Upcoming Winter 2025 Workshops

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Upcoming Winter 2025 Workshops 〰️

  • Find your parenting GPS (your map!) to parenting your teen.

  • Go beyond the excuse of hormones and make sense of the adolescent brain.

  • Learn how to support executive functioning (the part of the brain that is developing to make successful adults, and can be the most difficult for parents and teens to navigate).

  • Discover strategies to react with encouragement instead of responding out of fear.

  • Invite cooperation with curiosity instead of relying on consequences.

  • Learn where THAT behaviors might be coming from.

  • Be more confident in THIS season of parenting.

  • Know you are not alone!

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The Adolescent Brain: A Parent’s Guide to Understanding and Connection: Friday, February 7, 2025, 9:15-10:30am FREE!

Gateway School (255 Swift St, Santa Cruz, CA 95060): If you’d like to see this workshop at your school, email me!

Navigating the Adolescent Years: Parenting with Courage and Connection

Time and Date: Online, TBD

The teen brain goes through a major remodeling, and it can be a challenging time and one of opportunity! It’s normal to want to seek tighter control, yet this often causes teens to respond by shutting down or avoidance. Stay close and stand back! In this 3 week series, parents and caregivers will jump into the lives of their adolescent and explore what they are experiencing socially, emotionally and physically. You will discover communication strategies to strengthen the relationship with your child that will go well beyond these years. You will create a plan with tools and strategies around screens. We will discuss the when, where and how to help guide your family’s decisions around this overwhelming topic.

It is possible for parents and their children to enjoy this vulnerable stage together. Whether you are in the midst of the adolescent years or just wanting to get a jump start on what's ahead, this class is for you! This popular class is for caregivers of children 10+.

Westlake Elementary Parenting: 6 Wednesdays, 6-8pm, February 19-April 2 (no class March 12)

In-person, Westlake Elementary, 1000 High St, Santa Cruz, CA 95060 (all Santa Cruz community welcome!)

  • Finding Your Parenting Roadmap: Finding the difference in where you are and where you want to be.

  • Uncovering Behaviors: Understanding behavior and how to respond through the lens of developmental stages, brain science, unmet needs, emotional regulation, and the innate desire to belong and contribute.

  • Sorting It All Out: Navigating punishment, consequences, and problem-solving strategies.

  • Family Communication: Laying the groundwork for lifelong healthy relationships—especially before the teen years!

  • Know Yourself, Know Your Child: Recognizing differences in temperament and your role in the relationship.

  • Next Steps: Applying your new insights to build sustainable parenting practices.

Registration Fee: $90 per person. Enrollment limited for engagement. AGENDA

FREE childcare provided by the Westlake PTA —please register on the registration form when you check out.

I encourage parenting partners to attend. This creates dialogue and invites caregivers to explore their own parenting style.

Please email me about financial support.

Positive Discipline for Youth Sports Coaches: In this 2 hour workshop coaches learn to work with parents, colleagues and athletes to create a collaborative, supportive, and accountable culture that shares vision and values. Coaches and parents will learn methods that invite cooperation and motivate players in a non-punitive way that will encourage a more enjoyable experience for all.

Thriving in the Early Years: Young children are building skills in self-regulation and trying to navigate the world with little experience.  These early years can be challenging and emotions can be BIG for both parents and children.   It can be so confusing to know what to do when our children misbehave.    In this workshop, parents will learn how to look at a child’s ‘challenging behaviors’ as a way they communicate (often unskilled) and learn how to interpret their message.  Adults will learn strategies to take care of themselves and respond to a child’s emotions using empathy and connection to support the social and emotional growth of the child.    Most importantly, parents will gain confidence and understanding about where their child is developmentally to support them through these early years and connect with other parents to normalize this stage.   Ages 2-6.  

A letter from a recent participant…..

Hi Julie!

Thank you so much for taking the time to talk with us, listen to us and advise us on how to raise good humans!

I will miss meeting with you and the other parents on the weekly, it was a nice change of pace for me and a really solid chunk of time for me to reflect on my parenting. 

At the beginning of the 6 week course I felt like my child was difficult to manage and that I was at my wits end. But towards the end of the course I realized that it's just this stage of life, that all the other parents are facing similar challenges, and that our kids are just doing their best. Her tantrums now seem less intense, now that I have learned to be calm and present when they happen and I can meet her needs with compassion. I have your classes to thank for that!

And when I came home from class each night, I would sit with my husband and relay all the things I learned and we'd talk about it. What his thoughts were and how we would implement your teachings into our daily lives.

Your class made me realize that I needed to speak kindly to my husband, especially in front of my kids. Since they watch and repeat everything. I've sincerely taken to heart to cultivate this shift in me in order to create a better home environment for everyone.

Not only has your classes helped with parenting but it also doubled as marriage counseling! :).

—--Kao