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Learn to Lead your own Mindful Parenting Courses

Mindful Awareness Parenting (MAP)
Instructor Training

Promoting the emotional wellbeing of parents and young children
(from birth to 5 years)

The MAP™ Instructor Training is a workforce development program that is congruent with the National Action Plan for Promotion, Prevention and Early Intervention for Mental Health (2000). It involves building good practice in infant, young child and parent mental health for a diverse range of family support service providers.

MAP™ promotes positive mental health outcomes for parents, infants and young children via;

• Educating parents about the mind/body benefits of developing 'secure attachment' relationships with their children.
• Increasing parental self-compassion and satisfaction with ‘good enough parenting'.
• Providing flexible and proven methods for limit setting and repairing relationship disconnection.
• Training in mindfulness to enhance sensitivity, responsiveness and consistency with young children (from birth to 5 years).

The Mindful Awareness Parenting (MAP) workshop series was developed by Dr Rebecca Coleman, an Australian clinical psychologist specialising in child, adolescent and family mental health. In 2004 Rebecca coordinated, developed and trained professionals in an award-winning project called “Kindess for Kids” which aimed to increase the understanding of infant mental health within the community. She used her specialist clinical knowledge and expertise to build on Kindness for Kids and created the MAP Workshop series for parents in 2008. The first fully accredited MAP™ Instructors were trained in March 2009.

MAP teaches mindfulness and self-compassion skills to parents of children under 5 years of age. The goal of the program is to promote parental sensitivity and secure attachment relationships via developing mindfulness and self-compassion skills. The MAP program is both innovative and effective because it integrates knowledge of mindfulness and self-compassion with a deep understanding of the human attachment system. The ultimate aim of the Mindful Awareness Parenting (MAP™) Instructor Training and Parent Workshop series is to promote the social and emotional wellbeing of infants, young children and their caregivers.

The MAP Instructor Training is for multidisciplinary health professionals who work with families and young children (from birth to 5 years). The Instructor training involves 5 days of intensive experiential training and a comprehensive 'back pack' of applied resources for immediate use. The resources include a USB with the powerpoint presentations for the MAP parenting workshop series, parent handouts (such as the time-in procedure for young children), forms, publicity, research journals and evaluation questionnaires. A comprehensive Instructor Manual is provided as well as a hard copy of all parent handouts with unlimited reproduction for accredited MAP Instructors. Ten sets of the essential pack (CD, Poster and two procedural magnets) are included in the MAP Instructor Set. Two valuable DVDs as well as a personal copy of the CD, Yoga Mat and pamper package are all included in the MAP Instructor Training.

The training is fully catered (lunch, drinks and snacks) and a certificate and authorisation as an accredited MAP Instructor provides the recipient with ongoing website, email and phone supervision when running MAP courses with parents. Accredited MAP Instructors have the capacity to run the MAP 5 week workshop series with parents of young children and use the knowledge and resources to inform clinical practice. The MAP instructor training has been endorsed by the Australian Psychological Society (APS).

Broad Aims of the MAP™ Process

• Improve professional and public recognition that infancy and early childhood is a critical period in psychosocial development (social, emotional and cognitive).
• Create a supportive learning network and develop multidisciplinary workforce expertise within the area of infant, child and parent mental health.
• Increase community and service provider awareness of the latest research and clinical practice in applied attachment theory, interpersonal neuroscience, self-compassion and mindful awareness.
• Increase parental self-compassion and provide mindful awareness skills to help parents follow the relationship (attachment and exploration) needs of young children (from birth to 5 years).

The 5 Day MAP Instructor Training

Relevance: Family Support Professionals of all disciplines (e.g., Child, Youth and Womens' Health Nurses, Social Workers, Psychologists, Occupational Therapists, Spech Pathologists, Mental Health Nurses, Physiotherapists, Child Care Professionals, Early Education Teachers, Midwives and other professionals with tertiary training who work with children under 5 years and their families).

Structure: 5 days of intensive experiential based training:

• 2 days as a participant of the five Parent workshops (intensive immersion in mindful awareness practices);
• 1 day of theory and science;
• 1 day of non-threatening 'fun' teach backs;
• 1 day of 'supportive' tag team presentations and the code of ethics for MAP.

Process: Capacity Building Model with attention to both professional and personal development.

Content: Evidence based and world class/award winning information.

Evaluation: Evaluation is utilised to ensure continuous improvement.

Next Courses
Melbourne, VIC

Register for one of these courses.

7 - 11 June in Parkville
Sydney, in NSW
6 - 10 September
Fremantle in WA
22 - 26 November in East Fremantle.

This course is run by Dr Rebecca Coleman. More detailed information can be found on her website. The course has prerequisites and therefore individuals need to complete an application form before attending the training. Click here to download the application form.

Participants each receive a MAP™ kit, shown below.

Testimonials