How to help your self-critical child
If it were easy to help your self-critical child become confident and gentler with themselves, you'd have already done it.
It’s deeply troubling to watch your child who is too hard on themselves, or who copies their peers because they’re not self-confident enough to be themselves—while often not even noticing their own gifts.
for parents of children of all ages— preschool through adult
Watch Me First...
this book is for you ...
If your child:
- Criticizes themselves, their creations, or other people
- Has negative self talk or says "I hate myself"
- Becomes easily anxious
- Becomes easily discouraged when trying new activities
- Feels reluctant to try new activities
- People-pleases, or copies their peers rather than acting on their own desires or gifts
take action
Freeing Your Child From Self-Criticism and Perfectionism provides you with practices you can start using now, to help your children of any age begin transforming their self-criticism into self-confidence.
This book identifies some of the insidious parenting habits that perpetuate the cycle of self-criticism from generation to generation. It helps you gain insight to how and why it’s so hard to change, and offers you practices that begin to turn your child’s self-criticism (and your own) around.
Paperback or Digital pdf: 80 pages
Language: English
Product Dimensions: 6 X 9”
ISBN Paperback: 978-1-7753453-0-5
ISBN Digital: 978-1-7753453-1-2
"A must-read for all parents! Colleen powerfully yet gently guides us as parents to become role models for our children by learning to observe and listen to the wisdom of our bodies and feelings. Rather than trying to be the "perfect" parent and do the “right” thing as guided by our heads, she shows us how to lead our children by tuning in to our hearts. Profoundly helpful for anyone struggling with a sensitive or self-critical child."
—Josea Tamira Crossley, Craniosacral & Somatic Therapist
“Colleen has tackled some very important issues in a kind, supportive way. This book provides practical tools that parents, caregivers and teachers can use to understand themselves better. Rather than focusing on controlling themselves and their children, they learn to be gentle with themselves.”
—Florence, homeschooling Mom of 2 teenagers
“I truly enjoyed reading your book. It…adds fresh insight into the next phase of my own parenting journey. 'Families carry generational traits and until they’re shifted, the cycle continues.' This book will benefit those who wish to break these cycles, including parents and grandparents/other caregivers who understand the importance of raising mentally healthy children.”
—Pamela Sylvan, Mom and Mojo Empowerment Mentor
Chapter Highlights:
- The social and cultural factors that create perfectionism and make it difficult to know what to change.
- The hallmarks of perfectionism and the beliefs that perpetuate perfectionism.
- A model for understanding how and why your tendency to being self-critical will always show up in your child, until you gain some insight to where to make changes.
- How being disconnected from your feelings relates to developing perfectionistic habits.
- How you can know when helping your child is truly helpful for them, and when it’s crossing a boundary and undermining their confidence and spontaneity?
- The things we all say in everyday llfe that are considered “normal” or "good parenting", that slowly build our children’s Inner Critic and lead them to be harshly critical of themselves.
- How you determine whether requiring obedience serves your child well in their long-term development of self-mastery and resilience, or whether it cultivates feelings of powerlessness and a tendency toward victimhood.
- The two common behavioural patterns that are huge barriers to being able to use these practices to change your parenting and free yourself and your child from self-criticism.
about the author
Colleen Adrian, MN, is a professional writer, speaker, and mentor who specializes in helping parents learn practices to transform their children’s self-criticism into self-confidence.
She’s passionate about discovering practices for supporting children to have the courage to be themselves and express their unique gifts rather than conforming to social pressures. She researches and synthesizes material from various disciplines including psychology, neurophysiology, spirituality, trauma literature1, and the 8 shields model2, to create fresh new perspectives. She provides one-on-one mentoring for parents and shares free parenting tips on her blog.
Paperback or Digital pdf: 80 pages
Language: English
Product Dimensions: 6 X 9”
ISBN Paperback: 978-1-7753453-0-5
ISBN Digital: 978-1-7753453-1-2
1Trauma literature includes the work of Dr. Peter Levine (see https://traumahealing.org); Dr. Stephen Porges (See http://stephenporges.com/); Dr. Diane Poole Heller (https://dianepooleheller.com).
2A global movement to create nature connection, community and cultural repair (http://8shields.org).
