The Nurtured Heart Approach Training Course

Teaching parents, educators, and clinicians new ways to help children thrive.

What is The Nurtured Heart Approach?

The Nurtured Heart Approach® (NHA) teaches parents, educators, and clinicians new ways to help children with intense behaviors thrive. This approach was created by Howard Glasser and provides a framework to allow people to draw upon the personal strengths they already possess while inspiring others to use their own personal strengths to build positive relationships with others.

Each course consists of hour-long classes scheduled weekly for six weeks, presented via WebEx with videos, exercises, Q & A, and interactive feedback.

What Does The Program Offer?

Through a class-like teaching environment, the Nurtured Heart Approach allows participants to build upon learning each week over the six-week course. By the end, participants have a full understanding of how to apply the approach to their daily lives. The overall goal is to nurture the hearts of participants and help them to see their own strengths, through a process called Inner Wealth™, to allow them to feel the approach from the inside out and propel them into their or their loved ones and speech health.

This workshop will help participants:

Teacher helping students thrive with social skills

Who Benefits?

Whether it’s you or a loved one, anyone can benefit from attending. Many are drawn to the Nurtured Heart Approach because of an intense personality that is challenging in their own lives. Maybe it’s a child, or a spouse, even an in-law or a coworker. NHA is about transforming relationships. In the end, it leads to improving our relationship with ourselves and changing the voice of our inner critics into our inner cheerleaders to allow us to live our best lives.

Jennifer Dierenfeld

M.A., CCC-SLP

About The Instructor

Jennifer Dierenfeld is a Speech-Language Pathologist who completed her undergraduate education at the University of Washington in 2005 and went on to complete a master’s program at Western Washington University. Jennifer joined Evergreen Speech and Hearing Clinic in 2007. She became a Certified Trainer in the Nurtured Heart Approach in 2020 and is passionate about sharing this approach with staff and patients at ESHC.

From Jennifer, on using the NHA: “The most significant impact I have had using the Nurtured Heart Approach as a professional is the clarity I have gained in terms of separating the behaviors I’m noticing from the heart of the individual with whom I am working. When I can connect on a heart level with my patients and families and truly celebrate each individual person for all the great things they have to offer, then the other barriers to therapy such as negative behaviors or resistance decrease, and we get to focus on building a relationship together. Once that positive relationship is established, then I can help shape and support the patient’s communication along with their family to make positive lifelong impacts on the ability of the patient to learn and grow in all their daily interactions.”

Locations

Bellevue Clinic

Kirkland Clinic

Redmond Clinic

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Jennifer Dierenfeld

M.A., CCC-SLP

Jennifer has been with the ESHC team since 2007. She earned her undergraduate degree from the University of Washington and her master’s degree from Western Washington University. Jennifer is an advanced trainer in the Nurtured Heart Approach (NHA). She is passionate about applying the approach to her interactions with patients and families directly within her sessions. When using NHA, she finds she is able to connect on a deeper level, the benefits and effectiveness of speech/language therapy increases significantly because she can build meaningful relationships and provide holistic care.

Jennifer comes from a family of registered nurses and teachers. She discovered her passion for the field of speech-language pathology while in college and loves that she can take the best parts of medicine and teaching and apply them to her work. Jennifer loves getting to partner with patients and their support people to help them achieve their communication goals. Communication touches every part of our lives and is deeply personal; she loves the challenge of customizing therapy to meet her patients’ individual needs.

Jennifer loves spending time with her family, her husband, their two children, and pets. She is a football fan and enjoys cheering on the Huskies and Seahawks, cooking up new recipes with her kids, and getting outside in the beautiful Pacific Northwest.