Workshops

IVY Prep Workshops
Dr. Mannis has lectured on a wide range of topics related to optimizing learning, professional development and parenting. She is available to customize workshops for your school and organization.  In 2017, Dr. Mannis initiated the Ivy Prep Brain Trust (hyperlink) , a boutique forum for parents and professionals to gain insights and share resources.  Topics included: The Developmental Path, Sleep: What’s wrong and what we can do about it, Insider Tips for College Applications and Executive Functions, and Language-based learning in Middle and Upper School.

Resolutions and Responsibilities: A Series of 3 Workshops to Help Parents Beat the Winter Blues
Rebecca Mannis, Ph.D. and
Stephanie Newman, Ph.D.

This is the time of the year when everyone seems to have a New Year’s resolution — and parents are no different. As we encourage our children to thrive, as we urge them to take on responsibilities, we also struggle to define realistic goals and set limits. We vow to do it better, to not lose our tempers, to be more supportive and helpful, to break old maladaptive patterns. But exactly how is this accomplished — and how can we avoid repeating mistakes and, in frustration, casting aside our newly minted resolutions?

As parents and psychologists, we are in a unique position to understand the challenges that human development brings. We have designed a series of workshops to address specific parenting issues that arise during the winter months, the time when goal setting, defining responsibilities, and establishing limits is crucial. We bring both a developmental and clinical approach to problem-solving within the family system.

Workshop topics include:

• Deciding when to let adolescents and younger children fail;
• Determining how to motivate children to stick to school and performance goals;
• Developing techniques for time management (and yes, we will talk about screen time!);
• Addressing peer pressure and the tensions that result when the developing adolescent comes up against a world that is too fast and too mature;
• Handling sibling concerns, such as pressure to be the “perfect child” as a brother or sister struggles with individual challenges.

Workshop 1 – January 10, 2013, 9:30 a.m. – Setting realistic goals and encouraging adolescents to take responsibility:

We have all wondered: do we knowingly let children fail? How do we help set appropriate and reasonable goals? If expectations are too high, or if the child sets the bar too high, when do we look the other way and let him or her stumble? And if struggles and disappointment are inevitable — and we believe they are — it is what parents do with them that have an impact on the child or teen.

In this workshop we will:

• Clarify educational interventions and explain the differences between the Cognitive and Dynamic therapy approaches, enabling parents to become successful consumers of therapy and educational supports.
• Address how to motivate a child who is having difficulty sticking to resolutions and setting up appropriate goals, and how to implement strategies to help children and adolescents stay on track.

Workshop 2 – January 17, 2013, 9:30 a.m. – Learning challenges, time management, and parental disagreements

We’ve seen it time and again: school and homework call for focus and discipline. Individuals with different learning styles and needs can begin to feel isolated and frustrated as they struggle to fit into a traditional setting and framework. Motivation and time management also play a role. Screen time is always a consideration: how much is appropriate — and what constitutes overuse? And what happens in the household when parents attempt to address learning issues and disagree on how best to proceed?

In this session we will:

• Offer practical guidelines for addressing differences in school and home settings — bearing in mind the difficulties that arise in integrating sometimes competing school and parental approaches and philosophies with variations in individual learning style, temperament, and psychologies.
• Discuss how to approach a teacher or spouse in ways that foster communication, so learning challenges can be effectively addressed.

Workshop 3 – January 24th, 9:30 a.m. – The Family: Peer pressures parents face, sibling needs, and the dilemma of the “perfect child:”

Families that encounter learning differences frequently wonder how to best address such differences and the issues they commonly bring, such as: the effect on siblings who possess different aptitudes and capacities for learning; the challenges to self esteem that are activated in the child who struggles to learn; and the pressures that can arise when siblings believe they have to be the “perfect child,” a common syndrome that potentially renders them at risk for eating and substance abuse disorders, depression, anxiety, and rebellion against high expectations.

In this workshop we will discuss:

• Parental peer pressure and difficulties encountered when the values of their individual family come up against those of the larger school culture and outside world.
• How to identify who is at risk for “perfect child syndrome,” including common hot button issues in a parent’s particular psychology that can have an impact on the family system and pose a detriment to successful help seeking.

Registration:

Enrollment is limited; please call Dr. Rebecca Mannis/Ivy Prep: (212) 360-5959, or Dr. Stephanie Newman: (212 717-7693), to reserve a spot for these important and timely workshops.

More on us:

Dr. Rebecca Mannis is a learning specialist in private practice with close to 100,000 hours of experience optimizing development and learning for children and adults. She holds a Ph.D. in Developmental Psychology with a specialization in Neuroscience and Education from Teachers College, Columbia University,and a Masters degree in Reading, Language and Learning Disabilities from the Harvard GraduateSchool of Education. She has published in the Child and Adolescent Clinics of North America and consults regularly about enhancing learning, learning disabilities, educational remediation, individualized instruction and adaptive technology. She coordinated educational services for cancer survivors and children with traumatic brain injury for The Making Headway Foundation for 14 years. She was appointed to the Alumni Council of Harvard Graduate School of Education, is New York Liaison for SENG, the organization devoted to development of gifted children, and founded The Mannis Foundation, a non-profit foundation that addresses the instructional needs of students who are not sufficiently served. Learn more about Dr. Mannis and her learning center on www.ivy-prep.com.

Dr. Stephanie Newman, a licensed clinical psychologist and psychoanalyst with a private practice in NYC, consults frequently on parenting issues. She has worked with families and adolescents who are struggling with divorce, health, and financial concerns, and with adults and adolescents presenting with eating, substance, and mood disorders. Dr. Newman is the author of numerous articles on parenting and other topics in psychology, and writes regularly for the on-line edition of psychology today. She is the author of Mad Men on the Couch: Analyzing the Minds of the Men and Women of the Hit TV Show(St Martin’s-Thomas Dunne, 2012), and a co-editor of Money Talks: in therapy society and life (Routledge, 2011), as well as a faculty member of the Institute for Psychoanalytic Education (formerly NYU Medical Center Psychoanalytic Institute). Dr. Newman speaks at schools, camps, and parenting and professional societies on diverse issues of interest to families and parents. Learn more about Dr. Newman and her practice on www.newmantherapymanhattan.com

IVY Prep Workshops
Dr. Mannis has lectured on a wide range of topics related to optimizing learning, professional development and parenting. She is available to customize workshops for your school and organization.

Please find the list of current workshop titles:

• Road Map for Learning®: Educating Students with Diverse Learning Styles
• Incorporating Instructional Methods in Middle School for students with Different Learning Styles
• Visual-Kinesthetic Methods of Beginning Literacy Instruction
• Learning Style and Learning Temperament: How to Identify and Teach Strategies that Match How a
  Student Learns and Her Personality
• There’s Something Wrong, but I Don’t Know What it Is: The Importance of Parent Intuition
• Cognitive and Social-Emotional Development in Early Childhood: What Parents Need to Know
• Linking Neuropsychological Assessment to Educational Remediation
• Adult Foreign Learning Problems
• The Gifted Adult with Dyslexia: Professional Workplace Strategies
• Getting Your Child The Help He Needs: A Parent’s Guide to Effective Collaboration and Advocacy
• What Upper Schools and Universities Need to Know About Bright Students With Learning Problems
• How to Be A Supportive Parent
• Learning to Learn: Metacognition and Study Skills for the Self-Aware Student
• Organization Strategies for Busy Children and Their Parents
• Attention Deficit Disorder and Executive Functions: How Parents Can Coordinate Care Between School, Home and Related Specialists
• Identification and Targeted Instruction for Learning and Attention Problems
• Homework Strategies
• Developing Executive Functions and Organization Strategies
• The Early Childhood Educator’s Role in Developing Pre-Academic Skills