Where is your “Happiness Meter” set? When your child brushes his teeth, do you go into ‘orbits of joy’? Or, does your child have to be perfect all day to even get you to ‘crack’ a smile? How hard are you to please?! Does your attitude need a ‘check-up from the neck-up’?

We need to set expectations ...

Usually it’s the moms ‘pulling their hair out’! This can be more than just a behavior issue. I did some research on the hair pulling. A number of children I have worked with pull their hair out when they are on Prozac and I always wondered why. I checked it out.

The research shows that low serotoni...

The joy of being greeted with a wagging tail can be overshadowed by the sadness of discovering the family pet wounded or killed. This happens all too often for families of children with attachment problems. Unexplained ailments and injuries seem to plague these poor unfortunate animals.

Foster Clin...

It really is a big deal! These children often have damaged and delayed development of the brain, due to early trauma, such as abuse, separation from the mother, not having their needs meet, and being left to cry for long periods, day after day. It is essential that they have the pieces in place nece...

Parenting children that have emotional special needs is very different from parenting children who do not. When we have a new child coming into our home, many of us feel that our love will erase all their early childhood trauma, and fill their heart to overflowing with joy. Unfortunately, that beaut...

An emotionally fragile child needs the same quiet healing environment as a medically fragile child would–one that recently had invasive surgery. A child that has recently had an appendix removed would remain quietly in their bed, or on the couch, without playing baseball or going swimming. A child w...

By watching for the signs, knowing the causes, and following the keys to bonding for high-risk infants you can:

• Avoid a lot of heartache

• Have a child who trusts and respects you

• Have a child who knows how to love and cares about others

• Avoid raising an angry, aggressive, defiant chil

  ...

A Powerful Tool

This amazingly powerful exercise makes such a big difference! I am so excited about all the new brain research and how it is clarifying the healing power of this fantastic, yet simple exercise. We have been using this technique with tremendous success for many years to help emotiona...

Children with broken hearts and wounded minds have special needs. When children have had early separation, abuse, neglect, or medical interventions, they are at high risk for attachment disorders.

Let me give you an example: If you had child “A” with diabetes and child “B” standing next to him that...

1. Do take care of yourself.
2. Do expect respect.
3. Do provide external controls until child develops internal controls.
4. When you speak, keep it short and sweet.
5. ‘Soft and huggable’ moms can better help their kids to be ‘soft and huggable’.
6. Do remember what it was like to be a kid.
7. Kids need to
...

Children with severe reactive attachment disorder (RAD) have had their hearts so broken, that, in order to heal, they need an emotional ‘heart transplant’. The mother is the ‘donor’. You cannot give more than your heart to give a child life. This is a physically, and emotionally, exhausting undertak...

The time I spend on my knees is one of the most powerful parenting interventions I have ever found. For years, as my children left for school in the morning, I would hug them and send them off with “Have a good day!” As I would close the door behind them, I would whisper a prayer for them, from my h...