Happy August! As the summer is winding down and families are getting ready to send the kids back to school, Natural Awakenings is taking a good look at children and parenting—they are our future, after all.

Every parent wants to do the best they can for their child, and that can be especially hard when they’re struggling in school or at home with no clear explanation. Perhaps they need more than just a standard vision test? Meet Dr. Amy Thomas on page 20, a board-certified optometrist who uses her expertise most notably to guide children in vision therapy, creating major changes in their learning abilities, hobbies and attitudes.

In our feature on simplified parenting (page 26), Deborah Shouse dives into the “less is more” method of raising happy and healthy children. And Jodi Hardy has great tips for raising healthy children who understand that their feelings are important, communication is key and how to respect themselves and others (page 28).

Of course, to be a good parent, we must also practice self-care and keep ourselves healthy and balanced. Multilevel healing is an important idea to consider, if you haven’t already. “Embracing all dimensions of well-being”, as explained on page 22, can drastically affect the outcomes of a treatment or wellness protocol. “Only 20 percent of healing comes from the treatment agent the doctor applies. A full 80 percent of the healing potential, which lies dormant in everyone, comes from constructing a meaningful treatment response unique to you,” explains Dr. Wayne Jonas.

We received a great response from our local community in regards to personal, multilevel healing stories. On page 24, hear the unique and inspiring ways that Danielle Dvorak and David Yrigoyen used alternative healing methods to get well when other modalities weren’t cutting it, plus an Akashic perspective from Linda Joy Stone.

Be well,

Holly