Workshops
PSYCHOLOGY
Unified Psychology and Caroline Raphael offer workshops across Australia, Internationally, and locally in the Northern NSW region, on a broad range of diverse topics. Workshops are run at specific times of the year as well as on request. Caroline has extensive and vast experience as a presenter, she has been a guest presenter and run workshops for the NSW Police, Southern Cross University, Schools, the Australian Psychological Society, as well as a variety of other organisations.
Groups and organisations interested in hosting one of Unified Psychology’s workshops or who are interested in a tailor-made workshop, contact please Caroline directly via the Unified Psychology contact page so that we can arrange a time to meet and discuss options.
Workshop topics include:
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Home schooling for Parents
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Study Skills – how to stay focussed and self-directed
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Developmental Stages of Change – Understanding age related stages
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Anxiety
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Stress and Exhaustion
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In the Name of Family - The Impact of Family on Mental Health
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Organisation Conflict and Well-being
For more information on Workshops please click the links for further reading or contact Caroline
UPCOMING WORKSHOPS
PROGRAM
PARENTING: Parenting from your inner-most
We have often heard the saying “parenting is the hardest job there is” and often it can feel that way.
However, in-truth it does not have to feel this way.
Being/Becoming a parent can bring up our unresolved issues from childhood. If they are not dealt with and are able to remain buried and unresolved, we can often repeat these patterns with our own children. We have all heard those sayings 'you are becoming just like your mother' or “I just sounded like my father”. This is simply and nothing more the repeat of an 'active pattern', that is, an unresolved issue that still has an emotional effect on you, and once understood is easy to correct.
Struggling to get it "right" as a parent can be super difficult. But there is a way to parent that is true. A way that comes from within and pays nor adheres any allegiance to the outer beliefs, ideals or imposts, but applies clairsentient truth in the most practical manner possible - at all times. To parent like this frees you as a parent and allows you to parent from what feels true and not from how you have been 'told' to parent.
The aim of this workshop is to empower parents by providing skills that will assist them to parent free from the outer expectations and impositions that have been placed on us. If these ways were working our children would be more content and settled within themselves than they currently are.
During the course of the workshop we will work through:
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How to separate our issues from our children's
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Learning boundaries - what are they and how do we apply them?
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Understanding how best to support our kids in school
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Giving our power away to our children
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Disempowering our children - what does this mean?
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Not setting our children up to be so affected by a world that has affected us
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The difference between being a parent and being a friend
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Creating networks to support each other
PROGRAM
KEEPING YOUR CHILDREN SAFE:
Protective behaviours for children and young people
Children have an innate sense of knowing, their first instincts as a baby know whether someone feels safe or not. I often find it amusing watching certain politicians try to pick up a baby, who instantly screams as they can feel there is another agenda at play, and it is not to hold the baby in the honouring and preciousness that the baby deserves. This is the baby’s way of saying No, they do not like that energy. However, over time children lose their ability to say No. Without fault towards anyone, we learn to work within the societal structures that tell us, if not demand of us, that we need to fit in, be nice and be respectful. It is one thing for a baby to scream and say No to being held by a stranger they do not trust but it is another for a child to say No when they don’t want to hug a family member or friend, for whatever reason.
Children then learn to doubt and question their feelings and as a result they start to lose their “baby smarts” that instinctually keep them safe. Children, young people and adults often need to re-learn how to trust their feelings so that they are able to trust in what they are feeling and what they feel to say No to or even be safe to question if they feel to say No.
This presentation/workshop can be tailored to suit the needs of the specific audience. For young children this workshop focuses on the Ability to say NO, to listen to their bodies and trust what it is telling them and gives practical skills of how to get help when they don’t feel safe, including how to say No to a stranger to ensure that they listen.
PROGRAM
Understanding Drugs and Alcohol
Recreational drinking and drug taking has become part of our mainstream culture, it is no longer seen as harmful or negatively impactful to our health as long as it is done in moderation. In short it has become a “normal” part of our culture as the majority engage in alcohol and drug taking behaviours. However very little information is offered on the long-term effects early drug taking and alcohol consumption has on one’s later years. Studies have found that underage drinking and drug taking can have long term effects leading into adulthood. Alcohol and drugs can impact on a young person’s brain as it continues to develop, some research suggests up into their early to mid-twenties, impacting on problem solving skills and mental performance. Research has also found a correlation between underage drinking and increased risk of alcohol related issues when in adulthood, including impact on physical and mental health. Young people who sustained from underage drinking have also been reported to have more successful and full-filling lives.
It is important that children and young people are given all the facts so that they have the choice, based on being armed with all the appropriate information so that they can make an informed decision. At the end of the day peer pressure has a significant impact on whether someone listens to and trust in what they feel. In private practice I often have young adolescents and even adults tell me they don’t like drinking or taking drugs, and state the first time they had it they hated it, but proceed to tell me that they do it because it is a way to fit in and be accepted. This is a sad indictment on our culture. Children, young people and adults need to be supported so that they are free to decide for themselves and not to undertake in behaviour because they feel pressure to do so.
This workshop again can be tailor made to any age, including adults, caregivers to support their children and young people to understand the significant risks they are taking when they choose to drink and or take drugs and a young age.
PROGRAM
Maintaining Self Esteem and Confidence
As children grow, they sadly often lose the ability to trust in themselves and their feelings. As yet we do not live in a society that fully cherishes the wisdom and preciousness of a child. Sensitivity and tenderness can still be seen as a weakness and something that has to be “toughened up” and not something that needs to be nurtured and supported so that children are able to hold onto that preciousness and from there remain confident and secure with who they are. When this is interfered with issues with self-esteem and confidence are a natural flow on consequence and effect. Children have a natural innate wisdom that comes from their connection with their own inner preciousness, when this is interfered with, children start to doubt themselves, question who they are which then unfortunately allows them to conform to the norms that are before them. Many things impact on a child’s preciousness, including but not limited to, gender and cultural beliefs and influences and age-related stereotypes.
At what age did someone decide we needed to toughen up - who set that standard?
And why do we continue to subscribe to boys need to toughen up well before girls do – why when they are born equal precious and tender?
And why do we refer to girls, being girls, as if it were a negative thing?
When not in touch with their inner preciousness, it is possible for children and young people to engage in behaviours that are not supportive, including negative thoughts towards themselves and harming behaviours. However, what if this did not need to be “normal” what if there is another way where children and young people are free to remain who they are and not engage with the “normal” stages of change that excuse harmful and negative behaviour as a stage of change or a “phase they are going through”?
These series of presentations and workshops are tailored to the specific audience to provide skills for parents, children and or young people to understand and hold onto preciousness, to understand the pull of current society and its demands to conform and fit in at any cost and how to remain precious and tender and still function around others and within society and of course much much more.
If the preciousness is honoured, we do not have to conform to society influences and demands, we are provided the freedom to decide for ourselves what quality of life we want to live, but without this freedom and understanding we either conform or see ourselves as misfits. ~
Caroline Raphael
PROGRAM
CHANGE: Understanding our Choices and their Consequences
If we listen to ourselves, we all have an inner knowing, a
knowing of what is true for us and what is not!
As a race of beings we are living in ways that do not make sense. We eat foods that are not good for us, today over fourteen million Australians are overweight or obese. We drink and take substances that regardless of how often we are told how harmful they are we continue to do so… are we silly or is it possible that there is more at play and in truth a true choice is a choice in energy? What if the way to make a true choice is to change the energy we are in…
“Everything is energy” - Albert Einstein,
“And therefore, everything is because of energy”
Serge Benhayon
Regardless of the choice we make it comes with both positive and negatives, even if a choice is perceived to be a negative it has to have a positive to it or we would not make it. This workshop helps us to understand that there is far more behind a choice than just the choice. Is it possible we operate from a way of being that can either be loving or unloving? Both are energies that feed us and both lead to certain qualities of choices. What if it was possible to choose which energy you wanted to be connected to and as a result determine the quality of the choices that you make?
This workshop will support you to;
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Feel when a choice is a true choice and when it is one based on an energy that is running behaviours that are not supportive to one’s true way of being.
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Understand the quality of our choices and how they impact on us.
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Understand the differences in energy and how they influence our choices and behaviours.
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Make more loving and supportive choices based on understanding and not self-judgment and criticism.
PROGRAM
EXPRESSION AND COMMUNICATION
The Lost Art of Communication
In today’s fast paced age of technology, have we stopped connecting with each other… is texting, Facebooking, tweeting and etc. our preferred modes of conversation and if so what are we missing? And an even bigger question… Why have we allowed this to happen?
Increasingly we are living in an automated world, ticket machines, self-serve department stores, DVD dispensers and so on and so on…. Are we deliberately avoiding human contact? and if so why?
Is it possible that we have been hurt by life, so much so that we have shut down the real us and as a consequence, express from a place that is not really true? How many of us can relate to feeling something yet we do not dare share it or say it out loud. We have come to learn that we need to protect ourselves through life and as a result we express through shields, guarding what and how we say things to avoid reaction and confrontation.
But at what expense?
If we continue to allow this how will it impact on us and how does it impact on our relationships? By not expressing we are under the assumption that we are protecting ourselves from being hurt, yet the truth is we hurt ourselves every time we hold back from expressing what is there to be expressed. Our lack of expression is what hurts us the most and is the leading cause of our relationship issues and breakdowns … it does not have to be this way…
This Workshop will cover:
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What energy we are expressing in how it impacts on others and how others hear it
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Exploring our guards and shields – what they are and how we use them to protect ourselves through life
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How our guards and shields are perceived by others and how that impacts on how effective and open
our communication is -
How to connect to ourselves so we express from who we truly are and not from our hurts
PROGRAM
School and Home-Schooling Programs and Workshops
Caroline has always loved working with children and young people. She has a natural affinity and way with them that supports engagement and learning. She sees them as all individually unique with something amazing to offer us all. She understands that growing up in these modern times can be challenging and sees it is super important that we support them to navigate the complexities of life. She is also aware parents can find parenting in the modern era difficult and confusing. Supporting children and young people to stay true to themselves and not get caught up harmful and negative behaviours can be really difficult for parents to understand and support. She has put together a series of programs and workshops to support with all of this and more.
If you would like to read more and all the workshops and programs Caroline provides, please download the Flyer.
PROGRAM
The Importance of Physician-Patient Communication
“Effective doctor-patient communication is a central clinical function in building therapeutic doctor-patient relationship, which is the heart and art of medicine” (1)
This workshop is designed for Physician's who want to learn the art of communication and understand the significant impact communication can have on treatment outcomes and therapeutic rapport. Areas covered will explore the science behind the importance of effective communication skills and the positive benefits to both physicians and patients.
If you would like to read more about this workshop, please download the Flyer.
Details: Dates TBA or contact Caroline for a training tailored to your organisation
Investment: $90.00 including GST
PROGRAM
In the Name of Family -
The Impact of Family on Mental Health
Family can be one of our greatest supports and it can also be one of our greatest harms.
This workshop is designed to support and increase understanding on family and the impact it can have on our mental health. There are many sayings that exist around the world that excuse or justify harmful behaviour if acted out in the name of family. This can and does have significant and damaging effects on an individual and if not addressed feeds a cycle of family dysfunction that can go on for generations.
If you would like to read more about this workshop, please download the Flyer.
This Workshop will cover:
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how families can positively or negatively impact on your physical and mental health
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how family beliefs and ideals influence how we act and feel
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the impact of family beliefs, standards and values on you, your relationships and your overall sense of well-being
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and explore why we are more likely to accept abuse from family and not others
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how to maintain your standards in your family and remain true to who you are.