Posted on Wednesday, February 10th, 2010
Watch as Dr. Karyn Purvis explains the importance of parents being willing to look at their own histories as well as their expectations as they seek to connect with their children.
Posted on Thursday, February 4th, 2010
Watch as Dr. Karyn Purvis talks about the need for parents to focus on every aspect of their child’s wellbeing in order to help them heal and overcome their challenges.
Posted on Tuesday, January 12th, 2010
Watch The Connecting Link: What Parents Need to Bring Healing to Their Children, delivered at the 2009 Tapestry Adoption & Foster Care Conference.
Posted on Monday, November 23rd, 2009
All children need to know that they can use their voice to effectively communicate their needs and navigate relationships. This is particularly important for adopted, foster and orphan children in order to help them develop trust and secure attachments.
In this brief video Dr. Purvis offers helpful insight about the importance of giving voice to children as well as some practical ways parents and caregivers can go about doing this.
Posted on Wednesday, November 11th, 2009
We were made to connect – with each other, with creation and with our Creator. As a result, one of the greatest gifts that parents can give to their children is a strong and lasting sense of connection. In The Connecting Link: What Parents Need to Bring Healing to Their Children, delivered at the 2009 Tapestry Adoption & Foster Care Conference, Dr. Purvis focuses on this important topic.
In this talk, Dr. Purvis provides parents with a better understanding of why children from hard places use distancing strategies, and how they can help their children replace those strategies by giving them voice, empowering them to make choices and helping them rediscover their inherent preciousness. In addition, Dr. Purvis challenges parents to better understand what they bring to the relationship, and to look at their own past hurts and loss with honesty and forgiveness.
Posted on Thursday, September 17th, 2009
In our ongoing series, Common Questions & Concerns, we address the challenges that parents often face as they help their children transition to their “new world,” learn to trust and development secure attachment:
Question: We returned home with our child (adopted internationally) about 3 weeks ago. We are finding the adjustment much more difficult than we expected. For example, she is nearly 10 months old and is still not sleeping through the night. In addition, she cries what seems like all the time and is very irritable and unhappy in general. Frankly, it is making it very difficult for us to feel bonded with her and we are growing frustrated and tired. What are we doing wrong and what should we consider in order to get things back to normal?
Posted on Friday, August 28th, 2009
Finding the Real Child, from the Spring 2006 issue of The TCU Magazine, details the remarkable story of Kristen. This story of hope illustrates well the healing power of parent/child connections. The article also offers a brief history of TCU’s Institute of Child Development, and provides an overview of the Institute’s work to help children and parents.
Posted on Sunday, August 2nd, 2009
“Children from Hard Places.” This is the phrase used by Dr. Purvis and others to describe children that have experienced some type of abuse, neglect or trauma during their lives (including prenatal exposure to substances or high levels stress, difficult labor or birth before or medical trauma). Obviously, this phrase applies to most children who were adopted or spent time in foster care.
audio recording of this presentation (mp3 file)
Posted on Saturday, August 1st, 2009
Listen to Dr. Purvis’ 2007 interview on Think (KERA) about her book, The Connected Child, and the interventions and practical approaches that have helped countless parents create healthy and healing connections with their children.
Posted on Saturday, July 18th, 2009
An Overview of Common Challenges Faced by Adopted & Foster Children by Dr. Karyn Purvis, presented at the 2008 Tapestry Adoption & Foster Care Conference.