ABSTRACT
In order to help children, it helps to start with ourselves. Learning to be better attuned to our own strengths and sensitivities can help us to learn to calm ourselves down and become more able to learn what leads to our children’s behaviors. This, in turn, can open up ways to help our children get beyond stuck behavior patterns stemming from traumatic events. With an awareness of our own triggers, we can also see more clearly how children’s behaviors affect us. Then, we can use that understanding to develop, or reinforce, ways to re–center ourselves so we can attune to children and decode messages children are sending us with their behaviors.
