Susan describes this book as a collection of "reflections, rants and ruminations". In it, she organizes several dozen brief articles, letters to editors, responses to emails from her clients and the occasional book review. All of the material is written from a child-developmental point of view in which attachment plays a vital role. The theoretical base for this work is found in the writing of Dr. Gordon Neufeld, a Vancouver-based developmental psychologist and his colleague Dr. Gabor Mate. M.D. In this, the 2nd edition of the book, Susan has included recent considerations of the impact of the digital world on children's brain development and personality. The articles are grouped under the headings: adolescents, bullying, child development, crying and guilt, family matters, issues, journal entries, parenthood, rest, teaching and schooling, and finally, a little theory; an index completes the text.
About the Author: Susan is a psychotherapist, a Registered Marriage and Family Therapist (RMFT) and a Clinical Fellow of the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy (AAMFT). She followed her first degree in Health Education with a Certificate in Gerontology and then a Master's in Counselling. Following these, she earned a Certificate in Contextual Family Therapy and completed Level 2 training in Eye-Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR). She continues to study the clinical applications of attachment theory to both couple counselling and parent consulting. She is a former Faculty member and is now a Professional Associate of the Neufeld Institute. Susan works with Dr. Gordon Neufeld in the study of attachment and developmental psychology and their application to parenting and to working with children. She is authorized by Dr. Neufeld to be a presenter of his work and to practice as a parent consultant. Susan has recently incorporated many of the findings of Dr. Stephen Porges who has pioneered research into what is known as the polyvagal theory of emotion. As with all of her studies of theory Susan is meticulous about testing the applications in clinical settings with children, couples, and individual adults (of all ages). As the former Director of Research of the Neufeld Institute she has been involved in several evaluation studies of the effectiveness of the Neufeld paradigm, as well as theoretical papers and the development of questionnaires to measure attachment. These are listed on the Projects page. Susan is also a thesis supervisor for the Independent Studies program at the University of Waterloo. Susan brings her skills together in unique ways to help parents to stay in charge of their relationships with their children. She also works with relationships which are under stress or breaking; post-traumatic stress and attachment difficulties. Many of her clients are children and students who are struggling with discipline or with the demands of school and university; and she also works with parents to provide them with the tools they need to reconnect with their children.