Chris Alexiou

Chris is a father, grandfather, former school principal, author and Think: Kids certified trainer in Collaborative Problem Solving® (CPS). CPS is a research-based approach for understanding and dealing with challenging behaviour in children. CPS can help support student mental health and help reduce bullying behaviour by teaching critical cognitive skills.

Chris has spent his entire adult life teaching and learning. A skilled teacher and school principal with over 35 years experience, Chris has helped students, teachers and parents learn, grow and “be the best they can be”.

Chris’ core belief is that people, big and small, young and old, “do well if they can.” Most students learn quickly. Unfortunately, it isn’t that smooth for everyone. Sometimes kids get lost, don’t engage or don’t do well. The paradox is that we often give more attention and encouragement to the kids who are already doing well, the kids who need less of our time and teaching skills. The kids who aren’t doing well are often neglected, ignored or suspended from school when in fact they are the ones who need us most. They are the ones who are trying the hardest to succeed. All kids deserve the same level of compassion, empathy and our support. This led Chris to develop school-wide approaches (named after his last school) such as “Palermo Reads, Palermo Counts and Palermo Cares” to help kids achieve high results in a safe, positive community-oriented environment with CPS as the cornerstone.

Chris has 20 years of personal and professional experience using CPS with kids and teaching the approach to staff members, parents and his own family. He has seen outstanding results in building relationships and in the development of a variety of cognitive skills.

Chris has served as Chair of the Oakville Community Youth in Action Network (CYAN) and as a Board member and volunteer at the Oak Park Neighbourhood Centre in Oakville. As he told his students over the years “the only way to truly be happy in life is to serve others.” He continues to do this personally, and professionally through his work teaching others about CPS and the benefits for kids. CPS is for everyone!

Chris Alexiou is Certified in Collaborative Problem Solving® by the Think:Kids (www.thinkkids.org) program of the Massachusetts General Hospital.

I appreciated your patience and knowledge during the course. I feel I have a learned a lot and will be using this style not only at home with my son — but also at work with my colleagues.
Alice – Halton Parent

Why I am Passionate About CPS

As a teacher I felt that I was able to create exciting learning environments for my students. If a child was not learning, with the help of the special education teacher and other colleagues, I was able to develop a plan to teach the academic skills the child needed to be successful.

I also found that sometimes a child’s challenging behaviour was getting in the way and impacting learning. I had a few conventional strategies I’d developed and some traditional approaches that others had shared with me, but no real thoughtful plan to follow. The conventional strategies included consequences, rewards, punishments and ignoring, all aimed at motivating the child to “wanna behave.” There was no thought about teaching cognitive skills, listening to the child’s perspective or believing that the child wanted to do well. Everyone seemed to agree that a misbehaving child was choosing to behave poorly so these conventional approaches were the way to go.

In my first school as a principal, many our students were bright children, eager to learn but increasingly demonstrating challenging behaviours. A bright grade 1 child who had just registered and for whom conventional approaches in the classroom did not work introduced me to CPS. He and his mom asked me to become familiar with CPS by reading “The Explosive Child” by Dr. Ross Green. I did this in 2006 and shortly after attended a presentation by Dr. Stuart Ablon, a colleague of Dr. Green’s. I was hooked. I’d always been aware of the importance of being positive, building relationships and thinking the best of all the people with whom I worked. CPS provided an approach to help me help all our students.  This was the beginning of my CPS journey.

I’m passionate about CPS because CPS provides a specific practical approach that parents/caregivers and teachers can use with children to solve real problems that are relevant to both. CPS does not relay on scenarios to solve problems and teach skills. CPS reduces stress and anxiety and builds the relationship between the adult and child.