Nurtured Heart Approach
 Nurtured Heart Approach (NHA) is a set of interpersonal skills that help people interact with children in effective, caring ways.
NHA is especially effective but not exclusively for parents and teachers in relationship with ADD, ADHD, and ODD kids. NHA promotes positive behaviors and healthy self esteem
with people of all ages.
A child’s intensity is a gift that needs to be nurtured. Unfortunately, so many people today find themselves struggling with the intensity of a challenging child
that they wind up being advised to moderate the intensity by using medications as a first intervention
rather than as a very last resort.
Although medications often do provide a semblance of much desired improvement, changes via pharmacology
are often inconsistent or temporary, and parents and teachers are then still in a compromised position as to
how to positively impact the child's life. I, and hundreds of NHA practitioners around North America contend
that everyone would much rather have the solid and optimal changes of transformation.
Many children wind up on medications simply because there has not been an approach that consistently
helps them to use their intensity successfully. Seventy- five percent of all children evaluated for
conditions such as ADD, ADHD and Oppositional Defiance Disorder receive medication on the very first visit. The
unfortunate underlying message is: your teacher can’t control you, your parent can’t control you, and you
can’t control yourself… you need a substance to control whatever is going on inside you. Parents and
teachers can end up feeling inadequate and blamed and treatment professionals can find themselves at a loss
as to how best to help. The result for the child is risk for physical side effects that can rarely be
adequately explained in the course of an evaluation, for a future attraction to and reliance on “easy
fixes,” and for a greater loss of self than can ever be fully anticipated.
Ordinary methods of parenting and teaching typically backfire with intense children, accidentally
rewarding children in myriad ways. Despite the best of intentions, the more adults attempt normal responses,
the worse the situation can inadvertently become. The culprits are the methods most people have at their
disposal… not the parents, teacher or the child. Approaches designed for the average child are not powerful
or encompassing enough to have a transformative effect on children with behaviors involving opposition,
defiance or inability to manage strong impulses or emotions.
The excellent news is that The Nurtured Heart Approach has been proven to create the transformation very
quickly and in enduring ways. Instead of the child believing that she gets more energy and intimacy from
adults through adversity, and that positive choices are a less certain bet, the child is moved to believe
and build confidence in the successes that flow from fully investing her intensity, intelligence and life
force in positive action.
NHA puts parents and professionals into the driver’s seat and gives them the perspective and strategies
to shift children into using their intensity in beautiful ways.
Read more ...
A key aspect of Nurtured Heart Approach is the stroke economy of the family, and especially
the children. I invite you to sign up for my free email mini course "Show Me The Strokes". Click
here to read more about it. |
