In the midst of our planetary woes, Dr. Gerry Fewster offers a timely reminder that every child has the inherent potential to reach beyond the status quo and create a future of meaning and purpose. Adults who recognize this potential can change the course of human destiny through their relationships with children – one child at a time. To this end, Fewster urges us to reconsider our most basic beliefs and radically revise our parenting and professional practices. If we continue to call upon the experts and pharmaceutical companies to bring our kids into line, that inherent potential may never be expressed. We do have options. Unlike most parenting and professional manuals, this book makes no attempt to diminish the magnitude of our task by trotting out more mindless prescriptions for perennial problems. With examples drawn from his own personal and professional experiences, Fewster invites the thoughtful reader to consider a unique range of possibilities that transform prescriptive parenting into a conscious and co-creative enterprise. It’s time to drop the old cliché about children being our future, we are their future and they need us more than ever before.

Dr. Gerry Fewster is an educator, writer and psychotherapist. For over twenty years he was Executive Director of one of Canada’s largest privately operated treatment centers for troubled children and their families. He has held teaching positions at three universities and is currently Adjunct Associate Professor in the Department of Applied Psychology at the University of Calgary. He was the editor of the Journal of Child and Youth Care for almost twenty years and editor of Relational Child and Youth Care Practice. He now lives on Vancouver Island where he and his partner, Judith, direct the Pacific North West Institute of Integrative Body Psychotherapy (IBP), one of ten international institutes dedicated to the advancement of human potential. Together the Fewsters maintain a private practice, specializing in relationship therapy.

Dr Gerry Fewster's profile page

“A highly readable and useable book. Parents seeking help and psychological understanding in raising children, as well as professionals, will benefit from his artfully combined insights and understanding.”

"Gerry Fewster is a masterful writer. This latest work will be refreshing to the earnest reader who really wants to get beyond the simplistic notions of parenting, education and professional care.”

“Engaging and filling one with wonderment at the complexity of and potential of human relationships. Unlike a quick ‘beach read’ or bedtime murder mystery, you’ll want to visit and revisit this text frequently.”

"A must read for anyone who is concerned about the world our children will inherit. In providing an in-depth practical guide for parents and professionals, Dr. Fewster challenges us to reconsider what human relationships are all about.”

“In classic Fewster fashion, this new work shows us with examples, humour, creativity, and incredible depth of personal awareness and insight, how we might be in relationships with children, youth and families.”

“Nobody exposes the plight and the potential of today’s children more truthfully, eloquently and heart-fully.”