Agenda
8:15-9:00 a.m.—Registration
9:00-10:15 a.m.—Welcome and Keynote
10:15-10:30 a.m.—Break
10:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m.—Four Breakout Sessions
12:30-1:15 p.m.—Lunch
1:15-3:15 p.m.—Four Breakout Sessions (repeated)
Program
Keynote Address:
STRESSED OUT !
Recognizing Stress in Yourself and Students and Developing Stress-Resilient Strategies
This keynote address will look at stress from a variety of perspectives. The positive and negative aspects of stress will be highlighted along with its health implications. You’ll discuss strategies for managing stress, as well as how to turn stressful situations into opportunities. You’ll learn how to recognize stress indicators in yourself and your students, become aware of your “tipping point” when stress becomes anxiety or burnout. Coping strategies that you can employ for your own well-being or impart to stressed-out students will be presented.
Keynote Speaker: Barbara White, Ph.D. in Developmental/Educational Psychology, is a faculty member in UNH’s Occupational Therapy Department where she teaches a course called “Stressed Out: The Nature of Human Stress.” Her research interests are in stress and its relation to health, and optimal, meaningful engagement in activities and occupations in children and adults. Among her research projects, she has studied stress responses in children diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder, and she also examined the relationship stress, health and school or work in both adults and children. She is also interested in stimulant medication abuse and attention disorders in children and adults. She was the recipient of UNH’s College of Health and Human Services 2007 Teaching Excellence Award.
Breakout Sessions
The following sessions will be repeated in the afternoon.
Choose one session to attend in the morning and one in the afternoon.
Managing Stress and
Preventing Burnout
Professionals of all types—teachers, counselors and social workers, and healthcare providers—are under constant and considerable stress. Often you are unaware of the emotional and physical toll this stress takes until you experience burnout. The affects of burnout may manifest itself in mild to more severe ways--for instance, causing you to become angry and impatient with the people you work with, lose the ability to experience empathy or lead you to leave your profession. This session will help you recognize the symptoms of burnout and prevent it. You’ll learn stress management techniques that are easy to use and extremely effective.
Presenter: Christine Miller, Ed.M., L.C.M.H.C., has over 30 years of experience in treating adolescents. She has worked with teenagers in public school, juvenile detention, family planning and as a group home director. She is currently a psychotherapist in private practice at Women’s Counseling Center in Bedford, where she treats adolescent girls in an out-patient setting and consults to a residential group home for girls.
A Guide to Understanding
Stress and Learning:
The Brain's Role
The human brain mobilizes a series of events during stressful events to handle the moment and to cope with the aftermath. The cortex, limbic, endocrine, immune, and cardiovascular systems are all involved in responding to stress. Brain and body responses are short-term, including a racing heart, sweaty palms, and a throbbing head, and long-term, with high blood pressure, insomnia, mental clouding, indecision, and labile moods. Stress alters the brain with a myriad of responses that increase the risk of cognitive, affective, and physical problems. When academic learning is accompanied by stressful, anxiety-provoking, and humiliating events, the short- and long-term stress responses are elicited. This session will explore the brain’s role in stressful learning so you have a deeper understanding of some of the physiological and emotional affects that may be at work in stressed-out students.
Presenter: Anita Remig, Ed.D., has worked with children and families for over 30 years. She gives seminars on ADHD, PDD, LD, and the human brain throughout the country.
Dealing with Difficult Individuals in the School Setting
Who is your difficult person-a colleague, administrator, student or parent? How do you deal with difficult interactions? How much does it stress you out? This session will explore some of the different types of difficult people that you may encounter in your work, help you to identify what “pushes your buttons,” and teach you how to handle each difficult type in a positive way that reduces stress and builds communication.
Presenter: Teresa Locacio George, M.A. in Speech Communication, is founder and principal of Speakwell, a communication training firm, focusing on communication skills in the workplace. She has taught a variety of communication classes at many colleges, including Penn State and UMass. With over 20 years’ experience in training, teaching, singing, acting and storytelling, she helps participants to reach their communication goals.
Teaching and Counseling Youth in Troubled Times
Today’s teachers and counselors face the dilemma of educating and helping children and youth who bear the stigmata of our modern culture--educational disadvantage, mental health diagnoses, family breakdown, community evolution, vocational uncertainty, financial insecurity, and moral nihilism. Teachers and counselors often are expected to be all things to all constituents, playing the role of judge, knowledge source, learning assistant, referee, detective, group leader, surrogate parent, and target for hostility. This session examines these roles in a climate that goes beyond the demands of pedagogy. The purpose will be to help you redefine your purpose and address issues that cause student stress. The goal is to assist you in looking at the dilemmas of teaching and youth counseling in new ways, to discover ways of defining problems to make them more manageable, and to renew the sense of satisfaction that teaching and counseling can bestow
Presenter: Arthur DiRocco, Ph.D., is a licensed psychologist in private practice, specializing in working with children and adolescents who exhibit behavioral and emotional difficulties. He has been a consulting psychologist for adjudicated youth and has conducted risk assessments for schools and the courts.
Download the conference brochure
General Information and How to Register
Location
The conference will be held at UNH Manchester, 400 Commercial St. For information about parking, click here. For more info about the location call (603) 641-4350.
4 Ways to Register
(refer to CRN 25785)
On the Web : Click here
By Phone: Call (603) 862-2015 or 1-(800) 313-5327 with credit card information.
By Mail or Fax: Click here to download a pdf of the registration form for mailing or faxing to (603) 862-0655.
Cost and Refund Policy
Conference cost is $189 and includes lunch, breaks, and materials. Refunds, less a $25 processing fee, will be given if written cancellation is received five business days prior to the conference.
For More Information
About the Conference: Call (603) 862-1739
About Registration: Call (603) 862-2015 or (800) 313-5327
About more UNH Professional Development & Training Offerings: Call (603) 862-4234 or visit www.learn.unh.edu/pcw
Elective in Certificate Program -- Coaching Children & Teens
This is an elective in the UNH Certificate Program, Coaching Children & Teens.
You do not need to enroll in the Certificate to attend this conference.
For information about the Certificate Program, click here.
