The Art of Intentional Parenting – Session #1 – What is Intentional Parenting?

The Art of Intentional Parenting – A Series of Conversations About Family

OPEN TO THE COMMUNITY

Today’s families experience significant stress while attempting to navigate evolving social pressures. The Art of Intentional Parenting series will provide some basic guidelines and concrete skills for families to consider and utilize as they face challenging or adverse situations. These engaging and experiential sixty-minute sessions are designed so that each can stand-alone; they also build on each other if attended in sequence. A primary focus will be moving away from reactive or authoritarian responses and toward developing proactive and collaborative strategies.

Session 1: What is “Intentional Parenting”? This session will provide an overview of the basic theoretical foundations informing the work we do. We will explore the physiological, emotional, and spiritual need to be in connection with others and some of the barriers that make this so difficult. We will discuss family system theory, relationship dynamics, and a model of adaptive behavior in response to familial stress. This will be followed by an interactive discussion detailing some of the pressures and challenges the parents in attendance might experience. We will propose the notion of developing practices and solutions in anticipation of familial stress, rather than in reaction to it.