Connected Parenting Boot Camps

Up your parenting game

Our children’s futures are heavily influenced by how we parent now. Learn what the latest research in child development, brain development, attachment, and the systemic effects of trauma can teach you about how to prepare your children now for the future to come. With Trust Based Relational Intervention®, you will learn to empower your children to succeed, connect at a deep level, and correct misbehavior with all three markers of a successful intervention:

  1. Changed behavior
  2. Adult & child are both content
  3. Adult and child are more connected than before

Effective help even when...

• Nothing you try seems to help
• You don’t like the kind of parent you’ve become
• You are afraid for the future
• You feel more like a prison warden than a parent
• You are having trouble liking your kids
• You find yourself angry and yelling all the time
• You are depleted, and just want to check out
• Misbehaviors are extreme, intense, and frequent

practical strategies to calmly respond to...

• Deception Behaviors: Lying, stealing, cheating, hiding, sneaking, manipulating
• Verbal Aggression: Threats, name calling, mean words, cussing
• Physical Aggression: Hitting, kicking, biting, spitting, throwing objects
• Disrespectful Behaviors: Defiance, back-talk, mocking, ignoring, eye-rolling, bossiness
• Food Issues: Picky eating, gorging, hoarding food, not eating, craving sugary foods
• Attachment issues: Insecure or disorganized attachment behaviors, resists attachment, indiscriminate interactions with strangers, difficulty learning trust
• And everything else you care to add to the list

"The morning of day three I got a desperation call from my adult son who was watching my two youngest kids. In minutes I had figured out the problem and told him what to do. I knew before we were even finished with the boot camp that I could do this stuff fast, because I had just done it."

- Mark P., Boot Camp Dad

A boot camp is comprehensive preparation to transform your parenting

Intensive training is like drinking from a fire-hose, which is why this boot camp provides three layers of instruction to bring the training to life. You won't just learn the material, you will learn to apply it to your specific challenges and start practicing it the same day.

1. TBRI® Caregiver training covering the three principles of TBRI®:

• (Day 1) Empowering Principles address the internal physiological and external environmental needs that bring success within reach for your child
• (Day 2) Connecting Principles help caregivers meet every child’s need for felt safety, trust, and belonging
• (Day 3) Correcting Principles show how to respond to misbehavior without sabotaging the hard work invested into empowering and connecting

2. Interactive group coaching to:

• Troubleshoot challenging behaviors
• Gain awareness of all the contributing factors
• Brainstorm solutions
• Identify SMART action items
(Simple, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-based)

You will come away with a whole new perspective on your child’s behavior and learn to ask the right questions to see the unmet needs beneath the behavior. 

3. Guided, relevant role-play practice:

• Identify challenging scenarios
• Plan out connected responses using TBRI® strategies just learned
• Rehearse and practice with the other participants
• Get encouraging feedback and helpful suggestions
• Watch Mark model difficult interactions

Interactive role play helps you transform theory into practice so you can go home prepared to hit the ground running.

As a bonus, each family will also receive their own copy of the TBRI® Pocket Guide to take home.

Who can attend?

This boot camp is designed for adults only, and is limited to maximum of 10 families with each family represented by two adult caregivers. For two parent homes, attendance by both parents is ideal. When only one parent is available, you are encouraged to bring a second adult that supports your family, such as an adult baby sitter, friend, relative, teacher, therapist, doctor, or respite provider.
Exceptions must be negotiated with Seen and Heard.

Daily schedule

8 AM: Morning session begins
Noon: Break for lunch
1 PM: Afternoon session begins
5 PM: Break for dinner
6 PM: Evening session begins
8 PM: Boot camp ends

Note: Each day will start promptly at 8AM. Please plan to arrive 10-15 minutes early to minimize interruptions and delays.
 

Meals and Snacks

Participants are responsible for their own meals. Information about nearby restaurants will be provided in advance.

Coffee, water, and healthy snacks are provided.

ChildCare

Childcare is not provided. Participants must make their own arrangements for childcare.

Bring a boot camp To your area

Many people find it hard to get quality trauma-informed parent training in their area, but I can deliver a Connected Parenting Boot Camp anywhere in the world. (Provided the participants speak English) Don't worry if you don't know where to start. If you have a group of interested families, I can make the process of organizing and executing a boot camp easy for you. Start by looking at the Boot Camp Recruiting Center for a location near you.

Do you only train parents?

No! I can customize a boot camp for any audience, be they social workers, group home staff, child care workers, group staff, or any other group of adults ready to embrace TBRI. If needed, we can also customize the duration and scope of the engagement, from a small, basic overview to a week long marathon. However, please understand that the boot camp format was designed to provide a comprehensive learning experience. A reduced scope and duration will also mean reduced preparation for the participants. That said, there are many reasons that such a compromise might be wholly appropriate.

Cost

The cost of a boot camp is a flat $5000, which includes all my expenses from travel to workbooks and other materials. There are two ways to cover this cost:

  1. Distribute the cost among the participants. With ten families, the per family cost is only $500. That is 30 hours of intense training for the cost of 4 hours of an in-home intensive.
  2. Find an organization to sponsor the event and cover the cost. For example, a local church, post adoption support organization, or community service program.

You can, of course, use a combination of the two, with both the sponsoring organization and the participants sharing the cost.

Registration and Payment

There are a couple of ways to do this. Which one to use is typically decided by whether there is a sponsoring organization covering some or all of the cost.

  1. The sponsoring organization pays the full amount to Seen and Heard, manages the registration process, and (optionally) collects fees from the participants. Note: the sponsoring organization is not allowed to inflate the cost to participants in order to profit from the event.

  2. Seen and Heard can provide the registration and payment collection as a complementary service to make it easier for the sponsoring organization. 

We can also arrange for a hybrid of the two.

Ready to get started?

If you have a sponsoring organization or a group of interested families, contact Mark Vatsaas today to get your boot camp scheduled.

If you are interested in travelling to attend a boot camp, contact Mark Vatsaas today to get on the waitlist.

Contact Mark Vatsaas