Tuning In To Teens™ - Marathon Format @ Darlinghurst

A flexible parenting workshop for busy families.
About this Event

Tuning in to Teens™ — Marathon Format is a flexible, evidence-based parenting workshop for busy families who want practical support without needing to commit to six consecutive weekly sessions. Through one full-day workshop and personalised follow-up coaching, parents gain tools to better understand their teen’s emotions, respond with greater confidence, and strengthen connection during the often messy, fast-moving years of adolescence.

Tuning in to Teens™ is a licensed, evidence-based parenting program that helps parents and carers support adolescents to understand, express, and regulate their emotions.

At The Poppet Centre, we know many parents of teens want support, but simply cannot commit to a weekly program over multiple weeks. That is why we offer our Marathon Format — a flexible pathway that gives parents the core learning of the Tuning in to Teens™ approach, together with personalised coaching support to help bring the work into real family life.

This format is ideal for busy parents who want meaningful learning, practical tools, and guided support in applying the program to their own teen, their own household, and the conversations that matter most.

What is Tuning in to Teens™?

Tuning in to Teens™ helps parents understand the emotional world of adolescence and strengthen their ability to respond in ways that build resilience, trust, and emotional intelligence.

Adolescence is a time of enormous emotional, social, and neurological change. Young people are learning how to manage strong feelings, navigate friendship groups, respond to peer pressure, and form a stronger sense of identity. This program teaches parents how to stay emotionally connected while still providing guidance, structure, and support.

Through this workshop, parents learn how to:

• recognise and regulate their own emotions as a parent
• better understand what may be happening beneath a teen’s behaviour
• respond to emotional moments with empathy, steadiness, and clarity
• help teens name, manage, and express feelings in healthier ways
• guide behaviour while maintaining connection and respect
• strengthen communication, trust, and emotional safety in the relationship

Why choose the Marathon Format?

Parents of teens are often already balancing school demands, sport, work pressures, friendship dramas, digital life, and the general emotional intensity of adolescence. The Marathon Format has been designed to make this highly regarded parenting work more accessible, more realistic, and more immediately useful.

Rather than stretching the learning across multiple weeks, this format combines a strong theory-and-skills foundation day with targeted coaching support, allowing parents to move from concept into practice with greater confidence.

How the Marathon Format works

Step One — Full-Day Workshop
A full day of teaching, reflection, discussion, and guided group coaching covering the core Tuning in to Teens™ framework.

Step Two — First Individual Coaching Session
A 90-minute one-to-one coaching session with one of the facilitators, scheduled within 7 days of the workshop. This session helps you apply the model to your own teen, your parenting style, and the specific challenges you may be facing at home.

Step Three — Parent Support Circle
Parents are invited to join an open-ended parent support circle with past participants. This offers a gentle space to reflect, share insights, build confidence, and stay connected to the learning beyond the workshop itself.

Step Four — Review Coaching Session
A second 90-minute individual coaching session, usually held within 3 weeks of the first coaching session, to review progress, troubleshoot challenges, and deepen your confidence in using emotion coaching with your teen.

What makes this format different?

This is not simply a seminar. It is a supported parenting pathway.

You will not just receive ideas and then be left to work out how to use them alone. The workshop gives you the emotional coaching model, while the follow-up coaching helps you apply it to the real conversations and tensions that often shape adolescence — shutdown, pushback, conflict, friendship stress, worry, anger, overwhelm, identity questions, and the challenge of staying connected while your teen is growing into themselves.

For many parents, this format feels more doable, more personal, and more immediately useful than a longer weekly program.

Who this workshop is for

This workshop is well suited to parents and carers who want to:

• improve communication with their teen
• reduce conflict without losing connection
• better understand emotional outbursts, withdrawal, or mood shifts
• support a young person through stress, anger, sadness, or anxiety
• respond more effectively to peer pressure, friendship issues, and the emotional intensity of adolescence
• build a more respectful, emotionally connected relationship at home

What to expect on the day

The workshop includes:

• guided teaching and discussion
• video examples and practical illustrations
• reflective exercises
• opportunities for conversation with other parents
• coaching-style activities that help you apply the model to your own family life

This is a supportive and thoughtful learning environment. Parents are invited, but never pressured, to share reflections or examples from their own experience.

Meet your Coach & Facilitators

Shane Warren
Shane Warren is a psychotherapist, coach, educator, and facilitator with more than 33 years of experience working across counselling, parenting, coaching, community services, and leadership development. His professional life began in the youth welfare sector and has expanded across mental health, education, private practice, and family support. Shane brings warmth, depth, practical insight, and a strong respect for the realities of modern family life. He is also a busy dad himself and understands the challenge of trying to parent well while juggling the demands of work, home, and everything in between.

Laurence Catzel
Based between Sydney and Paris, Laurence Catzel brings to The Poppet Centre a unique blend of experience in corporate management, teaching, and education leadership. Her work across business in Europe and education in Australia gives her valuable insight into the pressures modern families face, including the ways parenting can be shaped by culture, community, and daily life. Alongside facilitating parent programs, Laurence leads outside school hours care programs and brings the grounded perspective of being an active parent herself.

Agenda

🕑: 09:00 AM
Arrival, Welcome & Coffee

Info: Settle in, meet the facilitators, and arrive into the day with tea, coffee, and a gentle welcome.

🕑: 09:30 AM
Opening Session

Info: Introductions, workshop overview, and framing the day’s learning journey.

🕑: 10:00 AM
Core Learning Session One

Info: Exploring the foundations of the Tuning In approach through guided teaching, reflection, and discussion.

🕑: 11:00 AM
Morning Tea

Info: A short break to refresh, reflect, and connect informally with other participants.

🕑: 11:20 AM
Deep Dive Session

Info: A more focused learning block with practical exploration, facilitated discussion, and application to everyday family life.

🕑: 12:45 PM
Lunch Break

Info: Time to pause, recharge, and continue conversations in a relaxed setting.

🕑: 01:30 PM
Applied Parenting Session

Info: Turning ideas into practice through guided reflection, examples, and coaching-style exercises.

🕑: 02:45 PM
Afternoon Tea

Info: A short break to reset before the final session of the day.

🕑: 03:00 PM
Integration & Discussion

Info: Drawing the learning together, reflecting on key insights, and considering how to apply the work at home.

🕑: 04:00 PM
Day Wrap & Closing

Info: Final reflections, next steps, coaching follow-up information, and close of workshop.