Upcoming Nourishing Emotional Health and Well-Being (Ours and Kids) Through Connection, Food, and Play

What if connection, food, and play weren’t separate concerns—but different expressions of the same caring instinct?

This restorative and thought-provoking workshop invites participants to reimagine emotional health and well-being through a developmental lens. Drawing from relational science, human nature, and lived experience, we’ll explore how feeding, playing, and connecting are not just things we do for children, but powerful ways we help them come to emotional rest.

When a child feels deeply seen, safely fed, or freely playful, they rest—and from this rest flows resilience, growth, and emotional well-being.

Together, we will:

• Reconnect with what makes us the answer to a child’s needs—regardless of age, diagnosis, or circumstance.
• Examine the core challenges adults face today in caring for kids: from resistance and alarm to burnout and disconnection.
• Explore how food, play, and connection are each expressions of care that help bring a child (or loved one) to rest.
• Look through each of these lenses—feeding, emotional safety, and play—to better understand our caretaking role.

Presenter: Dr. Deborah MacNamara

A dynamic speaker and best selling author, Deborah MacNamara, PhD. is sought after for her expertise on child and adolescent development, parenting, and educating kids. She is the author of Rest Play Grow and her new book Nourished: Connection, Food and Caring for our Kids (and everyone else we love). As a clinical counsellor, educator, and researcher with more than 25 years’ experience working with families and teachers, Deborah translates the science of human development into stories that are transferable to the home and the classroom. She is the director of Kid’s Best Bet Counselling and on faculty at the Neufeld Institute, where she works with Gordon Neufeld and colleagues to make sense of kids to the adults who are responsible for them. For more information, please see, deborahmacnamara.com.

$40.00 cost includes:

• Deborah MacNamara’s book Nourished: Connection, Food, and Caring for Our Kids (And Everyone Else We Love)
• ECEBC Code of Ethics
• Light breakfast and lunch
• 7 hours professional development certificate
• Great learning, lots of fun and some surprises

Registration for educators who work or live in Delta is now open by phone at 604-547-3549 until February 28, 2026. After this date, remaining spots may become available to all early childhood educators and child care providers.