Roots & Wings Academy
For children and their parents
We provide training, workshops and individual consultation services to families, schools and businesses with an overarching theme of child development in intercultural contexts.
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For parents, we focus on the skills they need to raise happy and successful children in today's multicultural environment. Our practical and research-based approach equips parents with positive parenting tools and strategies that can be easily applied in everyday situations.
For schools, we guide teachers and staff with intercultural classroom and competence workshops to help them teach in culturally diverse classrooms and communicate effectively with and manage expectations of expat parents.
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For Parents
Baby on the Way
This 4-session workshop for expecting parents covers topics such as children's developmental milestones, creating secure bond between parents and baby, ways to stimulate baby's social and cognitive development through play, setting up a sleep routine, and positive parenting skills.
Parenting as an Expat
Expat families need additional skills to thrive in their new sociocultural environment. This 3-session workshop for expat parents focuses on how to support children's adjustment in their new context, foster their well-being and success, promote multilingual development, ways to reduce parenting stress and tips to build a social support network.
Individual Consultation
We provide individual support to families with their specific needs on topics such as your child's friendship problems, sibling rivalry, toilet training, developing sleep routines, handling divorce, parental stress, work-life balance as a parent, and any other parenting related questions you might have.
For Schools
Internationalization Workshops
We offer international classroom and intercultural competence workshops for school management and teachers who feel the need to accommodate the influx of expat children in their classrooms. These customized sessions cover topics such as internationalized curriculum and learning goals, culturally competent teaching techniques, assessment methods, teacher-student communication skills and the other specific needs of schools.
Individual Consultation
We support schools with their specific needs and questions including topics like welcoming expat parents,
effective communication between teachers-parents-students, competent management of expectations of parents.
For Businesses
Intercultural Competence Workshops
Intercultural competence workshops for businesses target cultural awareness, intercultural communication skills, cross-cultural management and negotiation skills. These sessions are tailored for the needs of the organization and can be delivered at individual, team, or organization level.
About Me
I am Elif Durgel, a psychologist and parenting expert who is specialized in child development and parenting behaviors in multicultural settings. I have professional and personal experience in various countries; Germany, Netherlands, the USA, Turkey.
Currently, I work as an intercultural trainer at Tilburg University where I coach university teachers how to improve their teaching skills in multinational classrooms.
I have started Roots and Wings Academy in 2018 to support parents in their parenting journey and to guide them for a smooth transition into their new cultural contexts.
My personal background is also multicultural. I am Dutch and Turkish, married to an Indian and raising my own little global citizen.
My educational and professional background includes a bachelor's degree in Psychology (2004), two master's degrees in Developmental Psychology (2006) and in Clinical Psychology (2022) and a PhD in Cross-Cultural Psychology (2011). I worked in the academia as an assistant professor before I switched to a more applied career focus.
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Contact
For your questions, to book an individual consultation and/or to register one of our workshops, please contact us.