We all have children who are puzzling whether you are a parent or a clinician. These children present with behaviors and feelings that are complex and confusing. What we observe in behavior alone is only the “tip of the causal iceberg.” Underneath these behavioral patterns are layers of contributing challenges, not readily discernible to the naked eye. This cutting-edge conference will shed light and insight on these hidden factors, sharpening your powers of assessment, formulation and treatment. We will bring body-brain systems, sensory and emotion regulation, motor planning, agency and sense of self into a clinically meaningful whole. Challenges in these areas lead to behavioral dysregulation, fear and anxiety, and mood and arousal changes that interfere with being able to form ideas, take perspective, inhibit, exercise judgement, act with agency or even know who you are.

• How body-brain signaling processes influence how children feel and act and how to apply these concepts to tailored treatment and parenting approaches
• How to support developmental capacities and build on individual differences that contribute to being intentional and relational, having agency, and sense of self
• How and why Individual differences matter and how biosensor technology can help to measure what we cannot discern clinically to improve therapeutic interventions
• How to apply the DIR® (Developmental, Individual Difference, Relationship-based) approach to children with complex with neurodevelopmental differences, illustrated through cases with anxiety, bipolar disorder, and dysregulation of arousal
• How the DIR® Model is grounded in bioscientific research