Press Reviews

• Kim Golding, Clinical Psychologist with Worcestershire Health and Care NHS Trust

  Deborah has provided us with a highly practical book aimed at helping parents to parent in a way that promotes attachment security. This book is full of wisdom and clear suggestions for parenting children with a range of insecurities across a range of ages from toddlers to teens. Whilst there are some UK/USA differences, there really is something for everyone here. I especially liked the focus on parents taking care of themselves and the way that all behavioural management suggestions are provided within the context of providing warm, nurturing care that promotes connection, security, and self esteem. When these qualities are central within parenting our children will grow to successful maturity able to fulfil their potential.

• Dr. Sue Cornbluth, Clinical Psychologist and Professor of Psychology at Temple University, Philadelphia, USA

  A must read for parents! Informative and practical knowledge for parents about two critical aspects of childhood development; emotional intelligence and attachment.

• Jonathan Baylin, PhD, Clinical Psychologist, Broudy and Associates, Wilmington, Delaware

  This is a lovely, practical, wise book that parents will find helpful on many levels. The author seamlessly integrates attachment concepts, brain science, and concrete examples of parent-child interactions to provide a well-spring of hands-on guidance for raising resilient, secure, emotionally intelligent kids. I highly recommend it.

• Dr. Karyn Purvis, Director of the Institute of Child Development, TCU, Fort Worth, Texas

  Attaching Through Love, Hugs, and Play is an invaluable resource for parents wanting to deepen their relationship with their children. For struggling parents, Attaching Through Love, Hugs and Play provides an accessible resource for understanding what is driving their children's challenging behaviours. More importantly, in this volume, Deborah Gray provides a practical playbook for bringing joy and laughter into the parenting relationship!

• Dee Wilson, Director, Child Welfare Services, Casey Family Programs, Author of the Sounding Board commentaries

  In Attaching Through Love, Hugs, and Play, Deborah Gray focus on parenting skills that develop strong secure attachments needed for children to be willing to turn to a special adult or adults for protection, calming and reassurance of their worth. Gray provides a wealth of concrete examples of how touch, play, language, structure and limit setting can be employed to strengthen the nurturing parent-child connection that is the foundation of pre-social child development. Any parent, foster parent or adoptive parent who is helping an abused or neglected child recover from early trauma and/ or neglect will find a wealth of invaluable practical guidance in Attaching Through Love, Hugs and Play. Public child welfare agencies should consider making Deborah's Gray's books widely available to foster parents and adoptive parents who are desperate for guidance in parenting children whose early histories have left a legacy of fear, anger and distrust of caregivers.

• Alison Paddle, Independent social worker

  Seen and Heard

  This easy-to-read book has much to offer to adopters or step-parents about how to develop attachments... Parents will find many examples of everyday behaviour that they face alongside practical strategies to illustrate how to respond helpfully, especially for children whose early experience include trauma, abuse or loss... As the title suggests, t values sensory approaches to forming emotional connection, using touch and play to help provide nurture and regulate emotional states... Overall this is a very rich and positive book, which presents a well-informed, humane, evidence-based view of parenting strategies that will enhance attachment. it is likely to be valuable resource, especially for parents of children who have had adverse early experiences.