How To Have Peace When Your Kids Are in Chaos Is for adoptive/foster parents as well as parents of kiddos with neurodiversity.
How To Have Peace When Your Kids Are In Chaos is for parents of kiddos with trauma histories/neurodiversity who want to have more peace in their homes.
Understanding our kiddos' behaviors can be pretty frustrating and isolating.
Whether you're a foster/adoptive parent, counselor, teacher, or raising neurodivergent children, it's never easy to feel like you can't help a child regulate (behave).
Do you ever wonder if it has to be this hard?
I felt as if I would never have peace in my home until I applied what I'm sharing in this course.
How To Have Peace When Your Kids Are In Chaos is parenting mojo boost designed to help you - make sense of and peace with your past, reframe your beliefs (about parenting), learn how trauma affects your kiddos, why traditional parenting doesn't work and what does work. As you learn and implement some new parenting tools you'll have more peace in your parenting and your home.
If you are a parent struggling with a trauma history yourself, you don't want to miss this course.
If you are triggered by your kiddos behaviors, this is for you!
Are you an adoptive or foster parent?
Are you raising kiddos with a trauma history or neurodiversity (or both)?
Are your kiddos in survival mode?
Do you feel stuck in reactionary mode instead of proactively parenting?
Do you feel as if your home is constantly in chaos?
I'm a parent, just like you. I am the mother of seven, four through adoption. When I adopted, I had no clue how to parent my newbies. Traditional parenting had worked with my three bios. It didn't work with my newbies. Everything I tried seemed to backfire. I needed answers and fast!
I naively thought that because I had early childhood trauma, I was equipped to handle kiddos who had experienced the same. That’s like driving on an interstate and taking credit for building it. As my stepfather, Bud used to say, “That’s hogwash.”.
When my husband and I adopted a sibling group of four from Poland, all of them came with open emotional wounds. I can’t share their story. Their story belongs to them. Suffice it to say, their triggers and my triggers met head-on and resulted in chaos.
I did the logical thing. I bought books. I researched. I read books to my husband at night when he was trying to fall asleep, “Listen to this,” I would say. “This is why he is doing this.”
I thought it was all about the behavior. Maybe you think that too. Maybe you, like me, think that if you learn the science, you can figure out the why behind the behavior. I thought I could fix the behaviors and the chaos would be gone.
It didn’t work. I was so busy trying to fix my kids that I didn’t realize the biggest part of the chaos was me. It’s not that my kids were acting or reacting properly. They struggled with regulation because of their past experience. It still hurts to say this, the true common denominator in the cycle of chaos was me. It was my reactions, my triggers being activated. The cycle of behaviors and my reactions made me ashamed.
Something had to give, and it had to be me. I couldn’t parent from a base of shame. My past couldn’t parent. As Dr. Karyn Purvis said, “You can’t take your child somewhere you haven’t gone yourself.” I had to go first. I had to find hope and healing before I could lead my kiddos there.
I’m not saying to throw out the books. They have their place. Many good people have done research that we need to digest and apply. I didn’t throw away the books, I changed my approach.
It didn’t work. I was so busy trying to fix my kids that I didn’t realize the biggest part of the chaos was me. It’s not that my kids were acting or reacting properly. They struggled with regulation because of their past experience. It still hurts to say this. The true common denominator in the cycle of chaos was me. It was my reactions, my triggers being activated. The cycle of behaviors and my reactions made me ashamed.
Something had to give, and it had to be me. I couldn’t parent from a base of shame. My past couldn’t parent. As Dr. Karyn Purvis said, “You can’t take your child somewhere you haven’t gone yourself.” I had to go first. I had to find hope and healing before leading my kiddos there.
I’m not saying to throw out the books. They have their place. Many good people have done research that we need to digest and apply. I didn’t throw away the books; I changed my approach.
How To Have Peace When Your Kids Are In Chaos will catapult you forward in your parenting. I share what I learned from countless hours of training, and research. application, counseling other families, so you don't have to make the same mistakes I did!
What's Inside the Course?
1. The Origins of Adoption.
2. Myths and Misconceptions in Adoption/Foster Care.
3. How Your Past Affects Your Parenting.
4. The Effects of Trauma on Your Child.
5. Why Traditional Parenting Doesn't Work.
6. What Does Work.
7. The Missional and Spiritual Aspects of Adoption/Foster Care.
You'll be provided PDFs for assignments and reflection.
"Kathleen is an endless source of information when it comes to foster/adoption situations, triumphs, and struggles. Her genuine, heart-felt desire for this purpose is something I admire. Trauma, which is prominent in this field, is not an easy thing to talk about but Kathleen is inviting, nurturing, and attentive to those she’s trying to help. She is the first person I go to when having any questions on how to approach certain situations that a child from a hard place in my life may be going through. Thankful God has placed such a knowledgeable, driven mentor like her in my life." -Thankful God has placed such a knowledgeable, driven mentor like her in my life."
- Jessica McHugh, Kinship foster parent
“Kathleen’s insight — both from her firsthand experience as an adoptive mother and from her education as an Empowered to Connect trainer — is something I wish I’d had when we began our own journey as foster parents. She is absolutely the first resource I would recommend to anyone who is considering foster care or adoption.” - Kristin Peters, Adoptive/Foster Parent
Your Instructor
Hi, I’m Kathleen, and I want to help you become a trauma-informed parent!
I’m the mother of seven, four through adoption, former National Parent of the Year, author, teacher, and speaker. But more important than any of those things, I’m a parent just like you. I know what it’s like to raise kiddos who have experienced trauma and/or have a Capital Letter syndrome. I used to feel as if I was the only one struggling and because I felt that way, I isolated myself. I don’t want you to feel alone in your parenting journey.
Kathleen is an author, speaker, mother of 7 - four through adoption. Kathleen has written How to Have Peace When Your Kids Are In Chaos . Grab your free parenting guide here. Kathleen is an author, teacher, speaker, podcaster you can find her here - https://traumainformedparenting.com/