The Association of Prenatal and Perinatal Psychology and Health
A community focused on prenatal and perinatal psychology, education, and advocacy.
Visit WebsiteBacked by 30+ years of developmental clinical practice.
Growing Kinder Kids
Starts With Connection
Discover mindful parenting practices that nurture secure attachment, emotional well-being, and compassionate, confident children—from pregnancy through the toddler years.
Explore Mindful Parenting
Dr. Charlotte
Phd - Psychologist, Author
“There can be no keener revelation of a society’s soul, than the way in which it treats its children.”
Endorsement from The 14th Dalai Lama
Foundation
Universal Human Empathy
The Approach
Mindful Parenting from Peaceful Cultures
When parents give a high degree of responsive care to their babies—trusting, compassionate children are the result. Early brain research indicates that extensive nurturing during infancy creates optimal brain development and increases the child's ability to be self-calming, cooperative, and kind.
Mindful Parenting integrates indigenous wisdom from peaceful societies, advances in modern neuroscience, and over 40 years of experience by Dr. Charlotte Peterson, Child Psychologist. It offers practical parenting advice that helps infants and toddlers emotionally thrive, becoming happy, self-reliant, and compassionate children.
The book
The Mindful Parent
“Thank you, Dr. Charlotte Peterson, for your book. I am confident your book will go a long way in benefiting many parents and their children, particularly in cultivating close bonds of love and affection between parents and children.”
Endorsement from The 14th Dalai Lama
Phd - Psychologist, Author
Meet Dr. Charlotte
Charlotte Peterson, PhD, is a Licensed Psychologist & Author in Portland, Oregon, USA, specializing in positive pre & postnatal experiences that optimize parent-infant attachment and prevent childhood emotional wounding. In addition to her private practice, she was the founder of the Oregon Network for Infant Mental Health and served as Vice Chair on the State Advisory Board for Oregon's Healthy Start program.
Dr. Peterson has traveled to over 60 countries throughout the world with a special interest in parenting practices of non-violent cultures. Befriending indigenous people and living in their villages, Charlotte has discovered parenting practices that appear to grow more compassionate, peace-loving people.
As an internationally known presenter, Dr. Peterson has shared her findings at regional, national and international conferences and been described in various American and international publications. She has written a book about mindful parenting of infants and toddlers using her discoveries from peaceful cultures and evidence-based early brain research. The Mindful Parent: Strategies from Peaceful Cultures to Raise Compassionate, Competent Kids was published in 2015 by Skyhorse Publishing in NYC and in 2017 a Korean version was published by Ulysses Publishing Co. in Seoul, South Korea.
Responsive care
Mindful Parenting
Mindful Parenting is Dr. Charlotte's term for caregiving that promotes a close, mutually respectful relationship between parents and children. Mindful Parents are REAL: Responsive, Engaged, Aware, and Limit-setting with toddlers beginning at about 18 months old.
A high degree of compassion and affection
Clear limit setting
Expectations of self-control and compliance
Parents promote empathy by responding to children's feelings, offering reasonable choices, and exercising firm parental limit-setting without inflicting pain or suffering.
Photo Gallery
Photos were taken by Dr. Charlotte during her world travels.
If we hope to create a nonviolent world Where respect and kindness replace fear and hatred
We must begin with how we treat each other at the beginning of life,
For that is where our deepest patterns are set. From these roots grow fear and alienation or love and trust.
~Suzanne Arms
Supported Organizations
Organizations that are Supportive of Healthy Beginnings
Retailers are managed centrally and surfaced in the app with logos and descriptions.
A community supporting parents in building secure and nurturing relationships with their children.
Learn more about the organization and its work supporting families and children.
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The International Society for Prenatal and Perinatal Psychology and Medicine.
Promoting research and exchange in prenatal and perinatal psychology and medicine.
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A global organization providing breastfeeding support, information, and encouragement.
Offering peer-to-peer breastfeeding support to families around the world.
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Contact us
Dr. Charlotte Peterson, PhD
Licensed Psychologist
Prenatal, Postpartum & Infant Mental Health
Child, Adolescent & Adult Psychotherapy
Email: drcharlottepeterson@gmail.com
Phone: 541-914-5700
Location: Portland, Oregon