St. Mary’s Regional Medical Center

to host prominent expert.

LEWISTON – St. Mary’s Regional Medical Center will host a daylong conference exploring the mysteries of anger in children on Friday, Nov. 7, at the Harraseeket Inn in Freeport.

The registration fee is $125 and includes continuing education opportunities and a light lunch. Call 777-8758 to register. Space is limited.

The conference will present a look at how the changes in culture have led to increased anger and rage in children. Nationally recognized psychologist and author, Dr. Robert Brooks will be keynote speaker for “Calming the Storm: Hope for the Angry Child.”

Designed to target social workers, teachers, nurses, psychologists, counselors, therapists, family physicians, pediatricians and parents, the conference will address many crucial aspects of anger in youth.

Participants will gain understanding of many topics, including:

• The importance of empathy in understanding and responding to angry youth.

• Interdisciplinary approaches to working with children’s anger issues.

• Specific intervention strategies for fostering resilient behaviors in angry youth.

• Methods to identify and build on the strengths of children with anger issues.

• Valuable resources to assist clinicians working with angry youth.

• The framework for understanding the prime components of motivation.

• The significance of a “charismatic” adult in a child’s life.

Brooks will offer the keynote address, “Fostering Hope and Resilience: A Strength-Based Approach for Working with Angry Youth.”

Brooks will address factors that help at-risk youth become more hopeful, cooperative, caring and resilient. He will offer specific strategies based on a strength-based model that can be used to reinforce self-discipline, motivation, cooperation, hope and resilience in angry children and adolescents.

He has lectured nationally and internationally to audiences of parents, educators, mental health professionals and business people on topics concerning motivation, resilience, self-esteem, family relationships, the qualities of effective leaders and executives and balancing personal and professional lives.

He is on the faculty of Harvard Medical School and has served as director of the Department of Psychology at McLean Hospital, a private psychiatric hospital. His first position at McLean Hospital was as principal of the school in the locked door unit of the child and adolescent program.

Brooks has a part-time private practice in which he sees children, adolescents, adults and families and has appeared regularly on television shows in the Boston area as well as on national cable television. He completed a videotape and educational guide for PBS titled “Look What You’ve Done! Stories of Hope and Resilience” that focus on self-esteem and resilience in children with special needs.

Brooks received his doctorate in clinical psychology from Clark University and did additional training at the University of Colorado Medical School. He has co-authored a book, “A Pediatric Approach to Learning Disorders” (Wiley), and published a number of articles and book chapters related to self-esteem, education, resilience and psychotherapy.

Following the keynote address, St. Mary’s has assembled a discussion panel comprised of local mental health professionals with expertise in working with children. Brooks will also participate in the discussion.

Other panelists include Scott M. Klenzak, MD; George Sheckart, PhD; Marion Rauch, MS; Genevieve Hatcher, LCSW; and Randall Mills, RN.

Continuing education contact hours are pending approval by the University of Maine and the American Nurses Association of Maine, which is accredited as an approver of continuing education in nursing by the American Nurses Credentialing Center’s Commission on Accreditation.