23TRA504 FROM CARER TO SELF-CARE – ACCESSING THE POWER OF PLAY AS CARE FOR THE CARER (EY) (P) (SNA)

As educators many of you are really good at advocating for and engaging the child’s language of play in facilitating learning and growth with the children in your care. But how often do you remember your own need to engage your play systems for your own care?

We know when our play systems are activated we can connect better with ourselves & the world around us. After all, when we play we incorporate all the core elements of regulation. We need play across the whole life span. As the saying goes - "We don't stop playing because we grow old, we grow old because we stop playing!"

So what better way is there to keep you - the carer/educator - well than to self-prescribe regular 5 minute doses of the magic that is PLAY?

Like a daily vitamin, the 5 minute dose gives your nervous system the workout it needs to stay regulated, to keep your own cups of connection full, to stay well. After all, if you are not well, how can the children in your care be well?

This workshop will:

• Explore ways to grow and heal and to stay well. 
• Explore many playful ways of up and down regulating, accessing the powers of play as the means to boost your self-care and keep your nervous system regulated.
• Playfully explore your own nervous system's unique ways of regulating - ultimately creating a bespoke self-care play kit for each participant to take home.

Facilitator: Aideen Flynn, PG Dip Ed, MA, M-IAPTP

Aideen has worked with children in educational settings for 20 years, specialising in S.E.N. and children with complex needs. She is a child and adolescent psychotherapist working in private practice in The Treasure Within, Child & Adolescent Psychotherapy Clinic, Quin, Co. Clare. From here she empowers children, their families and teachers to work together to enable the struggling child be the best he or she can be.