Important Notice:
Please be advised that the day two and three lineup has changed.
The Winnipeg Child & Adolescent Conference: Anxiety, Stress, Trauma-Informed Schools, Self-Regulation, Big Emotions and Stuck Kids
Presented by Caroline Buzanko, Ph.D., R. Psych and Carissa Muth, Psy.D., CCC, R.Psych and Eva de Gosztonyi, M.A.
Wednesday, May 27, 2026 – Friday, May 29, 2026 | Winnipeg, mb
Date & Location
Wednesday, May 27, 2026 – Friday, May 29, 2026
8:30am – 4:00pm
Wyndham Garden Winnipeg Airport
460 Madison St, Winnipeg, MB R3J 1J1
Who Should Attend
Education and Clinical Professionals: K–12 Classroom Teachers, School Counsellors/Psychologists, Learning Assistance/ Resource Teachers, School Administrators, School Paraprofessionals including Special Education Assistants, Classroom Assistants and Childcare Workers. All other professionals who support students including but not limited to: Nurses, Social Workers, Psychologists, Clinical Counsellors, Family Therapists, Occupational Therapists, Speech Language Pathologists, Addiction Counsellors, Youth Workers, Mental Health Workers, Probation Officers, and Early Childhood Educators.
Day One – May 27, 2026
Optimizing Self-Regulation and Managing Big Emotions with Children & Adolescents
Presented by
Caroline Buzanko, Ph.D., R. Psych
8:30am - 4:00pm May 27, 2026
COURSE DESCRIPTION
In today’s world, our children and youth face an unprecedented level of stress and pressure, making it hard to effectively self-regulate and manage day-to-day stressors. As parents, educators, and mental health professionals, it’s essential that we equip ourselves with effective strategies to help children and teens develop the skills they need to navigate life’s challenges. When they don’t know how to manage those emotions, problem behaviours often result and can negatively affect their physical, psychological, academic, and social well-being. For many, they struggle to meet even the most basic expectations. It is essential they receive the right support.
Join us for a transformative workshop designed for mental health professionals, educators, parents, and caregivers to build self-regulation and emotional management skills in children and teens. During this workshop, you’ll learn evidence-based interventions and practical tools to promote healthy self-regulation and emotional management skills in children and youth. This workshop will provide you with the knowledge and skills you need to make a meaningful difference in the lives of the children and teens you work with. Join us in this engaging and practical workshop, where you will leave with the skills and knowledge to empower children and youth to manage their emotions, overcome challenges, and build resilience.
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
- Understanding self-regulation
- The emotional brain and its power over executive functioning
- The role of emotions, their functions, and behavioural outcomes
- Misbehaviour vs. stressed behaviour
- The influence of adult expectations and responses on development, effective co-regulation, and nurturing words that regulate
- Fundamental skills for effective emotion regulation, including interoceptive awareness, emotional literacy working memory, flexibility, tolerance, behavioural inhibition, meta-thinking, and decision-making
- Strategies for recognizing and managing big emotions
- Exposure and practice
- Evidence-based interventions for promoting self-regulation
- Strategies for supporting parents and caregivers in reinforcing emotional regulation skills
- Promoting long-term independence and resilience
Caroline Buzanko, Ph.D., R. Psych, is a psychologist. Mother. Professor. International Speaker. Yoda of Anxiety. ADHD Superhero. And Changer of Lives. With nearly three decades of experience, she is a recognized expert in resilience and the social, emotional, and behavioural well-being…
Day Two – May 28, 2026
Executive Functioning Skills for Children and Adolescences
Presented by
Carissa Muth, Psy.D., CCC, R.Psych
8:30am - 11:45am May 28, 2026
COURSE DESCRIPTION
Planning, organizing, and emotionally regulating all are executive functioning that, when impaired, can significantly impact activities of daily living. In childhood this can range in presentation from the ability to complete homework, to the ability to refrain from anger outbursts. While executive functioning never fully develops until young adulthood, certain children are at risk for lifetime impairments. Risk factors include trauma, low socioeconomic status, stress or neurodevelopmental disorders such as ADHD or ASD. In this workshop, Dr. Muth will present tools that can be implemented in the therapeutic setting and have been evidenced to have a lasting impact on children with low executive functioning. Many skills have been suggested by professionals, such as exercise, computer games, music, but only a few have been found to have a lasting impact once the intervention ceases. For children with low executive functioning, particular nontypically developing children (including children with neurodevelopmental disorders or behavior problems), improving skills in these areas can significantly improve their ability to flourish throughout their life.
Why Attend?:
- Adopt Effective Interventions: Research has indicated that while many interventions temporarily improve executive functioning skills, not all techniques have lasting impact or allow children to apply skills to a variety of situations. This workshop will provide participants with practical interventions that have been evidenced to have lasting impacts.
- Increase Toolbox: Given the vast range of risk factors for impairment in executive functioning development, many children attending therapy would benefit from interventions, whether or not they have a neurodevelopmental disorder. As such, developing skills to address executive functioning deficits will be helpful for anyone working with
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
- Understand the impact and importance of executive functioning in children
- Identify gaps in executive functioning and develop treatment plans to address impairments
- Implement effective and lasting skills to improve executive functioning in children and adolescents
Dr. Carissa Muth is a registered psychologist in Alberta and the Clinical Director at the Sunshine Coast Health Centre and Georgia Strait Women’s Clinic. She holds Doctorate of Psychology, Master of Arts in Counselling, and Bachelor of Social Work degrees…
Practical Solutions to Address Anxiety Disorders with Children and Adolescents
Presented by
Carissa Muth, Psy.D., CCC, R.Psych
12:45pm - 4:00pm May 28, 2026
COURSE DESCRIPTION
As high as 20% of children in Canada will experience an anxiety disorder before reaching adulthood. For many of these children, symptoms of anxiety will impede their life and development to a degree that will create impairments into adulthood. Developmental vulnerabilities place children and adolescents at unique risk and also in need of specialized knowledge regarding the assessment and treatment of their anxiety symptoms. In this workshop, Dr. Muth will ground the assessment and treatment of anxiety for children and adolescent in a neurological understanding of human development. Presenting developmentally appropriate CBT and play therapy interventions, Dr. Muth will provide practical tools for working with children and adolescents with anxiety. Participants will walk away with the ability to identify anxiety symptoms and apply immediate interventions to address psychological symptoms and reduce the likelihood of continuation of issues into adulthood.
Why Attend?:
- Practical Application: CBT is widely evidenced as the most effective method for treatment for anxiety for children and adolescents yet commonly misunderstood in application. This workshop will provide practical guidance for applying developmentally appropriate interventions for the cognitive (e.g. thought reframing) behavioural (e.g. imaginal and in vivo exposure) and physiological (e.g. addressing autonomic arousal) aspects of CBT.
- Expanded Toolbox: While protocoled therapies are often more widely studied and, as such, evidenced, alternative methods have also demonstrated efficacy in addressing anxiety in children. This workshop will present an overview and easy to apply play therapy interventions to equip participants to utilize a myriad of interventions to meet a variety of client needs.
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
- Understand developmental impacts on the presentation and treatment of psychological symptoms
- Identify anxiety symptoms according to developmental stage for children and adolescents
- Apply CBT and play therapy interventions to treat anxiety in children and adolescents
Day Three – May 29, 2026
Working with Stuck Kids: An Attachment Based Relational Perspective
Presented by
Eva de Gosztonyi, M.A.
8:30am - 4:00pm May 29, 2026
COURSE DESCRIPTION
With over 40 years of experience working in schools, it ads become clear that there are no easy answers for teaching and working with students who have challenging behaviours. The construct of psychological immaturity (not everyone grows up as they get older) has been with us as an intuitive concept for ages, but only recently has developmental science advanced to a state where it can now yield effective strategies and interventions to address learning and behavioural challenges.
Rather than asking, “What can we do to fix this student?” we must, instead develop an understanding of why children get stuck, creating a situation which results in many kinds of challenging behaviours. This understanding comes to us through the neuroscience of development and the research on the effect of adverse childhood experiences (complex trauma) on development, learning and behaviour. It is anchored the attachment-based developmental paradigm developed by Gordon Neufeld, PhD, which considers the keys to human development: maturation, vulnerability and attachment and the role of emotions. This presentation will start with theory and then move on to present a variety of attachment-base and developmentally friendly interventions that have been implemented with success in schools across Quebec. Using this knowledge, it also becomes apparent that some of our “tried and true” interventions are not only ineffective, but they can, at times, make things worse for our students. An Intervention Continuum will be presented that proposes a number of in-class and in-school interventions that are preventative in nature, require minimal additional resources and are applicable at both the Elementary and Secondary levels.
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
- Uncover the relationship between psychological immaturity and the most common presenting problems and syndromes
- Identify the role of Maturation, Vulnerability, Attachment and Emotions in the development of stuckness and the appearance of challenging behaviours
- Describe developmentally supportive interventions for problems resulting from stuckness
- Explain, using neuroscience and developmental principles, why many common interventions, such as timeouts, consequences, reward systems, and contracts are not effective
- Be able to use a “pyramid of interventions” to help students with challenging behaviours in the classroom
- Identify and describe “Tier 1” interventions that can be used with all students
- Identify and describe “Tier 2” interventions that are necessary for some students
- Identify and describe “Tier 3” interventions for the most challenging student behaviours
Eva de Gosztonyi, MA, is a psychologist who has worked for over 45 years in schools across Canada. For 22 years she was the Coordinator of the Centre of Excellence for Behaviour Management, a support to the ten English School…
More information: https://neufeldinstitute.org/person/eva-de-gosztonyi/
Registration & Fees
| Registration | Super Early Bird Fee | Early Bird Fee | Regular Fee |
|---|---|---|---|
| ONE DAY ENROLLMENT | -- | ||
| Individual 1 Day Enrollment | $279.00 | $299.00 | $319.00 |
| 1 Day Group 3-7 | $229.00 | $249.00 | $269.00 |
| 1 Day Group 8-14 | $209.00 | $229.00 | $249.00 |
| 1 Day Group 15+ | $189.00 | $209.00 | $229.00 |
| 1 Day Full-Time Student | $189.00 | $209.00 | $229.00 |
| -- | |||
| TWO DAY ENROLLMENT | -- | ||
| Individual 2 Day Enrollment | $499.00 | $519.00 | $539.00 |
| 2 Day Group 3-7 | $459.00 | $469.00 | $489.00 |
| 2 Day Group 8-14 | $429.00 | $449.00 | $469.00 |
| 2 Day Group 15+ | $399.00 | $419.00 | $439.00 |
| 2 Day Full-Time Student | $399.00 | $419.00 | $439.00 |
| -- | |||
| THREE DAY ENROLLMENT | -- | ||
| Individual 3 Day Enrollment | $669.00 | $689.00 | $699.00 |
| 3 Day Group 3-7 | $619.00 | $639.00 | $659.00 |
| 3 Day Group 8-14 | $599.00 | $619.00 | $629.00 |
| 3 Day Group 15+ | $469.00 | $489.00 | $509.00 |
| 3 Day Full-Time Student | $469.00 | $489.00 | $509.00 |
All fees are per person and in Canadian Dollars ($CAD)
Fees do not include applicable taxes (5% GST).
Super early bird cutoff date: March 27, 2026
The super early bird date has passed. Early bird or regular rates apply.
Early bird cutoff date: April 27, 2026
The early bird date has passed. Regular rates apply.
Please review our Registration Terms and Conditions for information on our cancellation policy, payment policies, rebates, and more. You must agree to our Terms and Conditions to register for a workshop or conference.
Downloads
All brochures and forms are provided in .PDF format.
If you are unable to open our files, we recommend downloading Adobe Reader for free.
Exhibitors are welcome at this event. We are pleased to offer sponsorship opportunities to businesses and organizations that provide services related to nursing, psychotherapy, addictions treatment, counselling, marriage & family therapy, psychology and other related fields.
→ More information
Recommended Accommodation
Continuing Education Credits
This workshop has been formally approved by the following associations:
- Canadian College of Professional Counsellors and Psychotherapists (CCPCP)
- Canadian Professional Counsellors Association (CPCA)
- Canadian Psychological Association (CPA)
Jack Hirose & Associates is approved by the Canadian Psychological Association to offer continuing education for psychologists. Jack Hirose & Associates maintains responsibility for the program.
† The Alberta College of Social Workers (ACSW) and the Newfoundland and Labrador Association of Social Workers (NLASW) accept CPA-approved CEUs.
* Participants will receive a certificate of completion after every workshop. Workshops are pre-approved for 5.5 or 6 credits per day unless otherwise specified.
Please check back closer to the conference date for more information.
Related Events
There are no related events at this time.