I've been trying to highlight some of the great speakers/workshops of the Attachment Disorder Network's upcoming conference on Parenting Traumatized Children. But one of the best features of this conference has to be the location! I went there last week to inspect the rooms we were assigned and the second I pulled on to the property, I felt my blood pressure drop.

Simpsonwood Conference and Retreat Center is a beautifully wooded area next to the Chattahoochee National Park just north of Atlanta, GA. Nestled in the suburbs, once you're there, you totally forget there's a giant city right next door. Simpsonwood is a center owned and operated by the North Georgia Conference of the United Methodist Church, but available to a variety of non-profit organizations. One of the things that appealed to us about using this site for the conference is that it had both conference facilities and lodging facilities (hotel quality) within a very natural setting. There are three miles of walking trails through the property and many more trails in the adjoining park along the Chattahoochee River. The serenity of nature is captured in the many porches, decks and patios on the facilities.

There is an awesome outdoor prayer labrynith that guests can walk and other places that inspire devotion and prayer.

Another point that sold us on this location was that the facility has a full-service cafeteria and the lodging fees include three meals, buffet style with an overwhelming amount of choices, including salads and yummy desserts. Our thought was that stressed out parents can affordably come, unwind and never have to leave the campus and fight Atlanta traffic once they're here.

The planned serenity does include some rules though -- no TVs in the rooms and no smoking or alcohol on the premises.

But part of the real fun of conferences targeted at parents of challenging children is to get to know the other parents, right? So ADN, being the fun-loving bunch we are, has planned lots of those types of opportunities, including morning and evening hikes, a comedy club night, games and networking, and just time to talk until the wee hours.