Books
by Gordon Neufeld and the Neufeld Institute Faculty
Explore the written works that bring the Neufeld approach to life.
From the best-selling Hold On to Your Kids to books by Neufeld Institute faculty, these resources offer insight, guidance, and an attachment-based developmental lens for understanding children — and ourselves.
Hold On to Your Kids: Why Parents Need to Matter More Than Peers
This book, written by Dr. Gordon Neufeld, is about the pivotal importance of children’s relationships to those responsible for them and the devastating impact in today’s society of competing attachments with peers.
However, it is much more than a book on peer orientation: it is about parenting with relationship in mind.
This book restores parents to their natural intuition, confronting such relationship-devastating devices as time-outs and using what children care about against them.
Rest, Play, Grow: Making Sense of Preschoolers (Or Anyone Who Acts Like One)
Based on the work of Dr. Gordon Neufeld, this book, written by Dr. Deborah MacNamara, offers a road map to making sense of young children, and is what every toddler, preschooler, and kindergartener wishes we understood about them.
“This book is a tribute to Deborah’s giftedness … you could not be in better hands,” Dr. Neufeld says.
Reclaiming Our Students: Why Children Are More Anxious, Aggressive, and Shut Down Than Ever — And What We Can Do About It
By Hannah Beach & Tamara Strijack
Children are more anxious, aggressive, and shut down than ever. Faced with this epidemic of emotional health crises and behavioural problems, teachers are asking themselves what went wrong. Why have we lost our students? More importantly, how can we get them back? Reclaiming Our Students is a thoughtful guide to restoring the student-teacher relationship and creating the conditions for change, written by Hannah Beach, celebrated educator and specialist in emotional health, and Tamara Neufeld Strijack, clinical counsellor and academic dean of the acclaimed Neufeld Institute — with a foreword by Gordon Neufeld, Ph.D. Reclaiming Our Students empowers teachers with relationship-based strategies to restore their leadership role and build emotional safety in the classroom.
Nourished: Connection, Food, and Caring For Our Kids (and everyone else we love)
What does it mean to be nourished? Nothing could be more basic than food. However, food is only one part of the concept of nourishment, but it has consumed our focus and eclipsed something far more critical for thriving — connection. We have lost sight of the fact that feeding our families is about human relationship and emotional well-being. In Nourished, developmental and relational clinical counsellor Dr. Deborah MacNamara shows us how feeding is part of the caretaking relationship and cannot be separated from it.
The Sorry Plane
Children’s Book by Dr. Deborah MacNamara
When Molly accidentally breaks a balloon she and her sister Lucy have found, Lucy demands an apology. But, as Molly describes in fanciful, imaginative scenarios, her sorries are all gone: hiding under the bed, down the sink, off to Paris on the Sorry Plane. As their mother explains, we can’t say sorry if we don’t have any sorries in us. But when our sorries return, as Molly’s eventually do, we can give them to others. Brilliantly illustrated with captivating images by artist Zoe Si, The Sorry Plane carries a profound message about the importance of connecting with our authentic emotions. It highlights how a good sorry is one that you mean from the heart and how adults can preserve a child’s caring spirit.
Neufeld Institute Children’s Book List
By The Neufeld Institute
The Neufeld Institute’s carefully curated Children’s Literature Recommendations is a rich 68-page PDF guide to nearly 350 thoughtfully selected titles. Rooted in Dr. Neufeld’s attachment-based developmental approach, this annual booklet helps parents and professionals find books that nurture connection, emotion, and growth in children of all ages. From picture books to young adult novels, and even stories to enjoy together as a family, this resource is organized around key themes like attachment, play, emotional expression, and life’s special challenges. All proceeds support the Gail Eleanor Carney Memorial Scholarship Fund.
Upcoming Scheduled Classes
Some of our courses are also offered as scheduled classes from time to time with our Faculty providing weekly live special support sessions. If you already have taken the course in its self-paced version, you can enrol in the scheduled class for a fee of only 50 CAD.
Power to Parent I — The Vital Connection
Starts January 13, 2026
Tuesdays 10:00AM – 11:00AM PT
Runs for 8 weeks
With Heather Ferguson and Celena Krahn
$250 CAD
In this flagship course of our Power to Parent series, Neufeld reveals that the keys to ease and effectiveness in parenting lies in the nature of the child's attachment to the parent, regardless of the age of the child. The course explores how this relationship is meant to develop, what can go wrong, why parents must matter more than peers, how to cultivate a context of connection, how to win back one's child if need be, and much more.
Art & Science of Transplanting Children
Starts January 15, 2026
Thursdays 12:00PM – 01:00PM PT
Runs for 8 weeks
With Michele Maurer and Bree Jordan
$250 CAD
The impact of disrupting a child's attachments, regardless of the reason — and even when in the best interests of the child — can be deep and profound. This course makes sense of what happens and provides a way through to resolving these challenges to ensure healthy development and well-being.
Neufeld’s Five-Step Model of Emotional Maturation
Starts January 27, 2026
Tuesdays 09:00AM – 10:00AM PT
Runs for 4 weeks
With Eva de Gosztonyi and Robin Brooks-Sherriff.
$150 CAD
Dr. Neufeld outlines what needs to happen to mature emotionally, whether one is a child or catching up as an adult. This developmental knowledge is especially important as immaturity has become epidemic and most interventions make the mistake of attempting to address the symptoms of immaturity rather than getting at the roots. This model is easy to follow whether you're a parent, teacher, or therapist.
Making Sense of Adolescence: Seven Rites of Passage
Starts January 28, 2026
Wednesdays 1:00PM - 2:00PM PT
Runs for 10 weeks
With Lisa Weiner and Robin Brooks-Sherriff
$300 CAD
The task of turning children into adults has never been more daunting. An adolescent is neither child nor adult — and therein lies much of the difficulty, turbulence, confusion, and challenge. They need us, yet need to not need us. We are their best bet, yet their instincts are to resist us. This course is organized around seven rites of passage where adolescents often need our help.
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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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