Friday Keynote by Dr. Deborah MacNamara

Optional Friday Evening Public Address
Friday, March 1, 2019  |  7-9 pm

The Secrets of the Table: Returning Joy to the Feeding of Others

The family meal is on the decline, despite decades of research as to its benefit to children’s overall health and well-being. What has contributed to its demise and should we care? Is there a way to harness the ‘magic of the table’ when parents shuttle kids to scheduled activities and work extended hours outside the home? How do we deal with food battles, picky eating, and power struggles that make eating together misery? Using developmental and relational science, Deborah will reveal the surprising secrets behind the family meal which have been camouflaged as a result of our preoccupation with what is on the plate.

Please note that this optional registration item is an additional $20 to the conference tuition.
Registration for this evening address is available for $25 for those unable to attend the conference. Click HERE.

Saturday Keynotes by Dr. Gordon Neufeld

Two-Part Keynote Address
Saturday, March 2, 2019  |
8:30-9:45 am and 3:55-4:30 pm

Press Pause and Play: Is This the Answer?

Everyone knows that children and play go together, but not necessarily know why and how. But what does play have to do with pregnancy? With marriage? With adulthood? With mortality? The short answer is more than what most people would ever have imagined. A longer answer has to do with play being discovered as sharing the attributes of rest. And REST is the answer to most everything that ails us, including stress, wounds, alarm, frustration, oppositionality, and even immaturity. It turns out that the play mode figures into growing, healing, attaching, resilience, and much more. Playfulness is even a primary indicator of emotional health and well-being. Dr. Neufeld will unfold the role of play in life and death – and most everything in between.

Play will be the theme for our sessions throughout the conference, taking the insight covered in Gordon’s address and translating it into every-day practice.