Ann is mother to an adult daughter and a young granddaughter and lives in Adelaide.

 

In 1992, Ann began taking the “Listening to Children” approach to parents and professionals. In 2003, she founded Community Transformations Inc, a not-for-profit organisation of which she is director, with the goal of working full-time to reach more people with the approach - by then, called “Parenting by Connection.

 

The approach has been developed by Patty Wipfler of Hand in Hand over more than 40 years and is consistent with the most leading-edge neuroscience and attachment research. Parenting by Connection does not use rewards, punishments, ‘consequences’, bribery or control, time-outs, endless reasoning, cajoling, or giving in to unreasonable requests or behaviour in order to get peace. The approach (the thinking) and the tools firstly, do not risk compromising the most precious relationships we ever have and, secondly, are congruent with each other. Parenting by Connection helps parents to build emotional understanding – of children’s emotions and their own. The programs teach six simple, but profound, tools that empower parents to ensure that their natural love for, and heart-felt intentions toward, their children are a powerful force in their children’s lives.

 

Ann is a Certified Parenting by Connection Instructor and Trainer and, also, the Australian Co-ordinator of, and reference person for, Parenting by Connection Instructors trained by her organisation and by Hand in Hand.

 

Ann has delivered many hundreds of Parenting by Connection events – courses, consultations, talks, workshops, retreats, play events and leadership training and leadership support to parents, as well as professional development trainings - that have transformed the lives of thousands of parents and children. The program has been delivered in various sectors in the community.

 

Ann has many years of experience supporting parents in regard to a wide range of universal parenting issues, such as helping young children to sleep, sibling solutions, overcoming aggression and building co-operation, picky eating, whingeing, healing children’s fears, tantrums, and many more. One area of working with parents that is most rewarding to Ann, is teaching parents the Setting Limits Listening tool. This tool empowers parents to set limits in a loving way that not only frees up that part of the child’s mind that enables them to flex and co-operate, but also strengthens the parent-child relationship.

 

Her organisation, Community Transformations, is partnered with Hand in Hand in bringing indispensible resources to a grossly under-resourced job. Parenting is the most important job in society and the foundation of society, yet treated like a hobby – optional and not requiring great mastery. The mistreatment of parents in society is mostly invisible and the reason parents struggle. A parent in one of Ann’s courses a few years ago, who had a light bulb moment about the potential for change when parents are well supported, stopped her with a question, asking “Parenting by Connection is a new movement of parents, isn’t it?”

 

Certainly, Parenting by Connection is evolving in the way the parent described so insightfully. In the United States of America, Australia, Switzerland, Israel, England, Pakistan, Brazil, Romania and Hungary parents (and professionals) taking leadership of one kind or another in the approach, are building communities of parents who are using and developing their Parenting by Connection tools, connections and other resources.

 

And, parents in other parts of the world, such as China, South Africa, and the Middle East have learnt about Parenting by Connection. Hand in Hand also reaches underserved communities: for example, African-American families in need in Oakland, California, USA; homeless families in Boston, Massachusetts, USA; Indigenous Indians in Bellingham, Washington, USA; and Community Transformations has reached many economically disadvantaged families in Adelaide, South Australia.

 

As the Parenting by Connection community develops and evolves, the power of the approach to touch and to transform families and communities grows. To date, Parenting by Connection resources have reached over one million parents worldwide and, every year, 325,000 parents turn to Parenting by Connection tools, information and support.

 

Contact:  ann@parentingbyconnection.org.au

Website: parentingbyconnection.org.au