Parenting Through a Pandemic (And Beyond) is a bespoke workshop designed to equip parents to better support their children emotionally throughout the pandemic and beyond. It supports parents and caregivers of children aged 2 - 10 who reside in the Northside Partnership catchment area of north east Dublin. 

The workshop series was developed by Preparing for Life Play Therapist, Amy Fogarty, in direct response to COVID 19. With such sudden and dramatic changes occurring within family life, coupled with fear and tremendous community grief, Preparing for Life identified that an increased number of parents were becoming concerned for their children's emotional well-being. 

Topics covered in the workshop include:

- Therapeutic Parenting Techniques

- Creative Ways to Support Anxiety

- Managing Challenging Behaviour 

- Developmental Play 

- Understanding the Brain

The workshop was delivered over three consecutive weeks via Zoom. Parents were given the opportunity to ask direct questions and schedule a 1:1 meeting with the facilitator to discuss their own situation in a private space. 

Parents have found the workshops very useful. They also praised the ease of following them and said that “it did not seem strange that we were on zoom. It was a great experience". Furthermore, they appreciated that the slides were emailed to them afterwards.

Due to the success of the first series of workshops, there will be another group beginning in July. It will run for three consecutive weeks from 11am - 12:30pm. For more information, please email amy.fogarty@nspartnership.ie