Professional Development
for Teachers, Counsellors and Other Caring Professionals
Learn how to support grieving children their way
Does this sound like you? (Or others in your team?)
You work in the education, counselling, health or grief support sector supporting children and teens. You are passionate about, and good at, the work you do. Increasingly, you find yourself wanting to do more to support the bereaved children and teens you work with, yet you’re unsure what that ‘more’ looks like. You’re doing their absolute best, yet at the end of the day, your best, never feels like enough. You care deeply for those in your care, sometimes wondering if they care a little too much.
If you can relate to this, know that you’re not alone. And, that there is a way forward.
I support huge-hearted caring professionals by offering an alternative lens to support children and teens in their grief. Mattering-reinforcing care is an approach to caring and supporting others that recognises the critical role of mattering. Children only experience behaviours intended to be care and support, as caring and supportive, when those behaviours reinforce to them that they matter. This approach requires a change in the way we view and support grieving children and teens.
When we flick that switch – adopt a mattering-reinforcing approach to care - two things happen:
1) Working with and supporting grieving children becomes less stressful and more satisfying, knowing that you’re making the difference you so desperately want to make. Adopting a mattering-reinforcing approach takes the guess work out of providing support.
2) The children and teens being cared for and supported – students, clients, patients – receive care that is based on their actual, rather than assumed, needs. They feel seen, heard, and cared for at a whole new level.
Mattering-reinforcing care is transforming care and support.
Masterclasses & workshops
Learn how to care for and support children in a way that they will experience as caring and supportive.
I offer a range of 90-minute masterclasses and half-day workshops. These can be standalone sessions, integrated into your next team development or offsite day, or combined to make a full-day experience.
Included with each masterclass or workshop are briefing calls to understand your specific context and needs, and customisation of the content, as required.
An Introduction to Mattering-reinforcing Care: Rethinking What It Means to Care For and Support Grieving Children
Supporting Children Affected by Suicide, Their Way
Hear Me, See Me: What Grieving Children Want the Adults Caring for Them to Know [customised for teachers, counsellors, specific care contexts]
Practical, Activity-based Ways of Working with Grieving Children
Who’s Caring For You? Staying Well as a Caring Professional
Topics
“Just amazing - research, knowledge, practical, passionate, authentic. Thank you Shelley.”“All teachers and school counsellors need to attend this. I wish I'd known, what I do now, years ago!”"Brilliant. Please present to the Government to help shape policy."“A quality workshop; the information was invaluable; the authentic delivery with passion and no apology was amazing….would definitely encourage others to attend.”“Shelley radiated such a 'heart' for the subject matter. I came in with very little knowledge about supporting children and now feel equipped.”“Articulate, informative and highly practical. Thank you!”From Invisibility to Mattering: rethinking care and support for grieving children
I invite you to watch my TEDx talk. Here I share the findings of my PhD research that lead me to develop the approach, mattering-reinforcing care, with specific examples relating to children’s experiences of returning to school following the suicide of a loved one.
