Educational Speaker & Parenting Presentations on Today’s Hot Topics for Parents

Holli Kaplan possesses a Master’s degree in Clinical Psychology, led corporate training programs for two Fortune 500 companies, and blogged for Famtivity, a kids’ activities start-up. Holli’s engaging presentations help parents and caregivers gain insight into how to become a “force of nurture” for tweens, teens and young adults.

The aha! Holli hopes each participant gains from her workshops is an increase in self-awareness about how they show up in their caregiving relationship. Self-awareness is one of the greatest gifts we give to those we love because it’s the key to healing patterns of thinking, feeling and behaving that don’t serve us or the relationship. 

Holli helps dig into the attitudes and actions that set up the parent/caregiver relationship for reliable and sustainable connection. From this connection, children are nurtured to thrive.

Holli’s engaging and relatable speaking style leads her audiences through a journey of exploration to insight and practical application, ensuring that everyone walks away energized and motivated – and with a sense of actionable direction. 

Holli strives to have every parent leave her presentations with the sense that they came for information but left with the elusive How To Parent manual.

Holli’s presentations and workshops give parents, schools, and community groups insights and tools for nurturing the grit and resilience needed into today’s world. Some of her most popular topic areas include:

Loving Loosely

Loving loosely is the ability to be dedicated to our child’s physical, psychological, and spiritual well-being while also being detached from the outcome of who they become.

In this workshop, we unpack the caregiver mindsets and behaviors that are both dedicated and detached in ways that serve us, our relationship, and our child’s need for attachment, interdependence, and autonomy.

Through this presentation you will:

• Learn about the key concepts of: acceptance, influence, attunement, emotional regulation, and boundaries
• Gain insight about types of parenting styles and identify yours
• Obtain practical tools that support both dedication and detachment

Effective Parenting for Nurturing Grit and Resilience

As parents, we can have the best of intentions for loving, guiding, and supporting our children to adulthood ~ but our awesome intentions don’t always match our actual behavior. For many of us, our kid’s actions may trigger our controlling reactions varying from rescuing and avoiding to domineering and critiquing. We can unintentionally invite them to react with the attitudes and actions that we fear most: withdrawal, disrespect, defiance, or clinginess. If we’re not mindful of this, we can unwittingly perpetuate a cycle that undermines grit & resilience. That’s why becoming a Force of Nurture so so important for Intentional Attunement: the practice of emotional awareness to align your parenting behavior with your highest intentions. Attunement is the key to unlock a parent-child relationship that is mutually respectful, loving, and trusting. From this foundation, your child will be fortified to withstand the inevitable strains of tween and teen life with grit and resilience. 

Through this presentation you will:

• Learn about Grit and Resilience
• Understand why Grit & Resilience are necessary qualities and skills
• Define specific parenting mindsets that manifest Grit & Resilience
• Obtain practical tools that support Grit and Resilience

Anxiety and Depression: Effective Parenting for Nurturing Resilient Teens and Tweens

The impact of cultural and societal influences that promote self-destructive behaviors is unlike anything we’ve seen in previous generations. Rates of anxiety and depression are at an all-time high in today’s tweens and teens. Despite these increasing challenges, the fact remains that there are no new emotions.. Parents serve their children well when they can accurately discern normal and expected stress, moodiness, and reactivity versus debilitating anxiety and depression that requires specialized support and intervention. Today’s epidemic of youth suicides and generalized anxiety disorders begs for parents to learn to confidently distinguish between their teen’s slammed door being code for “I’m pissed, leave me alone!” versus other behaviors that communicate “I’m desperate and I’m going to harm myself.”

Through this presentation you will:

• Recognize the risk factors for anxiety & depression
• Discern normal versus maladaptive responses to stress
• Gain tools to foster healthy coping skills in your kids
• Learn what expert resources exist and how to access them

Creating a Family Culture where Everyone Thrives

A family and its members, much like an organization, thrives when values, agreements, and expectations are clear, fair, and appropriate. Effective parenting, like effective organizational leadership, requires a vision and purpose, motivation, goal setting, and necessary redirection to establish and sustain a functional atmosphere and meaningful relationships. To put it simply, a thriving family is one whose parental leadership is:

• firm yet flexible
• grounded in the present yet future-focused
• focused on managing resources yet allows for creative choices

Through this presentation you will:

• Learn to identify your family’s core values
• Understand the importance of family meetings and how to conduct them
• Gain clarity on rules, agreements, expectations, boundaries and how to reinforce them
• Define specific actions to create the family culture that aligns with your values