What is the Nurtured Heart Approach?

The Nurtured Heart Approach (NHA) is a set of strategies that assists children & teens in further developing self-regulation skills and building their inner wealth. It is a philosophy for creating healthy relationships with the people in your life, originally developed by Howard Glasser.

How does NHA work?

NHA is all about being mindful of where we are channeling our intensity or energy towards. NHA commits to refusing to give intensity or time to negative behavior to no longer reinforce its impact. Instead, NHA encourages strategically and relentlessly putting energy into new patterns of success and positive behaviors we want to see in others.

Particularly with children and teens, NHA is about enforcing endless amounts of recognition and energy into the positive behaviors they display. This approach supports children in building a “positive portfolio” of themselves, thereby improving their self-esteem and reducing negative behavioral patterns.

Who is NHA for?

NHA can be beneficial for all individuals in our lives. However, in therapy I typically use NHA as a set of strategies to help give parents the tools to manage their child’s disruptive behaviors and ultimately foster deeper relationships with their children. NHA is also used directly in sessions with your child to reinforce the behaviors we want to see and to build their confidence.

More on NHA here.