Raising a Secure Child: How Circle of Security Parenting Can Help You Nurture Your Child's Attachment, Emotional Resilience, and Freedom to Explore

Today's parents are constantly pressured to be perfect. But in striving to do everything right, we risk missing what children really need for lifelong emotional security. Now the simple, powerful “Circle of Security” parenting strategies that Kent Hoffman, Glen Cooper, and Bert Powell have taught thousands of families are available in self-help form for the first time.

You will learn:

• How to balance nurturing and protectiveness with promoting your child's independence.
• What emotional needs a toddler or older child may be expressing through difficult behavior.
• How your own upbringing affects your parenting style—and what you can do about it.

Filled with vivid stories and unique practical tools, this book puts the keys to healthy attachment within everyone's reach—self-understanding, flexibility, and the willingness to make and learn from mistakes. Self-assessment checklists can be downloaded and printed for ease of use.

An essential book for parents but also of great interest mental health professionals working with children and parents..

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Table of Contents

Foreword, Daniel J. Siegel

Introduction

I. All Around the Circle: Understanding Attachment and the Importance of Security

1. Attachment: Why It Matters
2. Security: Befriending Imperfection
3. A Map for Attachment: The Circle of Security
4. Being the Hands on the Circle
5. Shark Music: How Our Childhood Echoes in Our Parenting
6. Behavior as Communication: Cues and Miscues

II. Creating and Maintaining the Circle: How to Be Bigger, Stronger, Wiser, and Kind—and Good Enough

7. Shark Bones: Exploring Our Core Sensitivities
8. Testing New Waters: Choosing Security
9. Staying Afloat: Choosing Security Over and Over as Your Child Grows

Resources

"Psychotherapists Hoffman, Cooper, and Powell…provide a clearly drawn map to the circle of security, their attachment theory-based program for attuning parents to child needs….This is a highly usable guide with the potential to enrich relationships of all kinds."
- Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"From the creators of the Circle of Security, which has changed parents' and children's lives around the globe, comes this remarkable guide. Down to earth, witty, and so, so smart about the complexities of parenting, Raising a Secure Child is a revelation. It provides a clear roadmap for all parents who want to give their children the very best beginnings possible. You will wish your parents had read this book, and if your children are grown, you will want to start all over again."
- Arietta Slade, PhD, Yale Child Study Center, Yale University School of Medicine

"This book is outstanding in every respect—beautifully written, scientifically sound, loaded with excellent examples, and full of deep wisdom. What these authors have learned and are able to teach us can make a huge contribution to the well-being of your children and family."
- Phillip R. Shaver, PhD, Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Psychology, University of California, Davis

"A 'must read' for parents of young children. The authors translate decades of psychological research into accessible and meaningful advice. Reading this book is an opportunity to learn about yourself—because, it turns out, knowing your own strengths and vulnerabilities is a vital key to parenting."
- Charles H. Zeanah, Jr., MD, Mary Peters Sellars-Polchow Chair in Psychiatry and Professor of Psychiatry and Pediatrics, Tulane University School of Medicine

"If you are looking for a practical, wise, science-based, and accessible guide to creating the kind of attachment your child needs to optimize development, you’ve come to the right place!…What a gift Raising a Secure Child is for us, for our children, and for the world….A masterpiece. (from the Foreword)"
- Daniel J. Siegel, MD, MD, coauthor of The Whole-Brain Child