BELFAST — A two-day professional development program, “Past Trauma and Current Relationships: Integrating Nonviolent Communication and Interpersonal Neurobiology,” will be offered May 6 – 7 at the University of Maine Hutchinson Center.

The comprehensive program will benefit participants from a wide variety of fields, including for-profit and nonprofit sectors, education, healthcare, criminology and social services, according to the Hutchinson Center, in a news release.

The program, from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. each day, will include a continental breakfast and catered lunch. The fee is $150 per person, with need-based scholarships available.

Program presenter Peggy Smith has more than four decades of teaching experience. She earned a master’s degree from the University of Pennsylvania and is a certified trainer with the International Center for Nonviolent Communication. A co-founder of the Maine NVC Network, Smith is at the forefront of bringing empathic thinking and communicating to the Midcoast Maine region.

The goal of this interactive program is to explore how early-life experiences, including traumas such as adverse childhood experiences affect how we relate to people now. Participants will gain clarity about how the brain responds to challenging situations, and will experience new insights into choices leading to authentic honest relationships.

Registration is online: https://hutchinsoncenter.umaine.edu/professional-development- programs/.

For more information, or to request an accommodation or scholarship application, contact Michelle Patten, 338.8002; michelle.patten@maine.edu.

The Hutchinson Center, an outreach center of the University of Maine, is committed to offering high-quality professional development programs to the greater Midcoast Maine community.

About the University of Maine:
The University of Maine, founded in Orono in 1865, is the state’s land grant and sea grant university, according to the release. As Maine’s flagship public university, UMaine has a statewide mission of teaching, research and economic development, and community service.

UMaine is among the most comprehensive higher education institutions in the Northeast and attracts students from Maine and 49 other states, and 67 countries. It currently enrolls 11,240 total undergraduate and graduate students who can directly participate in groundbreaking research working with world-class scholars.

he University of Maine offers 35 doctoral programs and master’s degrees in 85 fields; more than 90 undergraduate majors and academic programs; and one of the oldest and most prestigious honors programs in the U.S. The university promotes environmental stewardship, with substantial efforts campuswide aimed at conserving energy, recycling and adhering to green building standards in new construction.

For more information about UMaine, visit umaine.edu.