Childhood and Identity: Understanding ‘Gaslighting’ (An NDP Online Course)

NB This is a two-part course. The first part is on Saturday 6 July at 1400-1700 (UK time). The second part is on Sunday 7 July at 1400-1700. Your ticket is for both parts. Both parts must be attended to complete the course.

This course explores the issues of control and abuse in children and young people. We have expectations of children growing up and think about what they might achieve; will they be ‘just like us’ or entirely different? When young people are supported and encouraged, do they have their own choices they can discuss, or is a pathway being mapped out for them?

It is always difficult to strike a balance: little interest and a child feels ignored, too much and they can feel backed into a corner.

However when it comes to ‘Gaslighting’ the matter becomes clearer as there is control imposed from others not only of activities, but also friends, social-life, appearance, indeed all the things that contribute to our emerging identity.

Gaslighting is very prevalent amongst ambitious parents and teachers which often results in young person feeling confused, uncertain, and fearful. Some teenagers also are scared of reprisals if hey do not ’toe the line’.

We shall use art media, including masks and stories in this workshop, which will also touch on participants personal lives.

Learning Objectives:

• Skills for therapeutic masks
• NDP/EPR as a methodology to apply with those ‘at risk’
• To observe signs of gaslit children and young people
• To recognise the subtleties involved
• To understand the sensitivity needed towards parents

Neuro-Dramatic-Play: Neuro-Dramatic-Play is an attachment based intervention that focuses on early playful relationships. Through play it emphasises a combination of basic trust, security and ritual, with stimulation, exploration and risk. Ritual and risk form the basis of children both feeling safe with the desire to explore: the Ritual-Risk Paradigm. It is an ideal approach for working with children who have been traumatised, neglected or abused, as well as children who experience meltdowns.

This course is recommended for:

• Activity worker in care settings
• Counsellors
• Therapists
• Social Workers
• Play Therapists
• Art Thearpists
• Drama Therapists
• Family members

This course is worth 6 CPD points. You will be sent a certificate of participation and the course presentations after the event.

This module can also be taken as part of the Advanced Diploma in Neuro-Dramatic-Play. The other modules that form part of that course are:

Your Trainer

Dr Sue Jennings PhD is Professor of Play, a life-time award from the European Federation of Dramatherapists. She is a pioneer of play and dramatherapy and Neuro-Dramatic-Play.

She is Senior Research Fellow of the Shakespeare Institute, University of Birmingham, Distinguished Scholar of the University of the Witwatersrand and Honorary Fellow of Roehampton University. She has previously held academic posts at the Universities of Coleraine, Leeds Beckett, Derby, York St John, Roehampton and Hertfordshire, Adjunct Professor NYU, and Visiting Professor at HELP University, Kuala Lumpur.

Sue is also a professional actor and has established a reputation for hard-hitting one person shows, which she has performed internationally as well at various festivals including Edinburgh and Vienna.

She has published over 40 books of theory and practice, many of them with practical ideas and techniques. She trains individuals and staff teams in NDP both online and in person, in the UK and overseas.

Host or Publisher Neuro-Dramatic-Play Ltd