Explore our courses
The Neufeld Institute is a vehicle to develop and deliver the courses created by Dr. Gordon Neufeld whose life’s work has been to create a comprehensive evidence-based model for the unfolding of human potential.
More than 30 courses deliver Dr. Neufeld’s articulation of the attachment-based developmental approach to the adults responsible for children – parents, educators and helping professionals.
If you are seeking general information about what to expect with our courses, please go to ‘about our courses’.
Browse our courses
Sessions: 10
Lecture: 9h 42m
Certificate: 20+ hrs
250 CAD
The task of turning children into adults has never been more daunting. An adolescent is neither child nor adult - and therein lies much of the difficulty, turbulence, confusion, and challenge. They need us, yet need to not need us. We are their best bet, yet their instincts are to resist us. This course is organized around seven rites of passage where adolescents often need our help.
Sessions: 4
Lecture: 3h 5m
Certificate: + hrs
100 CAD
Sexuality only makes sense when viewed through the lens of attachment. This insight is fundamental to supporting healthy sexuality as well as addressing troubling attitudes and behaviour. Although typically placed in the context of adolescence, the dynamics of sexuality apply widely and are best understood earlier than later.
Sessions: 5
Lecture: 5hr 23m
Certificate: 10+ hrs
125 CAD
Aggression problems are deeply rooted in instinct and emotion and are therefore resistant to conventional discipline practices. Dr. Neufeld uncovers these roots and outlines steps to addressing them. His rich professional experience with aggressive children and violent youth informs this refreshing approach to an age-old problem. The principles apply to children of all ages and all settings: home, school and treatment.
Sessions: 4
Lecture: 5h 12m
Certificate: 8+ hrs
100 CAD
The alarm spectrum covers a vast amount of troubling territory, affecting the majority of our children and adults and responsible for a diverse array of perplexing syndromes including anxiety, agitation, attention problems, and more. Key to reversing these symptoms is an understanding of their deep roots in the instincts and emotions of attachment.
Sessions: 4
Lecture: 4h 23m
Certificate: 8+ hrs
100 CAD
A growing number of children and youth are presenting as demanding, prescriptive, bossy, and controlling, with the underlying dynamics being camouflaged by the false appearance of independence. Alpha children are more challenging to parent and predisposed to a host of problems including anxiety, aggression, oppositionality, and eating problems. An understanding of the alpha dynamic opens the doors to change in the family, classroom, and society.
Sessions: 4
Lecture: 4h 0m
Certificate: 8+ hrs
100 CAD
The escalating levels of anxiety in our children begs for an explanation as well as a solution. Dr. Neufeld sheds light on this age-old problem, paving the way for natural interventions that can actually get to the root causes as opposed to just managing symptoms. This course brings a fresh and promising perspective to one of our most troubling and perplexing human problems. Although the focus is on children, this enlightening material will benefit anyone suffering from anxiety.
Sessions: 4
Lecture: 5h 43m
Certificate: 8+ hrs
100 CAD
This course unfolds Neufeld's ground-breaking model of attachment – the result of decades of synthesis, inspired by the physical and natural sciences, and built upon the most recent understandings of the brain, emotion and development. In distilling the drive for togetherness to its essence, it expands into a comprehensive model that applies universally to every human arena where relationship exists or should exist
Sessions: 8
Lecture: 8h 18m
Certificate: 16+ hrs
200 CAD
The science of relationship exists in fragmented pieces all over the empirical map: biology, sociology, embryology, ethology, epigenetics, neuroscience, psychology, medicine, and so on. Neufeld puts the puzzle pieces together to create a cohesive and comprehensive model of attachment that has profound implications for parenting, teaching, and treatment.
Sessions: 4
Lecture: 3h 59m
Certificate: 8+ hrs
100 CAD
The science of relationship exists in fragmented pieces all over the empirical map: biology, sociology, embryology, ethology, epigenetics, neuroscience, psychology, medicine, and so on. Neufeld puts the puzzle pieces together to create a cohesive and comprehensive model of attachment that has profound implications for parenting, teaching, and treatment.
Sessions: 4
Lecture: 4h 12m
Certificate: 8+ hrs
100 CAD
Despites civilization's advances, the human mean streak is not going away. Dr. Neufeld dissects the bully syndrome to expose its deep instinctive roots in attachment and emotion, revealing in the process why this behaviour is so immune to conventional means of intervention. The key to the bully's unmaking is to first understand how bullies are made.
Sessions: 4
Lecture: 3h 52m
Certificate: 8+ hrs
100 CAD
The instinct to resist being controlled or coerced is one of the most perplexing and troublesome dynamics in dealing with children and youth. This course reveals the dynamics controlling this instinct and provides suggestions for how to deal with it. This material is applicable for all those dealing with toddlers through adolescents: teachers, parents and helping professionals.
Sessions: 4
Lecture: 5h 30m
Certificate: 8+ hrs
100 CAD
The real question for concerned parents and teachers is not just about how to manage a child's behaviour but rather how to do so without causing harm to relationship, development and well-being. This course unfolds how to do just that, while at the same time not compromising the adult's responsibility to impose some order on behaviour when circumstances require.
Sessions: 5
Lecture: 6h 39m
Certificate: 10+ hrs
125 CAD
Emotion, long dismissed as a nuisance factor, is now confirmed to be at the core of development and well-being. Yet little is being taught about the nature of emotion or the implications for parenting, teaching, and treatment. To make sense of emotion is to make sense of us all. There is no better way to glean insight into oneself and others than through a working knowledge of the science of emotion.
Sessions: 4
Lecture: 5h 10m
Certificate: 8+ hrs
100 CAD
Although empathy is universally valued, there is tremendous controversy regarding how to foster it, much of it rooted in a lack of understanding about where it comes from. This course reveals the natural developmental roots of empathy in a way that can easily be put into practice by parents and teachers alike.
Sessions: 4
Lecture: 5h 15m
Certificate: 8+ hrs
100 CAD
Dr. Neufeld outlines what needs to happen to mature emotionally, whether one is a child or catching up as an adult. This developmental knowledge is especially important as immaturity has become epidemic and most interventions make the mistake of attempting to address the symptoms of immaturity rather than getting at the roots. This model is easy to follow, whether a parent, teacher or therapist.
Sessions: 4
Lecture: 5h 25m
Certificate: 8+ hrs
100 CAD
The home school advantage evidenced in three key arenas of development – learning, individuation and socialization – is ample evidence that education is not a matter of curriculum or of teacher training, but rather of relationship and of conditions conducive to the spontaneous unfolding of human potential. Not every home can be the answer, but when it can be, there is no better answer.
Sessions: 8
Lecture: 11h 46m
Certificate: 16+ hrs
200 CAD
This course provides a fresh look at the causes and consequences of sensory overload in the brain and its role in a spectrum of syndromes including autism, and to a lesser extent, some forms of giftedness as well as attention problems. Uncovering this root neurological condition sets the stage for retreating from a battle against symptoms and creating a context for isolating and minimizing the resulting dysfunction. The implications for intervention are profound.
Sessions: 20
Lecture: 20h 48m
Certificate: 40+ hrs
600 CAD
Our popular flagship course provides a conceptual grounding in the foundations of Neufeld's attachment-based developmental approach. The three conceptual keys to making sense of children are woven together into a three-dimensional map that can be used to locate children developmentally as well as discover how to get them moving in the right direction. This course is designed for all those involved in raising, teaching, and working with children and youth.
Sessions: 15
Lecture: 17h 45m
Certificate: 30+ hrs
750 CAD
Given that threats to togetherness constitute the essence of distress, the syndrome arising from this condition – the separation complex - plagues many of us including our children, altering behaviour and camouflaging true personality. Without an understanding the roots of this complex, we tend to engage in endless battles against symptoms. This course is foundational for understanding the instinctive and emotional roots of troubling dynamics and behaviour and absolutely essential for those who would wish to master the attachment-based developmental approach.
Sessions: 15
Lecture: 18h 53m
Certificate: 30+ hrs
750 CAD
The third in the series of Neufeld Intensives, this course unfolds and expands each of the six roots of attachment, with more focus on adult dynamics than in the most of our other courses. Dr. Neufeld also shares the key puzzle pieces that ultimately came together to form his six-root model of attachment. The Intensive III is designed not only to provide deeper theoretical understanding but also to give the opportunity for more personal integration of the material.
Sessions: 10
Lecture: 11h 23m
Certificate: 20+ hrs
300 CAD
Fresh understandings of marriage come from viewing the coupling phenomenon through the lenses of attachment, emotion and development. The implications are profound, not only for partners in their dance together but also for the interface of their partnership with their parenting. The course has significant implications for treating couples as well.
Sessions: 6
Lecture: 6h 31m
Certificate: 12+ hrs
150 CAD
It is in our nature both to play and to attach. These two primordial drives were meant to go hand in hand, dancing us, and especially our children, towards becoming all we were meant to be. With the loss of supportive culture, we now need to become more conscious of how to come alongside Nature as it continues its quiet but vital work of giving birth to human potential.
Sessions: 8
Lecture: 8h 56m
Certificate: 16+ hrs
200 CAD
Neufeld puts the puzzle pieces together to reveal true play as Nature's way of taking care of emotion. This realization makes sense of the trouble we are now in as the culture that was meant to take care of play has largely been lost. These insights are distinct to this approach and key to supporting healthy development and emotional well-being in our children and ourselves.
Sessions: 8
Lecture: 7h 54m
Certificate: 16+ hrs
200 CAD
In this flagship course of our Power to Parent series, Neufeld reveals that the keys to ease and effectiveness in parenting lies in the nature of the child's attachment to the parent, regardless of the age of the child. The course explores how this relationship is meant to develop, what can go wrong, why parents must matter more than peers, how to cultivate a context of connection, how to win back one's child if need be, and much more.
Sessions: 8
Lecture: 7h 54m
Certificate: 16+ hrs
200 CAD
Part II of the Power to Parent gets to the heart of developmental science – that growth happens quite spontaneously if conditions are conducive. Neufeld expands on just what those conditions are and the role of parents in the maturing processes. Since growing older is no guarantee of growing up, knowing what children truly need from their parents is key to raising children.
Sessions: 8
Lecture: 7h 39m
Certificate: 16+ hrs
200 CAD
In this third and final course of the Power to Parent series the focus is on the typical challenges of parenting. Every child gets stuck from time to time on the road to maturation. Dr. Neufeld helps equip parents to read the signs of a child in trouble, live with a sensitive child, cultivate resilience in a child, lead an alpha child, soften a defended child, discipline a stuck child, and much more.
Sessions: 6
Lecture: 6h 0m
Certificate: 12+ hrs
150 CAD
No one is more susceptible to being misunderstood than the 2-5 year old - especially when adults are trying to rush them out of their untempered nature, inconsiderate relating, or separation problems. Making sense of these wondrous and confusing beings lays a foundation for intuitive and fruitful interaction with them, and helps us provide the conditions that are conducive to their transformation.
Sessions: 5
Lecture: 4h 42m
Certificate: 10+ hrs
125 CAD
Resilience is a remarkable construct - an overarching metaphor that touches on the arenas of stress, neural plasticity, emotional health, recovery, healing, mental illness, adaptation, defendedness, and therapy. Although it is in our nature to recover from our wounds and be stronger as a result, the unfolding of this potential requires special conditions, which is the central focus of this course. The implications for raising children, including teaching and working with them, are profound.
Sessions: 8
Lecture: 8h 19m
Certificate: 16+ hrs
200 CAD
Teaching is getting harder, not easier - even though teachers have never been more educated, technology so advanced, curriculum so refined, and pedagogy so honed. Although these factors are important, the true problem in learning lies elsewhere - in the teachability of our students. The answer to the waning teachability of students is not to teach harder, but to teach differently, harnessing the most powerful motivating force of all: attachment.
Sessions: 15
Lecture: 16h 7m
Certificate: 30+ hrs
750 CAD
This course explores the art and science of healing through the lens of the attachment-based developmental approach. Dr. Neufeld enhances the material with the experiences and insights gleaned from his many years as an active therapist. Although directed towards therapists, formal training as a helping professional is not required.
Sessions: 8
Lecture: 7h 4m
Certificate: 16+ hrs
200 CAD
The impact of disrupting a child's attachments, regardless of the reason and even when in the best interests of the child, can be deep and profound. This course makes sense of what happens and provides a way through to resolving these challenges to ensure healthy development and well-being.
Sessions: 4
Lecture: 5h 11m
Certificate: 8+ hrs
200 CAD
Indications are that children have more troubles, get into more trouble, are more troubled and can even be more troubling, than ever before. Dr. Neufeld puts the puzzle pieces together to reveal three hidden stories that are shared across a wide spectrum of troubles, and a surprising way through to make a lasting difference.
Sessions: 4
Lecture: 4h 55m
Certificate: 8+ hrs
100 CAD
Evidence indicates that our children's world is becoming more wounding, taking a toll on their emotional health and well-being. Safety has become a major concern, yet impossible to deliver in today's society despite our best efforts. Neufeld reveals a hopeful way through to providing safety without necessarily having to alter a child's world.
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If you have questions or require additional information that you cannot find on our website or FAQ page, you may contact our office on our Inquiries page.
Charity & Non-Profit Status
The Neufeld Institute is a registered Canadian charitable organization under the name Neufeld Institute Foundation and is also registered as a NPO in British Columbia. If you would like to make a contribution to us, please go to our donation page.
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Vancouver, BC V6M 1L3
Canada