I've worked with foster and adoptive families for almost twenty-two years, and one of the problematic behaviors that I hear about most...

After ‘Action-Based’, the last part of the IDEAL Response© is ‘Leveled at the Behavior, not the child’. This means correcting and...

After ‘Efficient’, the next stage of the IDEAL® Response is ‘Action-Based’. This is easily the most fun and playful part of having to...

After ‘Direct’, the next stage of the IDEAL® Response is ‘Efficient’. This means that when we are engaging with our kids, we are: Being...

Whether this time of the year is bittersweet or a tremendous sigh of relief, the end of summer has arrived. You've shared about your...

The dog days of summer have arrived, and I've come out of summer hibernation feeling ready to return to the land of blogging! We hope...

The IDEAL response in TBRI® gives us some pretty simple skills in how to respond to children when they are in crisis or need your...

It's February! We're all coming out of hibernation, which is a great reminder that it's about time we talk about "turning towards". The...

I want to tell you a story about yesterday. I had an “opportunity” to chaperone the 6th grade social at my daughter’s middle school....

Two Saturdays ago, I had the opportunity to train our current foster and adoptive families in their annual TBRI review. As you might...

In our efforts to be more mindful parents, there are things that come up for us time and time again. Often, those things are our own...

Do you want to know a secret? Children lie. They all do. Foster children, adopted children, biological children, and any child in...

Anyone else here a fan of Schitt's Creek? (The answer should be a unanimous 'YES!') There are so many gems in this show that both impart...

I've spent a good deal of time over the last few weeks talking with families about our invisible backpacks. Every day, we carry around a...

Happy September! For most of you, this means that your children are back in school! With new routines come a need to get back to TBRI®...

The summer is winding down, and children are filled with a combination of longing for the summer to continue and the excitement of the...

Trust-Based Relational Intervention® teaches us that kids do better emotionally when their blood sugar is stable. That seems to be pretty...

Parenting is hard work. Parenting in a trauma-responsive way is really, really, ridiculously hard work. Over the last year as The...