Watertown SEPAC (Special Education Parents Advisory Council) will host a clinical psychologist and a therapist who works with children with developmental and medical differences at the next meeting.
The meeting will be held Jan. 27, at 7 p.m. at the Cunniff School Library, 246 Warren St. in Watertown. The meeting is free and open to the public. A business meeting will be held at 6:30 p.m. and childcare will be provided.
The theme for the meeting is Mindfulness and the guest speakers are Pamela H. Varrin, Ph.D. and Suzanne Morse-Fortier, LISCW. Watertown SEPAC sent out the following announcement:
Pamela H Varrin, PH.D is a trained as a clinical psychologist, and has worked as the Family Support Coordinator at the Cotting School in Lexington, a day school for students with a wide variety of disabilities and learning styles, for the past 16 years. She is a parent of a young adult with physical and learning disabilities and feels her work is informed and enriched by her experiences on “both sides of the desk.”
Suzanne Morse-Fortier, LICSW is a therapist in private practice in Lexington, as well as a former SEPAC member and co-chair. Her practice specializes in young children with developmental and medical differences, and their families.
The search for tools to address ongoing stress in the parents they serve brought Pamela and Suzanne to the Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction Group training workshop at the Kennedy Center of Vanderbilt University last summer. In this presentation, they will share an overview of what they learned there, including research on stress and parent support, some mindfulness based exercises, and resources for building mindfulness into daily life.