Rita Crecelius is an ICDP trainer and psychologist living in Germany, where she has been training groups of professional caregivers from several educational institutions. Rita describes her participation in an event that took place in Austria in the autumn 2024:
The national conference of guidance counsellors took place from 10th to 12th of October in the magical mountain landscape of Austria, in St. Wolfgang. Guidance counsellors support both teachers and students in challenging situations, in all types of schools. This means that they have excellent communication skills and know a lot about the developmental needs of children. Many speakers were invited to the conference who spoke about the topic of attachment from different perspectives.
My presentation of ICDP fit perfectly into the programme. I was able to report on the first study about the efficacy of ICDP in a school in Sweden (2021: https://doi.org/10.1080/00313831.2019.1705898).
Using the ICDP’s three dialogues for good interaction, I showed the common thread for successful cognitive development. The audience was particularly impressed by the brain scan of Romanian orphanage children, which clearly shows the effects of a lack of positive interaction (UNICEF, 2005).
Many of the participants in the conference were so curious about the ICDP programme that some have already registered for the ICDP workshop that I will be holding in Munich in February 2025.
I am very pleased that the ICDP spark is now also spreading to Austria.