Food and Mood: Improving Mental Health Through Diet and Nutrition – Deakin University

Explore the relationship between nutrition and brain health, why it matters, and how to work towards positive food changes.

Poor diet and poor mental health are the leading causes of mortality and morbidity worldwide. We now know that diet quality is a modifiable factor that is linked to mental and brain health across all stages of our lives.

We will explore how our daily diets may affect our mental and brain health, including the role of our immune system and gut microbiome.

The course will provide research evidence, practical examples, skills development, and collaboration on dietary intake assessment, strategies and resource sharing for dietary change.

To register: FutureLearn Platform – Food and Mood

Train the Trainer - Intentional Peer Support

Our Train-the-Trainer Course is a hands-on seminar designed to prepare and designate IPS Organizational Trainers.

These trainers can then teach the Core Content within their own organizations, helping to ensure the fidelity and sustainability of IPS.

The IPS Organizational Trainer pathway is best suited for organizations with 25 or fewer employees. For larger organizations, the scope of an IPS Organizational Trainer may be limited to specific programs or regions. If you work for a larger organization and are interested in becoming an IPS Organizational Trainer, please contact us for more information.

For more information: IPS Workshops

To register: IPS Eventbrite Sessions

Advanced Training - Intentional Peer Support

We developed our 24-hour Advanced Training to take IPS practice a step further—playing out the principles and tasks using real-life scenarios, heightening self-reflection, enhancing ways of building mutual connections and sustaining the practice.

Intentional Peer Support requires an ongoing commitment to learning and growth. Once participants complete a Core Training and begin practicing IPS in their relationships, lots of questions emerge—most commonly, “How do I make this stuff work in my particular environment?”

Deepen IPS Practice

Our Advanced Trainings are for anyone who has completed a Core Training or needs a brief IPS refresher and are tailored to fit your organization’s or community’s needs. 

Learn the Art of Co-Reflection

Co-reflection is a vital practice where people regularly come together to reflect on their relationships using the IPS framework. Here is an opportunity to examine relationships, look at assumptions and sustain the tasks and principles.

Our Core Training gets you started with Co-Reflection, and our Advanced Training helps you master it. Download our free Co-Reflection Guide.

Traditionally, crisis in mental health has been viewed as something undesirable or harmful, and risk assessment has led to fear-based responses that keep people stuck. In the Advanced Training, we focus on using crisis instead as an opportunity to connect, maintain mutuality, and create a culture of healing.

Respite programs will find particular use as we further explore what it means to be trauma-informed, work with conflict and challenging situations, develop flexible boundaries, use pro-active crisis planning and prepare for program evaluation.

Offered virtually over 6 days.

For more information: IPS Workshops

To register: IPS Eventbrite Sessions

Managers & Supervisors Training - Intentional Peer Support

This online event is designed for those who manage or supervise peer support workers and programs. 

It deepens understanding of peer support dynamics and improves team effectiveness in fostering transformative relationships. Tailored to the IPS framework, this training equips participants to integrate IPS principles effectively into their workplace practice.

Duration: 6 days, held over 2 separate weeks (Tuesdays to Thursdays)

Our training is tailored to enhance the capabilities of managers and supervisors within the IPS framework. Participants will:

• Learn to apply IPS principles in management and supervisory roles.

• Explore challenges specific to overseeing peer support environments.

• Develop strategies for supporting staff and facilitating their growth.

• Understand how to integrate IPS values into everyday practice and team development.

For more information: IPS Workshops

To register: IPS Eventbrite Sessions

Queer IPS (for LGBTQIA+) - Intentional Peer Support

This curriculum was adapted from the IPS core training at the request of the Q Corner, a peer support program in Santa Clara County, California, that supports LGBTQ+ community members.

Empowerment Through Stories:

IPS is about building relationships where our stories can be told and explored. By sharing our stories, we:

• Build networks of support.

• Create justice and empowerment.

• Drive social change rooted in civil rights movements, including gay liberation and the Stonewall riots.

"In the words of indigenous Australian activists in the 1970s, 'your liberation is bound up with mine.'"

Intersectionality:

Creating Space

QIPS was designed to acknowledge and support those of us whose gender, expression, and/or sexuality don’t fit within our society’s narrow definitions of “normal.” This includes individuals who have historically been marginalized by various systems such as education, employment, healthcare, and housing. 

From this vantage point, we examine how these systems have also marginalized those of us whose experiences of mental or emotional distress, “big feelings” or altered states don’t fit into societal definitions of “healthy.”

A Unique Intersection:

Participants in QIPS engage at the intersection of queer/trans communities and peer support. They:

• Learn the tasks and principles of IPS.

• Examine assumptions about who they are.

• Acknowledge personal and cultural histories of oppression and trauma.

• Focus on understanding “what happened” instead of “what’s wrong.”

For more information: IPS Workshops

To register: IPS Eventbrite Sessions

Core Training - Intentional Peer Support

The Core Training is our foundational training for learning and practicing Intentional Peer Support. This training is for anyone interested in mutual support and has been widely used for people working in both traditional and alternative mental health settings.

Based on Shery Mead’s book, Intentional Peer Support: An Alternative Approach, our Core Training is a 40-hour introduction to this innovative framework and is designed to have you practicing right away.

In a highly interactive environment, participants learn the tasks and principles of IPS, examine assumptions about who they are, and explore ways to create relationships in which power is negotiated, co-learning is possible, and support goes beyond traditional notions of “service.” 

IPS is all about opening up new ways of seeing, thinking, and doing, and here we examine how to make this possible.

• Seek ways to connect, become aware of disconnects, and work to reconnect

• Explore how we have “come to know what we know”

• Strive for mutuality in relationships

• Stay curious, question assumptions, and own judgements and opinions

• Open up new ways of listening

• Use experience to relate and build trust

• Name and negotiate power in relationships

• Navigate conversations about suicide and self-injury

• Approach crisis as an opportunity to grow

• Share risk and responsibility

• Focus on the quality of relationships instead of fixing one another

• Pay attention to the impact of clinical and labeling language

• Understand how trauma affects lives

• Keep the energy in relationships moving towards what we want

• Understand peer support in the context of social change and social justice

• Learn to see altered states or non-consensual reality in new ways, and to connect with people having these experiences

Offered as a 10 day virtual session.

For more information: IPS Workshops

To register: IPS Eventbrite Sessions

IPS Overview: An Introduction - Intentional Peer Support

This three-hour online overview course introduces participants to the history of IPS and the tasks and principles of this transformational framework.

The course provides an interactive platform for questions and discussions with facilitators and fellow participants.

Peers unite around shared experiences and a desire for change. However, without a new framework, people often recreate "help" based on their past experiences.

IPS offers a foundation for a different approach, rooted in grassroots alternatives that focus on building relationships that are mutual, explorative, and conscious of power dynamics.

Key Features:

• Comprehensive overview of IPS history and principles

• Interactive discussions with experienced facilitators

• Networking opportunities with like-minded individuals

• Introduction to a transformative framework for relationship-building

• Exploration of power dynamics in helping relationships

• Insights into creating mutual and explorative connections

For more information: IPS Workshops

To register: IPS Eventbrite Sessions

Talking About the Difficult Parts of Your Child's History - Creating a Family Adoption and Foster Care Education

Learn how to share difficult news with your child.

Should you tell your child that her birth father is in jail or that her birth mother is addicted to drugs, or that she was conceived by rape? If so, how in the world do you share this news. In this course, we talk with Lesli Johnson, an EMDR therapist who specializes in adoption and foster care and an adult adoptee; and Susan Myers, a licensed Master Social Worker with Adoptions from the Heart Adoption Agency.

This course covers the following learning objectives:

• List 3 reasons why parents should tell their adopted or foster child about the hard parts of their story.

• Identify at about what age parents should have shared all the information that they know.

• Explain what a Lifebook is.

• List 2 reasons why parents should not share with others the personal parts of their child's adoption/foster story.

To register: Creating a Family - TADPYCH

Suicide Awareness and Prevention - Creating a Family Adoption and Foster Care Education

In this course we cover the risk factors and warning signs of suicide and what can be done to prevent it.International

The instructor is Dr. Angela Tunno, a licensed Clinical Psychologist and Assistant Professor at Duke University Medical Center, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Science. One of her areas of specialty is trauma-informed suicide prevention.

This course covers the following learning objectives:

• List 3 protective factors that caregivers can do to support the youth in their home.

• List 3 ways that caregivers can safeguard their home if they suspect an acute risk for self-harm or suicide.

• Define and provide an example of a precipitant factor.

• List 2 societal inequities that contribute to increased risk for suicide.

• List 3 symptoms of depression.

To register: Creating a Family - SAP

Raising a LGBTQ+ Child or Youth - Creating a Family Adoption and Foster Care Education

Learn how to provide a supportive and nurturing home for 2SLGBTQ+ youth.

There is a huge need for foster and adoptive homes for 2SLGBTQ+ youth in foster care. In this course, Holly Harridan and Dr. Shelly Ronen help caregivers understand how to support and provide nurturing homes for 2SLGBTQ+ children and youth. Holly is a Senior User Experience Researcher at Bloom Works and an applied Anthropologist with a background in queer and feminist studies. She lived with an informal kinship caregiver as a queer youth. Dr. Shelly Ronen is a Senior User Experience Researcher at Bloom Works. She has a PhD is in Sociology, and specializes in gender and sexuality.

This course covers the following learning objectives:

• Explain what it means to be an "affirming" home for 2SLGBTQ+ youth.

• Explain why 2SLGBTQ+ youth are more likely to have a foster placement failure.

• List 3 resources for guidance on how to be affirming of 2SLGBTQ+ youth.

To register: Creating a Family - R2SLGBTQ+CY

Practical Tips for Disciplining While Maintaining Attachment - Creating a Family Adoption and Foster Care Education

In this course we talk with Amanda Purvis, a Training Specialist at the Karyn Purvis Center for Child Development, about practical tips for disciplining while maintaining attachment.

Amanda is a social worker, and a mom of five, some of whom have experienced early life trauma.

This course covers the following learning objectives:

• List 2 reasons why spanking, shaming, and time-outs are not effective disciplinary techniques for children who have experienced trauma.

• Explain what the acronym IDEAL means as far as an approach to disciplining children.

• Identify two reasons to allow children to have a do-over when they have misbehaved.

• List two ways to handle triangulation.

To register: Creating a Family - PTDWMA

Practical Tips for Disciplining Children Who Have Experienced Trauma - Creating a Family Adoption and Foster Care Education

How do you discipline kids who have experienced trauma? We provide 5 tips and then discuss 5 challenging parenting situations.

Our expert is Karen Doyle Buckwalter, a Licensed Clinical Social Worker, Registered Play Therapist and Supervisor, and co-author of "Raising the Challenging Child".

This course covers the following learning objectives:

• List 5 tips for addressing challenging parent situations.

• List 3 parenting techniques to help respond to challenging behavior.

• Understand how and why to set realistic expectations of the adopted child.

To register: Creating a Family - PTDCWHET

Practical Solutions to Typical Food Issues - Creating a Family Adoption and Foster Care Education

Learn ways to address food issues that your children may have. International

Food issues are very common with adopted and foster children and are one of the most frequent concerns adoptive and foster parents have. This course will discuss common feeding and food issues, including picky eating and overeating. The instructor will be Dr. Katja Rowell, a family doctor and author of Love Me, Feed Me, 2nd edition and Helping Your Child with Extreme Picky Eating. She has a special interest in supporting foster and adoptive parents.

This course covers the following learning objectives:

• Explain how trauma impacts feeding.

• Explain what is meant by "felt safety."

• List 5 tips for overcoming eating issues with children.

To register: Creating a Family - PSTFI

Parenting Toolkit for Harder to Parent Kids - Creating a Family Adoption and Foster Care Education

In this course, Sarah Naish, the CEO of the Center of Excellence in Child Trauma and founder of the National Association of Therapeutic Parents discusses therapeutic parenting strategies for parenting harder to parent kids.International

She is the author of "The A-Z of Therapeutic Parenting" and "The A-Z of Survival Strategies for Therapeutic Parents." She is the adoptive mom to a sibling group of 5 who are now adults and she has fostered over 40 kids.

This course includes the following learning objectives:

• List 5 ways to establish a secure base for our children who have experienced trauma.

• Explain the steps to use when handling an incident in the heat of the moment.

• Explain the use of natural or logical consequences and give two reasons why they are important.

• List 3 other tools for parenting harder to parent kids.

To register: Creating a Family - PTHPK

Parenting Children Who Have Experienced Trauma - Creating a Family Adoption and Foster Care Education

How can we parent our children who have experienced trauma?

How can we discipline them in a way that will help them learn and grow? In this course, The instructor will be Dafna Lender, a LCSW and a certified trainer and supervisor/consultant in both Theraplay and Dyadic Developmental Psychotherapy. She is also an EMDR therapist. She is the author of Theraplay® – The Practitioner’s Guide and Integrative Attachment Family Therapy: A Clinical Guide to Heal and Strengthen the Parent-Child Relationship.

This course includes the following learning objectives:

• List 3 ways that trauma impacts a child.

• Explain typical coping strategies sen in children who have experienced trauma.

• List 3 ways that parents can help resolve conflicts with children who have experienced trauma.

• Explain how parents can mitigate the impact of trauma on their child.

To register: Creating a Family - PCWHET

How a Parent's History with Attachment and Trauma Impacts Adoption and Fostering - Creating a Family Adoption and Foster Care Education

Learn how a parent’s own experiences with relationships can impact the ones they have with their child.

Have you ever wondered why a specific behavior by your child drives you crazy? What do we as parents bring to the relationship that could be part of the problem? In this course, we talk with Dr. Patrice Berry, a licensed clinical psychologist with specialized training in adoption and foster care and over 15 years of clinical experience, about how a parent's history with attachment and trauma impacts our parenting.

This course covers the following learning objectives:

• Explain why a parents history of trauma and their attachment style impacts how they parent.

• List the four attachment styles.

• List two ways we can move towards a more secure style of attachment in adulthood.

To register: Creating a Family - HPHATIAF

Helping Internationally Adopted Children Develop a Healthy Cultural & Racial Identity - Creating a Family Adoption and Foster Care Education

In this course, we interview Dr. Hollee McGinnis, an Assistant Professor in the Virginia Commonwealth University School of Social Work who focuses on mental health and identity for international adopted people. International

She is also an intercountry adoptee from South Korea. 

This course includes these learning objectives:

• Explain why racial, ethnic, or cultural identification is important for the emotional development of a child adopted internationally.

• Explain what a healthy cultural identity looks like for an internationally adopted child.

• Explain what a healthy racial identity looks like for an internationally adopted child.

• List two tips for parents to help create a healthy racial and cultural identity.

To register: Creating a Family - HIACDHCRI

Helping Adopted Children Heal From Past Trauma and Loss - Creating a Family Adoption and Foster Care Education

In this course we will talk about the impact of trauma and loss on adopted kids and what parents can do to help them heal.

The instructor is Dr. Amanda Baden, a Professor and the Doctoral Program Director at Montclair State University in the graduate counseling program and a licensed psychologist in private practice in Manhattan. She is an adult adoptee from Hong Kong and an adoptive parent of a daughter from China.

This course covers the following learning objectives:

• Explain what trauma is.

• Explain why neglect can be a type of trauma.

• List 3 things adoptive parent can do to help their child heal.

To register: Creating a Family - HACHPTL

Helping Children Heal from Sexual Abuse - Creating a Family Adoption and Foster Care Education

In this course we will cover the long-term impacts of sexual abuse and how to help children heal. International

The instructor will be Dr. Eliana Gil is the founder of the Gill Institute for Trauma Recovery. She specializes in the assessment and treatment of trauma in children, especially those who have been sexually abused. She is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist, a Registered Play Therapist Supervisor, and a Registered Art Therapist.

Course objectives:

• Describe the types of abuse considered "sexual abuse."

• Describe common behaviors of a child that indicate that child has been sexually abused.

• Describe the safeguards to have in place when accepting placement of a child who may have been sexually abused.

• Describe what parents can do to help children heal from sexual abuse.

To register: Creating a Family - HCHSA

Health, Emotional, and Developmental Issues Common to Children Adopted Internationally - Creating a Family Adoption and Foster Care Education

In this course, we will talk about the process of adoption and the common health, developmental, and emotional issues in children being adopted through intercountry adoption.

The instructor will be Dr. Kimara Gustafson, M.D., M.P.H., an Assistant Professor in the Department of Pediatrics at the University of Minnesota Medical School, a Faculty Member in the Division of Clinical Behavioral Neuroscience, and a pediatrician at the Adoption Medicine Clinic at the University of Minnesota.

Our second instructor is Dr. Katie Stone, a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Pediatrics at The University of Minnesota Medical School. She is part of the Psychology team at the Adoption Medicine Clinic providing expertise on mental and behavioral health, attachment, and social-emotional development. Her Ph.D. is in Clinical Child Psychology.

This course includes the following learning objectives:

• Understand the factors that lead to children around the world to be in state care and to need adoptive families.

• Understand the intercountry adoption process.

• Understand the common emotional, developmental, and health issues for children adopted internationally.

• Understand the common assimilation issues for internationally adopted children.

To register: Creating a Family - HEDICCAI