anxiety as a state of heightened alarm in the nervous system, not a character flaw, weakness, or problem of coping skills. Participants will learn how anxiety interferes with emotional processing, learning, attention, and adaptation—and why many well-intended strategies can unintentionally intensify anxiety rather than relieve it.
Rather than asking how to make children “calm down” or “push through,” this presentation asks a more essential question: What is making it so hard for them to feel safe?
This is a deeply compassionate, insight-based approach that restores confidence to adults and offers a promising path forward for children and teens struggling with anxiety.
Making Sense of Anxiety in Children and Teens: A Developmental Approach to Alarm, Safety, and Emotional Well-Being
12:45pm – 4:00pm
Resistance and opposition are among the most challenging and misunderstood behaviours in childhood and adolescence. From toddlers who refuse to cooperate to teens who push back against every request, resistance can feel personal, provocative, and deeply unsettling for the adults who care for them.
Yet resistance is not always a problem to eliminate.
In this presentation, Dr. Deborah MacNamara offers a developmental and relational understanding of resistance and opposition, introducing the concept of counterwill—the instinctive, defensive reaction that arises when children feel pressured, coerced, or controlled.
Counterwill can take many forms, including opposition, negativism, noncompliance, avoidance, lack of motivation, disrespect, belligerence, and resistance to learning. While the expressions may vary depending on age and personality, the underlying dynamic is deceptively simple: a child or teen resisting felt coercion.
This presentation explores why counterwill is a normal and necessary part of human development, why it is especially pronounced in toddlers and adolescents, and how it is meant to serve both attachment and the development of a child’s will. Participants will gain insight into why power struggles intensify resistance, why what is most demanded often becomes least likely to happen, and how well-intended efforts to manage behaviour can unintentionally escalate opposition.
Most importantly, this presentation offers a way forward. Rather than increasing control or backing away from adult responsibility, participants will learn how to respond to resistance in ways that preserve relationship, dignity, and leadership, while respecting the developmental purpose of counterwill.
April 30, 2026 | Day Two
Addressing Childhood and Developmental Trauma
Presented by Carissa Muth, Psy.D., CCC, R.Psych
8:30am – 11:45am
In the late 1990’s, the CDC in combination with Kaiser Permanente studied the link between childhood abuse and adult rates of death. This study firmly established a link between childhood experiences and long term mental and physical health outcomes. As 67% of individuals experiences at least one ACE, continued studies have investigated which factors or how many factors are the most influential. Dr. Carissa Muth will present updated data regarding childhood and developmental trauma with a focus on utilizing the research to effectively conceptualize and treat client symptoms. This will include a diagnostic explanation of complex posttraumatic stress disorder and staged treatment methods and interventions. As often the most complex clients have high ACE scores, knowing how to identify and treat these clients can provide hope for those that may feel disregarded.
Why Attend?
- Increased awareness- Childhood trauma can manifest in adulthood in a myriad of ways and sometimes covertly. As such, knowing the signs and impact of ACEs can aid in treating seemingly treatment resistant clients.
- Improved resources- Some would argue that personality disorders almost exclusively manifest from childhood abuse. These clients can be disregarded by professionals as noncompliant or too difficult to manage. Understanding roots to behaviours rather than just considering the manifestations of underlying issues can provide additional tools and hope for these typically complex individuals.
Practical Solutions to Address Anxiety in Children and Adolescents
12:45pm – 4:00pm
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.
May 1, 2026 | Day Three
Strategies for Student Behaviour, Resilience, Regulation, Trauma, and EQ in Challenging Times
Presented by Steven G. Feifer, D.Ed., ABSNP
In today’s increasingly complex educational environments, students are presenting with heightened emotional reactivity, behavioural challenges, anxiety, and difficulties with self-regulation. Educators and mental health professionals are being asked to respond not only to academic needs, but also to the neurological, emotional, and relational factors that influence behaviour and learning.
In this engaging and practical full-day workshop, Steven Feifer draws on decades of experience in school neuropsychology to help participants better understand the why behind challenging student behaviours and the how of effective intervention. Grounded in brain-based research, trauma-informed practice, and social-emotional learning, this workshop offers concrete strategies to support regulation, resilience, emotional intelligence (EQ), and positive behaviour across school settings.
Participants will explore how stress, trauma, and adversity impact brain development, executive functioning, emotional control, and learning readiness. Steven will translate complex neuroscience into accessible, classroom-ready tools that help educators and clinicians move beyond behaviour management toward meaningful regulation and relationship-based support.
Through case examples, interactive discussion, and evidence-informed strategies, participants will learn how to:
- Understand the neuropsychological roots of challenging behaviour
- Support emotional regulation and impulse control in dysregulated students
- Build resilience and coping skills in the face of stress and uncertainty
- Address the impact of trauma on learning, behaviour, and relationships
- Strengthen emotional intelligence (EQ) and social problem-solving skills
- Create supportive environments that foster safety, connection, and engagement
This workshop emphasizes practical strategies that can be immediately applied in classrooms, counselling settings, and school systems, helping professionals respond to challenging behaviours with greater confidence, compassion, and effectiveness.
