Workshops I offer
For trainers who train on any topic!

Training from the Back of the Room
This workshop was created by Sharon Bowman for trainers, instructors and facilitators who teach any topic. This is the training I attended years ago that completely changed the way I create training activities and training agendas. I’ve been using Sharon Bowman’s brain-based strategies to design and deliver interactive training for the past sixteen years and now I am a Certified Training from the Back of the Room Trainer.
In this two-day class, you’ll explore how the human brain really learns, which is very different than traditional assumptions about learning. You’ll walk away with dozens of interactive learning strategies to use for the specific topics that you teach. In addition, you’ll learn a four-step process that makes it easy to design and deliver training that meets the needs of the human brain and the needs of adult learners. For more information, read Sharon Bowman’s article, “What You’ll Learn from Attending a Training from the Back of the Room” class. Want to offer “Training from the Back of the Room” to a group of trainers? Contact me here to discuss dates and details!
Positive Discipline for Early Childhood Educators
For Trainers Who Teach
Early Childhood Educators, Preschool Teachers and Child Care Providers
This two-day interactive workshop is designed for early childhood educators, teachers, and caregivers who work with children from birth to six years of age. (Parents will also find this workshop helpful; however, the focus is on early childhood education.) Participants will learn to apply the principles and tools of Positive Discipline, an Adlerian research-based philosophy, to working with groups of young children. They will also gain a deeper understanding of how young children learn, the importance of belonging and social and emotional learning, and how best to teach those skills in a classroom or care setting. Participants will earn recognition as Certified Positive Discipline Early Childhood Educators and will learn to:
- Create a classroom or care setting where children can develop a sense of belonging and significance based on the importance of contribution and mutual respect.
- Understand how young children learn and how to adapt teaching to the needs of this age group.
- Foster essential social and emotional skills to support development and school readiness, and understand behavior and how to guide it in groups of young children.
- Teach the essential skills for developmentally appropriate participation in class meetings.
- Learn Positive Discipline and Adlerian concepts for use in the classroom, preschool community, and with parents.
Teaching Parenting the Positive Discipline Way
For Parent Educators
A 2 day workshop that teaches an experiential curriculum and model for teaching parent education. Completion of this workshop offers certification as a Positive Discipline Parent Educator.
Teaching Parenting the Positive Discipline Way (developed by Lynn Lott and Jane Nelsen) provides a step-by-step approach to starting and leading experientially based parenting groups. This program stands alone or offers significant enhancement to any program; it emphasizes experiential activities that reach the heart to inspire deeper understanding and change. Parents love the Parents Helping Parents Problem-Solving Steps because this process provides a fun and effective way for them to get specific help with real problems.
Learning Objectives Include:
- Learn research based effective tools and techniques for teaching parents how to use discipline that is kind and firm at the same time (non-punitive, non-permissive).
Learn how to facilitate a parent class from the position of a non-expert. - Gain practice with experiential exercises that help parents go beyond intellectual understanding to be able to respond in empowering ways that teach children.
- Learn how to use materials and activities in group settings, parenting classes and individual work with families

Social Emotional Development
For Parent Educators

A 2 Day Workshop for Parent Educators, Trainers who train Early Childhood Educators, Social Workers and Play Therapist Trainers
Is it misbehavior or is it typical child development? Professionals will explore the typical stages of social-emotional development for children and how to support and encourage social-emotional learning at each stage. Attendees to this event will first learn about Erikson’s stages of psycho-social development in a hands-on and engaging way using active learning strategies. Next participants will explore the outward characteristics of social emotional development, qualities that may present as challenging behaviors, but are in fact considered typical characteristics for a particular age group. The overall social-emotional growth continuum from birth to adulthood will be introduced to illustrate expanding patterns of independence for children and the effects of independence and interdependence on a growing child’s self-concept and how to support healthy social-emotional development.