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What is the Neufeld Institute?

The Neufeld Institute is a non-profit society and charitable organization registered in Canada under the legal name Neufeld Institute Foundation. The 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. The Neufeld Institute is physically headquartered in Vancouver Canada. More than 25 courses now deliver Dr. Neufeld’s articulation of the attachment-based developmental approach to the adults responsible for children – parents, educators and helping professionals. These courses are delivered primarily online through Neufeld Institute faculty and course facilitators in a number of different languages, including French, Spanish, German, Swedish, Hebrew, Danish, Dutch and Polish. Each language is organized separately under the governance of the country in which it is registered.

Our mission is to make sense of children to those responsible for them. We are committed to science as a basis of the insights we share. Although an understanding of children can lead to various initiatives and advocacy groups, we do not see this as our mission at the Neufeld Institute. We do our best to remain out of the political and religious spheres.

We understand that the information about the role of family as well as parents in particular can be used by certain advocacy groups to forward their own agendas. We are concerned, however, that getting involved in such agendas would distract from our mission if not sully the science upon which we are based.

We particularly distance ourselves from any religious cults or political activist groups who put their own rights and interests ahead of those of others who are different than themselves. We specifically take care to avoid any association with white supremacy movements, libertarian movements who put their rights before that of the community, and religious right movements who champion corporal punishment for children and the imposition of their own values on those who do not have the same beliefs. We do receive a large number of requests for interviews and do make every effort to avoid being used or exploited by such advocacy groups.

The mission of the Neufeld Institute

Our mission is to use developmental science to make sense of children to the adults responsible for them. Our instrument is the attachment-based developmental approach as synthesized and articulated by Dr. Gordon Neufeld. Our hope is that the insights provided by this evidence-based theory will rejoin parents, teachers and helping professionals to their natural intuition. Our evidence-based belief is that children are meant to be raised in the context of relationship to those who are responsible for them.

We attempt to fulfill our mission through delivering over twenty-five courses that Dr. Neufeld, with the help of his daughter Tamara Strijack, has developed. These courses are delivered to parents, teachers and helping professionals via online continuing education, facilitated video courses, and onsite events. Our online education is delivered via a virtual campus that has been created specifically for this purpose.

The Neufeld Institute also equips and supports helping professionals who wish to use this approach to support parents.