Training Calendar

Even well thought out plans and the best attempts to offer support don’t always work to avert a crisis.  Sometimes, a child goes into fight (vs. flight) mode to protect themselves.  There are no good answers for how to handle violence…but there are some things that make it worse that we can learn to avoid.  This webinar will focus on:

• What to do and not to do when a child becomes violent
• When to call in others for support and what to expect of them
• How to care for everyone involved after a violent situation

Counts as a Therapeutic Class for TN DCS Foster parents.

Judy Lewis (judy@harmonyfamilycenter.org) TA

Foster parenting comes with a lot of invisible work: appointments, paperwork, emotional labor, and constant problem-solving. When that mental load isn’t shared, it can quietly strain even strong marriages.

In this webinar, we’ll talk about what the mental load is, why it’s heavier in foster families, and how couples can work together more intentionally. Using a trauma-informed approach, you’ll gain practical tools to reduce overwhelm, improve communication, and strengthen your partnership.

Parenting children from hard places can bring unique challenges like lying, stealing, and other confusing behaviors. This trauma-informed webinar is designed specifically for foster and adoptive parents and will help you understand why these behaviors happen and how to respond in ways that build trust, safety, and connection. We’ll reframe behavior as communication and share practical, relationship-based strategies you can use right away. You’ll leave feeling more confident, less alone, and better equipped to support your child’s healing without relying on shame or punishment.

We want to prevent crises, and better yet, help children to learn how to appropriately handle crisis situations. However, getting the timing right for learning and these important conversations is crucial. This video will focus on:

• When and how to move from crisis to learning by using The Life Space Interview
• What to do when this conversation doesn’t go as planned

One goal of therapeutic crisis support is to help children learn from what just happened. We will briefly review the Life Space Interview as a structured way to talk about what happened, what the adult and child can do next time to prevent the crisis, and how the child can develop coping and communication strategies to use the next time a crisis is building. We will also explore how natural and logical consequences can be used to help children connect how actions impact others, in both negative and positive ways – with learning and restoration as the goal.

Parenting is stressful, especially when your child has big feelings and big behaviors. In this one-hour webinar, parents will learn what self-regulation really is, why it matters so much in everyday parenting, and how staying calm and grounded helps children feel safer and more in control. We’ll talk about what happens in your brain and body under stress, how to notice your own early warning signs, and simple, realistic tools you can use in hard moments. This session is practical, supportive, and focused on helping you show up as the calm, steady presence your child needs, even when things are tough.

When parenting children from hard places, we often encounter mental health crises, moments where it really pays off to have planned ahead. Much like preparing your family with fire drills or safety plans, we will think through what could arise in terms of a mental health crisis, walk through the steps to take and plan for resources you will want to have on hand. Challenging moments feel far less scary when we have prepared ourselves for what might happen ahead of time. You’ll leave having prepared ahead for if a crisis moment ever arises, leaving you more empowered and ready to support your child.

We will explore the difference between the more cognitive-based proactive acts of aggression and violence and the more emotionally based reactive acts of aggression and violence.  We will discuss how to set boundaries and teach new responses with each version and what to do about redirecting these responses over the long term.