Dr Gabor Mate – coming to Toronto

Please note

• this page is for the 2012 conference…
•  for 2013 CDCC click here

Child Development and Community Conference (CDCC)

Toronto on April 13 and 14, 2012.

Regulars here will by now have noticed that I am a big “fan” of the work of Dr Gabor Mate – indeed I have taken to joking that I have noticed within me an emerging pattern of addictive behaviour – listening to Dr Gabor Mate speak.

So, I’m happy to have been asked to help share that Dr Mate is coming to Toronto to speak in person .

Dr. Gabor Maté

… is one of Canada’s great thinkers and communicators and a widely recognized contributor to the field of mind-body medicine. In April he will be with us – in a community including individuals, educators and professionals but also corporations, employers, and unions. He will share insights  into how, as a society, we need to re-examine the manner in which we live our own lives and how we organise our society and how the ways in which we do that contribute to the rise in our most pervasive, debilitating and chronic illnesses.

We live our lives surrounded by constant stressors that begin in the womb,  increase through infancy, early childhood and adolescence and give rise to recurring patterns of suppressing emotions, acting out,  and of seeking ways to sooth our inner turmoil;  of turning-in on ourselves and away from our connectedness with each other. At the same time we might notice patterns of struggle, maladjusted behaviours and illnesses. Yet , instead of working from compassion,  we devise new illness explanations to deflect our attention away from  dealing with the root causes . And so, these patterns of behaviour and the increasing slew of newly diagnosable illnesses emerge at alarming rates – and  in earlier and earlier stages in the lives of our children.

This so often manifests in illnesses of our body and of our mind and in patterns of behaviour that are a likely understandable and natural. Yet often, we diagnose illness when what is really happening is a perfectly normal response to the stressful environment in which we find ourselves. In turn, as this becomes our dominant way of coping in our own lives , it manifests also as broader, unbalanced patterns across our society and, in turn again, leads to the global instability that we live amidst.

broader understanding

Dr. Maté shines  light in these dark corners and and helps us make connections between ideas about cognitive development, attachment and attunement, whole person nourishment, why early life quality is so critical to individual wellbeing and to society; on how stressed parenting and emotional repression contribute to patterns of illness and  addictive behaviour, and how all this contributes to the steady erosion of connectedness in our society that leads us to experience even more stress so we feel even less able to cope…

This helps us build a broader-based bio-psycho-social understanding of how the way we are living leads us to the rapidly increasing prevalence of chronic illnesses and addictive behaviours that we can notice in ourselves and each other – and which in turn lead to a growing dissatisfaction in  our individual lives and in our society.  Our current emphasis on a bio-bio-bio understanding is incomplete and is actually part of the cycle that reinforces this pattern.

compassionate response

Dr Mate also shows us how a broader understanding generates a more compassionate response in us and  more effective ways to work with people who are experiencing difficulties – with illnesses, diagnoses, bullying, stress, addictions. These more compassionate approaches increase our chances of healing ourselves and our society.

Dr. Gordon Neufeld (Clinical Psychologist) co-author with Dr Mate of Hold On to Your Kids, and Jennifer Kolari (Registered Social Worker) join Dr Mate to share transformative approaches that can assist corporations, employers, unions, educators, parents and professionals with tools that they can use to  lead us together towards a more promising existence .

If you are a parent, educator, leader, health professional, or a human being then you might want to be there.

Addiction, ADHD/ADD, bullying, attachment, parenting, harm reduction, stress and much more.

Child Development and Community Conference (CDCC)

Toronto on April 13 and 14, 2012.

this conference is organised by KMT learning

see website…

http://kmtlearning.com/events/child-development-and-learning/