Families Fuel Social Change and Shelter the Future

By

Stephanie Mines, Ph.D.

Copyright 3/12

Families are precious. God brings us together purposefully. Families are also complex networks. Ultimately they assure the continuity of humanity. The children in families are the essence and center of life. They are the source of joy and they are our spiritual teachers. Families assemble to protect, nourish and sustain children. This, I believe, is the spiritual background to all family therapy.

In every family there are struggles, disharmonies, disagreements, conflicts, losses, hardships and strains. Many of these are grueling and heart-breaking. But when we orient towards the wellbeing of the children and focus our attention on them, then even the most daunting, overwhelming and even tragic challenges find resolution. This is how children lead us. No matter how our children come to us they are our guides and their fate is our destiny.

Frequently conflicts in families are prolonged because no one wants to take the first step in a wise, compassionate direction in the interest of children. People often prefer to sermonize about what others should do or to point a blaming finger. Someone must set the standard and model a child centered paradigm and maintain it no matter what.  This is an ego-less, non-self-serving directive and it is always the way to resolve suffering. It is the essence of true parenting.

Learning From Children: The Child Centered Paradigm of Parenting

In order to parent by attuning to children we need to know how to orient in that direction. Unfortunately most of us did not receive this model as a standard and so we revert to old models even when we are acutely aware of their failings. Children's needs are overwhelming and surprise new parents, particularly when both parents have to earn a living to survive during this economic downturn. If one or both parents is a veteran returning from combat or neurodiverse the difficulty is magnified.

Child Centered Parenting demands meditative reflection, dialogue between two parents and even other family members when possible, research and the capacity to observe children to witness their point of view. In TARA Approach Family Clinics we provide a space for that centered, focused observation and give the children the space to display their inner worlds so that we can co-participate with them from their perspective. Then dialogue and reflection revisit and restate what our children are showing us. This must be followed by a period of re-integration and practice of the TARA Approach tools to reorganize so that we can enter a new dimension of family life.

The precious opportunity to focus on the leadership contained within our own family units is hard won these days. It is up to us to make this happen. If we don't we are in danger of tripping over our own messes, both personally and collectively. You can create TARA Approach Family Clinics in your area by contacting us at 1-800-493-6117 or Domproject@tara-approach.org. You can also learn TARA Approach tools using our materials such as our CD series on attunement, handbooks like OUR CHILDREN/OUR FUTURE, and the DREAMING CHILD: How Children Can Help Themselves Recover from Illness and Injury.

New materials for neurodiverse children and families are forthcoming and a sensory integration handbook is available as a precursor to books that will be released next year. You can order this handbook through our business office at the number and address listed above.

Enter the magical realm of using your own hands and your empathy infused intelligence to awaken a fluid stream of inspiration to guide yourself as a caregiver, parent or grandparent and all the children in your world. Contact us now to become part of our worldwide community of stewardship.

FEARLESS VISION ~ FEARLESS PATIENCE

By
Stephanie Mines, Ph.D.
Copyright 3/12 

 

Recent research shows that neurotransmitters circulate in our visual structures (like glutamate receptors in the lens of the eyes) just as they do in the brain. (See the January 10 and February 10 issues of Biochemical and Biophysical Communication). The capacity to be a visionary is a function of intelligence and evolution. It includes the capacity to actually see what is possible in the physical as well as the psychic sense. When I created the PUNAHELE SUMMIT, in March 2005, on the Big Island of Hawaii I had a vision of uniting physicians, nurses, midwives and environmental scientists as the resource team to steward the children of the future and protect them from the damages of industrialized birthing and unconscious parenting. In the seven year interval since PUNAHELE the concepts of that vision have been reiterated globally. The next level of the PUNAHELE vision is to create an actual physical center, like a clinic, that serves children and their families, particularly when those children have identified "special needs"such as sensory integration, learning challenges, autism and related outcries for help.

PUNAHELE is the Hawaiian word that means "Special One" and is a designation that identifies a precious and treasured child. I apply it to all children everywhere. Since the conference it is as if the heartbeat of that vision became the heartbeat of my work and my organization. Since I hosted that conference I have been unable to dull myself to the needs of children and families who seem to be begging me to focus on them.

I don't believe it is erroneous to conclude that in this seven year interval the cries of the children have gotten louder. The rising rates of autism, ADD, learning disorders, sensory processing struggles and related issues has accelerated worldwide. I see as well as hear the children telling us that we must listen, that we must give them what they need. A child stops crying when their needs are met. Our children are not stopping their outcries. They are accelerating them. Both the volume and the quantity are greater. Look around you! School shootings, epidemics of autism, pediatric obesity and diabetes, bullying. These are the reverberating outcries!

Cathy & Sophie Shorma

A visionary must have fearless patience as well as fearless vision. This has been my challenge. I see a clinic staffed by TARA Approach trained practitioners, particularly those who have immersed themselves in the pediatric aspect of this remarkable program. This includes the Occupational, Physical and Speech therapists who have been studying with me for years. A whole family paradigm will inform the clinic's orientation. The clinic will provide regular educational programs designed to empower parents to advocate for their children. Brain-to-brain communication will fuel healthy bonding and attachment alongside innovative problem solving interventions that support human potential from within.

Yes, we dare to dream big. We dare to be idealistic. We also dare to utilize our intelligent vision and fearless patience, and to be guided by the children, putting them first. I invite you to participate in this optimism with me, with the TARA Approach and our nonprofit organizational umbrella the Dom Project. You can do this by learning our holistic, integrated paradigm, by helping us build a network of awareness about brain-to-brain parenting, by sponsoring our programs, purchasing our materials, and by becoming a peaceful revolutionary for sustainable healthcare.

This year the TARA Approach will have its Seventh Self Care Teacher Certification Training on the Big Island in October and with it comes a renewal of the PUNAHELE vision of stewardship for the children of the future. If you would like to attend this training to become grounded as a TARA Approach representative, you can do it! There is time to prepare and meet the pre-requisites, even if you are just beginning! Necessity is the mother of invention! Contact Stephanie Mines directly and immediately to follow the path of your heart and to become a leader who is led by children.

Vision and Prenatal Life

The Eyes Are the Windows of the Brain

By

Stephanie Mines, Ph.D.

Copyright 1/12

Many of the premises of the TARA Approach are being validated by new research in neuroscience. Louis Cozolino has done an excellent job in collecting some of this data in his new book The Neuroscience of Human Relationships. Dr. Cozolino speaks about how relationships begin in the uterine environment as the baby evolves adept structures in response to perceptions of the people and world that penetrate within.

It is exciting to see how ideas once thought bizarre, outlandish and unproven are reshaped into cutting edge new discoveries that everyone echoes. I remember one student years ago who ridiculed my proclamations about connective tissue unwinding to become the boulevard of bioelectrical cellular memory that is ultimately stored in the amygdala as an implicit database. He said this was totally "out there." Now this is the popular theoretical basis of a Nobel prize winner's research (Eric Kandel) and the content of seminars with the renowned Bruce Lipton, conference presenter extraordinaire.   

Similarly I have frequently taught about how the baby in utero is able to see. Many, even today, remain incredulous about this. Recently in my research on sensory integration I have come across a stunning paper that is not at all well known but that proves this. Written for and delivered to the College of Optometrists in 1995 this document says:

"The child's visual history begins in the dark, warm, liquid environment of the uterus."

The article goes on to correlate the development of vision with brain development:

"There is a close analogy between the layers of the cortex and those of the retina. At sixteen weeks in utero the fetal vestibular system is operational and necessary for ocular movement and development."

The author, Dr. Albert Sutton, correlates the mother's ability to stimulate the baby in utero with the development of vision, adding:

"Vision is not in the eye; the eye is an instrument of vision. Vision is the product of the other neurological systems interacting with the eye. The foundation for these systems is laid down during the prenatal and first years of life when the neural pathways are formed between the eyes, the brain and the body."

Vision is a neural activity that evolves in relationship to our experience of threat. This understanding opens new possibilities for evaluating the causes of visual processing disorders and other vision problems. We can provide new avenues for correcting these challenges if we understand the intimate connection between vision, the brain, attachment and early threat.

The purpose of investigating the remarkable developmental intensity of prenatal life is not, as some have suggested, to increase the idea of victimization or to cast blame. On the contrary, by opening our awareness to the intimate experience that the baby has of the environment that shapes his or her brain, we open new therapeutic channels. Understanding the formative consciousness of the developing being allows us to further maximize human potential in ways that have not yet been tried.  

The role of vision as a window of the brain in autism and visual processing disorder and related conditions needs to be identified. Vision is a neurological response to epigenetics. That epigenetic environment is within our control to shape. It is an environment of human interaction and choice. We can maximize the opportunities for our children by refining that environment through our stimulating and welcoming relationship to our children prenatally and during the primal period. We can also de-industrialize birth to help prevent the escalation of the sensory disorder pandemic. When we look clearly into our baby's eyes at birth we open the windows of the brain.

Indigenous Intelligence

By

Stephanie Mines, Ph.D.

Copyright 12/11

  

Prenates, infants, young children and children with special needs have indigenous intelligence. We tend to relate to them as we do to most indigenous people as if they were primitive and had not yet achieved the adult intelligence that we consider superior.

Indigenous intelligence is sensory and implicit. This makes it pure and transparent. These qualities frequently get translated by the adult mind as unrefined, reckless, naïve and simpleminded. Adults often take a conciliatory approach to children and to children with special needs that can be blind sighted to the child's innate sensibility.

I believe we can and must transform how adults see children and children with special needs by awakening them to the wisdom of innate intelligence that is becoming endangered by sensory overload, poor nutrition, lack of exposure to the natural world and the deficit in appropriate neurological stimulation through eye to eye contact with individuals.

Our children's innate intelligence is endangered because we cannot advocate for it until we recognize it. This is within our control. We can wake ourselves up to what is right before our very eyes. The choice is ours. This is not because of what "they" are doing to us. It's like the emperor's new clothes. We can see what is really there or we can see what everyone is telling us is there. What do you choose?

Margaret Mead in Samoa

Parents and caregivers can change the environment of ignorance about who children really are by taking more of an anthropological stance. I have been reading Margaret Mead's autobiography, Blackberry Winter. I am struck by the unadulterated (the perfect word!) nature of her observations of the Samoan people. She attributes this to how little preparation she had from her renowned teachers Franz Boas and Ruth Benedict. They did not prepare her, she posited, because this would allow her to really see indigenous people for who they are. Free of all suppositions she discovered that "one must see what is before one's eyes as fresh and distinctive. If, for instance, you see a house as bigger or smaller, grander or meaner, more or less watertight than some other kind of house, you are cut off from discovering what this house is in the minds of those who live in it."

Imagine if even once we looked at our children without comparing them to other children or without knowing what children should or should not do or be? Do you have the courage to do this? It is within your power!

We can learn what our children are telling us through their expression, their behavior, their symptoms, their healthcare needs, their responses to others, by looking in their eyes, by their dietary choices, their words or their lack of words, their postural stances, and by observing them, as if for the first time, as they play and interact with others of all ages.

Our children are telling us how to save childhood from extinction through the wisdom of their untainted indigenous communiqués sent from the transmitters of their own bodies while we are looking at our cell phones. 

The TARA Approach to the Neurobiology of Relationship

Limbic Stimulation using Applied Touch and Right Brain Resonance


By 
Stephanie Mines, Ph.D.

Since its inception the TARA Approach has been keen on the power of authentic, attuned relationship for neurological reorganization. With new discoveries in neuroscience our premises are validated and invigorated as we clearly see the science that fortifies our premises. The TARA Approach emphasizes the critical importance of fully grasping the role of the neurobiology of relationship for all children, including children who are neurodiverse and struggling with sensory overload.

What we can now demonstrate as the result of our clinical trials is that the applied touch component of the TARA Approach, Jin Shin TARA, through its impact on the afferent-efferent process conducted by connective tissue, stimulates the neurochemistry that activates synaptogenesis and the creation of new neuronal connections. Repeated use of applied touch protocols combined with the empathic embrace of attunement awakens the limbic connections that initiate true behavioral and physiological change.

         

                 Pre Treatment:                                   During Treatment:                             Continued Treatment:

            Note hand clapping                                 Note quiet hands                                Hands remain quiet

The TARA Approach is the ONLY system that has specific interventions that can be broadly used incorporating both touch and language to arouse the most optimal neurobiology of relationship for development. These user friendly interventions are aimed at sensitive periods prenatally, immediately after birth and all future developmental thresholds. Parents, grand-parents, care-providers and therapists are equally capable of implementing these designs.  Dr. Mines' books and all her upcoming programs are aimed at conveying these interventions to everyone! 

The way we are with each other changes our brains. In fact, our brains are shaped by our relationships just as they are influenced by genetics. Relationship is communicated by touch, particularly to children whose plasticity and sensitivity are fully available due to their holistic sensory presence. When we integrate consciousness of how our interactions shape brain development with the way that we touch we are creating the perfect formula for the optimal stimulation of human potential.

My last blog on SEEING FROM THE CHILD'S PERSPECTIVE is the preface to this one on the neurobiology of relationship. When we enter the child's world to discover their experience, putting aside our assumptions and projections, we begin the wondrous journey of attunement. Authentic, unbiased attunement will always enhance a positive neurochemistry, especially when it enters the territory of neuronal consolidation, where the webs of memory intersect. The challenge for the busy parent or even the well informed care-taker or therapist is taking the clear, focused time to put aside their own thinking to truly observe and follow the child. When we follow the child we are always surprised! We don't learn what we already assumed. We learn something completely new. It is so refreshing!

A Child's Perspective

By
Stephanie Mines, Ph.D.

The TARA Approach presents an understanding of human development and sensory integration from the child's perspective. Learning to attune to children may be the most significant skill set you can acquire from our integrative paradigm. Actually this quality of attunement is more an art than a skill. It is a state of conscious awareness that you cultivate. It requires compassion and sensitivity to how neurology and development cooperate and compensate. It is a requirement for parents, teachers, therapists, PT's, OT's, physicians, pediatricians, pediatric nurses, pediatric dentists or anyone who serves the needs of children and families.

Attunement is not merely a feel good empathy. It is the neuroscience of human relationships. How we are with each other shapes our brains and therefore our nervous and immune systems. This is true of everyone but in terms of children and how we interact with them, this is the neuroscience of the future of humanity.

How Do You Learn to See from the Child's Perspective? No two children are alike. It is through attunement to the individual child and following their behavior and expression that we surrender our analysis and join with them in their somatic, deeply sensory world. Whatever symptomology they express (allergies, sensory disorders, illnesses, behavioral issues, etc.) reflects a whole family constellation. Only in whole family engagement can true resolution occur.The TARA Approach provides an avenue into the child's experience through play, dialogue and applied touch.   The child's sensory experience is respected just as it is. Dialogue, interaction and treatment that is initiated completely by the child enacts the underlying truth of the child's inner world. Applied touch interventions tailored specifically for the young and developing nervous system, reorganize responses that are compensations and restores innate allostasis (stress free balance). We have seen symptoms disappear before our very eyes like the day a boy assessed as "probably autistic" came out of his tantrum driven withdrawal, never to return to anything remotely diagnosable. Parents and practitioners who were observing watched in amazement!

The Crisis in Maturity: A Vicious Cycle

Adults tend not to easily see the child's perspective because of what I call the maturity crisis. This crisis is a global one and is the result of young children being forced to function in ways that are inappropriate for their development because their parents do not have the skills to answer their basic needs to be seen and nourished spiritually and emotionally. These children internalize their parents' inadequacies and respond by becoming, ironically, responsible for their parents. Then these children get older without fully enjoying or even experiencing childhood. When they grow up and start families of their own they are crippled in their own parenting skills. These are the parents suffering from the crisis in maturity.

To stop the vicious cycle of the maturity crisis the TARA Approach advocates for measures that empower children to be children and delivers parenting skills so that parents can appreciate the glories of mature, wise, developmentally savvy parenthood. Our Family Clinic structure is an excellent vehicle for this learning. There are many avenues to develop the art of seeing from the child's perspective. Seeing from the child's perspective is a joyous exploration. In finding a way to see children as who they are we simultaneously rediscover the child within each of us who is ready to play and dance in relationship with others and with nature.

Join me in the fluid, divine choreography of learning to see from a child's perspective. Discover for yourself the exquisitely enigmatic interface between touch, communication and human development.

REDEFINING PARENTHOOD IN THE AGE OF AUTISM:

Reflections generated by reading Eustacia Cutler's book,
A THORN IN MY POCKET ~ Temple Grandin's Mother Tells the Family Story

By Stephanie Mines, Ph.D.
Copyright 9/11

Eustacia & Temple

Temple Grandin's mother, Eustacia Cutler, has done us a  
great service by writing the candid story of her experience  
raising Temple. In this somewhat rambling but nevertheless  
cogent autobiography, Mrs. Cutler tells it like it is! Her  
reporting is simultaneously an education and a validation  
for all those families that rally to the potential of their

neurodiverse child. 

While unflinchingly exposing her own vulnerability Temple 
Grandin's mother gives us an intimate glimpse into the family drama that tellingly 
begins with her eldest daughter's birth in a hospital bent on keeping mother and baby 
apart. Without drawing conclusions from this foundational scenario, Mrs.Cutler makes 
it clear that she was disempowered by the medical process early on. The dynamics 
between Temple's mother and father are a dominant theme in the life drama that unfolds. 
This is not only a struggle between male and female. It is a struggle between the view of 
neurodiversity as illness, as illness, embarrassment and insanity and the view of

neurodiversity as another form of intelligence.

"The sensory scrambling facing my child is reinforced by the emotional
scrambling facing her parents." ~ Eustacia Cutler (Temple Grandin's Mother) 

In many ways A Thorn in My Pocket is pure historical 
journalism, albeit from a personal point of view. Through the 
prism of Eustacia's effort to understand her daughter and 
herself we learn about the evolution of medical attitudes 
towards autism and how they have frequently stifled parental 
wisdom. We learn about the horrendous impact of Bruno 
Bettelheim, the institutions that threatened (and still threaten) 
brilliant children like Temple, and how educational systems 

were (and still are) unprepared to address neurodiversity. 

What repeats itself over and over, despite the curvatures of
Mrs. Cutler's story, is her indomitable and unique intelligence 
that partners naturally with her commitment to her daughter's
vibrant and obvious potential. Temple Grandin's mother found mentors for her 
daughter in the human and animal realms. She relentlessly thought for herself 
despite feeling intimidated by medical authorities. It is her courage and individuality 
that impresses me and urges me to recommend this book to all parents and especially
to parents of children with special needs. 

"Autism is an exaggeration of what lies in us all." ~ Eustacia Cutler

Eustacia Cutler

Eustacia Cutler embodies the driving power of attunement and advocacy
that are the primary responsibilities of all parents. She is the well
boundaried, protective and observant parent who sees not what their 
child can do for them but what they can do for their child. In addition,
the book contains practical suggestions for how to discipline and direct 
your child towards learning and appropriate social engagement. These 
suggestions apply across the board. 

Thank you Mrs. Cutler! May your model thrive and multiply!