Workshop 20, 27/5 14:30-15:30

Elke De Groote, Kerstin Thys and Elfi Vandenhaute, børne og ungdomspsykiatri, Belgium

Elfi Vandenhaute Child and adolescent psychiatrist groepspraktijk InZicht Belgium

Elke De Groote Educator MPC Sint-Franciscus Belgium

Building a supporting network for children and parents in times of (emotional) absence

In our counseling practice we often meet parents who aren’t available to their children. Some parents due to their own psychiatric diagnosis or intellectual disability. Working in different settings (a private practice, in residential care for children with an intellectual disability and a residential care for non-accompanied minors), we are faced with the same difficulty.

We try hard to involve these parents and other adults in the care for these children. How can they improve their relationship with their children? How can we use the concept of mentalisation to reinforce the bond between parents and their children?

The introduction of our workshop is a brief explanation about how we work after which we will focus on interacting with the participants using case studies, exercises, theorem’s and group discussion.

Our aim of the workshop is the exchange of experiences.

As a result, we would like to have refreshing ideas about how to work when encountering these difficulties. Our belief is that we, as professional counselor, also need a large and powerful network to help us deal with these difficulties and to persist in trying to empower parents and ameliorate the bond with their children. This workshop can empower also ourselves as counselors in creating a network. In conclusion we would like to emphasize the importance of persisting towards parents as we do towards children. As a professional counselor we need the help of the parents in order to succeed.

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Workshop 20, 26/5 13:00-14:15

"Ron Ottenbros, Social worker/trainer NA&NVR The Netherlands"

NVR, it's teamwork

"Non-violence Resistance, it’s teamwork.

Author: Ron Ottenbros, Social worker at the Bascule Amsterdam(child and adolescent psychiatry) and trainer NA&NVR in residential settings and schools.

Introduction

Non-violent Resistance is a way out of a situation where there is violence, stress and helplessness. Teams, just as parents, can be overwhelmed with feelings of powerlessness when confronted with violence or other destructive behavior in their daily work. NVR is a way to empower teams (or staff) by regaining self control. NVR is for everybody who believes that they can make a change by being the change.

What can you expect

In this workshop we will show you how we do NVR within teams. We’re going to inspire you by presenting our ideas and make you want to create the WE in your situation. In this workshop we will show you how important it is to create optimal circumstances and how to make your team even more effective.

Main topics in our workshop are:

•The “WE”

Teams that we have trained in the last years have told us that they feel less powerless and feel more in control. Something has changed after implementing NVR and they feel great about it. Team members who really feel like a part of their TEAM are capable to resist not only the violent situation in their work but also to resist their own intern default impulses in violent situations. The WE supports the team members in breaking the circle of violence or escalation, making it almost an antidote against violence or escalations.

•The parallel process is always around, so why not use it?

Most of the teams have a tendency to (re)act in a similar way as their clients, and they use often the same solution strategies as their clients. This is called a parallel process. Parallel processes are present, even if we try to look away and don’t want to see them. A Parallel process, when we are aware of it, is a great thing to explore and to use. What if we use the parallel process to improve the way WE work with NVR as a team? And what if we use it the other way around? How can we use our influence to make a change?

If you think that NVR is only useful for parents this workshop will open your eyes. We’ll show you how NVR is used by professional teams. We will inspire you to push your limits. NVR can be used by anyone!"