Cultivating Self-Compassion with Parents

Course overview

One of the most beautiful forms of human relationships is the parent-child relationship. Maintaining this relationship can also be one of the most challenging and humbling endeavors. No instruction manuals arrive at a child's birth and each child has beautiful and unique ways of responding to the world around them. As a result, parents can deeply benefit from compassionate parent training and specifically learning how to cultivate self-compassion. Multiple studies show that self-compassionate parents have lower levels of stress and depression and higher levels of life satisfaction, hope and positive behavior outcomes. All considered, these studies suggest self-compassion is a true resource for resiliency! Objectives: 1. Explain how the brain has evolved and how it can be "tricky." 2. Describe why new brain and old brain loops can be problematic for parents in particular. 3. Describe why self-compassion is crucial for parents to learn and why it is helpful on a daily basis. 4. Explain why compassionate parent training can foster more secure attachment in children.