About Us

Peter has worked across a range of settings with “challenging” kids and strongly believes in the approach to behaviour, problem solving and skills development pioneered by Dr Ross Greene – Collaborative and Proactive Solutions® (CPS).  Dr Greene’s approach places the child in the centre of any treatment strategy and focuses on addressing unsolved problems and lagging skills.  This proactive approach to child development gives hope and direction to all involved in shaping young lives and aligns with our belief that kids would do well if they could do well.  CPS puts the humanity back into child development and stands in stark contrast to other approaches which attempt to shape behaviour through rewards and consequences.

The Social Mind is proud to host both live speaking tours to Australia by Ross Greene and online training during the pandemic.  Our aim in hosting training events with Dr Greene is to expand the use of his CPS model throughout Australia and New Zealand.  We believe Collaborative and Proactive Solutions provides the ideal framework within which to identify and teach our kids the skills they may lack and help them make a positive contribution to their families and their communities and live fulfilling lives.  We believe training in Dr Greene’s CPS model to be well suited for anyone using Social Thinking® methodology in their pedagogical practice.

Collaborative and Proactive Solutions® (CPS) is a registered Trademark of Dr Ross Greene.  You can read more about the model HERE.  Research to support the model is available HERE.

The Social Mind is a proud collaborator with  Leah Kuypers, the creator and author of The Zones of Regulation, a framework to foster self-regulation and emotional control.  The Zones of Regulation has been enthusiastically received by educators, therapists and parents around the world.

To date over 100,000 copies of The Zones of Regulation book have been sold and the framework has been implemented in schools across Australia to support students’ social emotional learning. ​ Leah’s simple to use framework is having an impact where it matters most, by giving kids strategies to self-regulate their emotions, enabling them to not only understand the impact their behaviour has on others, but to ensure that their behaviour is putting them in the best position to succeed.  Leah’s work is changing lives.

The Zones of Regulation is published by Michelle Garcia Winner’s Social Thinking (Think social Publishing Inc).  We believe that the “Zones” is a fantastic self-regulation methodology for anyone using Social Thinking strategies to develop social competencies, they go hand-in-hand.

You can find out more about Leah’s best selling book here.  You can find out about Leah’s next scheduled “live” training in Australia here.  Leah’s webinars are on her US website here.

The Zones of Regulation® is the Registered Trademark of Leah Kuypers (Kuypers Consulting Inc).  A guide to sharing The Zones of Regulation Intellectual Property can be Found here.

…and finally, a bit more about us.  The Social Mind® is owned and operated by Peter Batten.

Peter is a therapist and educator who has worked with a range of client groups including street kids, kids with a disability and trauma survivors. Peter specialises in Autism, anxiety and child behaviour. Over a long career Peter has worked across a range of settings, including youth refuges, youth detention centres, schools, family clinics and private practice. Of note, Peter won an Inclusion Award for the ground breaking program he developed transitioning kids on the Spectrum, from mainstream Primary School, through High School and on to higher education and work. Peter has trained in the USA with Michelle Garcia Winner, the founder of Social Thinking.  Peter also has an interest in Positive Psychology and has trained with Professor Martin Seligman, the founder of Positive Psychology.

At The Social Mind® we find that when you take the time to listen to the perspective of kids experiencing social learning challenges, they all have goals and aspirations. What’s often missing, is an adult mentor with the knowledge needed to advocate on their behalf and teach them the skills they need to navigate a neurotypical world and exercise agency in their lives.  That’s why The Social Mind® exists, to provide therapists, teachers, parents and carers with the knowledge they need to be a “mentor”, to help our kids make a contribution to their family and their community and to live fulfilling lives.

At The Social Mind® we embrace neurodiversity and encourage individual identity.  We are not advocating “social conformity” but are all about removing barriers and teaching our kids the skills they need to thrive and exercise agency in their lives.  These values have become fundamental tenants of The Social Mind® philosophy, and that shared belief is what attracts us to the authors we support.

By way of background, in the 1990’s Peter broadened his psychology training from counselling and psychotherapy, to the psychology of organisations and large systems. During this period he gained experience consulting on Australian aid projects in Papua New Guinea where he facilitated “design” workshops to obtain the input of the “end beneficiaries” of the aid project, to define the problem being addressed along with an achievable outcome, from the point of view of the people receiving the aid.  As it turned out, this was a very similar process to Dr Ross Greene’s Collaborative Problem Solving model we now promote, only on a different scale.

Peter was awarded a Churchill Fellowship in 2008 to study innovative ways to support kids with social learning challenges, and spent three months visiting programs across the USA and UK.  This study tour was prompted by Peter’s interest in “mentoring” kids with a neurodiverse background. During this study tour Peter spent time in Michelle Garcia Winner’s Social Thinking® Clinic in California, attended as many of Michelle’s workshops as he could, and visited numerous programs and practitioners across the USA and UK who were using innovative approaches and respectfully working with neuodiversity, from early learners through to adults.

Following this study tour, Peter invited Michelle to visit Australia and hosted a five city speaking tour, Peter had no previous experience running training events mind you. Crazy?  Sure was, but that was how this business started.  There were books left over following Michelle’s first tour of Australia in 2010 and Michelle asked Peter if he could sell them. He set up a website and those books slowly started to sell.

But you have to start somewhere when you believe in something. One of the big lessons we’ve learnt along the way is to never give up. The business Peter established in 2010 to host those first workshops and sell a few left over books, now imports stock from the USA every few weeks to keep up with the demand. We even run our own packing and dispatch centre providing employment to local College and University students, most of them studying for careers in the helping professions.

We believe that providing parents and professionals with good training and quality resources is the key to helping kids and families. The Social Mind® hosts training events featuring Michelle Garcia Winner, Leah Kuypers and Dr Ross Greene.  We have taken our speakers to locations around Australia, from Port Lincoln to Sydney, from Melbourne to Perth and from Hobart to Cairns.  We take our International speakers to capital cities and off the beaten track. We are even planning to extend our “live” training opportunities into New Zealand post the pandemic.

But our aim has always remained the same, to make available in Australia (and New Zealand), the same high quality training Peter had access to during his 2008 Churchill Fellowship to the USA & UK.  He had to travel overseas to access that training, now we bring the speakers to you.

We here at The Social Mind® firmly believe that a committed relationship can change the life of any young person – we provide the training and the resources, you provide the committed relationship.

Customer Service

Peter is always happy to answer your questions, provide advice about our products and solve any problems.  You can contact us by email [email protected] or by phoning (02) 5105 5262 (if phoning from Australia) or +61 2 5105 5262 (if phoning from outside Australia). Author’s note – allow some time if you call, the boss loves a “chat”.

Feedback

Here is just some of the feedback we have received:

With regard to Ross, WOW. So proficient, he makes it sound so logical and easy doesn’t he? Clearly it’s not easy, and it didn’t come about overnight, but the way Ross’ thinking has evolved to put in such a practical model for us all to use, that will ultimately have such important implications who all we work with…. well that’s just so commendable.  Can’t wait to get “good at this” and apply it daily in my life, and in my practice at work.  Cheers and thanks for making this happen.

Thanks so much for hosting the workshop yesterday. It was super informative and my husband and I both feel we have a better understanding of the CPS model to support our 3 kids. I thought I’d cheekily offer our family if you need a volunteer case study for when Ross returns for advanced training!

It was an absolute pleasure attending Ross’s workshop yesterday – my brain is full, and inspiration overflowing! I am definitely interested in attending Ross’s advanced workshop in future.  I would like to add a BIG thank you for organising and managing the event! You and your colleagues managed to make a big group still feel intimate, and your passion and respect for Ross’s work really shone through. What a joy it was!

Thank you so much for allowing me the opportunity to listen to Ross in Brisbane. He is truly an inspiration. I hope to be able to use some of the knowledge I have gained from the workshop with in my classroom and at home with my own children. I have begun reading his book The Explosive Child and I am already learning so much.

Peter, Thank you again for bringing such great PD to Melbourne.  I have already changed my practise and met with a preschool team last night and removed the focus from behaviour management – we plan to try the ALSUP next week. I am also grateful for the reminder to include the children in the problem solving process – I know I do that in clinic sessions but possibly not enough in initial planning.

Thank you Peter! I thoroughly enjoyed the workshop.

Hi Peter, Thank you so much for organising Ross Greene to come out. The workshop was amazing and I am super inspired to give it a “red hot go”.  Can’t wait for next year’s workshops so please keep me in the loop.

Hi Peter, Thanks so much for this organisation! I must say I have used 2 of the skills that he taught yesterday with 2 children in today’s sessions and although I am still grappling with the language I am mighty impressed with the process and the outcomes that we achieved with this, so nice to be reminded to just let things happen in the time that is needed. Looking forward to Ross’s next instalments.

Hi Peter, Thank you so much for your amazing customer service this afternoon! I appreciate it so much! Can’t wait to use this resource with our students!! (Teacher)

Thank you Peter! The last 3 days were immensely interesting and will be practically useful in my Speech Pathology clinic and services. Thank you again, this week has been excellent! It has really shifted my view of supporting our client’s social learning with practical intervention tools and strategies I can put into effect immediately. (Speech Pathologist)