Course Overview

The Strength Switch Parenting Course combines three face-to-face facilitated workshops with five online learning modules to help you learn and practice strengths-based parenting with your family. This course is based on research into strengths-based parenting and positive education together with three decades of research from strengths-based science and positive psychology.

This highly engaging course weaves together science, real-life stories, and interactive exercises which equip participants to help their children recognise and build upon their natural strengths. You'll learn how and why to place emphasis on your children’s strengths instead of focusing a disproportionate amount of energy on correcting their weaknesses. By learning how to flip the “Strength Switch,” you can help your children increase resilience, optimism and achievement. This approach enhances self-esteem and energy for both children and teenagers. The Strength Switch Parenting Course will show you that small shifts can yield enormous results.

This course was developed by Prof. Lea Waters, author of the book The Strength Switch: How the New Science of Strength-Based Parenting Can Help Your Child and Your Teen to Flourish. Prof. Waters is an internationally acclaimed expert in Positive Education, Past President of the International Positive Psychology Association, and the Founding Director of the University of Melbourne's Centre for Positive Psychology

Learning Outcomes

By completing this course, participants will be equipped to…

• Know and use your own strengths as parents

• See and build upon your kids’ strengths

• Increase positive emotions at home

• Uncover and activate potential strengths

• Create positive family energy

• Manage challenges in positive ways

Course Overview

This course is a facilitated discussion group based on the best-selling family communication skills book How to Talk So Kids Will Listen and Listen So Kids Will Talk. “Parents are on the firing line seven days a week, yet few of them have had any training for this demanding job. No wonder even the most well-intentioned parents often find themselves feeling frustrated, bewildered, guilty or alone,” say Adele Faber and Elaine Mazlish, award-winning authors of the book and program. This discussion group gives parents a chance to learn practical and evidence-based communication skills, exchange ideas and experiences, and be a support to each other through the highs and lows of the parenting experience.

Hundreds of thousands of parents and professionals have benefitted from this program developed by the authors. In studies of people participating in the discussion groups, researchers found that parents developed parenting skills that significantly – and lastingly – improved the quality of their family life. They also found that these new-found skills worked equally well with children of all ages. To ensure the discussion is as meaningful and practical for you as possible, you’ll be invited to sit with parents whose kids are a similar age to yours during small group discussions and exercises.

Learning Outcomes

By completing this course, participants will be equipped to…

• Create a family atmosphere of love and respect

• Express your emotions without being hurtful

• Engage your children’s willing cooperation

• Cope with your children’s negative feelings

• Break a pattern of arguments

• Set limits and resolve conflicts peacefully

Course Overview

Who am I? Why am I here? Am I making the most of my life? These are good, big questions we ask ourselves, and they deserve good, big answers. Many of our days are spent in repetitive routines, doing what we do by default rather than design. How often do we take time to reflect on who we are and what makes us special? Research tells us that when we play to our strengths, we're happier, more engaged and more likely to achieve our goals. Knowing your unique strengths helps you focus on the things you do well and enjoy. This doesn't just benefit you, but also the people and organisations you live, work, and volunteer with.

This highly interactive course will help you discover and activate your strengths to accomplish what matters most to you. We’ll use formal and informal strengths assessments and evidence-based group coaching exercises to help you increase awareness of your current strengths use and design action plans for optimising your strengths in your personal and professional life. By learning how to apply your unique strengths most effectively, you’ll develop more confidence in yourself, maximise your potential, feel energised by how you spend your time, and have a positive impact on the people around you.

Learning Outcomes

By completing this course, participants will be equipped to…

• Feel more confident and positive about yourself

• Use your strengths to achieve what matters most

• Affirm and optimise your known strengths

• Discover and activate your hidden talents

• Stop doing so much of what drains your energy

• Help others see and leverage their unique strengths

Course Overview

Are you your own worst critic? Having a positive perspective doesn’t mean that you blindly assume everything will turn out perfectly; rather, it is believing you can achieve your goals and handle challenges you encounter along the way. But this way of thinking doesn't come naturally to many of us. Biology and society have conditioned us to be hyper-focused on the negative. Without realising it, we’re often listening to disempowering voices in our heads telling us, “I don’t have what it takes,” or “It’s too hard,” or “It’s not possible to get what I want.” It’s easy to get pulled down by a glass-half-empty, self-critical perspective.

The great news is that a positive mindset can be learned by applying scientifically proven techniques that increase “Positive Psychological Capital,” or the HERO’S Mindset: Hope, Efficacy, Resiliency, Optimism, and a Solutions Focus. We’ll practice strengthening these “positivity muscles” with evidence-based group coaching exercises that help you become more optimistic about your success, increase your confidence to take on challenging tasks, and build resilience that will help you persevere toward achieving your goals and aspirations. By learning how to master your mindset, you’ll become more motivated, energetic, and confident – creating positive momentum that gets you where you want to go.

Learning Outcomes

By completing this course, participants will be equipped to…

• Develop confidence in their own capabilities

• Anticipate and overcome obstacles to reach goals

• Remain optimistic about their ability to succeed

• Bounce back and grow stronger through setbacks

• Transform self-limiting beliefs and negative self-talk

• Stay focused on solutions and opportunities