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"I just wanted to express my appreciation for a job well-done. You certainly have found your niche as a trainer -- you do it well. Thanks again!" Barbara P. Settle Personnel Administrator Department of Public Service City of Cleveland
Barbara P. Settle Department of Public Service City of Cleveland
"Very knowledgeable instructor; Jane Goodall video very effective final illustration of multi-model approaches for optimism."
Laurie Berrie Comments from "The Science of Optimism"
"I appreciated Kim's personality and her wisdom as well as advice on how to balance work and family life. The handouts and reading list were helpful." "Many good resources for reading; learned good communication techniques." Teachers at NEOEA MegaConference Comments from "Ten Tips for Working Parents"
"Excellent! One of the best classes I've ever attended, and the learnings are useful to me both at work and at home!" "The time really flew by." Comments from two Managers at the Cleveland Clinic Health System about the "Difficult Conversations" workshop
"Outstanding presentation! The best I have ever been to!" Elizabeth A. Comments from Kim's ADD workshop
"When we asked for future topic ideas on the evaluations for our Parent's Morning Out programs, I kept seeing the response, "Anything by Kim Langley". Julie Johnson Executive Director, Community Challenge
"Kim, thank you for the time and effort that you put into preparing for this presentation. This is the very best seminar that I have ever attended through Lorain County Children's Services." Rebecca, Social Worker Comment from "Stress and Kids"
"Thanks for a very useful morning and many new "tools" to use!" RN Pediatrics, Cleveland Clinic Comment from "Conflict Management"
"Kim, you are truly one in 'buzzillion'. Thank you so much for spending the last 8 Monday nights with us on 'How to Talk So Kids Will Listen'. You are an inspiring person and I know everyone in the class learned a lot from you. I look forward to working with you again." Tanya B. Couglin Social Worker & Parent Educator
"Your stories added so much to the class... not only can you teach it but you have lived it." "I really enjoyed the class and did not want to leave. Discussions were great, fluent, and applicable." "Very good class... I will use many of these skills every day." Participant comments from "Assertiveness and Negotiation Skills"
"Overall rating of the workshop: Excellent!" "I plan to buy new reading material & practice positive discipline." "I like that you passed the books around - a good visual memory-jogger!" Participant comments from "Active Parenting"
As always, creative ideas to use for Meeting Manage-ment. Lots of tips It's obvious her knowledge can fill several books! Will be helpful with our small teams. Excellent class on how to be successful in running meetings. Lots of good ideas & tools. Friendly, non-threatening, participative environment. Participant comments from "A Toolbox for Meeting Facilitators"
"Thanks for revealing great ways to set goals, track progress, and meet goals in a systematic but simple way!" "Kim put everything in simple form. I leaned a lot and enjoyed the speaker. Keep up the good work, thank you!" "I picked up a lot of valuable info that I haven't considered for goal setting." "Inspirational - makes it easier to go back to work with a fresh attitude!" "Excellent teacher with much enthusiasm" "Utterly invigorating" "Very Motivating" Participant comments from "The Fine Art of Goal Setting"
"I feel the pace was good- kept my interest." "Covered a good deal of material." It was a wonderful course. "Funny, presented info in a new way." "Enjoyed the day. Learned what could be applied to my own personal life. Very practical. Thank you!" Comments from "Teaching Parenting"
Information presented helps me with ideas on how I need to reconnect with what I do as a life's work of passion. Reaffirming and encouraging. Uplifting! A little freshening of the attitude...the video was great! Trainer is competent on the topic, high energy, and values class input. Trainer is very transparent and knowledgeable about the subject she presents. Comments from "Finding Meaning While Making a Living"
"Kim, We all benefited from the discussion today - you are a great facilitator! Look forward to having you again. Thanks." Pat Robinette The Harbor Court Independent and Assisted Living
"Thank you for your presentation to the MOMS and friends group last night. The Akron area of the Diocese truly appreciated you coming their way. They were thrilled to hear your presentation on Emotional Intelligence." Terese Hardman Office of Marriage and Family Ministry, Catholic Diocese of Cleveland
"Highly recommend this teacher and this class. Wonderful! Kim really knows her stuff!"
Comment from "Stress
and Kids"
"I just wanted to say thank you for yesterday's Misunderstood Minds course. After 7 years of driving all over Northeastern Ohio to get diagnoses and treatment for my son, I have often felt isolated and sometimes a little crazy! It was so reassuring to hear that it is common to get many diagnoses and a mixture of "neurological glitches" in one kid. I left the course feeling like I am not alone, that I have been doing the right things, and feeling empowed and armed to do a lot more!
Comment from "Misunderstood
Minds"
"Practical tips. Thank you!" "Good resources." "Kim has great energy." "Very outgoing and knowledgeable speaker." Comments from "Ten Tips for Working Parents"
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No matter what your challenge, LifeBalance Enterprises has a program to sharpen your skills and increase the performance of your people. Kim Langley, president of LifeBalance Enterprises, is an experienced professional trainer, conducting 100 to 150 workshops annually for agencies, foster and adoptive parents, corporations, professional groups, and associations. Her areas of expertise include Emotional Intelligence, Conflict Management and Communication Skills, Stress Management and Wellness, Family Life Skills, Work and Family Issues, Partnerships Between Parents and Helping Professionals, and Professional Development Training.
Below is a list of programs that can be delivered to your organization, along with descriptions of each.
Available Programs Professional Continuing Education Note: CEUs are available for counselors, social workers, nurses, clergy, and community service personnel. A Toolbox for Meeting Facilitators Raising Cain and Abel: New Insights into Bringing up Healthy, Competent Boys The Science of Optimism: Fostering a "Can do!" Attitude Working with Emotional Intelligence Managing Difficult Conversations Finding Meaning While Making a Living Working with You is Killing Me Ready for Anything! Assertiveness and Negotiation Skills Presentation Skills: Beginner to Winner Teaching Clients the Connection Between Stress and Change: Becoming a Stress Survivor Laying Aside a Working Parent's Guilt: How Kids Benefit When Their Parents Work Teaching Parenting: Tried and True Methods for Working with Parents Adult Learning Principles: Speaking, Teaching, Coaching, Counseling Misunderstood Minds: Getting a Handle on Learning Differences
Training for Foster Parents How To Talk So Kids Will Listen, and Listen So Kids Will Talk Problem Solving As A Discipline Strategy Strategies for Effective Discipline Building Blocks For Authentic Self-Esteem Conflict Resolution Skills For Families Misunderstood Minds: Getting a Handle on Learning Differences Helping Children to Deal With Feelings Before and After Visits Helping Your Child To School Success Working with You is Killing Me Parenting With Emotional Intelligence: Raising Children with Better Social Skills and Self-awareness What I Learned from Being a Mother/ Father Laying Aside a Working Parent's Guilt: How Kids Benefit When Their Parents Work Your Daughter is a Mother: What to Expect and How to Help Listening and Communication Skills for Families Raising an Optimistic Child: Teaching Skills for Lifelong Resiliency
Managing Generations With workers from four generations now active in the workforce, the potential for misunderstanding, frustration and conflict puts increasing pressure on productivity. To turn that challenge into a competitive advantage, this session gives participants a skill-building approach to the complexities of effectively working in and managing a multigenerational workforce. Employees and managers gain insights, strategies and skills that help minimize generational conflict and strengthen collaboration. Excellent short visual vignettes of typical workplace situations generate lively discussion and practical solutions.
A Toolbox for Meeting Facilitators This dynamic workshop for both new and experienced meeting facilitators enables you to never again facilitate a gathering "in which minutes are kept, but hours are wasted!" You could read a dozen books on meeting facilitation, or you could come to this jam packed seminar, and go away with ready to use tools, excellent handouts (many of them reproducible) and jump start your meetings using these creative, results oriented approaches.
Raising Cain and Abel: New Insights into Bringing up Healthy, Competent Boys Boys in America are doing worse in the classroom than they were 10 years ago. Some are in touch with their feelings, able to express them, good at managing their anger and other emotions. And many are not. In this session, participants will become acquainted with some of the most recent research on boys in American culture, the differences between boys and girls behavior, and tips for how to help boys in school and at home with the special issues that they face today.
The Science of Optimism: Fostering a "Can do!" Attitude This is not just pop psychology, but a life-changing guide grounded in extensive clinical research, and it's information so practical for increased productivity at work and at home that it "grabs you by the lapels"! This seminar zeros in on an important aspect of working with emotional intelligence - optimism. Studies show that optimists make more successful sales people, contribute to personnel retention because people prefer optimistic supervisors, and are more likely not to talk themselves out of their own creative ideas! In this workshop, participants will learn how to acquire more optimism, boost their mood and their immune systems (studies show optimists live longer and miss fewer work days because of illness). A key learning will be recognizing the habitual way you talk to yourself. Studies by Dr. Martin Seligman and other distinguished researchers prove that you can change your interior dialogue, and experience astonishing positive results that can influence everything from your business success, to your self esteem, and even your ability to stick to your goals!
Working with Emotional Intelligence This seminar is customizable for supervisors, project or team coordinators, or a blend of both. It looks at the far-reaching implications of a culture of Emotional Intelligence for cultivation of personal excellence as well as enhanced service. Studies also show that managers with low emotional intelligence are more than twice as likely to derail in their careers as leaders who possess these skills. For persons from entry level to top executive positions, the research shows that emotional intelligence is more predictive of achievement and promotability than advanced degrees or technical expertise. Members of work teams, project leaders and supervisors will improve their ability to influence others and coach effectively, as well as lead productive meetings with knowledge of Emotional Intelligence. This workshop gets very high marks, and can include a self assessment, as well as numerous practical strategies for building E.I. in teams and even whole organizations.
Managing Difficult Conversations Every life contains personal and professional conversations that fill us with stress and anxiety. This seminar contains humor, film clips, and the practical examples from everyday life of disagreements skillfully resolved, awkward moments survived gracefully, bad news delivered, apologies made, mistakes confronted. Designed to build confidence as well as expertise, you will benefit from step by step guidelines for dialoging more productively with your boss, spouse, kids or clients. All participants, and particularly managers, will learn how to prepare for difficult conversations, how to turn them into learning conversations in which we bring our cultivated emotional intelligence to bear on the managing of strong emotions, and minimizing of defensiveness. We will practice focusing on deciphering the underlying structure of these challenging exchanges. We'll examine how to interpret the significance of what is said and what is not said, as well as how self image can be a subtle player in difficult conversations.
Finding Meaning While Making a Living This seminar will be time away for inquiry. We spend more time in the workplace than we do with our families, out in the natural world, or in our places of worship. How do I bring into my work the questions about my destiny that enliven, embolden, and perhaps even confuse me a little? What do I celebrate in my work? How different are work and play? Can I make my work more fun? Drawing on some respected authors including Thomas Moore, Marsha Sinetar, and David Whyte (author of The Heart Aroused) we will enjoy the humorous and the serious sides of bringing home the bacon. Organizations and businesses around the country are opening up this kind of dialogue because they recognize that when people feel connected to their work they are motivated to for the continuous improvement demanded by the changes leading to the 22nd century. Participants will give themselves the opportunity to dive deep and surface refreshed in clearer waters.
You Can Manage Stress This seminar offers you practical tools for building a more satisfying personal and professional life. No one can live a stress-free life, but when faithfully practiced, the skills gleaned from this seminar can result in increased health, fulfillment, and clarity of purpose. At the end of the experience, participants will be able to identify their main stress symptoms and effective techniques for relieving them describe 5 "quick fix" stress buster methods demonstrate 3 minute energy builders fill the "energy bank" experience the benefits of guided imagery and affirmations recognize the difference between tough times and real addiction to stress or work evaluate personal tendencies to react with positive or negative "self-talk" set goals in a personal plan to reduce stress describe 5 proven long term stress reduction skills evaluate their risk for stress exhaustion continue their learning beyond the day with excellent print and audio and video resources that they have sampled in the workshop.
Working with You is Killing Me We've all worked with someone who makes work impossible, but it doesn't have to be that way. This powerful video program, based on the national best-selling book, teaches employees and managers how to tame a toxic co-worker by setting boundaries. Everyone - including the lucky few who've never had to work with a difficult person - will benefit from this program. It brilliantly portrays how employees on any career path and at any level of an organization can be undone by a problem co-worker. The amount of time spent worrying, avoiding, raging and obsessing over toxic employees can affect performance on the job and peace at home. This program provides the antidote, showing exactly how to take responsibility for addressing the problem and put a stop to it all. It shows employees how to "unhook" from difficult situations in four simple ways: Physically, Mentally, Verbally and With a Business Tool (memo, email, log, etc.). Participants will learn to: examine how their own reactions can enable the situation. internalize a series of proven responses to problem behavior. reinforce the message if the problem behavior returns. Benefits: Helps people deal with difficult co-workers Reduces stress-related problems Improves interpersonal relations
Stress-Less Holidays The holidays can be a joyful time, and they can also bring stress, complicated family relationships, and many extra household tasks. In this seminar, we will step back from all the excitement and look at our options, making a plan for holiday celebrations that feel do-able, and also addressing prevention for the post holiday blues. Participants will identify sources of holiday stress, and consider how to best manage their time, relatives, gift giving and finances.
Ready for Anything! Assertiveness and Negotiation Skills This highly interactive seminar can be customized to the challenges faced by managers and supervisors, or can focus on the skills needed by associates in an empowered workforce. Beginning with a self-assessment of current strengths and liabilities, participants will learn six techniques for assertion, practice recognizing the differences in assertive, aggressive and passive styles of communication, as well as learn the secrets of successful negotiators. Strategies for dealing with difficult negotiators will be included. Use of case study and analysis groups make the training fun, challenging, and memorable because skills are practiced in a non-threatening way.
Presentation Skills: Beginner to Winner Whether you've been drafted for a community service speech, have 10 minutes to make a presentation at the next budget meeting, or teach classes to clients, you can benefit from these tips on how to plan, deliver and evaluate presentations of all kinds. Participants will build increased ability to effectively use voice, gestures, props, stories, humor, flipcharts, and overhead transparencies to make presentations both interesting and memorable. With new insight into how adults really learn and best remember, you will be able to design material that appeals to the many learning styles represented by your audience. In addition, you will become acquainted with excellent resources for finding the activities, humor and stories that will add polish and pizzazz to your next talk or training session.
Conflict Management This seminar is designed primarily to persuade participants that conflict can be positive, problem-solving, and creative and that it's time to throw off negative associations that make people avoid it altogether or adopt the "I'll win, you'll lose" approach. Skills include sowing seeds of cooperation rather than just avoiding conflict, mirroring, stating positive intent, effective use of empathy, delivering "tough news" clearly but tactfully, managing escalating emotions, getting to the root of problems, making conflict safe and profitable, learning to think outside the box, and going for the WIN-WIN scenario whenever possible.
Dealing with Difficult People Using humorous video clips and many practical examples, this seminar is always very highly rated by participants! It provides strategies for getting results with the hard to handle people in your life. Participants will be able to identify aggressive types (snipers, tanks and know-it-alls) as well as complainers, those people who say yes but then don't follow through on commitments, and the ones who "clam up" or become overly negative and analytical. In short, you'll go away with the action steps for the skillful handling of all the most difficult people commonly found in the workplace! Everybody is somebody's difficult person! These are the people you depend on, go to lunch with, sell to, and agonize over in meetings. Now learn how to deal with them quickly and confidently.
Teaching Clients the Connection Between Stress and Change: Becoming a Stress Survivor Participants will begin with a change circle to remind themselves that change for their clients is a normal part of life. Participants will learn about predictable phases of change and learn to counsel clients in better self-care. In order to help clients become "stress survivors," helping professionals must put emphasis on teaching therapeutic techniques to clients to practice healthy self care at home during any period of change. The three phases of change as articulated by William Bridges will also be discussed.
The Fine Art of Goal Setting It's an amazing fact that the majority of Americans surveyed in a recent study were unable to articulate goals for their lives! Yet people who put personal and professional goals into words, write them down, and make a plan for overcoming obstacles to achieving them, are many times more likely to succeed than those whose job performance is left to "wishful thinking". You will learn and practice a step-by-step goal-setting plan in this lively and motivating session. There will be attention to both enhancing your own ability to create clear, specific, achievable goals, as well as how to coach others in this process.
Everyday Creativity This very popular seminar teaches a surprising truth about creativity--that it's not a magical, mysterious occurrence, but a ready tool that enables you to look at the ordinary and see the extraordinary. We'll utilize creative catalysts that include the student sketches of Vincent van Gogh, the inspiring thoughts of great minds from varied cultures and centuries, and a visually stunning (participants will be WOWED!) video example of creativity by DeWitt Jones, a National Geographic photojournalist. Key learning points include: creativity is a matter of perspective train your technique there's always more than one right answer don't be afraid to make mistakes learn to break the pattern reframe problems into opportunities and every act can be a creative one.
Balancing Work and Family This much-requested presentation helps participants to examine where their personal energy goes, and how to best keep the engine that drives the family (the parent!) tuned up and running smoothly. Session includes private assessment of how time is used, practical tips for achieving better balance in personal and professional life, and resources to support real growth in the "art of life-task juggling".
Laying Aside a Working Parent's Guilt: How Kids Benefit When Their Parents Work This program takes a long look at the "great expectations" that are the set up for guilt, as well as the difference between functional and dysfunctional guilt. Participants unload the burden of "perfect parent" syndrome, while honestly assessing the aspects of work and personal life that they feel most guilty about. Options for handling unreasonable guilt are explored, and functional guilt is viewed as a motivation for change. Plenty of humor is offered as an antidote, and participants will share their perspectives as they encourage each other to cope skillfully with this important issue.
Living with Personal Passion It's a fact that some people die at 40 and are buried at 80! Rediscover how to avoid being one of the "living dead" in this time of renewal for those who give a big piece of themselves away every day. While using story, journaling, self-surveys and the inspirational writings of people who point the path to zestful living, participants can discover what has been unfolding, perhaps unattended, within them. "Through our great good fortune, in our youth our hearts were touched with fire. It was given to us to learn at the outset that life is a profound and passionate thing." Oliver Wendell Holmes
Teaching Parenting: Tried and True Methods for Working with Parents This highly rated seminar is full of fresh ideas that you won't see in other CEU programs! And that's good, because the research shows that only about 30% of what is learned in even the best training classes actually becomes part of the parent's working repertoire of skills! This train the trainer seminar is a meeting place for educational theory and social work. It is aimed at professional skills development of workers who support foster parents, make home visits, coach parents one-on-one, and work with court-ordered parenting groups to review the ways in which adults learn with the focus on tailoring our coaching to maximize retention and minimize resistance. We'll learn an empowerment process that increases client readiness for new ways to manage the client's children's behavior. Attention is given to becoming a more culturally competent coach of individual parents as well as a more successful leader of parent groups. Included is a comprehensive tour through resources available in print, video, and audio for teaching parenting effectively. Participants will learn to evaluate media with an "educator's eye" and for cultural competence. Time is set aside for much mutual mentoring through skills practice, questions, problem solving and success stories!
Adult Learning Principles: Speaking, Teaching, Coaching, Counseling This unusual train-the-trainer seminar on how adults learn is an opportunity for participants to review the research on adult learning styles, and think through with other professionals how to move beyond helping a client merely understand what you are saying, to the real skill retention needed to change behavior. Don't just tell your clients, sell them on the new skills that they need to make a better balanced, more successful life for themselves. Helping professionals can greatly increase their own effectiveness by learning the tricks of the educator's trade including how to create and use handouts, simulations, humor, stories, and skills practice right in the office. Effective use of visuals to support adult learning as well as adequate time for mutual mentoring and problem solving of participant's real work challenges will be offered.
Diagnosis ADD/HD: Now What? Attaching a name to a disorder is just the beginning. Home and school success often depends on the skill of parents who know how to meet their child's special needs. Foster parents will enjoy new ideas for how to end the homework hassle, advocate successfully for the child at school, deal with the frustration of siblings, improve social skills and preserve the self-esteem of the child who struggles with ADD/HD. The unique gifts of these children will also be considered. Many proven techniques offered for school success will also benefit parents of children with learning disabilities. Over 30 practical tips for how to help these children get organized, complete tasks and keep friends. Kim's ADHD Program was recently chosen by the Institute for Human Services in Columbus to be the curriculum used for training of thousands of foster and adoptive parents throughout Ohio.
Misunderstood Minds: Getting a Handle on Learning Differences Striking simulations of a childs own experiences allow parents to feel for the first time the same frustrations, anxieties and tensions that kids with learning differences (disabilities) face everyday. This really fresh perspective for parents introduces them to interventions for LD kids. It also provides a laymans simple, engaging review of the fascinating new discoveries in brain research that allow parents to understand and help these kids. Learning specialists like Mel Levine have come to believe that every mind works differently, and parents will view a video tracking five kids with LD and the unique solutions specialists use to help each one. Includes a video on the world through the eyes of kids of kids with Asperger's Syndrome (high functioning autism) and how they learn.
10 Tips for Working Parents A practical and light hearted look at the top 10 guilt trips, plus advice for streamlining everything from packing lunches to doing the laundry, and 10 great ideas for coping with the demands of being a working parent who wants the family to thrive, not just survive! This is a lively session of parents putting their heads together to embrace the skills that make working while raising a family easier as well as satisfying.
Active Parenting This well-liked video-driven program offers an excellent overview of parenting skills and is based on the theories of Alfred Adler and Rudolph Dreikurs. Dr. Michael Popkin turns theory into practical application as he presents video dramatizations of real-life situations. Learning is enhanced when participants diagnose the mistakes made in each case study, and then see a second, more skillful attempt by the video "parents" modeling effective communication or behavior management. Learners will appreciate that video segments are brief, culturally diverse, and include a single parent family. Frequent stops in the action allow time to practice, analyze, partner in pairs to complete real life situations, and opportunities to contribute "what worked for me". Some things to learn include Why reward and punishment often backfire with today's children Communication skills that win cooperation How to teach a child to respect you Three keys to a child's self-esteem Discipline methods that work How to avoid anger Teaching children responsibility.
The Angry Child This session begins with an examination of the participants' unarticulated beliefs about anger, and moves into a self-assessment of their preferred style of conflict management. Key concepts to be explored include Stages of escalating anger Common self-defeating self-talk Firm but respectful remedies for l0 problem behaviors Maintaining healthy boundaries Playing the A-C-E of anger "Sponge" techniques for dealing with arguing Anticipating and preventing problems Building trust
How To Talk So Kids Will Listen, and Listen So Kids Will Talk Based on the best-selling book by Faber and Mazlish, participants will be introduced to proven skills benefiting anyone who works with children or youth. Participants are cast in the role of parent/caregiver and can strengthen their ability to help children/youth deal with their feelings, engage cooperation, and encourage autonomy. Learn effective praise techniques, effective alternatives to threats, warnings, nagging and lectures, and how to help children to step out of negative roles. Each new skill is illustrated with cartoons to increase retention. There will be opportunities to practice new skills, stimulate problem solving around "stubborn" behavior management problems, and to adopt a communication building style that invites trust. The group will practice on typical behaviors of children from two through teen.
Problem Solving As A Discipline Strategy If the goal of good discipline is to help children and youth to become self-directing, then parents and caregivers have to teach kids to THINK! This seminar presents the participants with strategies, through multiple examples and skills practice, which will prove to be immediately useful for discipline. Content includes use of slogans, written contracts, written logs, a five-step approach to verbal problem-solving, using role play to practice difficult social interactions, refusal skills, methods for dealing with anger, the DIBS approach to learning from mistakes.
Siblings Without Rivalry Based on the best-selling book by Faber and Mazlish, this popular presentation emphasizes skill building and uses humor, common sense and fresh insights to help parents encourage siblings to live together more peacefully. Including frequent practice and discussion, it is illustrated throughout with visuals of the main ideas in cartoon form. Skills to be mastered include: Helping siblings with hostile feelings Alternatives to comparisons and competition Freeing siblings trapped in roles (he's the brains, the bully, the baby or she's the beauty, the social one, the tomboy) Strategies for when kids fight Ten steps for kids to solve their own problems Antidotes to "It's mine!," "She touched me!" and "You love him more!"
Strategies for Effective Discipline (may be adapted to focus on a specific age group) Participants will examine different parenting styles, and become acquainted with the difference between discipline and punishment. Clear communication as problem prevention as well as appropriate use of time out, natural and logical consequences, restricted privilege, grounding, redirection, and creative use of humor and surprise to avoid power struggles will be taught and practiced. A 5-step method for problem solving that culminates in a written behavior contract will be demonstrated. Using the video Spanking: What to do Instead, learners will take up 3 or 4 case studies including a toddler playing with kitchen cleaning products, and two school aged children displaying typical oppositional behaviors. A Boys Town video No, I Won't, and You Can't Make Me! also receives high marks from foster parents.
Building Blocks For Authentic Self-Esteem: What decades of research tell us about fluffy and fuzzy vs. the real deal High self-esteem is more predictive of a child's happiness in life than education, IQ or economic privilege. Building self-esteem involves an entire constellation of parent's behaviors and attitudes. Learn effective and child affirming praise techniques, as well as practical tips on setting consequences, accepting children's feelings while keeping them accountable, and a healthy non- shaming communication style that you can confidently use to build trust with your foster child. Outstanding video illustration of skills, and a simulation of what it feels like to receive a steady diet of negative/positive messages, contribute to this program's consistent high evaluations.
Conflict Resolution Skills For Families Anyone raising a family feels the increased stresses of raising kids in troubled times. The times demand that parents have increased facility in three key areas: problem solving, negotiation and non-violent communication. Techniques for building these skills in couple, parent-child and sibling interactions will be presented and practiced. Many excellent resources both print and audio-visual will be shared to enhance your learning even beyond this seminar. Attention will be given to teaching the skills not only to adults, but also to resources and methods which foster parents will find can work with preschoolers, school aged and adolescent children.
Diagnosis ADD/HD: Now What? Attaching a name to a disorder is just the beginning. Home and school success often depends on the skill of parents who know how to meet their child's special needs. Foster parents will enjoy new ideas for how to end the homework hassle, advocate successfully for the child at school, deal with the frustration of siblings, improve social skills and preserve the self-esteem of the child who struggles with ADD/HD. The unique gifts of these children will also be considered. Many proven techniques offered for school success will also benefit parents of children with learning disabilities. Over 30 practical tips for how to help these children get organized, complete tasks and keep friends. Kim's ADHD Program was recently chosen by the Institute for Human Services in Columbus to be the curriculum used for training of thousands of foster and adoptive parents throughout Ohio.
Misunderstood Minds: Getting a Handle on Learning Differences Striking simulations of a childs own experiences allow parents to feel for the first time the same frustrations, anxieties and tensions that kids with learning differences (disabilities) face everyday. This really fresh perspective for parents introduces them to interventions for LD kids. It also provides a laymans simple, engaging review of the fascinating new discoveries in brain research that allow parents to understand and help these kids. Learning specialists like Mel Levine have come to believe that every mind works differently, and parents will view a video tracking five kids with LD and the unique solutions specialists use to help each one. Includes a video on the world through the eyes of kids of kids with Asperger's Syndrome (high functioning autism) and how they learn.
Helping Children to Deal With Feelings Before and After Visits This frequently requested session was developed from the expressed needs of foster parents. Topics addressed include Children's feelings (talking it out vs. acting it out) The work of listening Strategies for preparing for the visit Strategies for return from visit Anger in the child, the parent, the foster parent Relaxation exercises Guided imagery for self esteem The fantasy parent Coaching kids in appropriate self-expression Unsent letters or journals as self-expression tools The public library as a resource for healing literature Communication games for families.
Helping Your Child To School Success This workshop generates great feedback from participants. Learners return home empowered with 20 tips for homework helpers, 15 ways to do better in science and math, and full of ideas on motivating reluctant readers/ students. Participants will view two excellent videos entitled Homework! No Way! and the School Success Tool Kit. Parent-Teacher conferences will be practiced in pairs and many practical ideas shared on how to strengthen the home-school partnership. Reasonable TV viewing and other contributing factors to promoting success at reading will help parents to make wise choices with their children in foster care. Participants especially appreciate skills in how to help their children organize a study space, time and papers so that completed work actually gets back to school! (Attention can be given, if time permits, to helping the ADD/HD child and children with learning disabilities or developmental lags.) Effective use of rewards, praise and structure to promote good study habits will also be discussed.
Stress and Kids As adults we all know what it is to experience stress! But, many of us don't realize that children are showing the physical and emotional signs of stress in increasing numbers. Any support that foster parents can provide in assisting children in the management of their schedules, feelings, choices and tensions comes right back to the foster parent in the form of a more peaceful home! Stress releasing activities, and skills for observing signs of stress in ourselves and in children will be discussed.
You Can Manage Stress This seminar offers you practical tools for building a more satisfying personal and professional life. No one can live a stress-free life, but when faithfully practiced, the skills gleaned from this seminar can result in increased health, fulfillment, and clarity of purpose. At the end of the experience, participants will be able to identify their main stress symptoms and effective techniques for relieving them describe 5 "quick fix" stress buster methods demonstrate 3 minute energy builders fill the "energy bank" experience the benefits of guided imagery and affirmations recognize the difference between tough times and real addiction to stress or work evaluate personal tendencies to react with positive or negative "self-talk" set goals in a personal plan to reduce stress describe 5 proven long term stress reduction skills evaluate their risk for stress exhaustion continue their learning beyond the day with excellent print and audio and video resources that they have sampled in the workshop.
Working with You is Killing Me We've all worked with someone who makes work impossible, but it doesn't have to be that way. This powerful video program, based on the national best-selling book, teaches employees and managers how to tame a toxic co-worker by setting boundaries. Everyone - including the lucky few who've never had to work with a difficult person - will benefit from this program. It brilliantly portrays how employees on any career path and at any level of an organization can be undone by a problem co-worker. The amount of time spent worrying, avoiding, raging and obsessing over toxic employees can affect performance on the job and peace at home. This program provides the antidote, showing exactly how to take responsibility for addressing the problem and put a stop to it all. It shows employees how to "unhook" from difficult situations in four simple ways: Physically, Mentally, Verbally and With a Business Tool (memo, email, log, etc.). Participants will learn to: examine how their own reactions can enable the situation. internalize a series of proven responses to problem behavior. reinforce the message if the problem behavior returns. Benefits: Helps people deal with difficult co-workers Reduces stress-related problems Improves interpersonal relations
Parenting With Emotional Intelligence: Raising Children with Better Social Skills and Self-awareness Daniel Goleman started a revolution with his groundbreaking research on "EQ" and how emotional intelligence is more predictive of success in most arenas of life than either high IQ or obvious talent. We'll look at the basic principles of Goleman's work and show parents how to use them to raise socially skilled, responsible, and self-disciplined children. This workshop offers practical strategies that have been field-tested, for everyday issues including school situations, peer pressure, fights with friends and siblings, impulsive behavior. In addition the research of John Gottman on the differences between emotion-coaching and emotion-dismissing parents is a real eye-opener! Parents will learn how to coach children in a crisis, help them to stay calm and become more self-aware, and learn how to think in a sharing, caring, problem solving family. These are exciting new techniques especially useful for the parents of school-aged children and adolescents, although some examples involve pre-schoolers.
What I Learned from Being a Mother/ Father A fresh new workshop that foster parents will welcome, this facilitated morning or evening is a chance to reflect on what keeps Moms and Dads going. Topics include: what sustains you as a Mom/Dad, keeping your sense of humor, how parenting provides unique opportunities to grow as a person, what older Moms/Dads and younger Moms/Dads can teach each other, and what to do when you're at your wit's end. Makes an especially nice program near Mother's or Father's day or as an antidote to the January/February blues!
Balancing Work and Family This much requested presentation helps participants to examine where their personal energy goes, and how to best keep the engine that drives the family (US!) tuned up and running smoothly. Session includes private assessment of how time is used, practical tips for achieving better balance in your life, and resources to support real growth in the "art of life-task juggling."
Laying Aside a Working Parent's Guilt: How Kids Benefit When Their Parents Work This program allows a long look at the "great expectations" that are the set up for guilt, as well as learn about the difference between functional and dysfunctional guilt. Participants unload the burden of "perfect parent" syndrome, while honestly assessing the aspects of work and personal life that they feel most guilty about. Options for handling unreasonable guilt are explored, and functional guilt is viewed as a motivation for change. Plenty of humor is offered as an antidote, and participants will share their perspectives as they encourage each other to cope skillfully with this important issue.
Your Daughter is a Mother: What to Expect and How to Help Participants will take an honest, encompassing look at the predictable points of tension created when a teen Mom is raising her child in your home. Be prepared for the setting of healthy emotional boundaries, and establishment of clear roles that distinguish between helping her with the child and taking over too much responsibility. We'll look at how to promote healthy attachment through involvement of the biological father without having him disrupt your family life. We'll explore how to the help the teen assume increased responsibility for sexual activity. And we will describe the kind of help you can expect when the teen moves toward the age of independent living.
Listening and Communication Skills for Families This workshop gets high marks from foster parents because it makes reviewing skills essential family life skills fun! Through the use of a card game that practices non-verbal (sometimes hilarious) communication, and the solving of a murder which illustrates just how hard it is to really listen and understand, the basic research on components of communication are reviewed in a uniquely engaging manner. Parents find that the communication knowledge we possess and rely on may be common sense, but its not always common practice!!
Raising an Optimistic Child: Teaching Skills for Lifelong Resiliency Learn how to be the optimistic parent of an optimistic child when we review the concrete strategies for making your children increasingly positive. This is not just pop psychology, but is a life-changing guide grounded in extensive clinical research. This session is based on the work of Martin Seligman whose book was described by one reviewer as having grabbed me by the lapels! Studies by Seligman and others show that even confirmed pessimists can learn to recognize their habitual way of talking to themselves and change it. Boost the immune system, and help the whole family to grow into a brighter outlook through self-talk, reframing negatives and using guided imagery.
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Kim's ADHD Program was recently chosen by the Institute for Human Services in Columbus to be the curriculum used for training of thousands of foster and adoptive parents throughout Ohio.
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LifeBalance
Enterprises, Inc. | Kim A. Langley M.Ed. | 1599 Lakeland Avenue | Lakewood,
OH 44107 | (216) 226-3351 |
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Photographs © by Carole Calladine (440-895-9572) |
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