Taking place on Saturday 15 June 2019 at The Child Centre for Mental Health London the latest conference hosted by CCMH will address ‘What children and teenagers need to know about life in order to live well’. Through fascinating film footage and deeply moving case material, teachers and parents can learn how to present science and psychology-informed key information to young people on vital topics such as living with your emotional brain, why love hurts, how to make up after a row and knowing your brain chemicals so you can calm down effectively after stressful emotions instead of self-harming or turning to drink or drugs. Other topics to be covered include what drugs do to your brain, the key causes of depression and anxiety, how to prevent mental illness, how to keep going when you want to give up, why people want to die and why they want to live, what you need to know about sexuality and gender, how to manage friendships well and how to be a great parent.
Speakers – eminent psychologist and neuroscientist Dr Margot Sunderland, trauma informed practice and emotional health trainer Clare Williams and psychotherapist and transgender specialist Bob Withers – will present research evidence showing that supporting young people and parents with psycho-education such as the aforementioned topics can significantly reduce mental health problems and dramatically improve the ability of couples, families and friends to resolve conflict with dignity, and love in peace not torment.
The aim of the conference is to help delegates understand who should impart thi
s knowledge to young people (do-able training implications for non-psychologists) and how to move from the anxiety of ‘pseudo-competency’ to complete competence in delivering psychological and neuroscience-based PSHE-based mental health education in schools.
They will also learn what aspects of prevention and alleviation of human suffering cannot be addressed effectively through didactic learning (providing students with the required theoretical knowledge) and require instead relational change through individual face-to-face contact time with an emotionally-available adult in the school or home environment.
Presenters at the conference will highlight the need for mental health programmes in schools to draw on 50 years of peer-reviewed psychological studies about the human condition and over 30 years of research in affective neuroscience (the study of the neural mechanisms of emotion) if we are to see an improvement in the mental wellbeing of young people and PSHE in today’s schools.
