Raising Cain? - Dr. Dan Kindlon

Dr. Dan Kindlon, author of the best seller book "Raising Cain" will be the keynote speaker at the Foundations Community Partnership "Annual Conference on Friday May 2, 2008. Dr. Kindlon's topic will be "Gender Responsive Treatment Strategies: Boys to Men" with a focus on enhancing emotional awareness and nurturing skills in strength based treatment.

Dr. Kindlon will help us to:

1. Identify the social and emotional challenges and pressure that boys and men encounter.
2. Recognize how destructive patterns in childhood contribute to inadequate nurturing skills in many adult men.
3. Illustrate interventions to help boys and men cultivate emotional awareness and empathy, as part of their masculinity.
4. Assist clients in learning new, nurturing behaviors in place of others that may be destructive in family relations.

Regardless of your gender or profession, this will be an important presentation. Who knows? perhaps the females who attend might learn some techniques to help the men in their lives (children, spouses, colleagues, clients, patients, students etc) become more caring individuals. The males who attend probably have a lot to learn about the importance of learning better nurturing skills. Perhaps I will arm-wrestle any guy who disagrees (just-kidding).

I'm looking forward to this conference next week and the continued discussion on the BLOG afterwards.

Foundations Community Partnership - Dr. Jeff Bernstein Workshop

For those lucky enough to attend, I thought that Dr. Jeff Bernstein provided a fun and informative workshop today based on his book "10 Days to a Less Defiant Child." His presentation included his efforts as a therapist and a father. Although he is an "expert" in treating adolescents with ODD, I thought that the strength of his presentation was his authenticity as a person. He established himself as a caring person trying to meet and understand each adolescent at their level, without judgement. He readily admonished himself when "judgement" mistakes occured and processed his thoughts outloud with remarkable transparency. Dr. Bernstein openly acknowledged his own "mistakes" as a parent and a therapist. I did notice a few people around me reacting to his suggestion that contingincy reinforcement is simply "bribary". Perhaps the behaviorists among use may be willing to share some thoughts?Dr. Bernstein said that he would check this BLOG for comments. He can be reached at www.DRJEFFONELINE.COM or at Drjeff4help@aol.com.Please feel free to offer your thoughts or suggestions
April 2, 2008 2:28 PM