
N Courage Mint - Parent Workshop
Saturday, June 13, 2009
9:00am to 4:00pm
Painters Union Hall
1701 Whitney Mesa Drive
Henderson, NV
$20.00 per person or $30.00 per couple
Includes materials and lunch
Limited Space – RSVP to Corrine @ 702.741.2037
GUEST SPEAKER FROM JOHN TRACY CLINIC
Mary Beth Goring, M.A., MFT
Every family experiences fundamental changes with the diagnosis of hearing loss or other special needs in a child. Some families with children who are deaf or hard of hearing bond together to help the child; others seem to fall apart under the weight of the additional stress that the hearing loss entails. Often the majority of a family’s energy is devoted to meeting the deaf child’s special needs. When this happens, couples can drift apart and siblings can act out or become increasingly alienated. Additionally, though many parents report personal growth and a redefinition of their life’s purpose, years of stress can create a burden on their general well being, creating problems with their health and daily functioning. This workshop will attempt to address the question:
What about the rest of us?
We will explore ways in which each family member’s individual experience of adaptation and grief in the months and years following a child’s diagnosis of hearing loss can intersect with that of the other members in ways which are either helpful and healing or discouraging and detrimental. We will identify strategies, which partners and parents can use to begin to repair relationships within the nuclear and extended family, which are weakened or damaged by the unique stress in their lives. Parents will consider how to care for themselves as they balance the burden of many competing needs, including their own.
The workshop will focus on:
1. The couple relationship
2. Siblings
3. Managing stress and competing demands
Mary Beth Goring, M.A., MFT, is a marriage and family therapist who has spent the last twenty-one years working with families of young deaf children at John Tracy Clinic. She facilitates support groups for English and Spanish-speaking parents, as well as school-aged siblings, provides individual and family counseling, and teaches a graduate level class in working with families. Ms. Goring serves as the Director of Consultation Services of John Tracy Clinic, and has traveled throughout the U.S., Latin America, and Spain providing trainings for parents and professionals in topics such as family relationships, the function of parents’ grief, working with parents, and support groups.