Successful Encounters
Dr Holder founded the Successful Encounters educational program to formalize the principles of an integrated educational process. Based on advances in neuroscience, SE maximizes the learning process by linking the classroom experience to brain growth and associated active/resting cycles.
It is the brain that facilitates the Child’s awareness and function in this world. The connections formed through Encounters allow perception, conception and retrieval of information. The impact of these Encounters has a significant determination on who the Child will become and how he/she will participate in society as an adult.
As the in-house model of education at the Montclair Child Development Centre, in Montclair NJ, SE has received recognition for its applicability to mainstream educational settings while emphasizing the holistic approach to educating the WHOLE child. Dr Holder has also received recognition for his contributions toward community service as the Montclair Centre primarily serves under-privileged, minority populations.
The principles of SE are applicable to home life as well as school settings. The founding principles of SE – love, appreciation, gratitude of the Child process – continue as a life cycle regardless of setting. SE therefore is a key component in pediatric visits to CPM.
SE is therefore viewed as a two-pronged process that allows the adults involved in child’s life to grow and maximize themselves alongside the Child. By following the concepts of Becoming the Child and awareness of Self, the founding principles of the program lead to confident approaches for mastery of self and environment. A strong foundation then begets quality choices educationally and personally.
Life can be a Progressive Path of development or a maze of dead-ends. The Child brings unique, inherent qualities to walking this Path and those are the qualities SE seeks to foster – enthusiasm, focus, curiosity, openness – not only in the Child but in the adult as well. These attitudes imbue the spirit of the Child to fuel the success of the strategies SE employs in the classroom setting.
Individualized variants of SE are applied in-office with children who experience special needs such as ADD labelling, or emotional/behavioral problems. Educational exercises, holistic evaluation and nutritional counseling often compete the therapy picture.