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The Neufeld Scientific Research Centre

The Developmental Nature

Neufeld’s six-stage model of how the capacity for relationship develops:

  • Neufeld, G. and Maté, G. (2013). Hold On to Your Kids: Why Parents Need to Matter More Than Peers. New York: Ballantine Books.
  • MacNamara, D. (2016). Rest, Play, Grow. Making Sens of Preschooler. Vancouver: Aona Books
  • Wood, A. (2016). Engaging the Disaffected Learners. Making Teacher-Student Relationships Count. A thesis for the degree of Masters of Professional Studies, The University of Auckland, New Zealand.

Thinking of attachments reduces noradrenergic stress response

  • Bryant, R.A. and Chan, L. (2015). Thinking of attachments reduces noradrenergic stress response. Psychoneuroendocrinology, 60, p. 39—45.

DEEPENING / BUILDING THE ATTACHMENT:

Collecting our Children – cultivating a working relationship by engaging a child’s attachment instincts. 

  • Bowlby, J. (1982). Attachment: Second Edition. New York: Basic Books.
  • Ainsworth, M. and Bowlby, J. (1965). Child Care and the Growth of Love. New York: Penguin Books.
  • Fisher, H. (1992). Anatomy of Love. New York: Ballantine Books.


Bridging and Matchmaking

  1. Bridging anything that could divide
  • Brazelton, T. B. and Greenspan, S. (2000). The Irreducible Needs Of Children: What Every Child Must Have To Grow, Learn, And Flourish. Boston: Dacapo Press, Perseus Books Group.
  • Paanksepp, J. (2012). The Archeology of Mind: neuroevolutionary origins of human emotions. New York: Norton.

  1. Matchmaking – using existing attachments
  • Bowlby, J. (1982). Attachment: Second Edition. New York: Basic Books.
  • Ainsworth, M. and Bowlby, J. (1965). Child Care and the Growth of Love. New York: Penguin Books.

Softening the Defenses

  1. Reversing defendedness – importance explained 
  • Freud, S. (1901). Psychopathology of Everyday Life. New York: W. W. Norton & Company.
  • Freud, A. (1971).  Ego and the Mechanisms of Defense (The Writings of Anna Freud, Vol 2) International Universities Press.
  • Bowlby, J. (1980). Loss: Sadness & Depression. Attachment and Loss (vol. 3); (International psycho-analytical library no.109). London: Hogarth Press.
  • Ainsworth, M. 1978. Patterns of Attachment: A Psychological Study of the Strange Situation. Mahwah: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.


  1. Protecting, shielding, leading
  • Brazelton, T. B. and Greenspan, S. (2000). The Irreducible Needs Of Children: What Every Child Must Have To Grow, Learn, And Flourish. Boston: Dacapo Press, Perseus Books Group.
  • Paanksepp, J. (2012). The Archeology of Mind: neuroevolutionary origins of human emotions. New York: Norton.
  • Rogers, C. (1995). On Becoming a Person. New York: Houghton Mifflin.
  • Schore, A. (1994).  Affect Regulation and the Origin of the Self: The Neurobiology of Emotional Development.  Mahwah: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
  • Resnick, M. et al. (1997). Protecting Adolescents from Harm: findings from the National Longitudinal Study on Adolescent Health, Journal of the American Medical Association, September.
  • Winnicott, D. W. (1965). Maturational Processes and the Facilitating Environment: Studies in the Theory of Emotional Development. London: Hogarth Press.
  • DiCenso, A., Guyatt, G., Willan, A.  & Griffith, L. (2002). Intervention to reduce unintended pregnancies among adolescents: systematic review of randomized controlled trials. British Medical Journal, June, Vol 324.
  • Clowes, G. A. (2000). “Home-Educated Students Rack Up Honors.” School Reform News (July).
  • Loop, L., & Roskam, I. (2016). Do children behave better when parents’ emotion coaching practices are stimulated? A micro-trial study. Journal of Child and Family Studies, 25(7), 2223–2235. (“The results indicated that, compared to the control group, parents whose emotion coaching practices had been stimulated displayed higher positive affect and were more emotionally sensitive during free play. Positive behaviors persisted in frustration tasks; parents were more behaviorally and emotionally responsive towards their children.”)