Course Format and Offerings:
The preferred format of this course is three days. The course can be abbreviated but not without compromising the conceptual foundations and the practical application of the material. Jack Hirose & Associates offers the three-day version of this course in various centres across Canada. Consult the blackboard for upcoming events and the speaking schedule for details. If the intended audience has already been exposed to Dr. Neufeld's material on stuckness or teachability, a more condensed version is appropriate.

Synopsis of the Material

The key to making sense of aggression is to get past the violating behaviour to the emotional experience of the child and to what is missing in the child’s processing or functioning. The underlying experience is one of frustration, not anger as is commonly supposed. What is missing are vulnerable feelings as well as a consciousness of anything that would counter the impulses to attack. Such children are inclined to attack when up against things they cannot change. Such children are also unable to benefit from traditional means of discipline such as correction, confrontation, consequences and isolation. It is only as the roots of the problem are addressed that aggression can be effectively cured.

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Description of the Problem:

Aggression is one of the oldest and most challenging of human problems and indications are, that in children at least, it is on the rise. What tends to grab our attention is the more violating acts of aggression but what is truly alarming is the ground swell of attacking energy within and between our kids that erupts in their interaction, their music, their language, their play, their games and their fantasies. It is the rare parent or teacher that does not encounter aggression in one form or another, be it tantrums, tempers, fits, abrasiveness, abusive language, rude gestures, hostility, racism, taunts, put-downs, bullying, fighting, shaming, belittling, name calling, vicarious enjoyment of violence or the self-attacking forms of self-deprecation, death wishes and self-harm. It is a sobering reality that the kids who fail to grow out of aggression by school age will most likely bring their problem into adulthood, unless the underlying dynamics are addressed.

Adding to this disturbing situation is the fact that aggression is so unresponsive to the typical ways of dealing with misconduct. The normal tools of socialization - rules, consequences, discipline, warnings, sanctions, withdrawal of privileges, time-outs, isolation - despite their sometimes immediate quelling effect, actually tend to make matters worse. Likewise, attempts to teach or train in anger management, self-control or prosocial skills work best with the kids who need it least and least with the kids who need it most.

The challenge in dealing with children who have failed to grow out of aggression by school age is to understand what one is up against. The emotional hardening in these children has left them invisibly yet significantly crippled: maddened instead of saddened by futility, lacking appropriate ambivalence and surprisingly unalarmed. In addition, these kids lose the ability to learn from consequences or mistakes and cannot adapt when things go wrong. Aggressive children are basically stuck between a rock and a hard place: unable to change what counts and too defended to come to terms with it. Battling against symptoms is futile; the roots of the problem need to be addressed for any significant change to occur. It is not a matter of teaching the child a lesson or nipping aggression in the bud or even improving prosocial skills, but of restoring healthy functioning and development. Until that can be accomplished, the challenge is to compensate for the child’s dysfunction in ways that can minimize incidents and take the violence out of the aggression. Much can be done towards this end - in the home, in the school and in the community.

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Suitability and Applicability
This material has broad application and is suitable for all those involved with children and youth whose frustration erupts in one way or another. The aggression courses are regularly attended by teachers, psychologists, counselors, psychiatrists, social workers, family physicians, school principals, probation officers, foster parents, community nurses, therapists and family workers. Parents are also welcome to attend. This material has been in demand in educational circles for professional development as well as to help administrators and boards gain some perspective on this escalating problem. It has also been much requested for communities for educating all those involved with aggression and violence, from police and probation officers to counselors and day-care workers.

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Course objectives

Given sufficient time to present the material, participants should be able to benefit as follows:

• to uncover the psychological roots of the aggression problem
  
  
• to recognize aggression in its many forms
  
  
• to provide a working model of aggression for purposes of assessment and intervention
  
  
• to appreciate the roots of the gender differences in aggression
  
  
• to learn to 'read' aggression effectively
  
  
• to reveal the role of the limbic system and the prefrontal cortex in aggression
  
  
• to differentiate between incident management and developmental progress
  
  
• to outline three basic steps towards addressing any aggression problem
  
  
• to provide an appreciation of the inverse relationship between adaptation and aggression
  
  
• to provide an understanding of why aggression is increasing among children and why aggression is a part of so many syndromes and disorders
  
  
• to outline six pivotal points of intervention in the aggression problem
  
  
• to provide an appreciation of why the conventional methods of behaviour management don't work with aggression
  
  
• to equip participants to handle personal attacks
  
  
• to equip with strategies to help the immature grow out of their aggression problem
  

Testimonials
His ideas on aggression are the most useful I have ever come across. I use his material on a daily basis and have seen excellent results, even in my most difficult cases. I have nothing but the highest praise for his training and I commend him for taking a great leap forward in our understanding of this vexing issue.

Dr. Philip Squires, FRCP, FAAP, DTM&H
Pediatrician

Dr. Neufeld has an amazing ability to make sense of difficult and complex problems and to open doors for change. His material is not only substantive but also inspirational to those who dedicate their lives and energy to our children and youth.

Grant Lenarduzzi, author, high school principal, and past editor of the NASSP Bulletin (National Association of Secondary School Principals)

I was spellbound throughout. The material touched on the very essence of being - the yearning for connectedness, the nostalgia for its loss, the pain of that unexpressed grief that inhibits the potential for self-realization, and how it lies at the core of our maladaptive coping strategies. Not only will this guide me in my work with teachers, parents and students, but also with my own children.

Marleane Sinclaire, M.Ed.
School Psychologist

Course content and outline: 3-day format
Day One: morning - A working model of aggression

• a working definition of aggression
• recognizing the nonviolent forms of aggression
• the relationship of aggression to suicide
• a five-factor integrated model of aggression
• the role of frustration in aggression
• aggression and the failure to effect change
• aggression and the adaptive process
• aggression and the flight from vulnerability
• aggression and the integrative process
• the displacement effect in aggression
• why aggression is normal in toddlers and preschoolers
• why some children fail to grow out of aggression

Day One: afternoon - The attachment factor in aggression

• distilling attachment to the essence
• how attachments develop and what can go wrong
• attachment frustration as the primary fuel of aggression
• attachment and the displacement effect
• attachment and the experience of futility
• how attachments form the expression of aggression

Day Two: morning - The vulnerability factor in aggression

• aggression as the outcome of a flight from vulnerability
• mechanisms of defense against vulnerability
• why some children are more vulnerable than others
• “spoiling” and aggression
• the depersonalization of attachment and aggression
• dominance inversion and aggression
• insatiability, addiction and aggression
• defensive detachment and aggression
• developmental arrest and aggression
• the role of awareness in aggression
• the flight from vulnerability and the temper problem
• peer orientation and the flight from vulnerability
• autism and aggression

Day Two: afternoon - The explanatory power of this model of aggression

• why peer -oriented kids are more prone to aggression and violence
• the relationship between bullying and aggression
• the gender differences in aggression
• why aggression and violence are increasing in children
• why the greater incidence of aggression among certain populations
• the comorbidity of disorder and aggression
• the personality traits highly correlated with aggression
• why conventional approaches backfireswith aggression
• why consequences and time-outs are counterindicated in the treatment of aggression

Day Three: morning - Principles and Guidelines for Intervention

• the primary pitfall and precaution in the treatment of aggression
• three steps to effective intervention that is long-lasting
• using aggression as a shortcut for assessment
• how to view the aggression problem
• how to differentiate between aggressive behaviour and an aggression problem
• differentiating between incident management and addressing the aggression problem
• guidelines for incident management
• how to create a context for addressing an aggression problem

Day Three: afternoon - Six access points in addressing aggression

• how to shift the focus from aggression to frustration
• how to uncover frustration from the camouflage of behaviour and emotion
• how to increase awareness of frustration
• when and how to facilitate nonviolent forms of aggression
• the role of intention in dealing with aggression
• how to help children and youth temper their violent impulses
• how to prime adaptation and help futilities sink in
  
• how to soften defenses against vulnerability
  
• how to help children grow out of the aggression problem
  
  

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