Harville Hendrix has illuminated the paths to healthy, loving relationships in his New York Times bestsellers Getting the Love You Want and Keeping the Love You Find. Now, with his coauthor and wife, Helen Hunt, he brings us to a new understanding of the most profound love of all — by helping parents nurture their own development as they encourage emotional wholeness in their children.

This groundbreaking book offers a unique opportunity for personal transformation: by resolving issues that originated in our own childhood, we can achieve a conscious, and thus healthier, relationship with our children, regardless of their age. Harville Hendrix and Helen Hunt help us explore:

• The Imago — the fantasy partner that our unconscious mind constructs from those we loved as a child, a that has guided our search for a life partner

• Maximizer and Minimizer parents — the defensive styles that internally shape what we say and how interact with our children

• A Parenting Process that helps to end the "cycle of wounding" — the handing-down of wounding we received as children — as we raise our own children

• Safety, Support, and Structure — how to give children what they really need from us

• Modeling Adulthood — using our healed sense of self as a model for our children.

With other practical, insightful approaches that can powerfully shape the parent-child bond, Giving the Love that Heals gives us the keys to helping our children to become healthy, responsible, and caring people.

Jerry M. Lewis, M.D.senior research psychiatrist, Timberlawn Research Foundation (Dallas)Harville Hendrix and his wife, Helen Hunt, have cowritten a remarkable new book on parenting....In this book the authors suggest that early experiences with parents may lead to unresolved issues that later surface in one's own parenting....The book is filled with arresting ideas and practical guidelines. It will be a wonderful value to many readers, and I recommend it to all parents.

Don Browning

The Divinity School, The University of Chicago

Giving The Love That Heals exposes the jugular vein feeding disrupted families — our tendency to replay our childhood relations with our parents with both our children and spouse.

BooklistA remarkable tool for improving parent-child relationships.

Library JournalNot the typical child-rearing facts book....[A] thought-provoking work.

Bestselling author Harville Hendrix and his wife, Helen Hunt, use their understanding of unconscious desires and needs to help parents encourage emotional wholeness in their children--and nurture their own development.

Harville Hendrix has illuminated the paths to healthy, loving relationships in his New York Times bestsellers Getting the Love You Want and Keeping the Love You Find. Now, with his coauthor and wife, Helen Hunt, he brings us to a new understanding of the most profound love of all — by helping parents nurture their own development as they encourage emotional wholeness in their children.

This groundbreaking book offers a unique opportunity for personal transformation: by resolving issues that originated in our own childhood, we can achieve a conscious, and thus healthier, relationship with our children, regardless of their age. Harville Hendrix and Helen Hunt help us explore:

• The Imago — the fantasy partner that our unconscious mind constructs from those we loved as a child, a that has guided our search for a life partner
• Maximizer and Minimizer parents — the defensive styles that internally shape what we say and how interact with our children
• A Parenting Process that helps to end the "cycle of wounding" — the handing-down of wounding we received as children — as we raise our own children
• Safety, Support, and Structure — how to give children what they really need from us
• Modeling Adulthood — using our healed sense of self as a model for our children.

With other practical, insightful approaches that can powerfully shape the parent-child bond, Giving the Love that Heals gives us the keys to helping our children to become healthy, responsible, and caring people.

INTRODUCTION

I - Connection

1 A World of Connections

2 The Imago Family

II - Rupture of Connection

3 The Unconscious Parent

4 The Child as Teacher

III - Restoration of Connection

5 Intentional Dialogue

6 The Conscious Parent

7 Growing Yourself Up

IV - Discover Your Child

The Conscious Parent's Pledge

An Overview

8 The Stage of Attachment

9 The Stage of Exploration

10 The Stage of Identity

11 The Stage of Competence

12 The Stage of Concern

13 The Stage of Intimacy

V - Creation of a New Legacy

14 The Possibilities for a Conscious Future

VI - Tools for Conscious Parenting

15 Changing Knowledge into Action

NOTES

BIBLIOGRAPHY

INDEX