The Story Behind The Story
You Are My Home: Stories of Attunement — A Children's Book About Connection
You Are My Home: Stories of Attunement is a children's book — a collection of stories written for parents to read with their children. It is designed to cue our most natural attachment instincts and build a foundation of connection that families thrive on. Tender, true, and sometimes fun, the stories show the small ways we attune to one another, miss each other, find our way back, and become someone's safe place - their home. The parent guide at the back helps parents understand how connection needs change as kids grow.
In many ways, this is a book about what mental health actually looks like in everyday life. Not perfection. Not having it all figured out. Just the steady, repeating practice of turning toward the people we love — and letting them turn toward us.
This is my first book and I think it will be my last. The process of writing and publishing this little book gave me a profound respect for authors.
The idea for this book game to me when kids were very little. I went into parenting totally overconfident and underprepared. I thought since I’d been working with children and families for so long before having kids that I would have an easy time with parenting.
Then, a number of life stressors came along and I started having a very hard time with parenting. I was very ashamed. I felt that my struggles were a reflection on who I was as a person and a professional, and I really had to swallow my pride in order to ask for help.
I confided in a trusted friend and colleague who introduced me to the work of Dr. Gordon Neufeld. I completed some training with Dr. Neufeld and learned a different way of looking kids and parenting. I then went on to train in other therapeutic modalities, change my parenting approach and my clinical approach, and ultimately started Attuned Families.
I started Attuned Families to help other families experience the same profound shifts that mine had. One of those shifts was coming to understand that perfection has no place in parenting and that there is absolutely no shame in asking for help - in fact it’s one of the bravest and most selfless things a parent or caregiver can do.
Around the same time, I also got “pregnant” with the idea for this book, and over the years I realized that this book wouldn’t leave me until I “birthed” it. Seven years later, the book has been “born” and I hope it will join families everywhere to help them keep coming back to what matters most in parenting and families - connection, attunement and attachment.
Where to Buy
You Are My Home: Stories of Attunement by Julia Swaigen is available now.
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