Daniel A. Hughes,Jonathan Baylin,Daniel J. Siegel
In this groundbreaking exploration of the brain mechanisms behind healthy caregiving, attachment specialist Daniel A. Hughes and veteran clinical psychologist Jonathan Baylin guide readers through the intricate web of neuronal processes, hormones, and chemicals that driveâ€”and sometimes thwartâ€”our caregiving impulses, uncovering the mysteries of the parental brain.,The biggest challenge to parents, Hughes and Baylin explain, is learning how to regulate emotions that ariseâ€”feeling them deeply and honestly while staying grounded and aware enough to preserve the parentâ€“child relationship. Stress, which can lead to â€œblockedâ€ or dysfunctional care, can impede our brainâ€™s inherent caregiving processes and negatively impact our ability to do this. While the parentâ€“child relationship can generate deep empathy and the intense motivation to care for our children, it can also trigger self-defensive feelings rooted in our early attachment relationships, and give rise to â€œunparentalâ€ impulses.,Learning to be a â€œgood parentâ€ is contingent upon learning how to manage this stress, understand its brain-based cues, and respond in a way that will set the brain back on track. To this end, Hughes and Baylin define five major â€œsystemsâ€ of caregiving as theyâ€™re linked to the brain, explaining how they operate when parenting is strong and what happens when good parenting is compromised or â€œblocked.â€ With this awareness, we learn how to approach kids with renewed playfulness, acceptance, curiosity, and empathy, re-regulate our caregiving systems, foster deeper social engagement, and facilitate our childrenâ€™s development.,Infused with clinical insight, illuminating case examples, and helpful illustrations, ,Brain-Based Parenting, brings the science of caregiving to light for the first time. Far from just managing our childrenâ€™s behavior, we can develop our â€œparenting brains,â€ and with a better understanding of the neurobiological roots of our feelings and our own attachment histories, we can transform a fraught parent-child relationship into an open, regulated, and loving one.
Parenting,Psychology,Parenting,Adoption,Nonfiction,Biology,Neuroscience,Neuroscience,Brain
Brain-Based Parenting: The Neuroscience of Caregiving for Healthy Attachment