The NHA for Parents

NHA for Parents

Focus your energy and attention on the greatness of every child.  – Dan Peterson

What are your dreams for your children? Do you want them to be leaders, not followers? Emotionally equipped to resist peer pressure? Family-centered, close to parents and siblings? Would you like your child to resist bullies and bullying, model self-confidence in ways that help other children? As a parent, you are the strongest influence in your child’s life, and your parenting skills can help move your child to a level of success and happiness they are meant to have. The Nurtured Heart Approach helps you recognize and focus on what your child or teen really needs and raises parenting to a new level.

Soon I began to see my son and other children through a new lens. I learned to be calm; I learned new coping strategies, and a new dialogue to communicate with my entire family. – NHA Parent

The Nurtured Heart Approach teaches Parents how to adjust their energy and attention in order to focus on what is going right in their child’s life and not accidentally reward, with time and energy, what is going wrong. It helps develop the relationship you have always wanted with your child.
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The first tenet of the NHA is Energizing Positivity. This concept governs how and when you should connect with your child. Most parenting approaches look at connecting with the child through negativity, or teaching the child after they have made a mistake; behavioral plans frequently try to motivate change in the child by giving primarily aversive consequences and punishments for mistakes, and they also give external rewards for continuing positive behaviors. Unfortunately, we have found that “intense and challenging” children do not respond well to these types of approaches.
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By using what the Nurtured Heart Approach calls Proactive Recognition, you will instill in your child self-control and a healthy feeling of power by recognizing and giving credit to them when rules are not being broken. The NHA will teach you how to direct and emit your energy, emotion, and attention in the right doses and at the right times. It will help you create and celebrate success in your child in a very powerful and effective way. The goal of Proactive Recognition is to give credit to children when they are NOT breaking the rules
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A Parent’s Story

“Our son had been diagnosed at age 10 with mood disorder and depression/anxiety, though the  symptoms were present as early as age 6. We had tried a variety of therapists and medications to help our son’s anger, disobedience, and mood swings. As his mother, I felt hopeless and helpless. I could not stop the continued chaos in our home, it affected my other two children as well as my marriage, I thought I was a failure.”
“… step by step, I was empowered by tools I learned from the NHA. First, I began to see myself through new eyes as a parent confident with skills to deal with my sons challenges. Soon I began to see my son and other children through a new lens as well. I learned to be calm; I learned new coping strategies, and a new dialogue to communicate with my entire family. I now use the NHA at work and when I coach!”

The greatest gift the NHA gave me, was to learn to see "greatness" in my children, my husband, and MYSELF. What a legacy we can leave for our children to be parents that role model self-control, love, and strength, even when our children may struggle to do so themselves. – NHA Parent

As social norms and cultural expectations have changed, so have our children’s needs and so must our parenting skills. That is why Dan’s passion and mission, utilizing the NHA through the Compass 4 Life program, is to help adults help ALL children flourish.
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For information about Dan’s Compass 4 Life programs, Parent Coaching, and Parent, Family, and teen Counseling see the Parent Coaching section. Or to learn about Dan’s Parent Workshops go to the EVENTS category.