Forthcoming workshops

2013 - 2014

Workshops at Emerson College

Forest Row. East Sussex

Biographical Learning and Parenting - A Development Group Enhancing our capacities to Perceive and to Love - A series of workshops

Workshops at Steiner House
in London

Parenting and Development- Bringing wholeness to the Family

Sunday, 18 May 2014

Raising Children from Birth to 7 Years - How to make children feel secure?

The themes we offer meet the needs of parents for a deeper understanding of their children, and how to bring them up. We will look at the different phases of development in childhood. Using individual situations, we will work with questions and concerns about parenting and influences from the outside world. We will engage in an active process that encourages learning from each other and develops a way of observing that clarifies, heals and inspires.

Lourdes Callen facilitates learning groups on parenting which include experiential exercises, talks and dialogue. She is a Biographical Counsellor with a background in Steiner Early Years Education, working in London, Forest Row and in Spain. She has led groups for 15 years and works with parents from a wide range of backgrounds. She has been working for 15 years supporting families, helping them with their questions, with their recovery from difficulties, and readdressing the balance with their children. In her experience, we can turn situations around to feel happier and more peaceful while we take relationships forwards. In the workshops adults meet each other in a space that encourages support and learning. They bring their questions and experiences, opening the way to new ideas, commitment and enthusiasm for the task of parenting.

Testimonials: "The content of these workshops helped us to have an experience of the kind of wakeful presence that children want us to have. We did exercises to stimulate our ability to observe" "It was amazing to see the immediate difference in my son�s behaviour on my return from the workshop. This must be the simple shift of how I see and understand him". "Having attended the workshop, I feel uplifted; peaceful; more trustful of myself. I was lost and I found myself. I discovered a positive picture of motherhood. I have more strength and want to go and do" See more experiences: http://www.atimeforchildhood.com/English/testimonials.php

Consultations and Biographical Counselling for Parents.

In London and Forest Row (East Sussex)
Supporting you with parenting and development questions

For more information please go to: Consultations
For appointments please call 01342 826727
or E-mail: lcallen@atimeforchildhood.com
To visit our Web please go to A time for Childhood

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Sunday, 18 May 2014 - From 10:30am to 5pm

Raising Children from Birth to 7 Years

How to make children feel secure?

As parents and professionals we would like children to feel understood.

To know more about childhood we can ask,
What is it like to be a child in the first years of life?
This question is not easy to answer for a busy adult in today's world.

In this workshop we will have the opportunity to understand our children�s world and their specific needs in each situation. We will look at experiences that can benefit and enrich the young child's journey through the early years.

We will also learn about:

The developments that take place during this time.

How to work with rhythm and transitions in everyday life.
How children learn through imitation and repetition.
Caring for the environment. The development of the senses.

Encouraging and supporting play and imagination.
The changes that takes place from 2-4 years.

We will have time for questions and observations arising from everyday living with children.



More Details

Venue: Rudolf Steiner House, 35 Park Road, NW1 6XT. Tube: Baker Street
Cost: £85/£65 Conc. Please bring your own lunch.

For more information and to book your place, please contact Lourdes on 01342 826727
Or contact us by sending us an email: lcallen@atimeforchildhood.com

Please make booking-payment well in advance - This helps us to decide to run it, and send us and email confirming you are coming.

On line Payments details:
A Time for Childhood 20-23-97 90873152

Food: Please bring your own lunch, and check with us if you prefer to get your meal at Steiner House. They often provide us with lovely organic food.

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Biographical Learning and Parenting

A Development Group
Enhancing our Abilities to Perceive and to Love

"When I change my child changes too"

These series of workshops will take place at Emerson College in Forest Row, East Sussex. The series can be attended as a developing whole or each workshop can be taken individually. Places are limited. If you are interested please contact us on atimeforchildhood@gmail.com

We offer a social-therapeutic group that will be supportive to parents and those working with children in a continuous way throughout the year. This course will also be of interest to people that would like to understand their childhood and give meaning to their lives.
Our experiences tell us that, participants appreciate creating a space away from everyday life for reflexion and self discovery through biography work. We have noticed the positive ways in which this work influences their life of relationships, work and children on their care.

We will meet for a day workshop twice a term, making the time in between be also part of the process.
Time: 10 am to 5:30 pm.
From October 2013 to July 2014

Dates

26 OctoberIntroduction to Biography and Development work.
www.emerson.org.uk
23November. Understanding - first years of Childhood.
25 January. Understanding the years from 9 to 21.
15 March. Soul Development years: an overview. The focus on 21-28.
3 May. The phases of life from 28 to 42.
6 July. Spiritual development years- After 42.

See Programme below for each workshop

To visit our Web please go to A time for childhood

This group will integrate biographical and personal development work with support for those working with children; creating in this way the base for a healthy development of the child. These workshops are for the parents, carers or teachers themselves, to offer them a variety of practises and opportunities for development, that will bring a recognition of old patterns and the possibility for a harmonious change. For more direct questions about children please see our programme on parenting. We will come to understand children needs deeply through understanding our own childhood and adolescent time, and the influence of our own upbringing.
We will learn how to work with our questions and how to be receptive to the answers that life brings, exploring our path with children within the wider journey of our life; with some space for destiny questions and our quest for meaning. We will also practice abilities for observation, for grounding ourselves and for expanding our capacity to love.

Testimonial Emerson group 2012-13
"I first signed up for this course because I am a mum to two young children and I wanted to deepen my understanding of myself � and of their development � so that I could be a more loving, aware parent. Attending the course every six weeks or so has been so nurturing, informative and profoundly healing. We have studied all the major life phases together as a group and we have learned so much from looking back at our lives with this new and empowering map in our hands to read from. We have shared our stories and our worries, our strengths and our struggles and we have all become stronger and more resilient as parents and as people� Lourdes believes that best way to love and bring balance to our children is to do exactly that for ourselves first. And that is what I feel we all achieved by doing this course..."
read more

In this and Development Group we aim to:

  • Create a space which will help us to meet the challenges of the times in which we are living.
  • Give personal attention to the parent and those working for children.
  • Find tools for healing and learning in these times of transformation and change.
  • Build resources to move from crises and difficulties to well being and creativity.
  • Develop new attitudes to ourselves, to children and to life through experiential work and dialogue.
  • Enhance the connection to our real Self, others and the world around us.
  • Learn from the past, act with presence in the now and step with confidence into the future.

A comment I often hear in our groups is: "If I am well and strong everything around me falls into place" More and more, adults in our research groups and individual counselling come to recognize that, the work we do on ourselves profoundly affects our relationships and parenting in positive ways.

This work is based on:
The knowledge of Anthroposophy, life phases, biography work in groups, individual counselling and the experiences of many years of workshops with parents.

The experiential approach we use will help us to understand life phases; our individual biographies; and what the meaning of transformation might be. Participants will contribute by bringing their questions and experiences, sharing in small groups, and participating in a rich giving and receiving. This will take place in an atmosphere of receptive listening, confidentiality, respect and empathic understanding of each person's contribution and process. This is a gentle approach in which each participant can decide how much they bring, empowering the participants to be the ones who hold their own process, within a truly human environment.

This way of working includes:

  • Working with art and social exercises.
  • Biography sharing in a small group.
  • Writing a personal journal as a tool for learning, self help and discovery.
  • Reviewing and digesting life events. Retrospection practise throughout the course.
  • Practising abilities to listen to ourselves and others, and giving expression to the unfolding of our inner life, with its subtle colours; discovering in this way who we want to be.
  • Increasing self care, inner child healing, and nourishing-loving actions towards ourselves.
  • Encouraging awareness of new discoveries, achievements and learning.
  • Noticing the new experiences that come towards us, and the creative acts that occur in our daily lives.

The experience in our development groups in recent years shows that through this process participants gain self knowledge, skills and resources for life. During this time they strengthen their sense of self, and enrich their souls and spiritual life with new will impulses to act in the world according to their deeper aims and longings.

Testimonial 2011: "The biography course has given me a time for reflection and dedication to myself in a group that has turned into a friendship. And many improvements have started in my life. I created the time to find a new house, I sleep better and, I have more strength and connection to myself and my children. As well as having laughter with my companions in the group, we spent really good days working together. Thank you" See testimonials

lease call us for more information: Lourdes or Rainer on 01342 826727 Atimeforchildhood@gmail.com
To visit our Web please go to www.atimeforchildhood.com =====================================================

Programme for each day workshop

Saturday, 26 October 2013
What does a changing inner and outer world require from us? Introduction to Biography and development work.
How can biography and development work be useful to people? and especially to parents?
We will look at:

  • Individual biography as a path to knowing ourselves better.
  • Life phases and the seven year rhythms.
  • The biography chart - inner and outer biography.
  • Power of the present, the influence of the past and opening to the future.
  • Learning to learn. Becoming active in times of crisis.
  • The activity of reviewing events in life.
  • Understanding repeating patterns and how to change them.

Observation:
The significance of crisis moments in biography. The influence of the past and the force of the future. The representation in colour of life as it is in our present. The biographical journey and its wisdom. The spiritual aspect of biography - Karma. What we share with humanity and the characteristics of each individual journey.

Practising tools:
Working with our journal - developing abilities to review and process events. Developing inner peace and courage - taking responsibility.


Saturday, 23 November 2013
What is it to be a child?
Understanding the first years of childhood from Birth to 9 years - Trusting the world.

We will enter this theme by experiencing, sharing and building a picture of childhood; and deepen other themes such as:

  • Developments in childhood; the senses; play and learning; limits; rhythm and the influence of the environment.
  • The experiences we had and how we felt and think as children.
  • The roles we played, the patterns we initiated, and decisions we took as children.
  • The influences of childhood on our life as adults.

Observation:
Building a picture of childhood. Parents and children in today's world. The needs of Childhood. The outer and the inner reality of existence. Understanding the resistance to change.

Practising tools:
Deepening the care, listening and love for oneself. Giving permission -opening up to the new possibilities.


Saturday,25 January 2014
Creating an inner space.
Understanding the years from 9 to 21 – Enhancing Beauty and Truth.
We will explore the awakening of the individuality of the child and adolescent with the following themes:

  • The phases of Ego development. Self Affirmation and experiencing the sense of self.
  • Leaving childhood behind – discovering the world and discovering oneself. 
  • The change at 9 years. Separation and need for love. 
  • Adolescence – transition time, crossing the bridge to the adult phase. 
  • Development of independent judgment, the dreams and adventure of going into the world.
  • At 18 years – opening horizons. The first decisions and steps toward 
    independence. 
  • At 21 – experiencing the force of Being and acting.   

Observation:
Embracing and overcoming the inner child and the adolescent in us.Some of the obstacles to work with in the path of development: guilt, fear, blaming, anger, resentment and being a victim. Learning to really see the other – working with the angel. How do I learn from life: What is this situation teaching me? What is this situation asking from me? What is this child telling me?                                                                       

Practicing tools:
Creating resources in us that allow us to give to the world. Practicing with the learning journal. Loving and caring ourselves by being aware of our needs. Working with the resistance to change. Practising gratitude and grounding-being in the body.

Saturday, 15 March
The years of soul development 
Understanding the phases of life between 21 to 42 – An overview.
In this workshop we will introduce a general view of this wider phase of life. And we will focus in more detail on:

  • The years from 21 to 28– a time for Experiencing.
  • The search for who we are: meeting the world and enriching our inner life.
  • Enjoying our newly acquired freedom – pushing the limits.
  • Encounters and relationships at that time.
  • Expansion which widens our view of the world: ideas, cultures and languages.
  • The change at 28 years. What does this turning point bring us?
  • The beginning of the 30s. Looking for balance, focus and order.

Observation: 
Reviewing inner discoveries and outer events occurring since we last met in this group. Family life – finding an individual space and enriching our social life. 

Practising tools: 
Working with questions that emerge within us – listening and being receptive to new questions and answers which life brings us. Discovering and recognising our feelings. Exploring them in our journal. Caring for ourselves by overcoming ‘the critic’ in us – working with Trust and inner freedom.

http://atimeforchildhood.com/English/programme_clip_image002_0026.jpg

Saturday, 3 May 
Working for soul transformation 
Understanding the years from 28 to 42 - A time for Balancing and Questioning.
The characteristics of each cycle of 7 years with their transitions, differentiates each phase of life. What is important to develop in each phase? We will look at:

  • Personal development during this time in life.
  • Observing our biography, listening tentatively and activating respect and acceptance.  Creating a new connection to our life.
  • Changes at 33. The transformation of our soul life and the emergence of a new inner strength.
  • From 35 on – Creating distance and opening possibilities.
  • At 37 who am I? What is my real task in life?
  • Integrating our thinking, feeling and will.

Observation: 
Parenting in the soul development years. Sharing inner discoveries and changes that have taken place. Noticing the increasing and enriching energy of our work in this group, and how it serves as strength for each individual.

Practising tools: 
Supporting each other’s development in the group by being aware of that which we are practicing together; learning to give and receive. Practising positive thinking and compassion; giving ourselves permission to Be and to Live life more fully.                             
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Sunday, 6 July 
The Spiritual Development Years – Understanding the years from 42 on. Expanding our consciousness – Imagination, Intuition, and Inspiration.               In this session we will gather the many threads of our work in the last months; attempting to find meaning and integration in our biography. We will work with the questions: 

  • How does my life speak to me? What are the individual tendencies I have brought with me? What are the themes that emerge when I contemplate my path? What is the important thread of my life?
  • How will the learning coming from this biographical and development work be of benefit to the children in our care?

Observation: 
Destiny and the human biography: Our parents, us and our children. We transform what comes from the past in our present. Through that we find new forces and intentions for the future.
                                                                                                                    
Practising tools:
We will conclude our individual and collective work. To do so, we will use retrospection, the biography chart and the personal journal; exploring the next steps in life, which will be already manifesting during the process. We will also find creative ways to show gratitude to each individual, for his/her particular way of enriching the development of the others during this year.


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Essential Information 
Cost for the year ( 6 workshops).  
You will need to pay the amount of £720 for the year. Refreshments and materials are included; meals will need to be paid apart.
A Total of £240 to be paid each term for 2 sessions at the time. (If you wish to have a Lunch in the college, see more information bellow.) 
Please make payments by the:
12 October
15 January
 10 April
For any other arrangements please contact us on 01342 826727
Would you like a meal at the College? Emerson provides vegetarian organic and biodynamic meals. It also caters for special dietary needs. They can provide wheat free and began diets.         Each meal cost £ 8.50 to be paid on the day of the workshop.
If you would like a meal, please book for it well in advance - minimum 3 weeks - phoning us on: 01342 826727.  (Please notice that Emerson will provide meals if we have enough bookings)
Meal times have been really enjoyable in our groups. You can also bring your own food and join us.
To book for this course or a meal, please call Lourdes or Rainer on: 01342 826727 or contact us on: atimeforchildhood@gmail.com 
On line Payments details:
A Time for Childhood   20-23-97     90873152
Payments by cheque: Please make cheques payable to “A Time for Childhood” and contact us for more details: lcallen@atimeforchildhood.com

Cancellations:  It is very important not to miss sessions as the energy of the group and the themes will keep building as we journey together. We cannot make refunds once the workshops have been booked.

Location and transport
Emerson College, Forest Row, Sussex is about 30 minutes by taxi from London Gatwick Airport and one hour by train from London Victoria to East Grinstead station, followed by a 15 minute taxi ride.  For more detailed directions go to www.emerson.org.uk

Accommodation
Accommodation is available in single or twin rooms with basic shared facilities. 
Contact  www.emerson.org.uk
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