ABOUT … our parent education
About our approach – relational and developmental
Our parent education is truly distinctive in the field, offering a comprehensive approach to parenting that aims to help parents become the answers to their children’s attachment and developmental needs. The teaching is highly professional and the material is solidly based on developmental science. Dr. Neufeld has a reputation for handling audiences that vary widely in education without compromising the concepts or talking down to any one.
This material has brought hope and change to thousands upon thousands of parents and their children. We believe that parenting should be quite natural and instinctive. Like most deeply rooted instincts, however, the right context is required to ‘push the right buttons’ in both parents and their children. Science has revealed this context to be the child’s attachment to the parent. When a child is in right relationship to the parent, not only is the child rendered receptive to parenting but the parent is empowered to do the job. The key therefore to effective parenting lies not in what we do but in who we are to our children.
About INSIGHT as our primary instrument of change
Although the opening question tends to be some variation of what to do, the ultimate solution is typically some variation of how to see. Evidence indicates that what we do is determined more by what we see than any other factor, including the strategies we have learned, the books we have read and the knowledge that we have acquired. The more accurate our insight, the more fruitful our interaction. When a child makes sense to us from inside out, a dance evolves that is natural, intuitive, effective and affirming for both the child and the adult. Developmental science has progressed to where it is now able to equip both parents and professionals with the insights that are necessary to understand our children and interact accordingly. Our parent education is founded on the firm conviction that when we are able to truly make sense of a child in a context of compassion, we will discover within ourselves a dance that corresponds.
About the different entry points for parents into these studies
Parents come to our courses with different needs and agendas. For those who are looking to develop a relational-based approach to parenting, we recommend our signature Power to Parent series – three eight-session courses that lay a solid groundwork for becoming the answer a child needs. Also recommended would be our courses on Discipline and the Alpha Child as both are tremendously informative of how to cultivate right relationship for the sake of both the parent and the child.
Two of the most important courses any parent could take are our courses on Play - Play & Attachment and Play & Emotion. Getting a glimpse of how Nature works through this medium is fascinating and guarantees that one will never dismiss play as frivolous or insignificant again. One of the most important challenges of today's parents is to make sure their children, including their adolescents, get the kind of play they require for healthy development and well-being. These Play courses contain material that is absolutely unique, groundbreaking, revolutionary and transforming.
Some parents have specific developmental stages in mind. Our course on Preschoolers is relevant from toddlerhood through to age 7 or 8, and even beyond should immaturity be an issue. Our adolescence courses are best taken when children are in their preteens and go the distance into young adulthood.
Other parents have special challenges to consider, such as how to best parent a hypersensitive child OR parent a child who has not been born to them, such as a foster child, step child, adoptive child, OR how to best educate a child at home. We have created our courses on Hypersensitivity, Transplanting, and Home Education with these challenges in mind.
Often there is a presenting issue that is top of mind for the parent. We have created a set of 4-session courses that gets into the underlying dynamics right from the start. These courses include Anxiety, Counterwill, Alpha, Attention Problems and Aggression. All these courses teach the attachment-based developmental approach but through the dynamic that is most concerning at the moment.
When parents are dealing with a wounded child, a fragile child, or a child who has experienced significant attachment losses, our course on Resilience would be most appropriate. This course also provides a foundational understanding of the adaptive process that is relevant from the beginning of life to the end.
We have developed a COURSE FINDER to help parents to find the course that best suits.
About our signature Power to Parent series
Our three-part Power to Parent series delivers the best that developmental science has to offer to those who are our children's best bet - parents and those who support them. The principles and dynamics apply to children of any age. Although some attention is given to the more perplexing problems of childhood, the general thrust of the course concerns issues and challenges facing most every parent.
The power motif was chosen on purpose despite the fact that the abuse of power is one of the main concerns in parenting and can often lead reactively to eschew all power whatsoever. The premise in this series is that the contrived power that we can resort to from time to time, and that can be so harmful to relationship and development, is in fact the paradoxical result of a lack of the natural power required to be an effective and responsible parent. The hidden source of natural power lies not in our skill or know-how however, but in the child's relationship to us. The implications for parenting are profound and run counter to prevailing practices in today's society.
This three-part series parallels the material presented in the Intensives One, but is focused less on theory and more on practice. These courses are meant to internalize the attachment-based developmental approach, providing an overall philosophy of parenting that can continue to serve across ages and stages.
The topic of the first course is attachment and the focus is on cultivating and preserving the context of connection required to render children receptive to our parenting. The topic of the second course is how to help children realize their full potential as human beings: adaptive, resilient, independent, emergent, considerate, and civilized. The topic of the third course is how to handle the common challenges and problem behaviour that most parents face from time to time, without causing harm to the child-parent relationship or to healthy development.
about the SUITABILITY of these courses for PRIVATE GROUPS and for being hosted by PUBLIC ORGANIZATIONS
These science-based courses are ideal for taking as a private group or for being hosted by a public organization such as a school, church, community centre, health clinic, etc. We have a wonderful group of course facilitators that can support the delivery of the course as well. Please contact us for details and to make arrangements.
Inquiries
If you have questions or require additional information that you cannot find on our website or FAQ page, you may contact our office on our Inquiries page.
Charity & Non-Profit Status
The Neufeld Institute is a registered Canadian charitable organization under the name Neufeld Institute Foundation and is also registered as a NPO in British Columbia. If you would like to make a contribution to us, please go to our donation page.
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Vancouver, BC V6M 1L3
Canada