Description

About this book
In 2012 my husband stumbled onto Brené Brown’s TED Talk on shame and vulnerability. It changed our lives and family forever. Our parenting journey was shaping up to be vastly different than we had imagined, and Brown’s Wholehearted Parenting Manifesto hit me right where I live. I began working hard to live by every word.

In her book “Daring Greatly,” Brown discusses the importance of having your own family manifesto and, after spending a lot of time with her powerful words, I began to think about what our family needed to add for living our own brand of Wholehearted. That’s what this book is. Brené Brown’s manifesto accurately described what I want to be as a parent and what I want for my children to feel, know, and take with them on their own life journey. It took sitting with her words, trying to live it, and learning from it for me to process what was unique to trauma- related special needs.

Early adverse experiences meant that our own family manifesto would need a little extra. And that realization, along with Brené Brown’s work and experts in brain and trauma recovery, inspired me to write what I call our ‘addendum’. In our home, it sits along side of The Wholehearted Parenting Manifesto. For me, this book and sharing it, is about giving myself permission to accept and embrace both what makes our family different AND what makes us the same. It’s about leaning into our truth and sharing our story and it’s about building and informing our community of support.

Over the years, I’ve shared it with parents and professionals involved in the lives of children with high ACEs (Adverse Childhood Experiences) and it’s my honor to share it with you. My hope is that spending time with these words and images brings light, love, growth, and inspiration to your family as they have to mine.

– Tif

About The Art

We commissioned the artwork from students from a design class at NCAD in Tacoma Washington. Rian Kasner was selected for the illustrations inside the book, and explains her process on her portfolio page.