Facilitators: | April Prescott Carole Anne Hapchyn | ||||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Date: | This is a multi-day event.
| ||||||||||||||
Cost: |
No Charge |
||||||||||||||
Location: |
Virtual |
||||||||||||||
Session Code: | 25-IE-358 | ||||||||||||||
Focus: | Inclusive Education |
Target Audience
Teachers, Inclusive Learning teachers, District Leaders/Consultants, School Based Administrators
About this Learning Opportunity
In this series of 7 sessions, Dr. Hapchyn and April Prescott will provide an overview of the Three Steps to Resilience model from the NeuroRelational Framework (NRF). The main objective of this series is to provide teachers with the basic knowledge and skills of recognizing stress response states, addressing these states through co-regulation, and how to do so in an interdisciplinary model.
Participants will benefit from downloading the free NRF starter kit from the website here: https://nrfcare.org/starter-kit/
The NeuroRelational Framework (NRF) (Lillas et al. 2009) seeks to provide trauma-informed assessment and intervention with three clinical steps based on neuroscience and relational research. The clinical steps aim to:
- reduce or eliminate toxic stress patterns and promote adaptive stress responses,
- support healthy caregiver-child engagement and social-emotional development, and
- utilize individualized, neurodevelopmentally informed approaches to supporting children and caregivers based on their strengths and vulnerabilities across brain systems.
By integrating science about the brain and the wisdom of relationships, the NRF aims to improve care for the whole child. The NRF provides a big-picture and collaborative approach to understanding the brain and body and how that shows up in your classroom. The framework bridges fragmented systems of care and overlapping diagnoses through a common language and shared approach toward whole-person care.
The Neurorelational Framework textbook was co-authored by Dr. Connie Lilas, RN, MFT, Ph.D D., and Dr. Janiece Turnbull (pediatric neuropsychologist). Dr. Lillas created the NeuroRelational Framework Institute to further develop the framework.
*Sessions will be recorded and shared with participants who have signed up for the series. As each session builds on the next, attendance for each is recommended.
Session Breakdown:
April 2 - Session 1: Step 1 - Grounded Roots - Introduction of the 5 paradigm shifts
April 9 - Session 2: Step 1 - Grounded Roots (continued) - States of arousal and sleep
April 17 - Session 3: Step 1 - Grounded Roots (continued) - Toxic stress and trauma-informed practices
April 23 - Session 4: Step 2 - Stable Trunk - Qualities of engagement
April 30 - Session 5: Step 2 - Stable Trunk (continued) - Heart-Head-Hand
May 7 - Session 6: Step 3 - Collaboration - Interdisciplinary practice and values
May 14 - Session 7: Step 3 - Application and Summary - Using this in IPPs and lesson planning
This session addresses the LQS competencies
- 2. Modeling Commitment to Professional Learning
- 4. Leading a Learning Community
This session addresses the TQS competencies
- 2. Engaging in Career-Long Learning
- 3. Demonstrating a Professional Body of Knowledge
- 4. Establishing Inclusive Learning Environments
This learning opportunity is being subsidized through funding from Alberta Education.
Facilitators

April Prescott
April Prescott, CCC, MACP, B Ed, RYT-500HR - April is an educator-turned-therapist specializing in mental health for children and their families. She began her career as a teacher for the Connect Society, specializing in providing early intervention for children affected by hearing loss. After 10 years of teaching, April moved on to be the Inclusive Education Coordinator at... Read more »

Dr. Carole Anne Hapchyn
Dr. Carole Anne Hapchyn, MD, FRCPC - Carole Anne Hapchyn is an infant and early childhood psychiatrist who has provided assessment and treatment for infants and young children and their families for over 30 years in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. She was the medical lead of Infant Preschool Services at CASA Child, Adolescent and Family Mental Health and of the Autism Clinic at the Glenrose... Read more »