"When my child crashes, I crash."

This is the agonizing reality for parents who have lovingly attended to children who struggle with heartbreaking situations.

The empathic connection to our children is perhaps the strongest human emotion. Parents who struggle along with their children through heartbreaking situations and behaviors will devote immense emotional and physical energy to their children's situations. When a path toward healthy functioning is difficult to find, parents endure a deep sense of helplessness and dread about the future well-being of their children. Enduring long-term stress creates a vulnerability to numerous physical and psychological dangers to the body and to the brain. It is difficult for parents to attend to their own stress responses when their children's situations or behaviors create such deeply felt fear and anxiety.

This book is not about parenting skills, nor is it specifically about children. It is a guideline for survival that addresses the tools and perspective needed to alleviate the damaging effects of prolonged stress created by heartbreaking parental situations. Parents are most empowered to be healthy resources for their children when they have the tools for their own self-care.