All Children are Gifted: Raising Confident and Aware Children
by
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Summary of Chapters
Chapter 1-The Inner Knowing
Readers are introduced to the concept that children and adults are innately "Good" within themselves. Knowledge of the "Good" and how to access that place in oneself is presented as the key to raising emotionally healthy children. The idea of the “Inner Knowing,” is central to the theories in the book, and it becomes the vehicle for accessing the inner Goodness that is within all of humanity.
Chapter 2-Listening to Others and Self
Active listening skills and the validation of feelings are taught through description and example. These two abilities are integral in helping the child understand the Goodness in his own nature and his Inner Knowing.
Chapter 3-Safety
The greatest worry of parents is the safety of their children. If children grow up with the awareness that they are good and worthy, they will want to keep themselves safe. If parents teach children to listen to this voice of Goodness, the children will always know how to keep themselves safe.
This chapter will illustrate two main points. First, if children know they are good, it will be foreign to their consciousness to do something that will cause harm to themselves, for example, using drugs or engaging in dangerous actions. Second, the Inner Knowing will always guide us (child, teen or adult) to actions that will lead to our highest Good. If children listen to their Inner Knowing, they will always be safe, and this awareness puts many parents at ease regarding their children's safety.
Chapter 4--Needs, Problems and Dreams
As a minister, I have met countless numbers of people who don't know what to do with their lives. They talk about an inner confusion that has been with them through their entire working life. They aren't sure what to do about their job or their marriage. They don't know where to live, how to solve problems, who
to be friends with, and so on and so forth. When problems arise, they don't have a clue about how to solve them, and they have abandoned their dreams as if they were million-dollar wishes.
When children are in touch with their Inner Knowing, they will be
aware of their needs, their problems and their dreams. They will know how to face and solve their problems, and make their dreams come true.
Chapter 5-Teaching Right and Wrong
One of the fundamental responsibilities of parents is to teach their children the difference between right and wrong. When parents validate the Inner Knowing while explaining what is right and wrong, children quickly learn that as they do the right thing, they feel an inner sense of Goodness. They also learn that when they intentionally do what they know is wrong; they don't feel "right" inside. As parents validate the Inner Knowing, children get a sense of what it is like to feel good and they are motivated seek this inner integrity.
Chapter 6-Are You Listening, Too?
This chapter will discuss the importance of the parents' willingness to listen to their own Inner Knowing. As I have been teaching my son about his Inner Knowing, I have had a remarkable emotional healing. I have become aware at a very deep level that I am also good and I have this Inner Knowing as well. Of course, I "knew'' this in my head before I could ever teach it to my son, and yet, this Truth was not ingrained in the fabric of my being. As I have taught this
Truth and validated the Inner Knowing in my son, I have experienced it for myself.
Chapter 7-Effective Discipline
One of the hardest decisions parents make is how to discipline their child. The question always arises as to whether a parent should hit their child. If parents believe in the innate Goodness of their children, they could never hit them. When children are struck by one who supposedly loves them, they not only get the message that they are bad but also that the parent is bad. It is impossible for children to feel truly happy if they believe both they and their parents are bad.
Chapter 8 -Healing the World
With all that goes on in the world, it is quite easy for children to develop an attitude that the world is a terrible, scary place to live-particularly if children believe they are bad. On the other hand, if they believe they are good, this view is projected out into the world and it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Chapter 9- TRUST: The gift of teaching yourself and your child to listen to their Inner Knowing.
This chapter is titled TRUST because a major gift that comes from listening to one's Inner Knowing is that we learn to trust ourselves. The only way to trust in any relationship is to first trust oneself in such a way that we will never betray ourselves in thought, word or deed
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Book Details
About the Book
This book has been written for parents, soon-to-be parents, teachers, and caregivers who look into the eyes of a child and see infinite possibilities of good. The main principles of this book are:
People and all of creation are innately good;
The resources of this goodness are directly available to everyone.
Suzanne Carter, long-time therapist and minister, helps readers understand these ideas, how to use them around children and how to implement them in their own lives.
Carter uses these principles in dealing with:
Effective Discipline
Safety and wellbeing
Teaching Right and Wrong
Teaching children to trust themselves in such a way that they will not betray themselves.
All Children are Gifted: Raising Confident and Aware Children communicates that adults must be willing to listen to their own inner knowing in order to provide a firm foundation for parenting and empowering children to become happy and well adjusted adults.
About the Author
Suzanne Carter is an ordained minister and an eclectic therapist drawing upon many schools of thought, enabling individuals who attend her workshops to get in touch with and manifest their truest selves. She offers a unique approach by blending psychology, spirituality, and mind-body health principles. The workshop participants are encouraged to address all of their issues in a safe and supportive way. Her commitment is to facilitate wholeness in all levels of one’s being: spiritual, psychological, physical, intellectual, and social. Suzanne has worked as a co-minister with her husband for the last thirty years, serving Unity Churches in Missouri, Washington, Michigan, and Colorado.
Suzanne has presented workshops for the last thirty years and is an excellent speaker and workshop facilitator. Topics she has presented include codependency, women’s issues, death and dying, couples’ issues, and attaining optimum health through nutrition, exercise, and stress management. Suzanne believes that wholeness or total wellness can only be attained by treating the individual on a holistic level.
The importance of getting in touch with the erroneous thoughts and beliefs that are programmed into individuals at a very early age is central to Suzanne’s work. These damaging thoughts and beliefs are often the crux of the myriad of problems that people experience. For example, when people have a belief that they are not good enough, this belief will usually manifest as physical, psychological, or spiritual problems. Suzanne’s approach helps individuals get in touch with these negative beliefs, feel their feelings, and then release them to make room for a more realistic and truthful view of who they are. Suzanne believes that all humans are basically good, but if they have been taught otherwise, their thoughts, words, actions, and beliefs will be in accordance with what they have learned.
Suzanne holds a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology from the University of Indiana and a Master’s degree in psychology from the University of Colorado Denver (1981) and was graduated and ordained by the Unity School of Religious Studies in 1986. She has received extensive training in psychodrama and experiential therapy through Onsite Training and Consulting, Inc., in Tucson, Arizona. She is certified with the Grief Recovery Institute in California and is a certified equine-assisted psychotherapist with EAGALA. She is also a Spiritual Intelligence coach with Deepchange.com. She is in private practice in the greater Denver area.
Suzanne truly travels the path that she presents. She has a multifaceted health program in which she engages on a daily basis. She is in excellent health and believes that it is every human’s birthright to be whole, well, and free and able to achieve happiness in every area of life. Suzanne lives in Morrison, Colorado, with her husband and her animal co-therapists, Jessie, the golden prince and Harmony, an equine princess. Her son lives in Fort Collins and is a musician par excellence.
She has presented workshops in her hometown of Denver as well as in Kansas City, Missouri; Grand Rapids, Michigan; Indianapolis, Indiana; and Seattle, Washington.