familylab makes good families better
Our vision is two-fold and ambitious
At familylab professionals and parents work together to figure out how to transform emotional love and comitment into loving behaviour.
- Through seminars, workshops, symposiums, websites, books, articles and films for parents as well as professional educators we aim to improve the psychosocial health and wellbeing of today’s and tomorrow’s parents and children – i.e. the rich variety of families concerned with creating healthy relationships without violence and abuse of neither adults nor children and youth.
- Through public education, dialogue, formulation of values and information about relevant scientific findings we want to influence not only the way men and women think about and construct families but also the values and behavior of professionals within nurseries, kindergartens and schools in order to create optimal environments for mutual social, emotional, creative and academic learning.
Our vision is families, institutions and societies with much less violence, abuse, addiction and neglect and to inspire and mobilize all existing good will, love and commitment within families, organizations as well as society at large.
familylab is therefore a constantly evolving organization, always focussed on the relationships between people.
We believe there are better ways to raise and educate children than using authoritarian force or democtratic tricks. Instead we embrace relationships based on equal dignity, authenticity, integrity and self-responsibility.
familylab is actively supporting the health and well-being of today’s parents/educators and tomorrow’s children through a series of seminars and workshops. We participate in public debate and policy development with the aim of creating optiomal environment for reciprocal social, emotional and educational learning.
If you would like further information, and to be at the forefront of this exiting paradigm shift, please visit the websites in the different countries where you can book a speaker or sign up for a seminar or workshop. You can also purchase books, DVD’s. Get inspired by articles, interviews, Q&A and family coaching transcripts.
All of our materials deal with issues that are part of most families and educators’ daily lives. They are easy to read and full of practical ideas, looking at new ways of developing relationships with children.
Our 4 Key – Values
Adapting these values
We use the term values about something which would really be described more accurately as a set of guiding principles.
Values are tangible and often refer to wealth that can be defined by some kind of financial value. A set of guiding principles however, play an important role as a compass when we enter into conflicts and need to make decisions. This issue has become relevant because we no longer have a consensus of values in our society. Raising children and living together is often based on random knowledge which is not put into the context of our shared values. If we do not have a set of guiding principles within the family we will live from conflict to conflict and life will be hectic indeed. If you do not have a compass to help you navigate you could end up anywhere.
We endeavor to write about four fundamental values. In our experience these are a constructive set of guiding principles for the interactions between adults, and between adults and children.
Together we need to find new ways to transform emotional love and commitment into loving behaviour.
At familylab we embrace these four key values:
- Equal dignity
- Authenticity
- Integrity
- Personal responsibility
We trust this will inspire you – please don’t blindly copy these. Instead we encourage you to consider the four fundamental values carefully so you are able to understand which values you bring with you from your own childhood – and which your partner brings. How do these values supplement each other? How are they contradictory? Regardless of which conditions and values you decide to incorporate, it is important that you decide on some. It will make life a lot easier!
Most of us are aware that the “good old days” with a moral consensus as a strong external support for parents are over. Today’s parents are challenged with the need to reinvent parenting and education from the inside – from who they are and from their own personal boundaries and values.
Together we need to find new ways to transform emotional love and commitment into loving behaviour.
Adapting these values – or indeed any set of thoroughly considered values – makes family life much more meaningful and you avoid living hectically from conflict to conflict in constant search of solutions or methods.
