A Powerful Tool to Build Thankfulness

Did you know the exact opposite of anxiety is gratitude!? What a healing salve thankfulness is for the heart and the brain! Why do we focus on it one day a year? Let’s crank it up a notch and do it daily.

My children did a “feelings journal”...

We have adopted again! I know you think we are crazy after having three birth children, three adopted and about 100 foster kids over the years but it just happened! Yes, my cowboy is 73 years old! I can’t help it! I fell in love!!

Now, let me tell you what has happened these first...

Timmy is 8 ½ years old in this first photo out on the football field. Notice his clenched jaw and the expression of pain and anger in his eyes.

The second photo, at age 9, he actually looks like he wants to bash someone in the head with the baseball bat! Unfortunately that is often how...

I found myself leaning forward at the wheel squinting into the gaps left in the ice on my windshield by the worn out wipers. With my heart pounding in fear at each icy curve of the mountain highway, I glanced over at my son. His sixteen year old, six foot tall lanky body was leaning rigidly...

by Suzanne

Dear Nancy,

After talking to our family priest on Saturday, he put into his homily/sermon on Sunday about how we can be kinder to each other, and especially to classmates who might be having a little more difficulty in school…to reach out to them and not hurt them or make fun of...

Hello Nancy,

I attended one of your conferences at Cape Cod. I am a behaviorist working with a child that has RAD. When I came back I presented the information that you gave to his parents, my agency, and the school that I work at. They agreed to allow me to try your techniques. They were...

Years ago in another life I was working as a police officer assigned to criminal investigations.  During my tour of duty, I was involved in investigating a Capital Murder case which would carry the death penalty as the punishment.  In the course of the investigation, I reported to the...

By Diana Rose Frances

Unconditional compassion IS the root of humanizing the traumatized child.

I worked in a small, community-based group home for boys ages 12 – 17 in Denver, CO. This community-based group home had a small, long-term staff that acted as not only guardians and caretakers...

by Ashley Wainwright (at 15 years old)

Now loving and beautiful on the inside AND the outside because of one
Awesome Mom, one Awesome Dad and one Awesome Attachment Therapist!

I’m sorry for all the times I lost my temper
For the times when I was rude
For all the gifts that were given
and never...

by Adam DeHoll (at age 17)

From out of the darkness I came, towards the light of fulfillment
The darkness enveloped me in shame and hostility
The despair made one feel like a blackened rose in a basket of fresh petals
I was a blackened rose that didn’t have feeling or life in it
I was a rose...

Dear Nancy,

Once upon a time, I thought when you had a baby, that they automatically loved you. We brought our beautiful blue-eyed little bundle of joy home. She cried a lot. She had ear infections. She cried day and night and in between. I tried new formulas, different bottles, positions and...

by Mike’s Mom

Mike plays Little League. It is his passion. In the past when things didn’t go well, there have been varying degrees of anger on the field. Last night, he was pitching and did well for the first two batters. Then he got wild. I could see him getting frustrated and...