Hand in Hand's Foundations Course for Professionals
8-Week Course for All Professionals Working with Children and Families; Therapists, Coaches, Health and Wellness Professionals, and people interested in using these Tools in their workplace or community.
What to expect
- Learn a paradigm-shifting approach on how emotions function and how they can be responded to in order to shift challenging behaviors, increase connection and encourage growth.
- Begin using five concrete trauma-responsive caregiving and peer-support tools that attend to both the emotional needs of adults and the children in their care, buffer children against hard times, and disrupt the transmission of trauma to the next generation.
- Join discussions and discourse on developmental theory, with a focus on practical and experiential application.
- Learn tools that strengthen the social-emotional foundation necessary for children’s growth, learning and recovery from old hurts.
- Increase your confidence in responding to children’s emotions and behaviors.
- Attend small group mentoring with 90-minute weekly meetings online led by a Hand in Hand Instructor.
- Gain expertise in the approach as you introduce and practice the tools in your own family and with those you work with
5 Tools
Special Time
Put your child in charge for a short chunk of time, as you delight in them.
Setting Limits
Stop off-track behavior with love and respect.
Stay Listening
Listen deeply with warmth and attention at the most challenging times.
Play Listening
Connect as you take the less powerful role and listen for the laughter.
Listening Partnerships
Exchange listening time with another parent to release stress.
About Hand in Hand
For 33 years, Hand in Hand has supported parents and professionals to nurture social-emotional health for themselves and the children in their care. Hand in Hand provides tools to support children’s emotional development, which helps parents strengthen their parent-child connection. Hand in Hand has five unique tools, and is a trauma-responsive, evidence-based approach.
FAQ
Most frequent questions and answers
Each of the five Listening Tools in the framework works well independently and in tandem. You can begin using the tools right away and you will see results almost as soon as you begin to use them. During the class, you can draw on guidance from your Instructor to problem-solve and trouble-shoot how to get the best from the tools. You’ll also learn how to build support for yourself after the class, and you’ll find Hand in Hand’s community a warm and vibrant place to ask questions and gain support.
Expect to spend between 4 and 6 hours per week working through the materials, including your mentoring group calls. It does pay to keep on top of the week’s modules because you will use your group sessions to really explore the focus topics.
That said, you can begin using what you learn from day one, (as in, the minute you log into your online learning space). Feel free to go ahead and read through the modules, videos, and audios ahead of schedule if that helps you better manage your time.
Even better, many participants say they look forward to connecting with peers and receiving support and understanding in weekly call-groups.
This time allows you to unload your struggles, whether that’s related to your time-stretched schedule or other things that keep you up at night.
You emerge calmer and more energized knowing you have a supportive, wise community caring for you. In fact, many past call groups keep their weekly calls going long after sessions end.
It’s definitely the program’s secret sauce, and one that keeps on giving. Like you.
In six to eight weeks, you’ll have built a wonderful supportive space for you when times get hard, and you’ll have a whole new and workable system to bring to your family or your work.
And you’ll be using them to connect, support and strengthen relationships year after year.
You have a great foundation, since the Hand in Hand philosophy is very much aligned with leading trauma-evidence findings.
In addition to sharing a paradigm-shifting understanding of children’s emotional functioning and behavior, this is one of the only programs to offer practical, non-punitive tools that support current theory on social-emotional well-being and foster real healing and change.
The Hand in Hand approach addresses strategies to enhance children’s and adults’ well-being with equal importance.
Both concrete and profound, the Hand in Hand Parenting Listening Tools can provide immediate support and relief to an overwhelmed parent, and offer the possibility of long-term transformation.
If you are an educator or professional working with children and/or parents, you’ll also benefit from this restorative element of the program.
Each weekly session is a mixture of instruction, sharing of personal experience using the Listening Tools, mentoring in the use of the approach, and group listening time that is grounded in our approach.
Calls last 60 minutes in the Starter and Foundations Class, and 90 minutes for the Professionals Intensive courses.
You’ll learn from one another and from your own personal emotional work in the class, giving you direct experience of the tools as you practice them.
Calls are warm, open, and responsive. Many past participants so look forward to the support and connection gained through the calls that they continue them even once the intensive is over. We find them a wonderful way to dial back into the approach, and build support for the strenuous work you do.