IFCA trainings for foster carers and practitioners in Counties Sligo, Leitrim and Roscommon, in collaboration with Tusla

Using Declarative Language: Communicating with Children who Present with Oppositional and Controlling Behaviour to Gain their Cooperation

In person with Christina Enright

Choose the date and venue most suitable for you:

Thursday 26th November, 10am to 1pm, in Sligo – in the Tusla Offices, Markievicz House, Barrack Street, Sligo

Or

Friday 27th November, 10am to 1pm, in Carrick-on-Shannon – in the Tusla Offices, N4, Attifinlay, Carrick-On-Shannon, Co. Leitrim.

To Book You Place: email Katherine on learning@ifca.ie

Course Overview:

Repeated, interpersonal trauma occurring during critical growth stages often shifts a person’s primary internal state from growth to survival. This fundamentally alters the nervous system, frequently manifesting as an intense need for control or oppositional behaviour. This course considers the power of the use of Declarative language. Declarative language is a powerful tool that reduces the “demand” on a child’s nervous system. In contrast to imperative language, it shares information rather than being about giving directions or ‘orders’ which may be experienced as triggering by the child. Using declarative language creates a connection and invites the child to problem-solve with us rather than submitting to us. It helps to keep the child feeling safe and promotes a relationship that is collaborative rather than adversarial.

Learning Outcomes:

• Understand the link between developmental trauma and tendency towards controlling and oppositional behaviour.
• Understand how fear, anxiety, shame and past experiences can drive controlling or resistant behaviour.
• Understand the difference between deliberate defiance and protective coping strategies.
• Learn how to notice non-verbal and verbal signs that a child is moving into resistance or that a power-struggle may erupt.
• Understand how an adult’s facial expressions, tone of voice, body language and reactions can escalate or deescalate oppositional or controlling behaviour.
• How to recognise triggers in traumatised children that commonly lead to control-seeking or oppositional behaviour.
• How the language we use to guide a child’s behaviour can inadvertently trigger shame and defiance.
• Using relational approaches and communication methods such as declarative language, that help the child to feel safe, regulated and therefore less defensive in their relationships with us.

About Christina Enright

BSc Psychology, Dip in Family Therapy, MA Child Psychotherapy.

Over the past 19 years, Christina has worked as a psychotherapist with children, adolescents, birth parents, foster carers and adoptive parents. Her experience includes the development of a multidisciplinary clinical service for families experiencing trauma and attachment problems who were reluctant to engage with main-stream community social care and mental health services in the UK.

From 2015-2017 Christina provided trauma consultancy to the clinical team developing a children’s service within the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) in the UK.

She delivers training on child development, trauma and attachment both within the NHS and other education and social care systems across the UK and Ireland.  Her special interest is in early childhood development and the impact of trauma on a child’s developing capacities, functioning and behaviour. From her experience working with children who have endured developmental trauma characterised by neglect and abuse, she has found it necessary to use a comprehensive integrated approach in order to address the multiple complexities which such children present with.

Christina returned to live in Ireland in 2016 and currently works as a Developmental Trauma and Attachment specialist providing training, assessment and clinical interventions on behalf of Tusla Child and Family Agency and in independent practice.