Rooted in Awareness: A Neuroscience-Informed Parenting Program
focuses on strengthening relationships between adults and youth,
beginning with adult awareness.
In a series of four, 2-hour workshops, parents walk through
structured reflection on their own emotional and physiological patterns before child-focused strategies are introduced.
The program integrates somatic awareness practices, psychoeducation on brain development, and relational skill-building to help parents respond
to their children with both warmth and appropriate tolerance for distress.
This approach challenges punitive and control-based models of discipline, instead emphasizing connection as the primary pathway to
behavior change and emotional growth
Other topics include communication, boundary-setting, education about nervous system states and responses, and personal identification of small changes that may increase connection and decrease conflict, anger and avoidance.
Course Development & Foundation:
Katrina Milliken earned her post-graduate certificate in
Applied Educational (Interpersonal) Neuroscience from Butler University in 2026.
This course was led by field expert Dr. Lori Desautels, author of Connections Over Compliance, 180 Days of Educational Neuroscience, Intentional Neuroplasticity and the Body & Brain Brilliance workbook. This 3-semester course informed the
creation and curriculum of Rooted in Awareness.
