Want to join the class? We’ve already gotten started, but you can still join us!
email: lisa@handmadeparenting for details
the alpha child
4 week class begins on Monday March 7th
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A growing number of children and youth are presenting as demanding, prescriptive, bossy and controlling. The root of the problem – the alpha dynamic – is one of the least known and yet most impactful factors in attachment.
This course takes us on a fascinating journey to the essence of the attachment, revealing a little-talked-about-dynamic that impacts every relationship, most significantly the parent-child and teacher-student relationship. Dr. Neufeld unfolds this dynamic to uncover a phenomenon even bigger than peer orientation – that our children are becoming more alpha. This alpha dynamic can manifest itself in a myriad of ways – bossiness, demanding personality, competitiveness and even bullying.
Alpha children are not only more challenging to parent but also predisposed to a number of problems including anxiety, aggression, oppositionality and eating problems. The plethora of advice-giving and strategies that are offered for these behaviours only tend to make matters worse when the underlying problem is an alpha complex.
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How the class works:
Included in the class fee is a 3-month membership to the Neufeld Institute online campus* where you will watch a 60-75 minute lecture by Dr. Gordon Neufeld before each week’s class. The Monday evening classes will include a mix of teaching and discussion, as well as time for Q and A.
*the online campus is a virtual treasure trove of resources, from book recommendations to webinars, to which you have access along with the class lectures.
Topics/Objectives:
- to uncover the existence and purpose of alpha and dependent instincts
- to reveal the inherent hierarchy in attachment
- to describe the ideal alpha/dependent dance and its function
- to introduce the ‘alpha complex’ as deriving from alpha instincts that are stuck
- to provide an understanding of the many faces of an alpha complex
- to understand the role of emotion and the flight from vulnerability in the manifestation of alpha instincts
- to uncover the primary causes of the alpha instinct and the reasons for why today’s children are becoming more alpha
- to reveal the role of the alpha complex in alarm problems such as anxiety
- to reveal the role of the alpha complex in problems with noncompliance and oppositionality
- to reveal the role of the alpha complex in elevated frustration and aggression problems
- to reveal the role of the alpha complex in eating problems and disorders
- to provide guidelines for taming the alpha complex and restoring right relationship
The Alpha Child course was created by Dr. Gordon Neufeld.