The Neufeld Institute

The Neufeld Institute provides education and training to adults involved with children using the attachment-based developmental model created by psychologist Gordon Neufeld. The populations served are parents, foster parents, educators and helping professionals in English, French, German, Hebrew, Spanish and Swedish. The education and training is provided through personalized study programs as well as through presentations, seminars and courses, including videocourses. The Neufeld Institute also trains individuals to deliver this education and training. 

The Neufeld Institute is committed to putting parents back into the driver’s seat with regards to their own children. Our mission is to use developmental science to rejoin parents and teachers to their own natural intuition. All our endeavours are based on the understanding that the context for raising children is their attachments to those responsible for them. The primary thrust is prevention although the paradigm is also applicable to the most troubled of children and in the most turbulent of situations.

Although the Neufeld Institute is physically headquartered in Vancouver, it uses the latest internet technology to provide training and education throughout the world. Neufeld Faculty (or faculty-in-training) and training and education programs exist currently in six countries: Canada, United States, Mexico, Germany, Israel and Sweden.

The Neufeld Institute was founded in 2006 as a vehicle to further the attachment-based developmental paradigm that was synthesized and constructed by Dr. Gordon Neufeld out of the findings of developmental science. The Institute was created initially in response to a growing number of educators and helping professionals who wanted in-depth training in this approach.  The Institute has grown rapidly in response to demands for parent education, professional development and continuing education. An internship program was set up to enable personal study with Dr. Neufeld and to develop leadership to train individuals who were interested in teaching or practicing this paradigm. The graduates of this internship program have become today’s Neufeld Institute Faculty.

The Neufeld Institute has three basic thrusts: an insight-based parent education program; a distance education program for educators and professionals; and an authorization program for presenters and practitioners of the paradigm. The parent education program is centered in the Power to Parent video-course series as well as the Making Sense of Adolescence course.  The distance education program consists of a growing number of courses that provide the conceptual foundations of the paradigm as well as insight to the various problems common to children. The authorization program equips and supports those who want to master the paradigm and to further it in some way.

The distance education program and the authorization programs are housed on a virtual campus designed for this purpose. The campus also enables us to equip and support the growing number of those who are teaching and practicing the paradigm through the world. This campus is accessible to individuals in five different languages and serves to join the sparks that are happening in diverse settings around the globe.

A research arm also exists to support both field-based research as well as university-based research inspired by this paradigm. 

The Neufeld Institute is incorporated as a not-for-profit society in British Columbia and registered as a charitable organization in Canada (under the working name of Growth Concerns). The organization is shepherded by a Board of Directors with Gordon Neufeld serving as the founding president and chief executive officer. The policies and programs are managed by an inner executive council of Neufeld Institute Faculty consisting of four program directors. The Neufeld Institute has approximately 20 Faculty and over 100 individuals who are authorized to teach or practice the approach. Supporting this endeavour are four staff, an office manager, a team of professional consultants, and much volunteer assistance.

Funding for the Neufeld Institute comes primarily from two sources. The in-house income results from course registration and program tuition. This source of funding is not yet sufficient to support our ambitious programs. As a result, we also depend upon donations from individuals with a passion for children and a belief in parents as their best bet. We also have a list of innovative and worthwhile outreach projects waiting for a benefactor to share the vision before we proceed.  If interested, please consult our office to see if one of these projects-in-waiting may have your name on it or the name of someone that would be receptive to some match-making.