Circle of Security: Parenting programme starting early 2015 in PTA

The Circle of Security (COS) is an internationally accredited "attachment-based early intervention programme for children and caregivers…designed to enhance attachment security between parents and children. Decades of University-based research has confirmed that secure children exhibit increased empathy, greater self-esteem, better relationships with parents and peers, enhanced school readiness, and an increased capacity to handle emotions more effectively when compared with children who are not secure." (http://circleofsecurity.net/)

The COS parenting training focuses on enhancing parent’s or caregivers’ understanding of their child so that they can better respond to the needs of their child and as such form a stronger bond with their child. Having this strong bond affords parents or caregivers the opportunity to connect with their child on a deeper level which will leave the child feeling much safer and more secure.

This parent reflective programme will be presented to parents or caregivers, in groups of up to ten, as couples or individuals during an eight week period. The group will be faciliated by clinical psychologists, accredited COS facilitators, Sarita Burger and Christine Laidlaw in Pretoria East in early 2015.

During this period parents will become more knowledgeable on forming a secure and strong bond with their child and maintaining this bond while being able to become more aware of and understanding of their child’s needs. Furthermore, during these eight weeks parents or caregivers will also have the opportunity to practice and reflect on these new attachment skills they have learnt.

Format of the programme:

An hour-long intake interview will be arranged with each individual or parental couple before the commencement of the eight week programme. During this session important information regarding their family structures and parenting style will be obtained.

Participants will then attend an eight week programme once a week for an hour and a half. During these sessions parents will watch a training video. Whilst watching this video scheduled pauses will be made. During these pauses participants will have the opportunity to engage in reflective dialogue with each other and the psychologist educators.

For more information or to sign up, feel free to contact Sarita Burger on sarita.burger@gmail.com or Christine Laidlaw at info@christinelaidlaw.co.za or 0794348444

Tears and whys

Grief can be the garden of compassion. If you keep your heart open through everything, your pain can become your greatest ally in your life's search for love and wisdom. -Rumi

Neruda: Hidden flowers

 by Lewis Gillingham

I do not love you as if you were salt-rose, or topaz,
or the arrow of carnations the fire shoots off.
I love you as certain dark things are to be loved,
in secret, between the shadow and the soul.

I love you as the plant that never blooms
but carries in itself the light of hidden flowers;
thanks to your love a certain solid fragrance,
risen from the earth, lives darkly in my body.

I love you without knowing how, or when, or from where.
I love you straightforwardly, without complexities or pride;
so I love you because I know no other way

than this: where I does not exist, nor you,
so close that your hand on my chest is my hand,
so close that your eyes close as I fall asleep. 

-Pablo Neruda                          

Circle of Security: Secure parenting programme in 2015

The Circle of Security (COS) is an internationally accredited "attachment-based early intervention programme for children and caregivers…designed to enhance attachment security between parents and children. Decades of University-based research has confirmed that secure children exhibit increased empathy, greater self-esteem, better relationships with parents and peers, enhanced school readiness, and an increased capacity to handle emotions more effectively when compared with children who are not secure." (http://circleofsecurity.net/)

The COS parenting training focuses on enhancing parent’s or caregivers’ understanding of their child so that they can better respond to the needs of their child and as such form a stronger bond with their child. Having this strong bond affords parents or caregivers the opportunity to connect with their child on a deeper level which will leave the child feeling much safer and more secure.

This parent reflective programme will be presented to parents or caregivers, in groups of up to ten, as couples or individuals during an eight week period. The group will be faciliated by clinical psychologists, accredited COS facilitators, Sarita Burger and Christine Laidlaw in Pretoria East in early 2015.

During this period parents will become more knowledgeable on forming a secure and strong bond with their child and maintaining this bond while being able to become more aware of and understanding of their child’s needs. Furthermore, during these eight weeks parents or caregivers will also have the opportunity to practice and reflect on these new attachment skills they have learnt.

Format of the programme:

An hour long intake interview will be arranged with each individual or parental couple before the commencement of the eight week programme. During this session important information regarding their family structures and parenting style will be obtained.

Participants will then attend an eight week programme once a week for an hour and a half. During these sessions parents will watch a training video. Whilst watching this video scheduled pauses will be made. During these pauses participants will have the opportunity to engage in reflective dialogue with each other and the psychologist educators.

For more information or to sign up, feel free to contact Sarita Burger on sarita.burger@gmail.com or Christine Laidlaw at info@christinelaidlaw.co.za or 0794348444

Good reads: Gestalt play therapy

Violet Oaklander

The Classic

Family politics and culinary delights

Embracing difference

Father & Son

New directions

 The One hundred foot journey, depicts how family dynamics intersect with cultures in our global village as Indian and French cuisine create a fusion of love and resilience in the face of hardship

Culinary clashes and delights

Carl Jung's creations

Understanding your child's mind: Parent developmental interview

 

Just been to fantastic training in October at Ububele with  Michelle Sleed of the Anna Freud Centre, London in helping parents understand their young child's emotions and thoughts and foster a stronger attachment! Powerful questions...profound insights!

20th PSYSSA Conference: Selecting the right ingredients in a therapist

Off to Psyssa tomorrow to present on The South African experience of selecting the right qualities in psychotherapists...

 

Emotion-focused Couples Therapy: Love in the Time of Neuroscience

Extract from HELEN FISHER's book review   

"In “The Devil’s Dictionary,” Ambrose Bierce defined love as “a temporary insanity curable by marriage.” Enter Sue Johnson, a clinical psychologist and couples therapist who says that relationships are a basic human need and that “a stable, loving relationship is the absolute cornerstone of human happiness and general well-being.” To repair ailing partnerships, she has developed a new approach in marriage counseling called Emotionally Focused Therapy, or EFT, which she introduces in her new book, “Love Sense.”

EFT draws on the work of the psychiatrist John Bowlby, the father of attachment theory, who argued that humanity has evolved a strong, physiologically-based attachment system that drives the infant to attach to the mother. In the 1960s and ’70s, he and the psychologist Mary Ains­worth put forth the idea that children develop one of three basic styles of attachment that they carry into their adult relationships. Secure individuals grow up knowing they can count on their primary caregivers, so they don’t obsessively worry that they will be abandoned by their partners. However, if one’s primary childhood caregiver is inattentive, unpredictable or abusive, the individual forms one of two “insecure” attachment styles. Anxious individuals worry constantly that they will be abandoned, so they cling to their partners, seeking reassurance. The avoidant, meanwhile, eschew deep connections to protect themselves from being dependent.

Johnson believes EFT can help couples break out of patterns, “interrupting and dismantling these destructive sequences and then actively constructing a more emotionally open and receptive way of interacting.” She aims to transform relationships “using the megawatt power of the wired-in longing for contact and care that defines our species,” and offers various exercises to restore trust......"

For more information on EFT for couples in terms of Hold Me Tight Workshop and EFT training in August in South Africa go to www.eftsouthafrica.co.za

Good read: Solution-Focused Marriage

CPD Update 2014: Psychology professional development opportunities in South Africa

In my internet surfing I have come across these psychotherapy continuing professional training options in South Africa, listed below. Do you know of any others?

http://appliedjung.com (JHB)

www.educationunlimited.co.za

www.childtrauma.co.za

www.redshoescentre.co.za (Play Therapy)

www.gestaltplaytherapy.co.za

www.familyzone.co.za

www.vistaclinic.co.za (Pretoria)

www.estherapy.co.za (Play Therapy in Pretoria)

www.crescentclinic.co.za

www.shiphouse.co.za/workshops (Potchestroom)

www.meisa.biz/workshops

www.neuropsychologysa.co.za

www.sasch.co.za

www.elizemorkel.co.za (Narrative Therapy in Cape Town)

www.cpdworkshop.co.za (in Eastern Cape)

www.schematherapysouthafrica.co.za/workshops (Schema Therapy)

www.cognitive-behaviour-therapy.co.za/training (CBT)

www.ipcp.co.za (Psychodynamic Therapy in JHB, CT, Durban)

www.jpccc.org.za

shrinkrap@mweb.co.za (in JHB)

irenetrauma@gmail.com (in PTA)

www.mastersoninstitute.co.za

www.iasp.webs.com (Rorschach and reading groups)

www.ububele.org  (e.g. group work, early parent-infant in JHB)

www.psychworkshops.co.za (Solution-Focused Therapy in JHB, Durban, Bloem, and online)

www.psychologyafrica.com

www.accinsa.co.za

www.saap.za.net/activities-training/activities

www.familylife.org.za/ www.famsa.org.za

www.sandplay.co.za / www.barbaraturner.org  (JHB)

www.health.uct.ac.za/departments/psychiatry/courses (CT)

PsyCad at www.uj.ac.za

www.eftsouthafrica.com

www.mindfulness.org.za

www.affectregulationtherapy.com

www.satoripsychotherapy.co.za

www.ctselfpsychology.org.za (CT)

www.jungsouthernafrica.org.za (CT)

www.taasa.org.za / www.transactional-analysis.co.za

www.imagotraining.co.za

www.dramatherapy.co.za

www.arttherapycentre.co.za/arttherapytraining

www.explorecreativeself.co.za

www.cpdwell.co.za (in Stellenbosch and online)

www.judyrankin.co.za

www.familyzone.co.za

Hot off the Press: Encountering Ehrenberg

So excited, Shelley Heusser and I have just had our article published on Ehrenberg's psychotherapeutic approach in the American Journal of Psychotherapy, 2014,  68(1), 1-18; titled Encountering Ehrenberg: Tracing the development of psychoanalytic therapy at the intimate edge. 

Emotion-focused couples therapy training in Johannesburg

I cannot wait until August for the International Training opportunity in Emotion Focused Couples Therapy (Thursday, 28th August - Sunday, 31st August 2014) by Trainers of the International Emotion Focused Therapy Centre of Excellence: Kathryn De Bruin, Marriage & Family Therapist and Professor Jim Furrow, PhD hosted at Gracepoint, Midrand, JHB.

And the Hold Me Tight Weekend Workshop for Couples (Friday evening, 22nd August - Sunday, 24th of August 2014) faciliated by Kathryn De Bruin, MFT. For couples who would like to actively work on their relationship and deepen their attachment to each other. The focus will be on the couple having conversations with their partner.

For more information on Emotion-Focused Therapy in South Africa and to register:
http://www.eftsouthafrica.com/upcoming-events/externships/

28 CPD's available for licensed mental health professionals.

Please do not hesitate to contact me Christine on 012 429 8294 or 084 315 7352 or laidlc@unisa.ac.za or Maurisa at 011 702 4600 or maurisa@gracepoint.co.za for more information.

The Little Prince and The Fox

                                                   It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye...

Sandplay Live

This is a great video!

Far from the tree: Difference as exceptional

In Far from the tree, Solomon’s startling proposition is that diversity is what unites us all. He writes about families coping with deafness, dwarfism, Down syndrome, autism, schizophrenia, multiple severe disabilities, with children who are prodigies, who are conceived in rape, who become criminals, who are transgender. While each of these characteristics is potentially isolating, the experience of difference within families is universal, as are the triumphs of love Solomon documents in every chapter.

All parenting turns on a crucial question: to what extent parents should accept their children for who they are, and to what extent they should help them become their best selves. Drawing on forty thousand pages of interview transcripts with more than three hundred families, Solomon mines the eloquence of ordinary people facing extreme challenges. Whether considering prenatal screening for genetic disorders, cochlear implants for the deaf, or gender reassignment surgery for transgender people, Solomon narrates a universal struggle toward compassion. Many families grow closer through caring for a challenging child; most discover supportive communities of others similarly affected; some are inspired to become advocates and activists, celebrating the very conditions they once feared. Woven into their courageous and affirming stories is Solomon’s journey to accepting his own identity, which culminated in his midlife decision, influenced by this research, to become a parent.

Elegantly reported by a spectacularly original thinker, Far from the Tree explores themes of generosity, acceptance, and tolerance—all rooted in the insight that love can transcend every prejudice. This crucial and revelatory book expands our definition of what it is to be human. -Amazon review