Guiding Our Youth: Navigating Attachment and the Transition Into Adulthood with Dr. Gordon Neufeld and Brother Richard

Introduction

We are living in a society and culture that does not facilitate healthy attachments between young people and their care givers nor does it provide support for the ominous journey from childhood to adulthood. This transition has never been so daunting. Parents and care givers are searching for help and direction and are bombarded with conflicting advice. The particular advice usually prioritises the particular recommended action over the relationship and rarely provides the context needed to truly understand the behaviour of the young person. This Conference seeks to offer a clear and profound approach and framework with which to understand child and adolescent development and leave participants with practical steps in helping young people in their lives make the transition to emotionally mature and responsible adults.

Who is this for?

This Conference is directed at parents, teachers, youth workers, child psychologists, social workers and anyone who is passionate about addressing the crisis in adolescence many of our young people are experiencing.

About the Speakers:

Dr. Gordon Neufeld

Dr. Gordon Neufeld is a world renowned developmental psychologist, international speaker and bestselling author of the book Hold Onto Your Kids: Why Parents Need to Matter More than Peers with Gabor Maté which has been translated into 35 languages. This pivotal book tackles one of the most disturbing trends of our time: children today increasingly look to their peers for direction—their values, identity, and codes of behavior. This “peer orientation” undermines family cohesion, interferes with healthy development, and fosters a hostile and sexualized youth culture. Children end up becoming overly conformist, desensitized, and alienated; being “cool” matters more to them than anything else.

Hold Onto Your Kids explains the causes of this crucial breakdown of parental influence—and demonstrates ways to “reattach” to sons and daughters, establish the proper hierarchy in the home, make kids feel safe and understood, and earn back your children’s loyalty and love.  By helping to reawaken parenting instincts innate to us all, this book will empower parents to be for their children what nature intended: a true source of contact, security, and warmth.

Before he retired, Dr. Gordon Neufeld had accumulated more than 40 years of experience as a clinical psychologist with children and youth and those responsible for them. Dr. Neufeld is widely considered to be a leading interpreter and communicator of the developmental approach. He provides a comprehensive model that has evolved from years of synthesis and distillation. The result is an integrated developmental approach rooted in depth psychology, grounded in the developmental paradigm, saturated in attachment theory, congruent with current neurological research, and honed by over 40 years of professional practice, parenting and personal reflection His model has clear and profound implications for parents, teachers, youth workers and social workers. In the words of one fellow psychologist, “the uniqueness of Gordon is that in a day of focusing on the superficial and specializing in the specifics, he goes for depth and the big picture. He leads us to a way of thinking and seeing that penetrates to the very essence of things and then opens doors for change.”

Brother Richard Hendrick

Brother Richard is a priest-friar of the Capuchin Franciscan Order, poet, author and youth programme creator.

He has released two books focused on meditation and mindfulness to critical and commercial acclaim, which are Still Points: A Guide to Living the Mindful, Meditative Way (2022) and Calming the storms: Meditation as a Path to Inner Peace and Happiness (2024). For over 20 years he has worked to bring the insights of the Christian Contemplative tradition to greater public awareness, particularly with reference to modern Mindfulness theory. He has worked with the Sanctuary for many years developing many courses and trainings particularly for young people and their teachers.

Brother Richard co-created The Sanctuary’s innovative programme The Warrior with Niamh Bruce, which addresses the void of initiation for young people in our society harnessing meditation, movements and insights from the wisdom traditions to empower young people to navigate their world with more awareness and reflection.

The day will also end with a panel discussion between Dr. Neufeld, Brother Richard and a special guest.

To purchase tickets in bulk and learn more about potential partnerships for this Conference please contact James at programmes@sanctuary.ie

This Conference is CPD accredited. All participants can receive a CPD certificate after attending the Conference.

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