The Polyvagal Parenting Playbook: A Comprehensive Guide to Interactive Strategies for Every Age and Stage offers a revolutionary approach to parenting, blending the science of polyvagal theory with practical, hands-on strategies to foster deep emotional connections and resilience in children. This groundbreaking book guides parents, educators, and caregivers through the intricacies of the nervous system, revealing how it influences behavior, emotions, and social interactions. Within its pages, readers will discover a new lens through which to view parenting, one that emphasizes the importance of creating a sense of safety and nurturing relationships that support children's innate ability to thrive. The book is structured to address the unique challenges and opportunities presented at each developmental stage, from the tender early years through the dynamic period of adolescence. Key Features: Foundational Insights into Polyvagal Theory: Understand the science behind your child's emotional and behavioral responses, and how to use this knowledge to foster a supportive environment. Age-Specific Strategies: Navigate the changing landscape of your child's needs with strategies and activities designed to promote emotional well-being, social skills, and self-regulation at every age. Building Connection and Safety: Learn techniques to strengthen your bond with your child, creating a foundation of trust and security that supports their development and learning. Practical Activities and Reflections: Engage with a variety of exercises and reflective questions that encourage hands-on application of polyvagal principles, enhancing your parenting skills and deepening your understanding of your child. Navigating Challenges: From managing tantrums to encouraging independence in teenagers, find solutions to common parenting dilemmas, grounded in compassionate communication and understanding. Fostering a Supportive Community: Tips and guidance on building a "village" of support, leveraging relationships with family, friends, and professionals to enrich your child's growth and development. The Polyvagal Parenting Playbook is more than just a book; it's a journey towards a more empathetic, informed, and connected approach to raising children. It invites readers to shift perspectives, embrace new strategies, and celebrate the profound impact of nurturing relationships on child development. Whether you are a new parent seeking guidance or a seasoned caregiver looking to deepen your understanding of child psychology, this book offers valuable insights and tools to support you in the rewarding journey of parenting.

Innovative clinicians share their experiences integrating Polyvagal Theory into their treatment models. Clinicians who have dedicated their work to bringing the benefits of the Polyvagal Theory to a range of clients have come together to present Polyvagal Theory in a creative and personal way. Chapters on a range of topics from compassionate medical care to optimized therapeutic relationships to clinician's experiences as parents extract from the theory the powerful influence and importance of cases and feelings of safety in the clinical setting. Additionally, there are chapters which: elaborate on the principle of safety in clinical practice with children with abuse histories explain the restorative consequences of movement, rhythm, and dance in promoting social connectedness and resilience in trauma survivors explains how Polyvagal Theory can be used to understand the neurophysiological processes in various therapies discuss dissociative processes and treatments designed to experience bodily feelings of safety and trust examine fear of flying and how using positive memories as an active "bottom up" neuroceptive process may effectively down-regulate defense shed light on the poorly understood experience of grief Through the insights of innovative and benevolent clinicians, whose treatment models are Polyvagal informed, this book provides an accessible way for clinicians to embrace this groundbreaking theory in their own work.

Discover a clinically proven way to reduce inflammation, stress, loneliness, and burnout while improving overall well-being As lifelong meditators and mindfulness teachers, we confess we were almost embarrassed when we stumbled onto a 5–15 second shortcut to transcendence. This idea ran counter to everything we knew about meditation before we began our research. But, yes, it is possible. It only requires accessing the powerful emotion of awe in ordinary, everyday life. The changes in our lives have been profound, and after seeing the results repeated again and again in our thousands of patients, clients, and study participants, we’ve proven that our shortcut, coined the A.W.E. Method, works. —from the Preface Research has proven that mindfulness improves well-being and reduces stress, anxiety, and pain. But for some, the practice itself feels challenging and inaccessible. That’s where the A.W.E. Method comes in. In The Power of Awe, therapist Jake Eagle and chronic pain specialist Michael Amster, MD, share their extraordinary yet simple mindfulness practice that turns ordinary moments into awe-inducing experiences, helping you effortlessly achieve a heightened state of consciousness usually reserved for seasoned practitioners of mindfulness—all within a matter of seconds. A.W.E. stands for Attention, Wait, Exhale and Expand, and the method is a five- to fifteen-second, three-step process—a type of “microdosing mindfulness,” or a brief, informal mindfulness practice supported by research conducted at UC Berkeley. The A.W.E. Method quickly transports us into awe, an incredibly powerful emotion that produces wonderment and a heightened state of consciousness along with some remarkable changes in the mind and body that can improve health and wellness. Experiencing awe does not require any demanding discipline or skills or “awesome” settings. The A.W.E. Method ensures that awe and its many benefits are accessible to you at any time, in any place—sitting at a stoplight, cooking a meal, petting an animal, or listening to a loved one’s laugh.

Offers play therapists practical ways of handling a pervasive issue with intense and aggressive play by their clients. With an understanding of aggressive play based on brain function and neuroscience, this book provides therapists with a framework to work authentically with aggressive play, while making it an integrative and therapeutic experience for the child. Through the lens of neuroscience and interpersonal neurobiology, therapists are taught how to integrate the intensity experienced by both the child and the therapist during aggressive play in a way that leads towards greater healing and integration. The book explains the neurological processes that lead kids to dysregulation and provides therapists with tools to help their clients facilitate deep emotional healing, without causing their own nervous system to shut down. Topics covered include: embracing aggression; understanding the nervous system; understanding regulation; developing yourself as an external regulator; authentic expression; setting boundaries; working with emotional flooding; supporting parents during aggressive play.

A founder of the field of evolutionary medicine uses his decades of experience as a psychiatrist to provide a much-needed new framework for making sense of mental illness. Why do I feel bad? There is real power in understanding our bad feelings. With his classic Why We Get Sick, Dr. Randolph Nesse helped to establish the field of evolutionary medicine. Now he returns with a book that transforms our understanding of mental disorders by exploring a fundamentally new question. Instead of asking why certain people suffer from mental illness, Nesse asks why natural selection has left us all with fragile minds. Drawing on revealing stories from his own clinical practice and insights from evolutionary biology, Nesse shows how negative emotions are useful in certain situations, yet can become overwhelming. Anxiety protects us from harm in the face of danger, but false alarms are inevitable. Low moods prevent us from wasting effort in pursuit of unreachable goals, but they often escalate into pathological depression. Other mental disorders, such as addiction and anorexia, result from the mismatch between modern environment and our ancient human past. And there are good evolutionary reasons for sexual disorders and for why genes for schizophrenia persist. Taken together, these and many more insights help to explain the pervasiveness of human suffering, and show us new paths for relieving it by understanding individuals as individuals.

“With deft prose and page after page of keen insights, Heffernan shows why we close our eyes to facts that threaten our families, our livelihood, and our self-image--and, even better, she points the way out of the darkness.” --Daniel H. Pink In the tradition of Malcolm Gladwell and Nassim Nicholas Taleb, Margaret Heffernan's Willful Blindness is a tour de force on human behavior that will open your eyes. Why, after every major accident and blunder, do we look back and say, How could we have been so blind? Why do some people see what others don't? And how can we change? Drawing on studies by psychologists and neuroscientists, and from interviews with business leaders, whistleblowers, and white collar criminals, distinguished businesswoman and writer Margaret Heffernan examines the phenomenon of willful blindness, exploring the reasons that individuals and groups are blind to impending personal tragedies, corporate collapses, engineering failures-even crimes against humanity. We turn a blind eye in order to feel safe, to avoid conflict, to reduce anxiety, and to protect prestige. But greater understanding leads to solutions, and Heffernan shows how-by challenging our biases, encouraging debate, discouraging conformity, and not backing away from difficult or complicated problems-we can be more mindful of what's going on around us and be proactive instead of reactive.

Breakthrough strategies from the author of Breaking the Bamboo Ceiling to help Asian Americans build their leadership and influence skills by embracing their cultural strengths and mapping an achievable career path. How can Asian Americans lead and influence in a way that feels culturally authentic? 19 years after her groundbreaking book, global leadership strategist Jane Hyun unveils Leadership Toolkit for Asians a guide for Asian Americans to build their capacity to lead and influence with a blueprint that is achievable and culturally relevant. Asian Americans are the least likely demographic to be promoted or to have a mentor or sponsor they make up 13% of the professional workforce, but less than 3% of executive positions. This dynamic hurts everyone, and the solution calls us to embrace our unique perspectives while organizations create a more fertile environment for growing Asian talent. This toolkit-based on Hyun's work with thousands of leaders-is filled with self-assessments, checklists, quizzes, and stories of Asian American leaders to help you put ideas into action. It will show you how to leverage your life experiences to craft a bespoke leadership journey. Assess: Identify your goals, cultural values and assets Equip: Navigate effectively with people who are different from you, push back against stereotypes, strengthen your networks, apply a developmental model to help you get there Transform: Create your own model and engage advocates as you put it into practice