Education Session Recordings
“Every day that you’re alive, you learn something new.” – Community Member
Our Monthly Education Sessions support continuous growth and learning and build competencies in relevant and related topics such as: trauma, mental health, diagnosis, relationship building and more.
Education Sessions are listed from newest to oldest. We ask permission from all presenters to post their presentations and all sessions are edited to remove any identifying information (names and faces) of community member participants.
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Providing feedback on the recorded session will help us to demonstrate the impact of our Education Sessions to presenters, funders and potential funders. It also helps us improve on our sessions and pick topics for future sessions. The survey should take less than 5 minutes.
Setting Boundaries and Showing Up
Presented by Wendy Hayes | Original Air Date: June 2026
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Have you ever asked someone “what do you need?” and they don’t have an answer? Or maybe they asked you for the kind of support you don’t have the capacity to offer. This session will focus on how we can make tangible offers of support based on our strengths in balance with setting and maintaining boundaries so we don’t overextend ourselves.
Coaching for Effective Relationship Building Pt. 2
Presented by Barb Clark | Original Air Date: April 2026
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People who have been impacted by trauma, prenatal exposure to substances, or other challenges resulting in a traumatic brain injury understand and respond to the world around them in unique ways.
Join Barb Clark for a session on taking a coaching approach, designed to provide practical strategies, emotional support, and real-life tools you can use right away. Participants are encouraged to bring their questions and current challenges, creating a collaborative space to troubleshoot together and learn brain-based approaches that reduce stress in relationships.
Harm Reduction as an Approach in Supportive Relationships
Presented by Wendy Hayes | Original Air Date: March 2026
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Harm Reduction is known as an evidence-based, public health approach to working with people with addictions. Concepts from Harm Reduction have a broader application in figuring out how to show up in supportive ways in relationships, especially when significant and early trauma are present, as it is for Living Experts of child welfare. Drawing on personal experiences of addiction and being a Kinship caregiver as well as a passion for understanding how the brain works, Living Expert Wendy Hayes will provide an overview of what Harm Reduction is and how to use it in our approach to relationships and with ourselves.
Coaching for Effective Relationship Building Pt. 1
Presented by Barb Clark | Original Air Date: January 2026
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People who have been impacted by trauma, prenatal exposure to substances, or other challenges resulting in a traumatic brain injury understand and respond to the world around them in unique ways.
Join Barb Clark for a session on taking a coaching approach, designed to provide practical strategies, emotional support, and real-life tools you can use right away. Participants are encouraged to bring their questions and current challenges, creating a collaborative space to troubleshoot together and learn brain-based approaches that reduce stress in relationships.
Caregivers will leave with real-life strategies to build trust, improve communication, and navigate the ups and downs of parenting through the lens of brain-based support and compassion.
Taking the Fear out of The Diagnosis
Presented by Kim Stevens | Original Air Date: December 2025
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No one is excited about finding out that they, or someone they love is impacted by a preventable, life-long brain injury. But knowledge is power, knowledge brings understanding. In this presentation, we discussed the many reasons how and why knowing and accepting a diagnosis of fetal alcohol spectrum disorder can be life changing in a positive way. Building on the presentations earlier this season - Nervous System Basics, Somatic Healing, and Late Diagnosis - this education session was aimed at tying the learning together in a hopeful and realistic way.
Caregivers will leave with real-life strategies to build trust, improve communication, and navigate the ups and downs of parenting through the lens of brain-based support and compassion.
Late Diagnosis, Lifelong Lessons: Parenting Young Adults with FASD
Presented by Barb Clark | Original Air Date: November 2025
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Parenting young adults with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) can be incredibly complex—especially for caregivers who adopted their children as teens or young adults. In this personal and practical session, Barb Clark shared her journey as a parent of children with FASD and her own recent diagnosis as an adult. With honesty and insight, Barb offered guidance on how to reconnect with young people who may seem distant, shut down, or stuck.
Somatic Healing as an Effective Tool
Presented by Nadia George | Original Air Date: October 2025
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Somatic therapist and author, Nadia George, explored what somatic healing truly is—and what it isn’t. Drawing from her professional expertise and lived experience, Nadia demystified the science behind somatic practices, shared real-life examples of what works (and what doesn’t) in the heat of the moment, and guided participants through practical tools they can start using right away.
Nervous System Basics
Presented by Wendy Hayes | Original Air Date: September 2025
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Fight, flight, freeze or fawn? The nervous system is often thought of as the body’s control system. It’s responsible for processing information received about the world, triggering responses and regulating bodily functions. Understanding how it functions and the impacts that trauma has on the nervous system can help us select the appropriate tools and strategies for dysregulated moments. Lived Expert facilitator, Wendy, provided an overview of the nervous system in simple terms (and some science-y ones) as well as shared some of their personal tools for managing dysregulation for self and as a Kin Caregiver/Human.