Teacher PresentationS

How can teachers support their students’ well-being in our rapidly evolving world
of increasing social pressure and declining mental health? Dr. Suzanne Simpson
relays her research findings from an inpatient psychiatric unit for adolescents who
battle severe mental health and substance use disorders. Suzanne offers insight
into the mystery of the child and adolescent mind. She draws upon her study data,
continuing interactions with youth, contemporary works of various mental health
practitioners, and Indigenous ways of knowing. Her half- and full-day
presentations are relevant for all student ages.​ ​

Lessons From a Youth Concurrent Disorders Centre

What did patients at an adolescent concurrent disorders unit say they needed from educators as their mental health deteriorated and substance use
increased? Findings from this doctoral study use relevant research, youth dialogues, and narratives to explore how we can better foster student wellness.
These lessons offer tangible ways to give more support, understanding and care to all young people. In turn, they give insight into how teachers can find
their own well-being in busy classroom spaces.

​Securely Attached Discipline

To what extent do we maintain “discipline” and how can we do so appropriately and meaningfully? This workshop examines the connection between
supporting youths’ intrinsic longing for relational attachment and maintaining classroom boundaries. We will explore how empathy and compassion are
foundational to safeguarding classroom expectations, and discuss tangible ways to implement securely attached discipline.

Trauma Informed Practice: Our Classroom Way of Being

​What is relevant information to be “trauma-informed?” How can we organically support all students? This workshop enlightens about the experience and effects of trauma from youths’ perspective at an inpatient psychiatric unit. As well, it offers how we teach “trauma-informed” without a list of activities,
frameworks, or programs. We explore how, as caring beings, we meet the needs of all students with the empowerment to create safe and healing spaces for everyone.

Parent PresentationS

How can parents support their child’s well-being in a rapidly evolving world of increasing social pressure and declining mental health? Dr. Suzanne Simpson relays her research findings at an inpatient psychiatric unit for teenagers who battle severe mental health and substance use disorders. Suzanne transfers her classroom discoveries to parental practices, offering insight into the mystery of the child and adolescent mind. She draws upon her continuing work with youth, data and contemporary research, and published works of various mental health practitioners. Her two-hour presentations are relevant for parents of children of all ages. The following can be presented as a four-part series or independently.

Understanding Our Childrens’ Mental Health Challenges

Suzanne explores mental health challenges faced by youth today. This presentation provides the latest understanding of trauma, anxiety, depression, and substance use disorders (TADS). Suzanne gives her students’ lens of lived experience, explaining what young people who struggle with mental health say they feel, perceive, and need. She shares insight from extensive discussions with those from a wide array of cultural, geographic, economic, and familial backgrounds. Suzanne relays adolescent neuroscience, aligning with classroom observations, to explain the perceptions and behaviours of youth.

Lessons for Parents From a Youth Concurrent Disorders Centre: Eight Ways to Support Wellness

This session explores eight tangible ways we can foster wellness. Through data, anecdotes, and narratives, Suzanne presents her primary research findings and the eight youth “heart-desires” that emerged from student dialogues. These eight deep-seated desires give insight into how we can create safe and nurturing spaces that build our students’ self-worth. This session relays the wisdom of young people through stories, illustrations, and perceived experiences. Suzanne provides recent research about relationships, attachment, and behaviour. Concepts of neuroscience and neuroplasticity are also examined.

Lessons for Parents From a Youth Concurrent Disorders Centre: ​Four Parental Ways of Being to Support Wellness

In this presentation, Suzanne suggests a paradigm shift to our classroom spaces. Suzanne gives four ways that we are to “be” in our relationships with our children in the context of how we can offer better support, understanding, and care. This session relies extensively on youths’ lived experiences and perspectives that, according to them, adults have not recognized. Suzanne also discusses insight from the field of psychology and other mental health professionals.

SECURELY ATTACHED DISCIPLINE

To what extent do we maintain “discipline” and how can we do so appropriately and meaningfully? This workshop examines the connection between supporting youths’ intrinsic longing for relational attachment and maintaining classroom boundaries. We will explore how empathy and compassion are foundational to safeguarding classroom expectations, and discuss tangible ways to implement securely attached discipline.