The Nurturing Parent Curriculum
Nurturing parenting is a curriculum created to assist with creating an environment for both children and parents that is conducive to safety, structure, communication, and security for all involved.
During the stages of addiction, children often experience insufficient care and lack of attention from their parents. This lack of emotional care and attachment can greatly hinder a child’s emotional development. Often times, even after a parent has overcome their substance abuse, it can be hard for them to mend these broken relationships. This nurturing parenting program adapts specifically for parents who are or have struggled with addiction to help them build and grow a bonding relationship with their children or child.
It can be hard for parents to know exactly how to raise a child. We aren’t taught these things in school, but rather it is something that we must instinctively know through how our parents raised us or learning through experience. Fortunately, the right knowledge is key.
Understanding how children perceive the world and the right methods of nurturing can save a parent a lot of time, stress, and effort. Thankfully there are a variety of resources out there, including our family therapy program, talking about exactly that. Teaching styles change from generation to generation, and through these years we have begun to find out which methods are more effective than others. By teaching these particular methods to the parents of our treatment program, they can begin to not only build stronger relationships with their children but nurture them in healthier and highly effective ways. These teaching techniques are one of the key aspects of this nurturing curriculum.
The Process
Children’s actions are projections of their environment. This can be dangerous for parents struggling with substance abuse, especially because substance abuse often accompanied by additional deviant behavior.
For this reason, it is crucial for parents to abstain from these behaviors and a treatment program is the best way to do this. Additionally, the nurturing curriculum taught in the treatment program helps teach parents how to effectively repair their relationships as well as the proper ways to care for them.
This Nurturing Parenting process guides parents through various weekly exercises, involving both experiential and didactic activities. Through these activities, group members will engage and express themselves with other group members through art, writing, and sharing of personal examples/life experiences. These various activities allow each parent to compare and relate their parenting experiences with other members with similar circumstances.
Parents complete the program without their children present. Once we have provided the knowledge and awareness to the parents, the hope is that they can apply their newfound ability for compassion and understanding in their life outside of treatment.
The Goal
Substance use and mental health issues can be pervasive and affect the entire family unit. Throughout the program, clients are able to gain deeper clarity into the negative ways in which their substance use/mental health issues have decreased their ability to nurture. With each exercise and week completed during the program, clients start to build upon their repertoire of behaviors and start to implement them in their home life as a way to improve their relationship(s).
While the intent of this curriculum is for parents, it can also be beneficial for partners or family members of parents who are struggling with substance use/mental health issues. This may allow for a newfound understanding of their reasoning behind why they exhibit certain behaviors and helpful tips for improving the relationship between the parent and child/children.
We tend to forget how far addiction reaches. When one person’s struggles, it not only affects them but everyone around them. The ones affected the most are the ones most vulnerable: the children. It is important to not only educate parents on the relationship between addiction and child neglect but also teaching the proper ways to nurture and grow these relationships. The goal of these teachings and activities is to be both interactive and engaging in an effort to promote long term growth rather than short term gain.
