Gordon Neufeld

Gordon Neufeld, PhD, a Vancouver-based developmental psychologist a foremost authority on child development, is an acclaimed international speaker and coauthor of Hold On To Your Kids.

Neufeld is widely considered to be a leading interpreter and communicator of the developmental approach to raising children, honed by more than 40 years of professional practice, parenting, and personal reflection.

He developed groundbreaking theories of aggression, counterwill, bullying, and anxiety that have received national and international recognition. He also developed a comprehensive theory of attachment that includes six stages in the development of the capacity for relationship, the construct of polarization that explains both shyness and defensive detachment.

His model of attachment is universal in both its application (adults as well as children) and implementation (school as well as home). Although this model was inspired by the trailblazing work of early attachment theorists such as John Bowlby, Konrad Lorenz, and Harry Harlow, it also is informed by other theories of human togetherness as well as by current brain science and the physical sciences where the drive for proximity is also preeminent.

Formerly involved in university teaching and private practice, Gordon Neufeld now devotes his time to teaching and training educators and helping professionals. His Neufeld Institute is a worldwide charitable organization devoted to applying developmental science to the task of raising children.