Gordon Neufeld, Ph.D., Tamara Strijack, M.A., 3 Day Conference

Join internationally recognized experts Dr. Gordon Neufeld and Tamara Strijack, M.A. for a three-day professional training that brings fresh insights and practical strategies to some of today’s most pressing challenges with children and youth. Grounded in developmental science, attachment theory, and real-world applications, this conference equips educators, clinicians, counsellors, parents, and helping professionals with tools to understand and respond to the emotional and behavioural needs of children and adolescents.

Working with Stuck Kids: An Attachment-Based Relational PerspectiveDr. Neufeld introduces an integrated developmental approach to reaching children who struggle with immaturity, behavioural challenges, and learning difficulties. Drawing from decades of experience across diverse settings, participants will explore strategies rooted in attachment, vulnerability, and maturation that apply to issues such as anxiety, impulsiveness, aggression, learning disabilities, and more.

Addressing the Root Causes of Anxiety in Children and AdolescentsWith anxiety rates rising, Dr. Neufeld reveals how attachment theory, neuroscience, and developmental insights combine to address anxiety at its root. This workshop goes beyond symptom management to offer natural interventions and a relational model that benefits children and adults alike.

Morning: Preserving True Play in a Screen-Filled WorldTamara Strijack highlights the essential role of play in healthy development and examines how technology and fast-paced living threaten this vital process. Participants will gain strategies to protect and encourage true play in children’s lives.

Afternoon: Reclaiming Our StudentsBased on her co-authored book, Tamara Strijack explores how educators can rebuild lost connections with students, create emotional safety, and address common roots of troubling behaviours such as anxiety and aggression. Practical scenarios and strategies will equip participants to strengthen relationships and restore students’ capacity for learning.

This training is ideal for educators, counsellors, psychologists, social workers, parents, and anyone working with children and adolescents. Whether you’re in a classroom, clinical, or community setting, you’ll leave with a renewed understanding of child development and practical tools to foster resilience, connection, and growth.

Info: Not everyone grows up as they get older. The construct of psychological immaturity has been with us as an intuitive concept for ages, but only recently has developmental science advanced to a state where it can now yield effective strategies and interventions to address learning and behavioural challenges.

Bestselling author of Hold On To Your Kids, Gordon Neufeld presents an integrated developmental approach to reaching troubled kids, using the constructs of attachment, vulnerability and maturation. In this workshop, Gordon takes the best that developmental science has to offer and delivers it in a usable form to the professionals who work with these children or those responsible for them.

His model has been honed from years of application in a wide range of settings: education, special behaviour programs, therapy, corrections, aboriginal communities, adoption, counseling, parenting, and the foster system. This material is applicable to children of all ages, from toddlers to teens.

Info: The escalating level of anxiety in our children begs for an explanation as well as a solution. Dr. Neufeld sheds light on this age-old problem, paving the way for natural interventions that can actually get to the root causes as opposed to just managing symptoms. This workshop brings a fresh and promising perspective to one of our most troubling and perplexing human problems. Although the focus is on children, this enlightening material will benefit anyone suffering from anxiety.

The time has finally come to be able to answer the problem of anxiety. What makes it possible now is that we currently have enough pieces of the puzzle to create a coherent picture: a mastery of attachment theory, an understanding of human vulnerability, a working knowledge of attention, and the discoveries of neuroscience. Possessing the pieces are not enough however. It takes a theorist’s mind to put the pieces together and a seasoned therapist’s wisdom to test this model against human experience.

Info: 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.

Info: 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.

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