Children & Focusing Roundtable Series - Coping with Exams & Grades: How Focusing Can Help

This event is full and registration is closed.

Monday, June 21, 2021  7:00-9:00 am EDT (New York - US)

Times worldwide: convert to your time zone

In many countries around the world, the start of summer is the time for taking several exams or tests in a row. In addition to the stresses of preparing for and taking the exams, children must cope with the results of their exams. Their academic performance affects their future: how they enter summer break, what next year will look like, and, indeed, their potential life opportunities and success.

Being assessed though exams and grades causes a lot of stress for children and their families and can trigger many  different emotions and experiences. Children, their parents, family members, and friends, as well as the larger society, have different  views and meanings related to exams and grades, adding to the overall stress of the experience of academic assessment.

In this Roundtable we will connect with our own experiences of being at school, taking those exams and going home with the results. We invite you to explore how we can support children during these stressful times and explore different kinds of expressing and supporting.

Questions and themes we might explore together are:

• How can we create a supportive environment for children at home or at school during their exams?
• In what way do your own personal experiences color your conversations with children on this topic?
• How do we speak about exams, tests, and grades?
• How can you react to statements like “I can’t do this”, “I am stupid”, “I will stress out”, “My life is ruined”, ... ?

Other topics and themes may emerge from our mutual exploration during the Roundtable.

Who might be particularly interested in attending this Roundtable?

Anyone who is around children, especially working with children in groups or classes. Also,  anyone who would like to explore the inner child experiences of being in this situation and still feels their effects on their present life.

CONNECTION>CONVERSATION>COMMUNITY

What to expect from Focusing Roundtables: Each Focusing Roundtable is designed to promote informal peer-to-peer conversation. Rather than acting as expert presenters, the Hosts will serve as conversation moderators to encourage sharing and exploration of the topics from the participants’ own perspectives.  All participants’ sharings are welcome and valuable, no matter what level of experience or knowledge you have on the topic. To preserve the nature of informal conversation, the program will be offered live only and no recordings will be available. Registration is limited and on a first-come, first served basis. Participants are encouraged to create follow up opportunities for connection among themselves after the Roundtable.

The TIFI Membership Committee is pleased to offer this series of Focusing Roundtables designed especially for members of the Institute. If you are not a member, please join at http://www.focusing.org/membership, then return to this page to register. This program will afford members a valuable opportunity to engage in casual peer-to-peer conversation with other members who share Focusing-related interests.

About your hosts:

Joke Van Hoeck has been a child psychologist and psychotherapist for more than 18 years. A  mother of three children (ages 3, 13 and 16), she can’t imagine a life without Focusing. She is a certified Focusing Professional and Focusing oriented therapist. Joke lives and works in Belgium and has a special interest in bringing Focusing to parents who are looking for a new way of dealing with the daily life struggles in raising children.

Laura Bavalics is an early childhood educator, play mentor, and drama teacher. She is a Certified Focusing Professional and a Focusing-oriented educator, who has been working with young children, parents, and professionals for over twenty-five years. She is a professional director of the Pendula inclusive kindergarten program for children in foster care and with special needs at the Világszép Foundation in Hungary. She is also teaching at ELTE University, Hungary, in their College of Education. Laura is a member of the International Leadership Council and the Children's Focusing Advisory Board.

René Veugelers is a Coordinator specialising in Children’s Focusing, with an emphasis on the non-verbal world. René teaches parents, therapists, teachers and others how to be with children in a Focusing way, how to (re)connect to their own inner child experiences and how to integrate creativity and flexibility into their life and work. His work and experiences as a psychiatric nurse and as an art therapist with children, of any age, embraces an expanded richness of creative elements and supports a natural unfolding of creative process. René lives and works in the Netherlands, where he teaches Children Focusing and specializes in working with children with ADHD, ADD, trauma and attachment disorder.