Blog of Parenting Support
You are not alone on this journey
Mental Health 101: Optimal Nurturing
One’s mental health is a fluid element of life. It includes our emotional well-being, our social relationships and our inner life, our sense of self. We come into the world with a brain more or less ready for the world then our experiences, both prenatal and upon...
A Spoonful, not a Flood: Dosing 101
I’m going to focus on a concept possibly unfamiliar but worth your attention. Dosing is a word used by Dr. Bruce Perry of the Neurosequential Model to describe the role a caregiver has in controlling how much stress children with chronic trauma histories can...
Attachment 101: Healing the Brain
I should apologize now. This feels more like a term paper than a blog but in my effort to be as clear as possible, it just became more and more academic sounding. I will try to wrap up in simpler language by the end! Last week in a support group, something was said...
Neglect Changes the Brain: Neglect 101
I used to explain way too much by referring to hypervigilance. These days, I’ve come to understand better the variety of factors that can cause the meltdowns we see in our kids from hard places. I want to briefly explore: the intimacy barrier, sensory overload, will...
Who am I? Intro to Identity Development
We’ve gotten glib about this very complicated issue. “I identify as she/her, white, mother and Texan.” Or “I identify as a black American.” Though not an adoptee, I am very aware of my experience with identity development. My chaotic family fell short in comparison to...
Balancing Act: Family Systems 101
I usually talk to you about how to take care of yourself first so you can take care of others. This time I want to explore the art form known as a family. I could pick any of several metaphors for this: a car, the human body, a track ball mouse, or a crib mobile. They...
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