Weekend Circling Intensives at the Circling Institute

 

The Circling Institute in Berkeley
Image: circlinginstitute.com

A life coach and relationship counselor based in Berkeley, California, Korenna Barto Reynard has worked as a core faculty member of The Circling Institute since 2016. In this position, Korenna Barto Reynard designs and leads workshops focused on Circling, a dynamic relationship practice that encourages authenticity and can create deep, meaningful connections.

To facilitate personal growth and improve intimate relationships, the Circling Institute offers consciousness-shifting weekend intensives that help participants cultivate authenticity, humanity, and happiness. When both partners feel seen and heard, relationships tend to flourish. Through group work and individual coaching by a team of expert facilitators, participants learn real-life skills such as how to identify emotions and how to express needs to their partners in a clear, specific way. Additionally, they learn how vulnerability and honesty can reduce tension in relationships, as well as deepen connection and understanding.

For more information about Circling or for dates and venues of the Circling Institute’s weekend intensives, visit www.circlinginstitute.com.

Benefits of Attachment Parenting

 

Attachment Parenting International
Image: attachmentparenting.org

A core faculty member with The Circling Institute in Berkeley, California, Korenna Barto Reynard previously spent four years as a trainer, educator, and group leader with Attachment Parenting International. There, Korenna Barto Reynard led parent support groups and educational courses focused on attachment parenting practices.

Attachment parenting, which refers to the practice of responding to a baby’s needs and maintaining continuous bodily closeness, brings numerous physical and psychological benefits. First, close physical contact such as baby-wearing and frequent holding encourages bonding between parent and child. When baby’s needs are met quickly, he or she is often more relaxed and peaceful, crying less and spending more time in the “quiet alert” state. It is in this state that babies are most receptive to interacting with others and learning from their environment. According to research, because attachment parenting encourages emotional regulation and secure connection in infancy, children who are parented in this way become more confident and independent later in life.

Attachment Parenting Feeding Principles

Korenna Barto Reynard

A parenting and personal growth expert, Korenna Barto Reynard previously served with Attachment Parenting International (API) beginning in 2011. During her tenure with API, Korenna Barto Reynard served as the organization’s representative and trained facilitators to educate parents on API’s eight parenting principles.

The Attachment Parenting Institute includes loving feeding methods as one of its core principles. According to API, children get a large part of their emotional as well as their nutritional needs met during feeding times. For this reason, it’s important that parents view meals as an opportunity to deepen their connection with their child.

Young infants bond with their mothers through breastfeeding. This same connection can be developed through bottle feeding that mimics the closeness of breastfeeding. API recommends maintaining eye contact with the infant during feeding and providing food when the baby displays hunger rather than relying on a schedule.

As the child is weaned from the breast or bottle, parents can ease the transition to solid foods by giving the child small meals throughout the day, according to his or her hunger signals, thereby modeling healthy eating habits.

Eight Principles of Attachment Parenting

 

Attachment Parenting
Image: webmd.com

Korenna Barto Reynard works with individuals and families as a life coach and counselor in Northern California. In addition to her work at first Kiss Through First Kid, Korenna Barto Reynard has also been a trainer, parent educator, and small-group leader for Attachment Parenting International.

Attachment parenting holds that a strong and nurturing parent-child connection is the best way of raising secure, well-adjusted children with a capacity for empathy. In order to help build these connections, Attachment Parenting International offers eight core parenting principles. They are:

1. Prepare positively for pregnancy, childbirth, and parenthood. This involves gathering as much information as possible about all stages of the process, so that one has the knowledge to respond to situations as they arise.
2. Feed with respect and love. Ideally, this means breastfeeding infants and offering healthy food to older children according to their hunger cues. Doing so empowers children to eat when they are hungry and stop when full.
3. Respond to children with sensitivity and understanding. Attachment parenting holds that all behaviors are expressions of needs. If parents respond with empathy, children learn to self-regulate.
4. Engage in nurturing touch. Skin-to-skin contact is essential for the healthy development of children. This continues from baby-wearing and bathing in the first months to hugs, back rubs, and cuddling for older children.
5. Participate in parenting as a 24-hour commitment. Attachment parenting often encourages co-sleeping so that parents can efficiently meet the physical and emotional needs of young children through the night.
6. Provide loving and consistent care. Parental care is ideal at all times, but a regular alternate caregiver who has bonded with the child can be an appropriate fallback.
7. Use positive discipline always. Loving and respectful dealing with misbehavior allows a child to develop his or her own sense of right and wrong, as well as an understanding of others.
8. Aim to balance personal and family life. Attachment parenting believes that parents are most effective when they are physically and emotionally healthy, and when their expectations of themselves are realistic.