Professional Associates
The professional associates of the Neufeld Institute have all trained extensively with the Institute as well as served with us in the past, some including that of faculty. We very much appreciate that they use their current professional stature and following to support the Institute where they can.
Hannah Beach
Hannah Beach had studied extensively with the Neufeld Institute before joining forces with Tamara Neufeld Strijack to write Reclaiming Our Students, now a bestseller in Canada and already translated into a number of languages. Her personal experience in the performing arts set the stage for advising how schools can implement much-needed emotional playgrounds. She now devotes her time to presenting and consulting and has been publicly recognized for her contributions in this arena. We are pleased for how she has extended the reach of the Neufeld approach and for her involvement in pointing people in our direction.
Jodi Bergman
Jodi has long been advocate of Neufeld's approach in the school system, having brought him for professional development to her district in the Kootenay area of British Columbia many years ago. She has also been involved quite extensively in the home education movement, guiding families in this journey. She now applies the Neufeld approach in her work as a counselor and learning consultant. A mother of seven grown children, she has had plenty of opportunity to integrate the attachment-based developmental concepts into family life as well.
Ken Boschman
Ken's excitement about applying the Neufeld approach to schools together with his administrative experience in the school system, resulted in a personal invitation by Dr. Neufeld to study with him as an intern. After his retirement as a school district administrator, Ken has been working as a psychologist in a counseling centre in Edmonton. He continues to point people to the courses at the Neufeld Institute that he found so helpful in is own journey as an educator and helping professional.
Susan Dafoe-Abbey
Susan Dafoe-Abbey is a Registered Marriage and Family Therapist in Ontario and is the author/co-author of more than 50 research reports and papers. Susan has been involved in the development of the Neufeld Institute and served as faculty for a number of years. When time permits, Susan continues to offer Neufeld Institute courses to equip, support and help parents and teachers to make sense of the children in their care. She is a mother of three and an involved grand-mother with her six grand-children.
Sara Easterly
Trained as a Neufeld Course Facilitator, Sara served on staff of the Neufeld Institute in a number of capacities, including helping us to run our conferences and events. She now co-facilitates the Kid-Lit Book Club and helps curate the annual list of children’s book recommendations. She has published quite extensively in the area of adoption, applying the attachment-based-developmental approach to that arena. Making sense of her own adoption experience through this lens inspired her to write her influential books: Searching for Mom, and Adoption Unfiltered. Sara is the founder of Adoptee Voices writing groups, and also reviews children’s books that resonate with the Neufeld paradigm.
David G. Fung
David is an experienced clinician and therapist serving in the Kelowna area of British Columbia. He studied personally with Dr. Neufeld as an faculty intern and also served as a faculty member of the Neufeld Institute. David actively applies this learning in his professional life, using his position of influence in his supervisory roles and various professional memberships to spread the insights derived from the attachment-based developmental approach. We continue to enjoy and benefit from our professional association.
Beth Hachkowski
Once Beth was introduced to the attachment-based developmental approach, she never looked back as a psychologist or a parent. She jumped at the opportunity to study personally with Dr. Neufeld and served the Institute for a time as a faculty member. She provides professional services to various agencies in Central Alberta and provides counseling to families, children and adolescents. Beth's areas of specialty include adoption and foster parenting, support for at-risk families, and handling challenging behaviours in children and adolescents.
Lis Kroeker
Lis became very passionate about the Neufeld approach early in her educational career, organizing professional development in order to spread this paradigm in the school system. Lis was very instrumental with the beginnings of the Neufeld Institute, including arranging some of the first summer intensives and becoming one of the first interns and faculty members. Lis is now in charge of training teachers in special education at Vancouver Island University. We are very grateful for her early involvement and her continued support. lives of children.
Ruth Lawson-McConnell
As a psychologist, Ruth has been a tireless promoter of the attachment-based developmental approach and a supporter of the Neufeld Institute, wherever she has been located in the world. With her Ph.D. from Scotland and her training with the Neufeld Institute while in Vancouver, she now resides in New Zealand where she is involved in private practice, university teaching and publishing articles, including an important academic paper on Dr. Neufeld's Five Step Model to Emotional Maturation. We are indeed indebted to all she does to forward this approach through her counseling, writing and referring.
David McFall
David runs the poster school for Neufeld's attachment-based developmental approach. Situated in Western Quebec, his elementary school has blossomed under his guidance as principal, receiving much well-deserved recognition including being the focus of a special documentary. In distilling and implementing the major constructs of the Neufeld approach into the organization of his school, David has not only been able to change a school but transform an entire community. David is always ready to share his secrets with any interested educator.
Dr. Giuseppe Spezzano
Giuseppe augmented his Ph.D. in psychology from the University of Toronto with seminars and workshops with Dr. Neufeld, first taken in 2012. Since then, he has studied the Neufeld approach extensively, with profound implications for his own life, the lives of those he loves, and the lives of the people he works with. Giuseppe’s continues to serve schools as well as clients in his private practice in Ottawa, Ontario. Dr. Spezzano is listed as one of our parent consultants who is available online as well.
Inquiries
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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