W.13.38

Title: Rewiring the Buttons. Hypnotic and narrative approaches that help parents parse the “parental paradox”
Presenters: Laurence Sugarman       
Venue: 
the main building of AGH University of Science and Technology - A0
A0 Akademii Górniczo-Hutniczej (al. Adama Mickiewicza 30, 30-059 Kraków) 
Room 234 / Sala 234
Time: 13.06.2024 12:30-14:00
Language: EN

Abstract:

I often consider the mindset of parenting as a twenty-year-long trance experience, directed by the child. Certainly there is a kind of psychobiological plasticity (trance) that dominates, hence, the “trance of parenting.” This parenting trance is unique in that the focus of change is not self-directed, but projected onto one’s child. That is the paradox within this trance of attachment. The evolutionarily drive to protect our offspring increasingly conflicts with the child’s needs for autonomy and experiential learning. The more we protect, the more we impair. In this presentation, we will illustrate hypnotic interventions that help parents resolve this paradox in both their minds and parenting behaviors. A primary theme is that the child’s developmental challenges are best construed as incentives for optimizing and directing the development of the parent. In short, the best measure of parenting is not the behavior of the child, but that of the parent.

Laurence Irwing Sugarman is a pediatrician, author, and research professor at the Rochester Institute of Technology.