Upcoming events
Learning at Home
Learning at Home: Mapping out a plan that takes developmental science and emotional health into consideration
Details: This is a course for those looking for ideas and insights on how to facilitate a more natural process of learning. Tamara put together this original course in the fall of 2020 in response to questions people were having around creating the conditions for learning to happen at home, while also preserving a child’s emotional health. This course will be offered again over the course of 6 weeks, with 40 minutes of recorded content made available each week, as well as an opportunity to come together to discuss the material and specific scenarios in a weekly live online session. These weekly sessions will be facilitated by Rebecca Wall, Tamara’s intern and assistant.
Rebecca Wall has been working for Tamara for the past two years and is currently in the Neufeld Institute parent consulting program. Rebecca is a strong advocate for home education. She brings a unique perspective, as she herself was homeschooled through to graduation. Currently, she is a homeschooling parent to her 9 year old daughter. In addition, Rebecca brings 14 years of experience working in public education.
Note that if you are unable to attend any of the classes at the scheduled time, recordings will be made available.
Cost: $250.00
Offered online April 23 - May 28, 2024 on Tuesday afternoons (weekly sessions) from 4:00 pm - 5:00 pm PDT
Facilitators: Rebecca Wall and Tamara Strijack
If you would like more information, contact us at info@artisol.org
Playful Therapy: Matchmaking Play and Emotion
Description: Developmental science has long been championing the healing power of the play mode, whether as a child, adolescent or adult. However, in the field of therapy, play is often overlooked and undervalued. In this playful therapy intensive, we will explore the purposeful dynamics of emotion and the inherent properties of play. Most importantly, the magical interplay of when they come together.
Suitability: Open to all those who work with children, adolescents and adults and would like to apply play to your practice (eg. as counsellor, child care worker, educator, parent, grandparent, etc.)
When:
Friday, May 24, 2024 - 12:30 pm to 4:30 PM CST
Saturday, May 25, 2024 - 9:00 am to 4:30 pm CST
IN-PERSON Only at:
601- 2nd Ave N. Saskatoon, SK
Cost:
Early Bird: $250.00 (ends April 30, 2024)
After April 30: $300.00
Please note: registration is limited.
Facilitator: Tamara Strijack and Tracy Azevedo in association with The SK Branch of CAMFT (Canadian Association of Marriage and Family Therapy)
More details and registration: https://www.camft.ca/events
Collage Day
Description: Join Tamara for a day of expression through collage! This in person workshop will be offered at Tamara’s studio located in Cobble Hill and is open to six participants. Tamara will offer a facilitated journey, exploring expression through the art of collage.
When: Saturday, June 29, 2024 | 10am - 4pm PDT
Where: Cobble Hill, BC (in-person workshop)
Suitability: Age 16 +
Cost: $100.00 per person. A light lunch and supplies are included in the cost.
(If you would like to attend and need financial support to do so, please reach out and let us know.)
Facilitator: Tamara Strijack
If you would like more information, contact us at info@artisol.org
Family Camp
Family Camp: an experiential gathering for children, youth and adults
An experiential family camp with music, art, drama and other “ish-ful” activities is in the works, to be hosted outdoors on the West Coast of Canada. Let us know if you are interested and we will send you more information as it is available. Please reach out to info@artisol.org
re:connect re:treat
Find all the information about re:connect re:treat here.
Press pause for four full days and five nights and join us for a time of renaturing. Perhaps you, like many of us, have become caught up in the urgent motif, with pressures and demands from technology or work that pull you away from your own thoughts, dreams and emotions. You may feel a yearning to return to yourself, or to discover for the first time what is stirring within. This is an opportunity to slow the pace down. Through time in nature, expressive art, stories, fire, food, music, wonder and imagination, we will guide you on a journey to connect with both the natural world around you and with your own soul.
Playful Facilitation Module: Putting play into practice
Description: This equipping module, developed by Tamara Strijack and Tracy Azevedo, is an opportunity for those looking to dive deeper into facilitating play in the realm of attachment, expression and emotional playgrounds. This module will be more experiential in nature as we build on the theoretical material of the Neufeld Institute Play Series. In addition to class time and small group discussions, there will be an experiential weekly exercise component.
Prerequisites: Neufeld Institute Play series (Play 101, Play & Attachment, Play & Emotion); or alternatively, the Experiential Play Intensive (in person event July 2023) and Intensive II
Suitability: Open to all those who work with children, adolescents and adults and would like to apply play to your practice (eg. as counsellor, child care worker, educator, parent, grandparent, etc.)
Offered online February 8th to May 16th 2024, biweekly sessions on Thursday mornings from 9:00 to 11:00 am PST
Cost: $600
Facilitator: Tamara Strijack and Tracy Azevedo
Registration is now closed but it will be offered again. Let us know if you are interested in the next offering and we can keep you posted. Contact us at info@artisol.org
Reclaiming Play: Where it went. Why we need it. And what we can do to bring it back.
Description: We live in a world where play is being replaced with entertainment and skills-based activities.
We are now seeing the emotional side effects of the loss of play in the lives of children as aggression and anxiety in our young increases. Play provides a safe space to access our feelings and in doing so it serves a significant role in the unfolding of human potential. When we hear the word ‘play’, many of us think of young children and toys. This workshop will expand our understanding of what ‘play’ is (and what it isn’t) and its importance as a key driver of growth, learning and resilience.
Suitability: Intended for teachers, early childhood educators, helping professionals - anyone who leads and loves children. Focus will be on children ages 3 - 12.
Offered in-person: November 18, 2023 I 10am - 4pm PST I Mill Bay, British Columbia
Facilitators: Hannah Beach and Tamara Strijack
Cost: $250 + tax (where applicable)
Neufeld-Hirose Conference: Towards Flourishing Children & Youth
A Neufeld Institute Conference
co-sponsored by Jack Hirose & Associates
Featuring: Gordon Neufeld, Deborah MacNamara, Tamara Strijack, and Eva de Gosztonyi
Description: The Neufeld Institute is once again joining forces with Jack Hirose Seminars to present a live three-day conference in Saskatoon on November 6-8, 2023. Our theme is Towards Flourishing Children and Youth. Although there is significant alarm these days concerning the deteriorating mental health of our children, there is still much confusion about how to reverse this disturbing trend. The ultimate answers lie in providing the conditions that are conducive to the unfolding of human potential. Whether a medical or mental health professional, a therapist or counselor, a teacher or school administrator, a day care provider or early childhood educator, a youth and family worker, a concerned parent or grandparent, this conference will help set the stage for turning stress around, in our children, our students, and even in ourselves.
BC Summer Institute 2023
BC Summer Institute 2023 Partnerships for Inclusive Learning
Description: Join Tamara Strijack and Hannah Beach for 3 days in August!
Three whole days together exploring emotional health in children and youth based on our book Reclaiming Our Students: Why Children and Youth Are More Anxious, Aggressive, and Shut Down Than Ever—And What We Can Do About It.
Every two years, the BC Summer Institute looks forward to facilitating strategic approaches to inclusion and belonging for all students in B.C.’s elementary and secondary schools. The BC Summer Institute brings together administrators, teachers, parents, paraprofessionals, therapists, and other members of school-based teams to network, learn, and create new and innovative approaches to teaching and provides a template for good outcomes for everyone.
Find detailed course information here.
Offered online August 21 - 23, 2023
Learning at Home
Learning at Home: Mapping out a plan that takes developmental science and emotional health into consideration
Details: This is a course for those looking for ideas and insights on how to facilitate a more natural process of learning. Tamara put together this original course in the fall of 2020 in response to questions people were having around creating the conditions for learning to happen at home, while also preserving a child’s emotional health. She will be offering the course again this summer over the course of 6 weeks, with 40 minutes of recorded content made available each week, as well as an opportunity to come together to discuss the material and specific scenarios in a weekly live online session. Note that if you are unable to attend any of the classes at the scheduled time, recordings will be made available.
Watch a 4 minute video about the course here.
Cost: $120
Offered online July 24 to August 28, 2023 weekly sessions on Monday afternoons from 4:00 pm to 5:00 pm PDT
Facilitator: Tamara Strijack
If you would like more information, contact us at info@artisol.org
Playful Therapy: Matchmaking Play and Emotion
An experiential play intensive offered in-person only in July 2023
Description: Developmental science has long been championing the healing power of the play mode, whether one is a child, an adolescent or an adult. However, in the field of therapy, play is often overlooked and undervalued, often focused more on cognition and behaviour. Play can become marginalized or isolated into a particular model or approach, eclipsing its natural power. In this course, we will explore the purposeful dynamics of emotion and the inherent properties of play — and most importantly, the magical interplay when they come together.
We will play with the practical application across the lifespan. What does it look like to bring true play and playfulness into our practice, both in and out of the therapy room? What does it look like to matchmake play and emotion for those you care for and for yourself? With this insight of true play, we can see how play is nature’s design to take care of us, no matter what one’s role. We look forward to playing together with you!
See detailed course outline here
Suitability: For anyone who would like a better understanding of the dynamics of play in human development and an opportunity to experience putting play into practice
Offered in person July 17-21, 2023 in Langley, BC, Canada
Cost: $800
Facilitator: Tamara Strijack
If you would like more information, contact us at info@artisol.org
welcoming the summer
I invite you to join me for a two hour online workshop Welcoming Summer where I will guide you with questions and space to process your own transition from spring to summer. We’ll explore another turning of the season together.
Come with a journal and/or sketchbook for this interactive small group experience.
Cost: $25.00
Facilitator: Tamara Stijack
learning at home q&a
Join Tamara for a FREE learning at home q&a around the online course she has created. Come to find out more! You are welcome to participate if you have already taken the course and have questions, or if you are wanting to sign-up for an upcoming offering.
When: Monday, June 19, 2023 I 1:00 - 2:00pm PDT
Cost: FREE
Facilitator: Tamara Strijack
If you would like more information, contact us at info@artisol.org
A Playdate with Story
What does it look like to bring story into our lives, and into the lives of our children and students? How do we make space for collecting stories, telling stories and sharing stories together?
Join Tamara for a 3 hour exploratory session to take a deeper look at bringing story more intentionally into our lives, in our work and learning environments, and in whatever role we have with children.
Come with your curiosity, some paper (a notebook, journal or sketch book) and maybe a few crayons, makers, or your favourite fountain pen!
When: Friday, June 16, 2023 I 10:30am - 1:30pm PDT
Cost: $40.00
Facilitator: Tamara Strijack
If you would like more information, contact us at info@artisol.org
*Note: if you have trouble with the registration form, try opening the link in a different browser. If that doesn’t work, please contact us.
The Fourteenth Annual Neufeld Institute Conference 2023
A belief in the wisdom of Nature goes hand-in-hand with a fundamental belief in the spontaneous unfolding of human potential. The study of the human brain reveals incredible inner springs to action – instincts, emotions and defenses – all meant to take care of us when distressed and help us to flourish when conditions are conducive. Assuming that something is wrong with the brain is tragically self-fulfilling. The brain has its reasons – the key is depending upon the brain as it works to take care of us and our children. We live in a time when the evidence of the wisdom of Nature has never been greater, yet the faith in Nature to take care of us remains rare.
Our 2023 conference theme, Wisdom of Nature, was inspired by Gabor Maté’s special on The Wisdom of Trauma, which catapulted him into the stratosphere (over 6 million views) in the therapy community. His recent book, the Myth of Normal, written together with his son Daniel, has been on the New York bestseller lists. We thought it only appropriate to invite Gabor and Daniel to a dialogue on this material, especially as it applies to parenting.
Story Talk
Stories are everywhere.
Through story, our traditions are passed down from one generation to the next; we come to see people who seem far from us in a different light. For those close to us, story provides a natural way to connect with each other. By its very nature, story has the uncanny ability to soften our edges and at the same time, empower us to tell our own.
How can we, as parents, educators, caregivers of all shapes and sizes, tap into this age-old magic and KEEP story ALIVE? Our children need it, we need it, our world needs it … now more than ever before.
I invite you to join me for Story Talk - an online conversation on the power of story.
There is no cost for this event.
Facilitator: Tamara Strijack
Welcoming Winter
I invite you to join me for a two hour online session The Welcoming Winter workshop will be looking at ways we can physically, emotionally, and soulfully prepare ourselves for the upcoming season, as well as honour the season we are leaving behind.
When: December 20, 2022 9:00am - 11:00am PST
The cost for this workshop will be $25.00 per person.
Talk on renaturing ourselves
What is it about being close to a plant, a tree, a lake, a bird … that brings us to a different place? For some of us, it has been a long time since we lived closely in tune with the world around us, but something in our body, and in our spirit, remembers.
Join Tamara on an explore of what reconnection with nature and ourselves might look like in today’s often fragmented and disconnected world.
When: December 16, 2022 9:00 - 10:00am (PST)
Register in advance for this free talk here.
After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.
renaturing education workshop
Are you an educator, home learner, or curious advocate wanting to explore ways of fostering learning that is grounded in a more natural approach?
Following both my talk this past spring, and my keynote presentation at the Neufeld Institute Conference, I will be offering an upcoming in person workshop on October 22nd, 2022 on beautiful Gabriola Island, BC, Canada.
This will be a full day of story-telling, participation and connection around the themes I shared in my presentations, ending with an optional evening potluck.
If you missed my talk, please reach out and I will be happy to send you the recording.
There will be a minimal fee for this workshop to cover rental and administration expenses.
Talk on renaturing education
As I prepare for a keynote talk on nature, for the upcoming Neufeld Institute Conference in May, I thought I would invite those who are interested to a sneak peek of some of my thoughts. The keynote will be more generally applied – to parents, educators and helping professionals – but for this talk on April 8th, I will focus more on “renaturing education.”
When: Apr 8, 2022 10:00 - 11:30am (PDT)
Please note: the talk will be 1 hour and 15 minutes, with 15 minutes for Q&A at the end.
Register in advance for this meeting:
https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZAod--rqj4jGNdqA2BnXWuNGBo1dSJ-DxD5
After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.
A Season of Slow
Tamara will be sharing some reflections from her winter Sabbatical experience.
Bring your curiosities and your questions!
Creating a village
Empathic, inclusive, and more caring learning communities are within our reach. But we cannot do this alone. We need to bring back the village. How can we intentionally harness the power of attachment to grow a child’s community? What practices can we introduce that can expand our own network of support? We will examine Neufeld’s attachment rituals of collecting, bridging and matchmaking and explore strategies that can build community and transform our school cultures.
Waking up: Restoring and awakening caring feelings
There is a new awareness dawning in understanding the profound effect that the arts can have on the emotional health and well-being of our students and communities. From the very beginning of time—adults and children alike have been expressing themselves through the arts. We have a deep need to express what is inside of us so that we may become known and make visible our inner worlds. Through this expression we can come to experience our humanity together. This session will shed light on how we can use the arts as extraordinary tools to unite our students in their shared humanity and build more inclusive classrooms – from the inside out.
Shifting the negative identity of a child or a group
Children can get stuck in roles that prevent them from thriving. This is especially true for the kids who are the most emotionally blocked and are labelled as ‘problem kids’ due to their behavioural challenges. How children see themselves has a huge impact on who they are and who they will grow to be. This session will shed light on the various ways that we can help children to experience themselves differently so that their identity can expand, as well as exploring practical strategies to create a positive collective identity as a class.
Shut down or bully behaviour: what’s behind the behavior & how to help
It’s really hard to engage a child in learning when they don’t seem to care about anything. It can be even harder when students are bullying each other in the classroom. Common to both of these challenges is a lack of caring. What can we do to bring back these caring feelings? Understanding where this defense comes from can help us to come alongside our most troubled students, and in the process, to create emotional safety for the entire learning community.
Resistant or bossy: what’s behind the behavior & how to help
This workshop will explore two common dynamics that can make teaching challenging. We will examine the emotion behind bossy behaviour and how we can help to alleviate the weight these children carry. We will also explore what lies behind resistance. What is the role of counterwill and how does an understanding of this dynamic help us to shift the resistance? This session will shed light on the developmental science behind these behaviours and offer practical suggestions we can use in our classrooms.
Attention problems: what’s behind the behavior & how to help
Attention problems are on the rise. From a child whose head appears to be in the clouds to kids who constantly disrupt in class. Where does this inability to focus come from? Why do some children lack impulse control? And what can we do to engage these children in their learning? This session will explore the roots of attention problems and examine developmental strategies for change.
Learning at home: Mapping out a plan
For those looking for ideas and insights into how to facilitate a more natural process of learning at home, whether you are trying to do “school” from home, trying to avoid school altogether, or you find yourself somewhere in between.
Tamara combines developmental science and twenty years of experience in the field to bring you practical insights and ideas you can try at home.
Anxiety: what’s behind the behavior & how to help
Humans have a built-in survival kit, which is meant to respond to perceived threats and keep us safe. Generally speaking, this response serves us quite well, especially when the threat is obvious and occasional. When our alarm system is working as it should it can be incredibly helpful to keep us safe, but what happens when the threat does not go away? Our children are often entering our classrooms in survival mode and bringing with them the behaviours that make it challenging for us to take the lead and build relationships with them. This session will explore the roots of anxiety and offer practical suggestions for how we can support children to find emotional rest.
Aggression: What’s Behind the Behavior & How to Help
A child’s behaviour tells us something about their inner world. Drawing on the developmental insights of Dr. Gordon Neufeld, we will explore some of what is behind the challenging behaviours that we see in our students. What’s the emotion behind aggression? What can we do to address aggression at its root instead of getting caught up in the cycle of managing symptoms? This session will explore the emotion behind aggression as well as look to ways we can reduce outbursts in our classrooms.
Webinar Panel: Emotional Health & School
In this second free webinar panel, Emotional Health and School, Tamara Strijack will join Eva de Gosztonyi, Deborah MacNamara and Hannah Beach to discuss approaches in safeguarding your child’s feelings and keeping their hearts soft while navigating in a school environment.
Learning to read what’s needed for change
Note that all timing is Pacific. Unable to attend the live seminar? Registrants will have exclusive access to the recordings for six days following the scheduled session.
This is Session 1 of a series, but you can take these sessions individually without having to participate in earlier ones as they are designed to stand alone.
Relates to Chapters 1 and 2 of Reclaiming our Students.
Session cost is $20.
Exploring Emotional Playgrounds: Hands-on Workshop
A full-day experiential workshop with Tamara Strijack and Hannah Beach.
We live in a culture of busy. Our lives are often filled with demands, expectations, and things that stir us up. There is often little room for us to breathe, find release, or feel connected to ourselves. We invite you to carve out time to slow everything down and make room for what is inside of you to come out. Immerse yourself in a day of gentle discovery that may help you wake up to your emotions, your yearnings, and your heart.
We will guide you through a day of experiential activities to help you find release, emotional health, and discovery. We will also explore practical ways to carry some of these practices into your everyday life.
This is an interactive and experiential workshop that follows up from the webinar Creating Playgrounds for Emotional Expression (note that you will receive a recording of this webinar as part of your registration). Whether you are a parent, grandparent, educator, therapist, or any adult who desires emotional health for themselves or those in your care – this workshop is for you!
Group Support for Therapists - July Session
This is an opportunity for therapists to come together in a small group for insight, support and encouragement. Tamara will provide mentorship through answering questions and facilitating discussion around themes related to emotional health in counselling.
Creating Playgrounds for Emotional Expression: Webinar
When emotions stop moving, we start to see the signs of problem behaviour. Expression of emotion is the first step in emotional development, and yet many children, adolescents and adults can get stuck here. We all need safe places to express the emotions that are stirred up within us, as well as release pent up emotional energy. The challenge is finding those safe places. In this session, we will explore natural playgrounds for emotion to come out and play, and how we might facilitate this process - for our children, our adolescents and ourselves.