Silvia Casabianca, EdD, MA, LMHC, director of Eyes Wide Open, in Naples, has launched HeartMinded Parenting, a new virtual program being offered to mental health professionals and educators through six, one-hour sessions. Grounded in neuroscience and compassion science, it’s aimed at helping caregivers transform how children are educated by informing them on how to use emotional regulation, stimulate cognitive empathy and bond with children.

“Neuroscience teaches us that we are born with the capacity for affective empathy,” says Casabianca. “But feeling what another feels doesn’t translate into action on its own. It requires us to turn toward suffering—our own and others’—with the wisdom to understand another person’s needs. Counselors walk away from this training with a solid neuroscience-based framework they can bring directly into their clinical work with families. It gives them tools for fostering cognitive empathy and to guide parents toward understanding the emotional needs of the child rather than trying to tame them to comply.

“HeartMinded Parenting training goes beyond new concepts—it invites a shift in perspective. Using transformative learning, participants examine their own assumptions about parenting and gain a neuroscience-based understanding of how either fear or compassion shapes the brain.” 

The next course will be presented in August for small groups limited to eight participants each. Counselors can receive 12 CEUs and Florida CEUs are available for licensed clinicians.