Empowering Parents to Raise Empowered Children
Reducing Stress and Enhancing Self-Regulation, Fun & Joy at Home
A parent-centred training program to further strengthen parents' wellbeing to manage life’s challenges and stresses, while demonstrating to their children how to tackle life's difficult moments mindfully, calmly, with resilience.
By integrating approaches from research and real life, we have developed a program that supports the entire family, particularly those who are highly sensitive and/or neurodivergent.
When parents possess these skills to model for their child, it makes the child’s ability to learn these skills that much easier. They are equally important in helping parents navigate the complex dynamics of raising a child with additional needs, and by mastering these skills, parents can create a more harmonious and understanding environment that benefits both themselves and their children.
This parent-centred approach creates a strong foundation for parents’ health and well-being, enabling them to have the energy and bandwidth to mindfully support their children through life's challenges in a way that meets everyone's needs.
Why start by focusing on supporting the parents’ health, well-being, and stress management?
According to the U.S. Surgeon General, the well-being of parents and caregivers is directly linked to the well-being of their children. The stresses that parents and caregivers face today are being passed on to children in both direct and indirect ways, impacting families and communities across America.
Yet, in modern society, parenting is often portrayed as a less critical and less valued pursuit. Nothing could be further from the truth, with millions of parents in Britain also reporting struggling with their mental health.
Sixty-one per cent of respondents revealed concerns about their mental health, with those on lower incomes most likely to be affected, a poll for the charity Unicef UK found.
Parents reported feeling overwhelmed (49%), anxious (43%), unsupported (36%), and lonely (26%) all or a lot of the time in the past 12 months.
70% of parents with babies and young children said it was getting harder every year to be a parent in Britain, and 70% felt that being a parent was harder than it was for previous generations.
The Empowered Parent Pathway was developed through the research and personal experiences of its creator, Dr. Elizabeth Joy Shaffer, OTD, OTR/L, DisIFIP, when she realized that she could not help her children self-regulate, reduce stress, and mindfully handle life’s difficult moments unless she took the steps to do so herself.
As an expert in child development, sensory processing, and self-regulation, Elizabeth recognized that her expertise could not be fully harnessed when she was under high levels of stress and overwhelm, something which many parents experience in the world today.
Elizabeth's research aims to promote greater awareness of the need to support parents and to outline effective methods for doing so. It has been downloaded by top universities, health and educational sectors, as well as companies, worldwide.
As a mother of two children with their own distinctive ways of viewing the world, Dr. Shaffer understands the strengths and obstacles that come with such neurodiversity, bringing a unique perspective to the challenges parents face today.
With a career dedicated to training and educating parents, educators, and policymakers worldwide, Elizabeth's passion lies in supporting the physical, mental, and emotional development of children and adults, while empowering parents with insights and tools to help families thrive.
Restore
Build a Strong Foundation First
The path to empowerment begins by focusing inward. Parents learn to strengthen their physical, mental, and emotional well-being while gaining the knowledge, tools, and support needed to thrive.
By enhancing focus, restoring balance, and mindfully approaching difficult moments, parents build the capacity to respond with calm and clarity -creating opportunities for both themselves and their children to learn and grow.
When we prioritize health, well-being, and stress reduction, we unlock the brain and body’s ability to move beyond survival mode. Only then can we create meaningful, lasting change -for ourselves, our children, and our families.
Reconnect
Strengthening Connections
After strengthening their foundation of health and well-being, parents take the next step - exploring new ways to reconnect with themselves and those around them. This stage invites them to nurture both their inner child and the one they are raising, while redefining what it means to be a parent in alignment with their true values and desires.
By deepening connections with themselves, their children, and others - including teachers, family members, and their wider community - parents cultivate collective growth, understanding, and collaboration that supports everyone’s development.
Reinvent
Role Empowerment
Parenting often feels like juggling a thousand moving pieces. To make this easier, we introduce practical executive functioning strategies — simple systems that help you organize, plan, and manage daily responsibilities more effectively.
In this stage, you’ll learn how to bring clarity and calm to your routines by aligning your roles and responsibilities with your personal values and your family’s needs.
When parents feel organized and grounded, it creates space for more patience, presence, and connection. You’ll be better equipped to support your highly sensitive or neurodivergent child - and help them thrive amid the challenges of modern family life.
The Empowered Parent Pathway
The Empowered Parent Pathway starts with self-discovery exercises and tools designed to reduce stress, boost resilience, restore well-being, and establish healthier habits and routines to strengthen self-regulation within the family.
When parents possess these skills to model for their child, it makes the child’s ability to learn these skills that much easier. When parents are empowered, the seeds are planted in a way that supports and nurtures children to flourish.
Together, we can create a nurturing environment that fosters optimal development for every child and parent.
Why Work With Us?
Building Personal Resilience
Our framework emphasizes the importance of self-care and well-being.
Parents learn strategies for managing stress, regulating emotions, and cultivating a healthy mindset.
Parents become more resilient without compromising and by prioritizing their own health, parents can model these essential skills for their children.
Strengthening Connections
Our services foster a deeper understanding of the child’s self-regulation needs, especially regarding sensory processing challenges.
Co-regulation is more successful, and by learning to view behavior through this lens, parents can connect with their children more empathetically, leading to improved communication and minimised behavioral issues.
Practical Strategies for Home
Information is great, but without action, it becomes useless.
Parents will receive actionable tools and strategies to put learnings into action, tackle stressful moments more mindfully, and create new routines and habits to prevent or minimize stress-inducing moments.
We are open to all families seeking to understand better and support their children while also prioritizing their growth and well-being.
Together, we can create a nurturing environment that fosters optimal development for every child and parent
You Can't Give What You Don't Have
That’s why we start by focusing on you - the parent.
Before you can effectively support your child, you need to feel grounded, healthy, and replenished yourself.
Our program helps you restore your physical, mental, and emotional well-being, giving you the energy, clarity, and bandwidth to meet your child’s needs without losing sight of your own.
No matter where you are on your parenting journey, the tools, insights, and strategies you’ll gain - along with our guidance to help you put them into practice -will create a profound shift in your sense of balance and confidence.
You’ll build a stronger foundation to support your child’s unique needs while ensuring your own well-being is sustained along the way.