Public Events

Australia – Various Locations (More dates and cities to come)

Building Brave – For anyone who lives with or works with kids or teens.
  • Wellington Point, Brisbane – Wednesday 11 September, 6:30pm-8:30pm (Tickets here)
  • Bray Park, Brisbane – Thursday 12 September, 6:30pm-8:30pm (Tickets here)
  • Rochedale, Brisbane – Tuesday 22 October, 6:30pm-8:30pm (Tickets here)
  • Toowong, Brisbane – Wednesday 23 October, 6:30pm-8:30pm (Tickets here)

    What could our children do if they truly believed they were brave? In this transformational, heartfelt event, Karen Young and Michelle Mitchell come together to equip parents, carers and professionals with powerful strategies to help children and teens build resilience, thrive through anxiety and reach their potential. We will explore:

    • the powerful role that caring adults play in building brave; 
    • a new way of understanding the role of anxiety and resilience in your child’s life; 
    • the often unrecognised and different ways anxiety can manifest in children; 
    • the impact of anxiety on friendships and school work;
    • proven, practical ways to respond to anxiety and make way for calm and courage;
    • how to build social resilience and equip them for the challenges of life;
    • how to strengthen your connection and influence.

      You know your child is capable of greatness.  With some very specific strategies and solid information, we can make sure they know it too. 

    If you would like BUILDING BRAVE to come to your school or community, please let us know. We will be touring nationally with this new project. 

    Australia – Brisbane and Toowoomba (More dates to come)

    Working with Anxiety in Kids and Teens (For anyone who works with young people)

    For as many as one in five young lives, anxiety is an intrusive part of everyday life. The effects of anxiety can steal into families, classrooms and friendships. They can undermine the way children see themselves and shrink their world – but it doesn’t have to be this way. Anxiety is very manageable when it is recognised and properly managed. With the right support, children can be empowered with the skills and knowledge to manage anxiety and move forward with courage and resilience. This dynamic workshop will help participants to recognise anxiety disorders in children and adolescents (5 – 18yr olds). It will delve into the obvious and not so obvious signs of anxiety, discuss where they come from and why they exist, and offer a range of practical, powerful interventions to assist participants to respond effectively within their own professional context.

    New Zealand – Various Locations

    Overcoming Anxiety – Working with Children & Young People Find Their Brave (For anyone who works with young people)

    Anxiety disorders are the most common child and adolescent mental health concern. Anxiety is a very normal human response, but for as many as 1 in 5 young people the symptoms become so intrusive so as to interfere with day to day living. Anxiety can potentially undermine the way children see themselves, the world and their important place in it – but it doesn’t have to be this way. When recognised and properly managed, anxiety is very treatable. This transformational workshop will help participants to recognise the symptoms of anxiety, distinguish anxiety from other similarly presenting conditions, and provide a powerful scaffold for understanding, explaining and working with anxiety in children and adolescents. This scaffold will then be used to present participants with powerful, practical, research-driven interventions to strengthen young people against anxiety and build courage and resilience.

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    karenyoung_heysigmund

    Feeling seen, safe, and cared for is a biological need. It’s not a choice and it’s not pandering. It’s a biological need.

    Children - all of us - will prioritise relational safety over everything.

    When children feel seen, safe, and a sense of belonging they will spend less resources in fight, flight, or withdrawal, and will be free to divert those resources into learning, making thoughtful choices, engaging in ways that can grow them.

    They will also be more likely to spend resources seeking out those people (their trusted adults at school) or places (school) that make them feel good about themselves, rather than avoiding the people of spaces that make them feel rubbish or inadequate.

    Behaviour support and learning support is about felt safety support first.

    The schools and educators who know this and practice it are making a profound difference, not just for young people but for all of us. They are actively engaging in crime prevention, mental illness prevention, and nurturing strong, beautiful little people into strong, beautiful big ones.♥️

    View Instagram post by karenyoung_heysigmund

    Aug 19

    Open post by karenyoung_heysigmund with ID 17976303911870995
    Feeling seen, safe, and cared for is a biological need. It’s not a choice and it’s not pandering. It’s a biological need. Children - all of us - will prioritise relational safety over everything. When children feel seen, safe, and a sense of belonging they will spend less resources in fight, flight, or withdrawal, and will be free to divert those resources into learning, making thoughtful choices, engaging in ways that can grow them. They will also be more likely to spend resources seeking out those people (their trusted adults at school) or places (school) that make them feel good about themselves, rather than avoiding the people of spaces that make them feel rubbish or inadequate. Behaviour support and learning support is about felt safety support first. The schools and educators who know this and practice it are making a profound difference, not just for young people but for all of us. They are actively engaging in crime prevention, mental illness prevention, and nurturing strong, beautiful little people into strong, beautiful big ones.♥️

    karenyoung_heysigmund

    Emotion is e-motion. Energy in motion.

    When emotions happen, we have two options: express or depress. That’s it. They’re the options.

    When your young person (or you) is being swamped by big feelings, let the feelings come.

    Hold the boundary around behaviour - keep them physically safe and let them feel their relationship with you is safe, but you don’t need to fix their feelings.

    They aren’t a sign of breakage. They’re a sign your child is catalysing the energy. Our job over the next many years is to help them do this respectfully.

    When emotional energy is shut down, it doesn’t disappear. It gets held in the body and will come out sideways in response to seemingly benign things, or it will drive distraction behaviours (such as addiction, numbness).

    Sometimes there’ll be a need for them to control that energy so they can do what they need to do - go to school, take the sports field, do the exam - but the more we can make way for expression either in the moment or later, the safer and softer they’ll feel in their minds and bodies.

    Expression is the most important part of moving through any feeling. This might look like talking, moving, crying, writing, yelling.

    This is why you might see big feelings after school. It’s often a sign that they’ve been controlling themselves all day - through the feelings that come with learning new things, being quiet and still, trying to get along with everyone, not having the power and influence they need (that we all need). When they get into the car at pickup, finally those feelings they’ve been holding on to have a safe place to show up and move through them and out of them.

    It can be so messy! It takes time to learn how to lasso feelings and words into something unmessy.

    In the meantime, our job is to hold a tender, strong, safe place for that emotional energy to move out of them.

    Hold the boundary around behaviour where you can, add warmth where you can, and when they are calm talk about what happened and how they might do things differently next time. And be patient. Just because someone tells us how to swing a racket, doesn’t mean we’ll win Wimbledon tomorrow. Good things take time, and loads of practice.♥️

    View Instagram post by karenyoung_heysigmund

    Aug 10

    Open post by karenyoung_heysigmund with ID 18081959395923958
    Emotion is e-motion. Energy in motion. When emotions happen, we have two options: express or depress. That’s it. They’re the options. When your young person (or you) is being swamped by big feelings, let the feelings come. Hold the boundary around behaviour - keep them physically safe and let them feel their relationship with you is safe, but you don’t need to fix their feelings. They aren’t a sign of breakage. They’re a sign your child is catalysing the energy. Our job over the next many years is to help them do this respectfully. When emotional energy is shut down, it doesn’t disappear. It gets held in the body and will come out sideways in response to seemingly benign things, or it will drive distraction behaviours (such as addiction, numbness). Sometimes there’ll be a need for them to control that energy so they can do what they need to do - go to school, take the sports field, do the exam - but the more we can make way for expression either in the moment or later, the safer and softer they’ll feel in their minds and bodies. Expression is the most important part of moving through any feeling. This might look like talking, moving, crying, writing, yelling. This is why you might see big feelings after school. It’s often a sign that they’ve been controlling themselves all day - through the feelings that come with learning new things, being quiet and still, trying to get along with everyone, not having the power and influence they need (that we all need). When they get into the car at pickup, finally those feelings they’ve been holding on to have a safe place to show up and move through them and out of them. It can be so messy! It takes time to learn how to lasso feelings and words into something unmessy. In the meantime, our job is to hold a tender, strong, safe place for that emotional energy to move out of them. Hold the boundary around behaviour where you can, add warmth where you can, and when they are calm talk about what happened and how they might do things differently next time. And be patient. Just because someone tells us how to swing a racket, doesn’t mean we’ll win Wimbledon tomorrow. Good things take time, and loads of practice.♥️

    karenyoung_heysigmund

    Thank you Adelaide! Thank you for your stories, your warmth, for laughing with me, spaghetti bodying with me (when you know, you know), for letting me scribble on your books, and most of all, for letting me be a part of your world today.

    So proud to share the stage with Steve Biddulph, @matt.runnalls ,
    @michellemitchell.author, and @nathandubsywant. To @sharonwittauthor - thank you for creating this beautiful, brave space for families to come together and grow stronger.

    And to the parents, carers, grandparents - you are extraordinary and it’s a privilege to share the space with you.

    Parenting is big work. Tender, gritty, beautiful, hard. It asks everything of us - our strength, our softness, our growth. We’re raising beautiful little people into beautiful big people, and at the same time, we’re growing ourselves.

    Sometimes that growth feels impatient and demanding - like we’re being wrenched forward before we’re ready, before our feet have found the ground.

    But that’s the nature of growth isn’t it. It rarely waits for permission. It asks only that we keep moving.

    And that’s okay.

    There’s no rush. You have time. We have time.

    In the meantime they will keep growing us, these little humans of ours. Quietly, daily, deeply. They will grow us in the most profound ways if we let them. And we must let them - for their sake, for our own, and for the ancestral threads that tie us to the generations that came before us, and those that will come because of us. We will grow for them and because of them.♥️

    View Instagram post by karenyoung_heysigmund

    Aug 2

    Open post by karenyoung_heysigmund with ID 18351463621084496
    Thank you Adelaide! Thank you for your stories, your warmth, for laughing with me, spaghetti bodying with me (when you know, you know), for letting me scribble on your books, and most of all, for letting me be a part of your world today. So proud to share the stage with Steve Biddulph, @matt.runnalls , @michellemitchell.author, and @nathandubsywant. To @sharonwittauthor - thank you for creating this beautiful, brave space for families to come together and grow stronger. And to the parents, carers, grandparents - you are extraordinary and it’s a privilege to share the space with you. Parenting is big work. Tender, gritty, beautiful, hard. It asks everything of us - our strength, our softness, our growth. We’re raising beautiful little people into beautiful big people, and at the same time, we’re growing ourselves. Sometimes that growth feels impatient and demanding - like we’re being wrenched forward before we’re ready, before our feet have found the ground. But that’s the nature of growth isn’t it. It rarely waits for permission. It asks only that we keep moving. And that’s okay. There’s no rush. You have time. We have time. In the meantime they will keep growing us, these little humans of ours. Quietly, daily, deeply. They will grow us in the most profound ways if we let them. And we must let them - for their sake, for our own, and for the ancestral threads that tie us to the generations that came before us, and those that will come because of us. We will grow for them and because of them.♥️

    karenyoung_heysigmund

    Their words might be messy, angry, sad. They might sound bigger than the issue, or as though they aren’t about the issue at all.

    The words are the warning lights on the dashboard. They’re the signal that something is wrong, but they won’t always tell us exactly what that ‘something’ is. Responding only to the words is like noticing the light without noticing the problem.

    Our job isn’t to respond to their words, but to respond to the feelings and the need behind the words.

    First though, we need to understand what the words are signalling. This won’t always be obvious and it certainly won’t always be easy.

    At first the signal might be blurry, or too bright, or too loud, or not obvious.

    Unless we really understand the problem behind signal - the why behind words - we might inadvertently respond to what we think the problem is, not what the problem actually is.

    Words can be hard and messy, and when they are fuelled by big feelings that can jet from us with full force. It is this way for all of us.

    Talking helps catalyse the emotion, and (eventually) bring the problem into a clearer view.

    But someone needs to listen to the talking. You won’t always be able to do this - you’re human too - but when you can, it will be one of the most powerful ways to love them through their storms.

    If the words are disrespectful, try:

    ‘I want to hear you but I love you too much to let you think it’s okay to speak like that. Do you want to try it a different way?’

    Expectations, with support. Leadership, with warmth. Then, let them talk.

    Our job isn’t to fix them - they aren’t broken. Our job is to understand them so we can help them feel seen, safe, and supported through the big of it all. When we do this, we give them what they need to find their way through.♥️

    View Instagram post by karenyoung_heysigmund

    Jul 21

    Open post by karenyoung_heysigmund with ID 17913738897080523
    Their words might be messy, angry, sad. They might sound bigger than the issue, or as though they aren’t about the issue at all. The words are the warning lights on the dashboard. They’re the signal that something is wrong, but they won’t always tell us exactly what that ‘something’ is. Responding only to the words is like noticing the light without noticing the problem. Our job isn’t to respond to their words, but to respond to the feelings and the need behind the words. First though, we need to understand what the words are signalling. This won’t always be obvious and it certainly won’t always be easy. At first the signal might be blurry, or too bright, or too loud, or not obvious. Unless we really understand the problem behind signal - the why behind words - we might inadvertently respond to what we think the problem is, not what the problem actually is. Words can be hard and messy, and when they are fuelled by big feelings that can jet from us with full force. It is this way for all of us. Talking helps catalyse the emotion, and (eventually) bring the problem into a clearer view. But someone needs to listen to the talking. You won’t always be able to do this - you’re human too - but when you can, it will be one of the most powerful ways to love them through their storms. If the words are disrespectful, try: ‘I want to hear you but I love you too much to let you think it’s okay to speak like that. Do you want to try it a different way?’ Expectations, with support. Leadership, with warmth. Then, let them talk. Our job isn’t to fix them - they aren’t broken. Our job is to understand them so we can help them feel seen, safe, and supported through the big of it all. When we do this, we give them what they need to find their way through.♥️

    karenyoung_heysigmund

    Perth and Adeladie - can`t wait to see you!

    The Resilient Kids Conference is coming to:

    - Perth on Saturday 19 July
    - Adelaide on Saturday 2 August

    I love this conference. I love it so much. I love the people I`m speaking with. I love the people who come to listen. I love that there is a whole day dedicated to parents, carers, and the adults who are there in big and small ways for young people.

    I’ll be joining the brilliant @michellemitchell.author, Steve Biddulph, and @matt.runnalls for a full day dedicated to supporting YOU with practical tools, powerful strategies, and life-changing insights on how we can show up even more for the kids and teens in our lives.

    Michelle Mitchell will leave you energised and inspired as she shares how one caring adult can change the entire trajectory of a young life.

    Steve Biddulph will offer powerful, perspective-shifting wisdom on how we can support young people (and ourselves) through anxiety.

    Matt Runnalls will move and inspire you as he blends research, science, and his own lived experience to help us better support and strengthen our neurodivergent young people.

    And then there`s me. I’ll be talking about how we can support kids and teens (and ourselves) through big feelings, how to set and hold loving boundaries, what to do when behaviour gets big, and how to build connection and influence that really lasts, even through the tricky times.

    We’ll be with you the whole day — cheering you on, sharing what works, and holding space for the important work you do.

    Whether you live with kids, work with kids, or show up in any way, big and small, for a young person — this day is for you.

    Parents, carers, teachers, early educators, grandparents, aunts, uncles… you’re all part of a child’s village. This event is here for you, and so are we.❤️

    See here for @resilientkidsconference tickets for more info https://michellemitchell.org/resilient-kids-conference

    View Instagram post by karenyoung_heysigmund

    Jul 12

    Open post by karenyoung_heysigmund with ID 17944784214008950
    Perth and Adeladie - can't wait to see you! The Resilient Kids Conference is coming to: - Perth on Saturday 19 July - Adelaide on Saturday 2 August I love this conference. I love it so much. I love the people I'm speaking with. I love the people who come to listen. I love that there is a whole day dedicated to parents, carers, and the adults who are there in big and small ways for young people. I’ll be joining the brilliant @michellemitchell.author, Steve Biddulph, and @matt.runnalls for a full day dedicated to supporting YOU with practical tools, powerful strategies, and life-changing insights on how we can show up even more for the kids and teens in our lives. Michelle Mitchell will leave you energised and inspired as she shares how one caring adult can change the entire trajectory of a young life. Steve Biddulph will offer powerful, perspective-shifting wisdom on how we can support young people (and ourselves) through anxiety. Matt Runnalls will move and inspire you as he blends research, science, and his own lived experience to help us better support and strengthen our neurodivergent young people. And then there's me. I’ll be talking about how we can support kids and teens (and ourselves) through big feelings, how to set and hold loving boundaries, what to do when behaviour gets big, and how to build connection and influence that really lasts, even through the tricky times. We’ll be with you the whole day — cheering you on, sharing what works, and holding space for the important work you do. Whether you live with kids, work with kids, or show up in any way, big and small, for a young person — this day is for you. Parents, carers, teachers, early educators, grandparents, aunts, uncles… you’re all part of a child’s village. This event is here for you, and so are we.❤️ See here for @resilientkidsconference tickets for more info https://michellemitchell.org/resilient-kids-conference

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