Parent educators, teachers, daycare workers, guidance counsellors and many others, work in fields that demand a lot of them and on some days give back very little. The following programs support these workers by providing simple ideas to maintain personal balance, reduce stress, and gain confidence in their supportive role. The workshops provide a process for grading common parenting tools and an understanding of how to improve ineffective tools rather than remove them. Most of these sessions can be adapted and offered from a one hour overview seminar, to a full day, hands-on workshop.

Secrets to encourage, empower & engage parents

Providing support to parents is not always easy … but it should always be rewarding!  When parents come to us they are looking for support and encouragement.  Building rapport with parents often means walking that fine line between maintaining a professional image and sharing our own parenting challenges.  The ability to assess group dynamics and find ways to engage participants without losing the focus of the session is an acquired skill.  This one hour seminar is designed for the front line worker looking for ideas to build rapport and open the door wide for connecting with parents.

Supporting parents when it’s not your job

This workshop is set up for people who work with parents but do not necessarily have the background to do it with confidence.  It provides ideas for creating positive connections and effective communication along with F.R.E.E. tools and techniques for working with children.  It has a strong focus on self care and provides simple ideas for maintaining personal balance.

Parenting in a world of experts

This workshop is often an accompaniment to the keynote overview and offers a deeper look at how we can enlighten, encourage, educate and empower others so parents can feel more supported and better able to do the task they have set out to do.  It is typically a three hour workshop providing ample opportunity to work through some of our societal issues and develop a plan of action for moving forwards.

Because we’re worth it; A day of wellness

This workshop provides an opportunity for participants to gain plenty of insight into what makes them tick as well as some extra ideas to expand their current skill-set.  It includes wellness ideas geared at helping them relax and recharge their batteries.  It is a nice cross between spoil me a little and make it worth my while.  This workshop can be delivered in a full day or ½ day format.

Understanding Your Toolbox

This workshop was originally designed for teachers and has since been used with educational assistants, university students and parents.  It focuses on understanding the skill-set we all carry with us, along with the many factors that influence our response on any given day.  It provides plenty of opportunity for self reflection while offering ideas and suggestions for further growth.  It can be delivered in a ½ day format although often participants prefer a longer session (4 hours).

When Caring Starts to Hurt

Working with people who have experienced trauma in their lives takes its toll on the most practiced worker.   This workshop is a day of rebalancing yourself and learning strategies to help you avoid future potential problems (like compassion fatigue, vicarious trauma and burnout).  It is a gift for those who care.

Support for those who care: Trainings

 

Bringing out the Best in Ourselves and Others
    … for Parent Educators, Social Workers, Teachers and Daycare Workers

This 60 hour course was created to train Parent Educators and blossomed into a life changing opportunity.  It is divided into 5 separate sections  - each including 12 hours of instruction.  These programs could be run separately as personal/professional development pieces or collectively to train as a Parent Educator.  An internship would be required to complete the Parent Educator option.

Course #1:  Understanding the family
This program looks at how to create a highly successful family built on governing principles.  It focuses on the programming that makes each of us unique and how that can impact our family life.  At the completion of this course participants will understand the many challenges families face and will have the beginning tools for helping families get back on track.

Course #2:  Developing the SELF
This course focuses on the importance of self worth – for ourselves, our children and our clients. Because the subconscious mind plays such an important role in this area, we will focus on it quite extensively and learn some simple ideas that can result in major changes.  By the end of this course, participants will have a good understanding of the subconscious mind and be able to use this information to help clients effect change should they so desire.

Course #3:  Keys to relationship success
The dyad relationship is a complicated yet rewarding part of being human.  In this course we will look at why many relationships suffer and how, with a little work, they can be turned in a positive direction.   At the completion of this course participants will understand the dynamics of relationships, the benefits (and tools) of emotional control, the common pitfalls for couples and ideas to help people climb out of them. 

Course #4: Developing skills and techniques as a parent
This course will focus on the many skills required to be an effective parent.  We will provide you with plenty of tools to use with your own family and as a parent educator.  When this course is completed you will have a fully loaded toolbox to draw from and will understand how to apply those tools to parents in a group situation.

Course #5:  Parent Educating with style
In this course we will focus on the finishing touches for developing your skills as a parent educator.  We will talk about how to handle the many situation that may arise in a group setting and provide you with an opportunity to practice in a safe environment.  When you finish this course you will be able to confidently teach others what you have learned in this program.

Support for those who care: Keynotes

Parenting in a world of experts

This entertaining one hour keynote is set up to help participants look at parenting with fresh eyes. It is motivating, educational and inspiring…the perfect way to start off a conference or training session.

How to empower parents to be their best

It’s not what you know…it’s how you share what you know that makes a difference when dealing with parents.  The simple ideas revealed in this motivational talk are insightful, practical and easy to use.

Support for those who care: Coaching

Putting ideas into action

Implementation is the point where many new ideas get shelved.  I offer group coaching to help organizations overcome this obstacle and make their investment worthwhile.

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Parent support: Workshops and seminars

The 4C's of Positive Discipline

This one hour workshop focuses on some common parenting pitfalls and provides guidance to ensure parents are headed in a positive direction. A variety of examples, stories, and parenting tips makes it ideal for a fun and valuable learning experience.

Sibling Rivalry: Helping our kids get along

This workshop can be offered with or without the sibling rivalry component.  Our kids need to know how to get along with others and we need to know how to help them.  This seminar is available in a one or two hour format.

Parent Power: what it is and how we can use it to our advantage

This powerful topic provides information every parent must know about being a parent.  It explains what our power is, shares how we can use our power effectively, and points out things we might be doing to lessen it.  One or two hour formats available.

Triple P Seminars

Debbie Pokornik is trained and accredited in all levels of the Positive Parenting Program (Triple P) brought to Manitoba by Healthy Child.  Triple P offers three 2 hour seminars aimed at helping parents develop positive approaches and strategies for raising children in today’s world. Seminars can be offered as a complete series or individually.

Seminar #1:  The Power of Positive Parenting
Children of all ages benefit from a safe, secure and loving environment.  Positive parenting involves creating a family environment that meets these needs.  This is important to raising healthy, well-adjusted children who have the skills and confidence they need to succeed at school and in their relationships with others.  Positive parenting reduces the stress of parenting by providing skills to work with challenging situations and increasing the rewarding and enjoyable experiences. 

Seminar #2:  Raising Confident Competent Children
Being able to get along with others requires strong communication skills, self confidence, respect, and an ability to problem solve and cooperate. Knowing how to pass these skills on to our children can be thought provoking at the best of times – and downright infuriating at the worst. This seminar looks at some of the positive parenting principles to support parents in this ever-challenging task.

Seminar #3:  Raising Resilient Children
Helping children recognize and express their feelings in an acceptable way is one of the steps to teaching resiliency.  Helping them adopt a positive outlook on life and develop skills for dealing with difficult and stressful times is also important. This workshop focuses on these very important pieces to help our children grow into resilient, responsible individuals. All children experience stressful events in their lives, having skills to deal with it is a lifelong gift we can provide. 

Triple P website (International)
Triple P website (Manitoba Canada)

Surviving at Parenting

The Surviving at Parenting program was created as 12 separate sessions aimed at helping parents deal with the very challenging task of raising children.  Topics are tailored to meet the needs of the parents in the group with special emphasis on applying the information to real life situations.  A sample of topics that could be covered is as follows:

Understanding your family   
Every family is different.  Understanding all the pieces that influence yours is a great starting point to moving forwards. 

Emotional Children – how do we help them?
When people experience strong emotions it can be a real challenge for them to control their responses.  Our kids are no exception.  This session looks at what we can do as parents to help our kids tune into their emotions and learn how to control them.

Raising Disciplined Children
Fostering self discipline in your child is a task worth looking at and working towards.  This workshop looks at discipline – what it is, how we teach it and perhaps most importantly how we can help our children internalize it.

Where did that come from? 
Knowing why you react the way you do is the first step to being able to control it. Learning about the kind of things that get your back up, give you energy or help you stay calm can be very enlightening for a parent.  Understanding what makes your child tick can make it much easier to be supportive and avoid some challenging moments.  This forum focuses on helping parents understand why they do the things they do so they can stay in the driver’s seat. 

Positively GREAT Communication
This forum focuses on ways to communicate that boosts self esteem, builds strong relationships and still gets the message across.

Taking the Bull out of the Bullfights; recognizing and decreasing power struggles
Fights about eating, taking a bath, and going to bed are examples of power struggles that often arise in a house with children.  Knowing that it’s impossible for adults to win once they engage in this struggle with kids is half the battle.  Knowing what to do when you’ve already engaged is the other half.

Beware the parenting pitfalls
Raising kids that are confident, caring and trustworthy is a difficult job.  Keeping your cool when your child is pushing every button you have, is a definite challenge.  This workshop looks at some common parenting pitfalls with emphasis on providing real life tools to take home and use right away.

Confident Kids
Raising children who feel good about who they are is no easy task.  We want our kids to be confident, capable, individuals – strong enough to stand up for their beliefs, yet smart enough to be open-minded. 

Let’s talk bullying
Bullying is an issue every one of us faces at some point in our lives.  Our kids need skills and information in order to deal with this challenge – even if they do not appear to be impacted by it today.  When it comes to bullying, we all have a role to play.

Parent support: Keynotes

How "hyper-parenting" can hurt us all

Many parents start out trying to be the best parent they can be and end up trying to run the whole show for their kids. When this happens it causes problems for the kids, the parents and society as a whole. This keynote provides insight into why this is a problem in a humerous and thought provoking way.

 

Being the parent you always wanted to be

This keynote focuses on understanding why we parent the way we do and simple changes we can make to steady our course.  It takes some of the mystery out of this challenging job and provides ideas and support to deal with the rest.

Simple tips for the busy parent

This presentation provides natural, realistic, guidance to help parents build strong relationships with their kids and feel good about themselves in the process.  It is both entertaining and enlightening.

Being a “Cool” parent

This motivational presentation provides five easy strategies to help parents keep their cool despite their kid’s best attempts to engage them in battle. It is fun, encouraging and inspirational.

Parent support: Coaching

Getting over the bump

The time between learning new material and putting it into action is usually the hardest.  Spending some time helping parents implement some of the strategies they have learned is often the difference between learning a tool and using it.

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School and community support: Workshops and seminars

Implementing Character Building Programs; From Theory to Practice

Many schools put energy into finding a Character Building Program that they believe will work in their school.  They send a team for training or bring in an expert to teach the idea to the whole school.  In both cases, staff walk away feeling excited, but uncertain as to how to actually use it. Questions arise about how to transfer the skills to the real life situations they are facing and the frustration begins.  This workshop is tailored to the needs of your school and is focused on tool creation, practice and implementation.

Because we’re worth it; A day of wellness

This workshop provides an opportunity for participants to gain plenty of insight into what makes them tick as well as some extra ideas to expand their current skill-set.  It includes wellness ideas geared at helping them relax and recharge their batteries.  It is a nice cross between spoil me a little and make it worth my while.  This workshop can be delivered in a full day or ½ day format.

Understanding Your Toolbox

This workshop was originally designed for teachers and has since been used with educational assistants, university students and parents.  It focuses on understanding the skill-set we all carry with us, along with the many factors that influence our response on any given day.  It provides plenty of opportunity for self reflection while offering ideas and suggestions for further growth.  It can be delivered in a ½ day format although often participants prefer a longer session (4 hours).

When Caring Starts to Hurt

Many staff members in schools will find themselves providing support to people who have experienced trauma in their lives.  This is challenging to deal with and can take its toll on the staff member. This workshop is a day of rebalancing yourself and learning strategies to help you avoid future potential problems (like compassion fatigue, vicarious trauma and burnout).  Just because crisis is not on your mandate, doesn’t mean you won’t have to deal with these kinds of situations.

 

Mothers and Daughters in Touch Facilitator Training

Mothers and Daughters in Touch is an innovative community-based program, which promotes healthy and effective communication between mothers and daughters aged 9-14 years.  The program works on strengthening girls' self-esteem and healthy body image, as well as on skill development for problem solving and decision making.   For the mothers, it works on expanding their capacities as mentor and resource person.

The training for facilitators is two days of training and typically requires participants to have prior knowledge of the facilitation process. 

*The availability of this program is subject to approval by Youville Centre, Winnipeg

Debbie Pokornik is a trained MDIT facilitator and has provided numerous facilitator training programs throughout Manitoba.

Understanding Self-regulation in the Early Years

Self-regulation is closely connected to school readiness and future academic achievement.  This hands-on session provides a nice blend of background information with tools a teacher can take and use in the classroom the next day.

Defusing the Parent Bomb

Working with parents is not always an easy thing, especially if their child is not exactly “loving” school. Understanding how to communicate in a way that reduces defensiveness and increases connection can make the difference between working together and an actual explosion.  This workshop provides lots of great ideas and strategies to help with this challenge.

Working with Diverse Learners

Students are individuals with diverse needs and personalities.  This workshop is all about understanding how relationship factors into all learning and what staff can do to help each student move in a positive direction.  It is an excellent session for teachers, educational assistants, guidance counselors and resource teachers.

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Custom Presentations

Debbie’s education and experience allows her to offer dynamic presentations on a variety of social and emotional skill development topics. If you have an idea of what you would like, she would be happy to create a presentation tailored to your specific needs. 

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