Brain-Based Parenting: The Neuroscience of Caregiving for Healthy Attachment

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 drive--and sometimes thwart--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 arise--feeling them deeply and honestly while staying grounded and aware enough to preserve the parent-child relationship. Stress, which can lead to "blocked" or dysfunctional care, can impede our brain's inherent caregiving processes and negatively impact our ability to do this. While the parent-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 "unparental" impulses.

Learning to be a "good parent" 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 "systems" of caregiving as they're linked to the brain, explaining how they operate when parenting is strong and what happens when good parenting is compromised or "blocked." 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 children'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 children's behavior, we can develop our "parenting brains," 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.

Author: Daniel A. Hughes, Jonathan Baylin
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
Published: 04/23/2012
Pages: 264
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 1.29lbs
Size: 9.50h x 6.40w x 0.90d
ISBN: 9780393707281

About the Author
Hughes, Daniel A.: - Daniel A. Hughes, PhD, is a clinical psychologist who developed Dyadic Developmental Psychotherapy. He lives in Portland, Maine.Baylin, Jonathan: - Jonathan Baylin, PhD, a psychologist in private practice, offers workshops for therapists on integrating knowledge about the brain with psychotherapy.Siegel, Daniel J.: - Daniel J. Siegel, MD, is clinical professor of psychiatry at the University of California-Los Angeles School of Medicine, and executive director of the Mindsight Institute. He is the founding editor of Norton's IPNB Series and best-selling author of Mind, The Mindful Therapist, and The Mindful Brain.