Dr. Simon Crisp, and other members of his team, offer presentations, speeches and talks on a wide range of topics relevant to professionals, parents, teachers and students…
Examples of talks for Parents and Teachers:
- From Wild to Wise – Guiding Teenagers to Independence
Dr. Crisp has been working with all sorts of teenagers for over 25 years as an outdoor educator, youth worker and Psychologist. This presentations empowers parents and teachers with practical ways to promote healthy development, relationships and an approach to life to that prepares them to be successful adults. - Risk-Taking and Risk-Literacy in Adolescents
As an outdoor educator with the Australian Outward Bound School and internationally renown pioneer, practitioner and researcher of Wilderness Adventure Therapy, Dr. Crisp has had over 20 years experience teaching young people and families the benefit of taking risks for healthy psychological and social development. This presentation discusses healthy risk-taking and addresses contemporary risk-taking dangers and how adults can respond. - Adolescent Depression: What adults need to know
With 20 years experience as a Clinical Psychologist specialising in young people’s psychological health and Masters and Doctoral research in adolescent depression, Dr. Crisp provides an understandable and informed perspective on this commonly occurring condition. Based around the Psychological First Response training he developed, practical strategies are covered in how adults can detect, respond to and support a young person to get help. - When the system is “the problem”
Dr. Crisp has been consulting to school Principals and teachers, running therapy programs in schools and supervising School Psychologists for over 15 years. He was also the Director of Australia’s first group therapy-based adolescent mental health day-program at the Austin Hospital. Based on this extensive experience working in teams and complex organisations, Simon explains the powerful ways human systems such as schools and human service agencies subtlety promote – or pathologise – students, clients and staff. Importantly, he outlines ways to address problems and create “healthy” systems for people.
Recent unsolicited feedback from a parent to their school…
“I just came back from Dr. Crisp’s seminar and I just had to send in this feedback. First, his talk was so informative and he is an amazing professional – a combination of intelligence, substance and common sense. I’m very glad to have the chance to learn from him. I’m very impressed with this speaker.”
Examples of presentations for Students
- Effective conflict resolution and relationship building (ideal for Years 8-10)
Is conflict ever good? Drawing on Dr. Crisp’s extensive experience running groups with teenagers with behavioural difficulties, this presentation challenges students to think differently about conflict seeing it as a way to enhance relationships and improve understanding. Simple, practical steps are outlined about how to positively address conflict using effective communication skills. - Communication skills
For growing young people, one of the most challenging areas of development is choosing, forming and maintaining relationships with friends, teachers, family members and others. Being a skilled communicator is essential for success during the adolescent years and as an adult. This presentation provides highly effective ways of communicating with others – expressing one’s own, and understanding others’ views and needs. Exploring the importance of verbal messages and body language signals, participants learn to be more effective in expressing and perceiving important messages to and from others. - Positive Coping and problem solving
Adolescence of a period of peak on-set of psychological problems and personal safety issues. How well adolescents cope with the stressors and challenges they face can be a significant factor in how successfully they progress through this phase. This presentation explores effective and ineffective strategies of coping and problem-solving, highlighting that the choices of how one copes can make the difference between being able to tolerate or resolve an issue, or worsening problems, potentially placing oneself at greater risk. With extensive experience in Wilderness Adventure Therapy®, Simon leads participants to understand and select more effective ways of coping with, and problem solving common teenage issues. - ‘GoodMate’ workshops
Based on the highly regarded Psychological First Response training for teachers and youth professionals, this 2-3 hour workshop equips secondary students with basic knowledge about red-flags for serious psychological and safety issues in their peers. Importantly, a simple but adolescent appropriate psychological first-aid model is taught and reinforced through an engaging presentation using realistic and appropriate scenarios. This workshop has been developed by Dr. Crisp who has well over 15 years experience running programs in schools and therapy groups for adolescents at-risk of psychological and personal safety problems.
