Dr. Amy Banks to present free workshop focusing on resilience in children and teens

The Master of Social Work (MSW) program at The College of St. Scholastica welcomes Dr. Amy Banks on Saturday, Dec. 2, to present a full-day workshop titled “Raising Connected and Compassionate Children and Young Adults: New Models of Strength and Resilience”. Dr. Banks’ visit is sponsored by the ROBUST 2.0 Grant*, which provides interprofessional training to social work students, field instructors and community service professionals serving rural and underserved communities in Minnesota and Wisconsin.

Amy Banks, M.D., has devoted her career to understanding the neurobiology of relationships. In addition to her work at the International Center for Growth in Connection, she was an instructor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. Banks also has a private practice in Lexington, MA, specializing in relational psychopharmacology and therapy for people who suffer from chronic disconnection. She is the creator of the C.A.R.E. Program, an easy-to-use, practical guide that helps clinicians and laypeople assess the quality of their relationships and strengthen their neural pathways for connection.

Models of strength and resilience through C.A.R.E

This interactive training will introduce practitioners to the C.A.R.E. Program. The program combines Relational-Cultural theory, relational neuroscience and the rules of neuroplasticity to help people use their brains to change their relationships, tame their symptoms and create more fulfilling lives. Participants will gain:

• An increased understanding of current adverse social environments, the effects of these environments on children and adolescents, and effective ways to foster safe communities,
• Information about the central premise and components of the C.A.R.E. Program, effective strategies for “brain change,” along with practical experience with the relational C.A.R.E. assessment and its application, and
• C.A.R.E. exercises, designed especially for children and adolescents.

The target audience for this training casts a wide net that includes social work students, field instructors, educators, human service community members and organizers, policymakers and administrators. Practitioners will be eligible to receive six Continuing Education Units (CEUs) for their participation.

The workshop will be on Saturday, Dec. 2, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. in the Somers Lounge on St. Scholastica’s main campus. Attendance is free and open to the public, but registration is required. For more information and to register, email robust@css.edu.

*The ROBUST 2.0 program is supported by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) as part of an award totaling $1,300,000 with 0% financed with non-governmental sources. The contents are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent the official views of, nor an endorsement, by HRSA, HHS, or the U.S. Government. For more information, please visit HRSA.gov.