A friend of ours was walking down a deserted beach at sunset. As he walked along, he began to see a person in the distance. As he grew nearer, he noticed that the local kept leaning down, picking somehting up and throwing it out into the water. Time and again she kept hurling things out into the ocean.

As our friend approached even closer, he noticed that the woman was picking up starfish that had been washed up on the beach and, one at a time, she was throwing them back into the water.

Our friend was puzzled. He approached the woman and said, "Good evening friend. I was wondering what you are doing?"

"I'm throwing these starfish back into the ocean. You see, it's low tide right now and all of these starfish have been washed up onto the shore. If I don't throw them back into the sea, they'll die up here from lack of oxygen."

"I understand," my friend replied, "but there must be thousands of starfish on this beach. You can't possibly get to all of them. There are simply too many. And don't you realise this is probably happening on hundreds of beaches all up and down this coast. Can't you see that you can't possibly make a difference?"

The local woman smiled, bent down and picked up yet another starfish, and as she threw it back into the sea, she replied, "Made a difference to that one!"

~ Jack Canfield and Mark V. Hansen ~

Seminars for Parents & Professionals

Seminars for Parents & Professionals offer information and practical ideas about secure parenting, discipline without punishment and building connected relationships with children. Seminars are generally held at your centre and can be tailored to suit your needs or organisation. Topics include:

Discipline/Parenting Styles
Conscious Beliefs & Values
When Timeout Isn't Working
Preventing Power Struggles
Setting Limits
Tears & Tantrums: Theirs & Ours
Nurturing Attachment: Guiding the most challenging child
Nurturing Self

When presented as a series, the "Creating Conscious Connections with Children" workshops are an emotional intelligence and relationship management program using the latest brain research strategies for responding instead of reacting to our children. Through responding, conflict moments can be transformed into life lessons.

"Creating Conscious Connections with Children" is an approach to discipline that is based on Attachment Theory and teaches parents and professionals how to connect to and support children, especially those that have experienced trauma or stressful life events.

Our workshops can help you learn how to:

Recognise your discipline/parenting style
Create a conscious approach to discipline
Reduce power struggles
Increase compliance
Stop bribing & policing children
Reduce sibling rivalry
Understand and respond to a child’s true needs
Teach problem-solving skills that seek solutions, not blame
Discern the difference between disrespect & typical childhood behaviour
Instill empathy so children are respectful and responsible
Communicate with children so they will listen and respond
Empower victims
Transform bullies
Create homes and schools where children choose to be helpful
Learn conflict resolution skills that help solve problems you encounter

If your school, centre or agency would like to book Monique to run a seminar or the "Creating Conscious Connections with Children" series of seminars at your place of work either for parents or staff, drop her a line now.

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"Monique is an adept and skillful presenter. She spoke succinctly of the different expressive modalities and their relevance to child and youth mental health. Monique's experience was evidenced by her many perceptive remarks on the interactions between brain development, attachment and interpersonal functioning. I was reacquainted with the pervasive effects of projection on a child's perception and social judgement, and the role of expressive therapies in bringing this to light."

Daniel Wilson, CYMHS,

Queensland Health

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