Raising Securely Attached Kids: Using Connection-Focused Parenting To Create Confidence, Empathy, and Resilience

Licensed therapist Harwood specializes in attachment research, which explores people’s strong need to bond with others. Her expertise is one of the reasons she asserts that a strong parent-child bond is the first thing parents need to successfully raise their children to have empathy, confidence, and resilience. For parents to achieve that, her book encourages them to work through their own past experiences and to ponder and identify things they witnessed as children that might impact how they parent as adults. For example, some readers might have lived in abusive households or with parents with substance-use disorders or mental health conditions. She advocates for readers to utilize a cooperation-based parenting method—not scare their child or rule with a rewards and punishment mindset—to bring structure to the home and to establish a nurturing environment. The book incorporates “Nerd Alert” sections that explain the science behind the advice.