Working with families with a child with anxiety – a solution-focused approach

This workshop is suitable for social workers engaged and supporting families with a child with Anxiety.

The workshop will begin at 9.30am and finish at 4.30pm on the 14th February  and will take place in Dublin.

Workshop Content:

Drawing on the professional textbook Counselling children adolescents and families: A strengths based approach and the evidence-based  Parents Plus Programmes, this workshop will introduce participants to a solution-focused model for working with children, adolescents and families.

Part 1 Understanding Anxiety – reviewing the symptoms, causes and treatments for Anxiety in children and adolescents.

Part 2 – Introduction to a strengths-based approach to working with children, adolescents and parents in a way that engages them, provides with support and which is more likely to create a working alliance.

Part 3 – Specific interventions for Anxiety such as  C.B.T. for children and adolescents, family support, parenting groups etc

Biography of Trainer

Matt Mc Dermott  is a Senior Social Worker and a qualified child psychotherapist and has been working for over seventeen years as part of a multi disciplinary team in a child and adolescent mental health service (CAMHS), where he works therapeutically with young people and their parents around a broad range of issues affecting them.

Matt is also an accredited cognitive behavioural therapist He supports clients of all ages around a broad range of issues including depression, anxiety, low self esteem, panic, post traumatic stress disorder and obsessive compulsive disorder.

Dr. John Sharry is a social worker, psychotherapist and solution-focused trainer with over 25 years experience working in Child and Adolescent Mental Health as well as consulting with individuals and organisations. He is founder of the Parents Plus Charity, an adjunct professor at the School of Psychology in University College Dublin and co-founder of SilverCloud Health, an international technology company that develops online mental health programmes for health services.

John is also the co-developer of the award winning Parents Plus Programmes (evidence-based parenting courses) as well as the Working Things Out Programme (a multimedia therapeutic resource for young people overcoming mental health problems) which are used extensively in services and schools. Through SilverCloud Health he has written several evidence-based online treatment programmes for depression, anxiety and stress which are used in Ireland, Europe and the USA.

He is the author of fourteen books in counselling and mental health including three best selling positive psychology books such asBecoming a Solution Detective, Solution-Focused Groupwork, and Counselling Children Adolescents and Families and seven popular self-help books for parents and families, such as Parenting Teenagers,  Parenting preschoolers and young children, When Parents Separate- helping your children cope, Coping with Depression in Young People and Positive Parenting: Bringing up responsible, well-behaved and happy children. His books have been translated into nine languages including Japanese, Chinese and Arabic.

He  is a regular contributor to radio and the national media, and is a weekly columnist in the Irish Times newspaper, writing on the subject of mental health, parenting and family life.  His practice website is www.solutiontalk.ie

A light lunch and refreshments will be available.