Welcome.

What if we acknowledged our deep human need for connection by centering, from the very beginning, webs of meaningful relationships?

We need each other in this thing called life. We grow and flourish when we have intergenerational, interreligious, interracial, intercultural partnerships; when our connections are many and diverse, when our perspectives are enlarged by one another’s life experience. This more communal approach is nothing new, though it certainly hasn’t been the dominant paradigm in the United States for a very long time. Recognizing our interdependence and mutual influence, especially in the helping professions—those who are parents of young children, teachers, healthcare providers, and leaders too—we have a responsibility to further a relational approach.

By cultivating moment-to-moment awareness and presence of body, mind, and spirit in whatever context we are in, we have the potential to transform our everyday experiences and relationships. Approaching this work as both a discipline (or practice) and as a way of being, we can grow most fully into our meaning and purpose. When we continually tap into our embodied wisdom in this way, we can learn better, we can listen better, we can cultivate trust better, and we can be better, whether that is as a teacher, parent, partner, healthcare provider, or leader. Ultimately, we can do relationship better.

Centering relationship means being curious, asking open-ended questions, and listening deeply. It means building trust, engaging others with care and compassion, and allowing whatever is most true for someone to emerge in that moment. With emotional intelligence we can manage difficult feelings, conversations, and conflict and cultivate more connectedness as a result. 

Centering relationship means bringing greater and greater awareness to our “stuff,” the stories, the norms, and the assumptions that color the way we perceive the world and other people. By reflecting on and understanding our selves better—knowing our values and strengths, our biases and weaknesses—we can develop more empathy for the experience of others, and we can engage our relationships with deeper understanding, clearer communication, and more meaningful connection. When we are able to integrate the social and cultural into our learning through this reflection process, we can increase the growth potential for both ourselves and those with whom we are working or otherwise being in relationship, as well as the larger structures (which can be either empowering or oppressive, healing or harming) within which we operate.

My hope is this site will grow to include practices, resources, and research supporting this work— specifically relational parenting, teaching, caregiving, research, and leadership—as well as ongoing exploration of these existential questions by way of writing, reflection, and dialogue with others. It is a slow work in progress.

Thank you for being here.