Seminars, Workshops & Courses

Connecting with your Toddler and Child

(setting boundaries without punishment, shaming or manipulation)

In this workshop we will look at how we can connect with our children and set strong boundaries without relying on punishment, shaming and rewards.

• Why smacking and other forms of punishment are ineffective 
• The toxic effects of shaming
• Being effective and being assertive means being ‘real’ 
• Learn appropriate expression of your (the parent’s) needs and limits 
• The power of listening 
• The key ingredients of a deep connection with your child 

This presentation is for parents, grandparents, child-health professionals, early childhood teachers and carers.

Getting your Child to do Stuff

A psychobabble-free look at what really motivates children

All across the world, it seems we hear the cry of a universal parent saying “how do I get my child to…” (you fill in the blank). Does this sound like you? You’re not alone! It could be the drag of getting ready for school in the morning, bedtime battles, fussy eating, homework blues, picking up the toys (or not!), bath-time recalcitrance, allergy to chores…There are many motivational arrests that drive parents to question: Can I really get my child motivated? Am I missing something…? 

Good news. Our understanding about human (and child) motivation has undergone a revolution. There is a huge amount we can do to help our children to mobilize. Not out of fear. Not for a pat on the head. Not for a ‘gold star’. But because they WANT to help you, because they WANT to learn, grow and be empowered.

In this talk Robin Grille will support you to reclaim your power as a parent and discover the key to your child’s self-motivation. He will take a deep look at how to unlock your child’s motivation and most importantly he will share ideas on how to have fun in the process. Bring your questions along to this event to make the most of engaging with Robin Grille and other parents in your community.

Attachment, the Brain and Human Happiness

In this workshop we will look at the explosion of scientific research around the world in child development, emotional intelligence, brain development and the human heart. Never before has so much been known about how childhood experiences shape the adults we become, and this new knowledge is revolutionizing the way we understand our babies and children. Parenting and child care are undergoing great changes in the wake of these discoveries. This presentation will place you at the forefront of these changes. 

In this presentation you will learn:

• How your affection literally grows your child’s brain!
• How to give your baby and child the most emotionally secure start in life
• How secure attachment in babyhood maximizes your child’s wellbeing and potential – for life
• The key early childhood experiences that promote your child’s emotional intelligence
• How healthy emotional development ensures your child’s physical health – for the long term

This presentation is for parents, grandparents, child health professionals, early childhood teachers and carers.

Helping Your Children Heal from Emotional Wounds

From time to time every child experiences something frightening, sad or painful.

Difficult feelings, even post-traumatic stress, can sometimes linger and resurface. These days there is so much information available about what helps children develop – but sometimes this information can be a little scary. We feel ever more pressured as parents to ‘get it right’. Many parents are worried by the implications of the new child-development sciences, and wonder fretfully: ‘have I caused some damage to my child?’

There are simple but very powerful steps we can take as parents to help our children to heal from the wounds and disappointments life sometimes brings. How do we help our children to heal, grow and move through?

In this workshop for parents, grandparents, child-carers, teachers and health practitioners, we will look at topics such as:

 
• Healing hurts that happened before your child learned to speak.
• Helping babies, toddlers, children and adolescents with their BIG emotions.
• Helping children at the heart level – even when there are painful circumstances beyond our control.
• Dealing with anger and blame (your child’s and your own!).
• Parent-guilt: why we feel guilty sometimes, and how to let go and open up to learning new ways of relating.

Love, Fear and Shame in Education

A thought-provoking seminar about revolutionary approaches to education that enhance learning and self-motivation, while dramatically reducing violence in schools.

This workshop is about an education revolution that is sweeping the world and transforming the classroom as we know it. You will discover that a new educational paradigm, based on collaboration, intrinsic motivation and children’s individual interests, is having an unexpected result: it sharply reduces the incidence of bullying and school violence.

Topics we will explore:
 

• What is the most powerful motivating force for learning?
• The power of play-based education
• What are some of the many, diverse examples of child-centered education and emergent curricula around the world, and what defines them?
• How widespread is the new phenomenon of child-centered (emergent) curricula around the world?
• The role of emotional intelligence in new education models
• The effects of shame in competition-based models
• How gold stars and other reward systems harm learning – and why educational psychologists haven’t told us!
• Why student participation in curriculum design reduces violence and other behavioural problems in and out of the classroom

Parenting for a Peaceful World

Robin Grille invites you on a journey that begins with the surprising and often shocking history and evolution of parenting. With the aid of recent revolutionary discoveries about early childhood development and the human brain, the history of childhood offers vital clues about the roots of human violence and social disharmony. 

This inspirational lecture, based on Robin Grille’s book of the same title, will provide a fascinating look at parenting customs that have shaped societies and major world events, revealing how children adapt to parenting styles and how these experiences underpin the adults they become and, ultimately, the way the world is structured. 

Robin Grille draws upon revolutionary new research to argue that safeguarding children’s emotional development is key to creating a more peaceful and harmonious world. 

Robin emphasizes that our future rests on the way we care for parents, and the way we treat children. This presentation takes you from past horrors to present hope. You will learn how recent fundamental changes in child-rearing approaches have shifted human consciousness, giving birth to modern movements for human rights, justice, democracy, equality and sustainability. You will also learn how these universal issues impact on the way that we work with young children and their families. 

Certainly, there is much more work to do. But what would the future hold for humanity if these positive reforms in child-rearing continue to grow? And most importantly, what is your personal role in this unfolding global movement?

Inner Child Journeys – for parents and teachers

You may not know it, but your own life as a child is one of the strongest influences on how you parent today.

Do you remember what it felt like to be a child? Are there some memories you’d rather forget? Some memories that bring you joy? The emotional paths you trod as a child hold a treasury of wisdom.

Just to touch lightly upon the emotions of childhood can help you immensely to:

• Understand your own child better, from the inside
• Free you from repeating old inherited behaviour patterns
• Intuit what your baby and child is asking for and know how to meet his/her emotional needs
• Help your child to trust you and listen to you
• Help your child to feel heard, seen and secure
• Heal old emotional wounds and bring more joy to parenting
• Deepen your sense of connection to others and to your community

There are times when the journey of being a parent can almost feel like it is breaking us. But if we know how to read these moments of challenge and overwhelm, we see something new: we see that the journey is breaking us … open! Understanding the developmental needs of our own Inner Child can transform the times of parental stress, helplessness and conflict into doorways to the greatest personal growth and healing journey of our lives. 

In this workshop you will be shown ways to safely tap into the wisdom of your ‘inner child’, and gain much trust in your inner knowing about how to respond to your child. This process can be very freeing, empowering, healing for you and richly enhancing of your relationship with your child.

The Inner Child Process – a practical training course for practitioners

If you are a counsellor, therapist or parent-coach, and you’d like to learn how to facilitate Inner Child Journeys safely and effectively as part of your practice, this course will equip you with evidence-based skills and competency in my approach to Inner Child Journeying.

There are times when the journey of being a parent can almost feel like it is breaking us. But if we know how to read these moments of challenge and overwhelm, we see something new: we see that the journey is breaking us … open! Understanding the developmental needs of our own Inner Child can transform the times of parental stress, helplessness and conflict into doorways to the greatest personal growth and healing journey of our lives. 

My approach to Inner Child Journeying has brought vital and transformative changes to clients and workshop participants around the world for many years. The many obstacles and blind-alleys that parents and teachers commonly face in child-rearing will often have something to do with old emotional wounds that have been triggered in the adult. Without this insight, what we say or do for our children can too-often miss the mark. But compassionate self-awareness gives us more gifts than we might imagine. The more closely we know our Inner Child, the more intuitive we become about what our children need. Moreover, we discover that even the most painful or frustrating challenges brought to us by our children are rich opportunities for our own healing and growth. This Inner Child Process offers a safe, step-by-step method for contacting the deep feelings, thoughts and wisdom of the Child that lives in all of us, clearing a path for healing and personal unfoldment.

• Help your clients develop their natural insight, intuition and compassion as parents
• Help your clients become more effective and attuned as parents
• Help your clients to differentiate between their own projections vs their children’s real needs
• Help your clients make sense of their own childhood experiences and how these have affected their parenting style
• Turn your clients’ parenting challenges into opportunities for personal healing and growth
• Use this Inner Child Process for Couples Therapy, and a whole host of other contexts involving healing and personal growth

Relating to Adolescents – a workshop for parents, teachers and all elders

This presentation is for parents, grandparents and teachers of adolescents – or of soon-to-be adolescents. Although it can be an exciting and transformative life-stage, adolescence can also be full of anguish, chaos and peril. It is not unusual for parents and elders to feel helpless, afraid and disconnected from their young.

Robin Grille will share empowering, compassionate and leading-edge information that will help you to better understand your teenaged (and twenty-something!) children. You will learn some practical communication skills for connecting with, supporting and if necessary confronting your young ones.

Last, but not least, you will find validation and support for the incredibly challenging role of being an elder, role model and guide for our youth.

Topics will include:
 

• The evolutionary purpose of this distinct developmental stage
• Why behaviour can seem ‘crazy’ at this time of life
• The unique vulnerabilities of this stage
• The life-long strengths that can be developed at this stage
• The amazing changes that take place in the adolescent’s brain
• Understand the devastating impact ofshame – and what helps to heal it
• How to unleash the mobilising power of intrinsic motivation
• Vocational healing – how this works
• How adolescent passion can lead to peace and success
• How our honest self-disclosure is the strongest guide– and why our ‘teachable moments’ can so often backfire
• Practical skills for communicating and connecting with adolescents
• How you can tap your own adolescent experiences as a source of wisdom and insight
• How your adolescent child is growing you up!