Professional Development at a Glance

This training is for people teaching and supporting diverse learners in education settings. This includes learners with Global Developmental Delay, Intellectual Disability, Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder, Autism, ADHD, Downs Syndrome, Developmental Trauma, Communication Differences and learners who are struggling to access or engage with the New Zealand Curriculum. 

Designed by a specialist teacher and an occupational therapist, with the busy teacher in mind, this workshop is for educational professionals such as teachers, teacher aides, early intervention teachers, learning support staff, including RTLB, and allied health professionals working in education, or anyone else struggling to know how to engage learners with diverse learning needs. 

This workshop will explore practical applications of specialist frameworks, models and strategies to support and engage learners with diverse needs in all settings. Learners are becoming more complex, however, all learners should be seen within the New Zealand Curriculum. With the introduction of the Expanded New Zealand Curriculum, this is now more possible than ever. 

This workshop is delivered by a specialist teacher and an occupational therapist, bringing 30 years of combined specialist knowledge into the room to ensure participants have the opportunity to fully explore the multi-factorial barriers to learning, including sensory, communication, regulation and cognitive differences, to gain a deeper understanding of how to engage all learners in learning. 

"I wish every teacher could hear this"

Sensory processing difficulties are very real, though often invisible, hidden or confusing.

As a teacher, teacher aide, RTLB, Learning adviser, counsellor, or other professional working with and supporting our tamariki and rangatahi in schools, if you feel like typical strategies are not enough, or feel there is a bit more to the concerns you are seeing at school or in other settings, this PD will help you to explore those concerns further and respond to sensory needs in an appropriate and meaningful way.

Many behaviours of concern have a foundation in emotional regulation difficulties, which require effective strategies to manage this, starting in the registration and regulation of the sensory systems:

• Emotional regulation and sensory meltdowns - when the body becomes so overwhelmed by sensory and social-emotional input it responds with an autonomic fight, flight or freeze response.

• Anger that seems to go from 0-10 in a second!

• Sensory sensitivities such as sensitivity to noise or sensitivity to the touch of others which can be amplified in classrooms, and typical everyday activities such as birthday parties, family trips out, swimming or sports days.

• ADHD or Sensory? Attentional challenges can be due to sensory differences - learn classroom-friendly and family-friendly strategies to support.

This practical training is delivered by Elen Nathan, Paediatric Occupational Therapist and Sensory Integration Practitioner from The Playful Place, who has specialised in neurodiversity, autism, sensory processing disorders, dyspraxia, and communication-of-need behaviours. It will cover:

• An in-depth exploration of the 8 sensory systems, plus an introduction to Neuroception - the bodies sense of safety or danger.
• Sensory Seeking & Sensory Avoiding - the patterns to look for and what they mean.
• What can trigger sensory meltdowns at school, home and the community & how to help effectively.
• The impact sensory systems have on learning, relationships and self-esteem.
• How to answer the question - Is it Sensory or is it Behaviour?
• How to create low cost, effective regulating sensory spaces.
• How to effectively plan proactively, and how to respond reactively when needed

Professional Development can be tailored to the needs of your kura, and will weave in neurodivergent affirming and  trauma responsive practice. 

Sensory Modulation as a neurobiological process, sits deep in the nervous system. Its our natural way of responding to the world around us. When something is too loud we might cover our  ears, when something is dangerous we seek safety through fight, flight, flee or freeze, when something is enjoyable we linger a bit longer. 

Our nervous system changes through experience. If we have experienced trauma, the body will hold that knowledge, to be ready to keep us safe. Sometimes the treat detection can get stuck, and we can get stuck responding to the world in a pattern that is confusing to others, but makes sense to us. 

Sensory Modulation as an approach, is changing the way you feel through your senses. This can help restore a sense of safety and rest in the nervous system. 

Elen is an occupational therapist, with post grad qualification in sensory Integration, with a focus on neurodivergence and Developmental Trauma. (OT-SI PGCert, Distinction, Hallam University, UK). 

With an incredible depth of knowledge from both clinical practice and theory, Elen's Sensory Workshops or Professional Development can be tailored to teams and services, to support development of SAFE implementation of sensory plans. For those who are reaching for deeper understanding of the underlying nervous system processes, skilled assessment and implementation for complex clients or environment modifications such as ED departments, theatre & recovery, or trauma informed schools, this PD is for you. 

This award-winning workshop is a practical skills workshop. 

Participants will explore different therapeutic uses of LEGO for use in clinic, in schools, in hospitals and in the home. 

Developed from neuroscience principals, and occupational therapy frameworks, this training draws on theory to provide the foundation, but has a strong hands on, experiential learning component. Participants will build across the day as they learn different ways to use LEGO to support well-being in people of all ages. 

Application of therapeutic use of LEGO includes but is not limited to: 

• Relationship Development Groups
• Social Skill Development Groups
• School Based Support
• Acute Trauma Response 
• Family Therapy
• Eating Disorders
• Grief Therapy
• Dementia Care

"This workshop was the highlight of the conference for me"  - Psychiatrist, Asia Pacific Women's Health Conference, Australia. 

Wondering about the connection between Sensory and Behaviour? Implementing Trauma Informed practice, but still unsure of the role sensory plays? Working with children and not sure how to support emotional development? Feeling like the behaviour strategies are not quite working or goals keep being rolled forward with no success? 

Children and young people are busy developing an understanding of their sensory systems and their body, taking years to learn how to regulate their body and mind - well into their 20's. 

Often we are jumping too far ahead in childhood, expecting too much of our children developmentally such as self regulation at 5 years old, so we start using behaviour based strategies (consequences, rewards, talking through choices etc) too early. Emotions require a lot of time and experience to be understood. This starts with the adults around us letting us experience our feelings without punishment or reward, and supporting and guiding through the experience if needed. By helping little ones to feel safe when they experience feelings, they learn to understand them, and be able to safely act on them, not react to them. 

Contact Elen to discuss a workshop which will demystify child development - Emotional regulation, Sensory regulation, attachment, attention, play, impulse control and behaviour, and ensure moving forward the plans in place for the children you support are truely developmentally appropriate and support growing great kids gently. 

LEGO-Based therapy is an evidence based social skills program developed for people with Autism by Daniel Le-Goff.  It has been successfully replicated across the world, and fits well into the New Zealand and Australian context. It is an excellent therapy model for clinicians and professionals with existing skills and knowledge in group theory, clinical reasoning and Autism. 

This therapy model coaches group participants to work as a team, using LEGO® in a structured way to achieve an outcome together as a group. The intrinsic value of LEGO® for the participants means that motivation and volition is naturally high, so learning of the social skills is accelerated. 

Research has also shown the skills learned in the group naturally transfer well to other settings such as from the clinic setting to the 

home. 

Elen Nathan is an Occupational Therapist who has specialised in Sensory Modulation and Autism. This full day workshop also includes how to structure a successful group using group theory, with tips and tools around using LEGO® for sensory regulation so the sensory needs of the group are met first to ensure all participants are regulated and sensorily organised, enabling them to participate in the group to their full capacity. 

This training is an in-depth team mentoring program and is available to teams who are invested in developing sustainable specialist skills within their team to assess, interpret, plan and implement sensory intervention, or behaviour support plans with a deeper sensory lens. Many teams do not have access to an Occupational Therapist with sensory

knowledge who can do this, so this is a way to up-skill teams to be able to provide safe sensory and behaviour planning.

This training is an in depth, practical skills and tools training, with around 20 hours of learning. It is delivered both face to face and live online, providing for lots of time for individual case conferencing and questions. No pre recordings, no 1 box fits all, just individualised, bespoke, responsive professional development, meeting your team where they are on their journey to understand the nervous system through a sensory lens. The PD is paced across 3-6 months to allow for practical application of skills such as assessment and intervention as we go. 

Some restrictions apply, so please email us to discuss your teams needs. 

Learning outcomes includes but is not limited to: 

• The impact sensory systems have on learning, relationships and well being.
• An in-depth exploration of the 9 sensory systems.
• Sensory Seeking & Sensory Avoiding - Patterns to look for and what they may mean.
• Sensory thresholds. How to identify how these may be breached in every day life, and how to prevent. 
• Adapt, modify or accomodate - when to adapt a task, when to modify an environment, and when to accomodate a persons needs.
• What can trigger sensory meltdowns & how to help effectively.
• Explaining the meaning behind the findings in a usable way for whānau and kaiako.
• Planning. Start with the end in mind. Working out if this is a stand alone document, or an
• integrated understanding - each school, service or whānau will be different.
• Questioning what systems or documentation are already in place, how effective are they, and
• how can this be integrated into those.
• Other uses - a unique offering, or a touch stone of good practice?

"This feels like a shift in practice, I feel a weight has been lifted , and I feel lighter for it" 

"This has filled so many gaps for me. It makes sense now"   

Elen is a LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® Method facilitator, trained by the Association of Master Trainers.

The purpose of LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® is to create a safe place for 100% participation from all participants through the facilitation of reflective process, where the result is more participation, more insights surfaced, more engagement and, ultimately, more commitment and faster implementations.

The LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® method (LSP) is a facilitated thinking, communication and problem solving technique for use with organisations, teams and individuals. It draws on extensive research from the fields of business, organisational development, psychology and learning, and is based on the concept of “hand knowledge.”  

Using specialist LEGO®, carefully designed build challenges, and a facilitated discussion, the workshop is carefully designed around a primary concern or problem which is unpacked throughout the process. 

Workshops are fun, engaging and work well for energising tired training needs, solving problems that have become embedded or entrenched, training a group of people with vastly different existing knowledge, creating a safe space for all voices to be heard equally no matter the persons role in the organisation, existing experience or skills, or belief systems, lifting and building positive group culture. 

Contact Elen if you are interested in discussing workshop needs in your workplace.  

"It's really hard doing training around Te Tiriti o Waitangi when you have team members brand new to the country, and team members living within Te Ao Maori. This training method gave everyone a voice, a chance to learn from each other safely, and made the training deeply meaningful to all participants"