Show Hope Book Club: The Connected Parent

The Connected Parent

The Connected Parent: Real-Life Strategies for Building Trust and Attachment, by child-development expert Dr. Karyn Purvis, gives you practical advice and powerful tools you can use to build secure attachment in your family. Co-author Lisa Qualls also demonstrates how you can successfully implement these strategies in your home, just as she did in hers.

“When caring for vulnerable children, feelings of love are simply not enough. This book addresses so many topics close to our own hearts and personal story,” Show Hope Co-founder Mary Beth Chapman said. “The real-life accounts of walking through the hardest places will bring the hope and healing that are so desperately needed.”

Chapter 1 – Understanding the Foundation of Attachment

• Where and how can you move give yeses?

Chapter 2 – Know Yourself

• Think about and discuss the statement What happened to us as children is not as important as how we’ve made sense of it as adults.”
• How would you rate your abilities in each of the four skills of meaningful relationships: Give Care, Receive Care, Know the Autonomous Self, and Negotiate Needs?

Chapter 3 – Simple Scripts

• What scripts does your family already use? What are new scripts you can incorporate? How can you adjust them for older children and teens?

Chapter 4 – Combat Chronic Fear

• Think about the children in your care. What do each of them need to feel safe? Are any of these things in conflict with each other? How can you make accommodations to increase felt-safety? 
• How can you incorporate the “fear busters” (predictability and control) into the rhythms and routines of your family?

Chapter 5 – Nurture to Heal

• When you think about the balance of structure and nurture, which one comes more naturally to you? What are some ways that you could work on to create an even balance?
• How could you incorporate more nurture into your day to day?

Chapter 6 – Teach Respect

• Think about and discuss the statement Chronic fear limits access to the higher functioning regions of the brain. Have you seen this in your children?
• How could you teach respect during moments of regulation? 

Chapter 7 – Recognize Your Child’s Sensory Needs

• Think about the times when your child has behavior meltdowns or episodes. What trends do you see? What could you do proactively to help prevent these?

Chapter 8 – Adapt Your Strategies for Teens

• Where can you give your teens opportunities for their voice to be heard?
• How does nurturing look different for your teens compared to your younger children?

Chapter 9 – Build Your Toolbox

• Which of the tools described in this book can you incorporate into your toolbox today? Which ones will be more difficult?

Chapter 10 – Take Care of yourself

• How can you incorporate TBRI^® Connecting Principles into the care of yourself?
• How can you incorporate TBRI Empowering Principles into the care of yourself?
• How can you incorporate TBRI Correcting Principles into the care of yourself?

Join us in reading next month’s book “Anatomy of the Soul” by Dr. Curt Thompson.