The Continuum of Alarm: From Anxiety to Attention and Adrenaline Based Issues
April 11th, 2025 9am-4:00pm (6CE credits)
In-person in Calgary (Holiday Inn & Suites Calgary South)
Prices (Lunch is included)
Early Bird (before March 11th): $320 + GST (lunch included)
Regular Price: (after March 11th): $340 +GST (lunch included)
About The Workshop - You will be provided confirmation of 6CE credits
Discover how neuroscience and relational-developmental insights can help us understand the complex human alarm system underlying anxiety and a diverse array of seemingly unrelated syndromes and symptoms. This alarm spectrum covers a vast amount of troubling territory, affecting the majority of our children and youth as well as adults. The good news is that once we understand how these syndromes come to be, we are also more informed as to how they can be reversed. Understanding these root causes enables natural, intuitive interventions that can be implemented at any age and in any setting. This approach offers an alternative to the medical disorder approach as well as the rational-emotive and cognitive approaches, with promising implications for treatment and recovery.
This workshop, led by Dr. MacNamara, will provide you with vital insights on:
- The alarm system and how it works
- The three classic syndromes of the alarm spectrum across the lifespan
- The three root causes of escalating alarm in today's society
- The most promising interventions for alarm-based problems
Join us for this groundbreaking exploration of anxiety through a relational-developmental lens.
More Information:
Suitability/Applicability These insights and resulting practices are applicable to every venue – home, school and treatment, as well as every age group – infancy through old age. As always, Dr. MacNamara focuses on how problems develop in childhood and adolescence as a way of creating a foundation for healing and treatment throughout the lifespan. Although the course is addressed primarily to helping professionals and educators, the material is very helpful to parents as well as for self-understanding and healing.CONTENT
Part One – The alarm system and how it works Of the typical twelve or so 'systems' usually referred to in biology, the alarm system is by far the most complex and least understood. There is however enough information today to join the dots, revealing one of the most vulnerable and impactful systems of the human body. We all are profoundly affected by the alarm system, whether we know it or not. Knowing the purpose and workings of a well-functioning alarm system sets the stage for understanding what can go wrong and why. An underlying theme in the first session is the role of language in accessing intuitive understanding.
Part Two – The three classic syndromes of the alarm spectrum Once the main dynamics in the alarm system are understood, they can be charted in a continuum of interacting forces, resulting in the three classic syndromes of the alarm spectrum that we see manifest in childhood and across the lifespan. The main features of each of these syndromes is presented, along with their tell-tale signs and symptoms. Many of the traits we attribute to personality are reversible derivatives of these alarm-based syndromes.
Part Three – The three root causes of escalating alarm in today's society By all accounts, alarm seems to be surging in our society, along with the corresponding alarm-based syndromes in its wake. In this session, we trace the rising alarm in today's society to three root problems in the attachment infrastructure and the emotional dynamics in society at large and in any individual in particular. Understanding the sources of alarm sets the stage for addressing alarm, both in our homes and classes as well as in any individual person.
Part Four – The most promising interventions for alarm-based problems Most interventions, whether medical, cognitive or behavioural, and whether we are aware of it or not, are attempts to turn off alarm or numb its effects. Unfortunately, effectiveness in symptom reduction can also drive compulsions and addictions. Recommendations are made for the safest and most effect methods of alarm reduction and symptom management. The focus however is on two types of interventions that hold the most promise for reducing alarm at its source as well as for helping our brains process alarm and helping ourselves resolve our alarm. These interventions are compared to the prevailing interventions in the field.
About the Speaker:
Dr. Deborah MacNamara is the author of the best-selling book Rest, Play, Grow: Making Sense of Preschoolers (or anyone who acts like one), as well as the children’s picture book, The Sorry Plane. Rest, Play, Grow has been translated into 14 languages. The Sorry Plane was awarded the Neufeld Institute Recommended seal for being congruent with developmental science and the relational-developmental approach of Dr. Gordon Neufeld. Her new book, Nourished: Connection, Food, and Caring for our Kids (and everyone else we love), has received the Gold Award from Nautilus Books
Deborah is on Faculty at the Neufeld Institute, and is the Director of Kid’s Best Bet, a Counselling and Family Resource Center. She is a dynamic teacher and experienced counsellor who makes developmental science come to life in the everyday context of home and classroom. Deborah also provides counselling services to parents and professionals to make sense of learning, behavioural, and developmental issues in kids – from babies to teens.
Deborah travels nationally and internationally, speaking to child and adolescent development issues to groups including the United Nations and the Dalai Lama Center for Peace and Education. With over 60 presentations a year to groups including parents, educators, child-care professionals, social workers, foster and adopt community, and health care professionals, Deborah shares her insight and passion for making sense of kids. She is a developmentalist at heart who is continually fascinated by the mysteries and beauty inherent in human maturation.