The Change Is in How We Look at Things

By Matías Muñoz

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Ramiro Villalba

Director

About the book:

With a modern view of parenting in current times, Matías Muñoz offers a practical book written in a friendly style, with hands-on exercises and audiovisual resources. The author deals with the problems and questions that are raised during parenting, from early childhood to adolescence, based on his experience as a family psychologist. His book is a best-seller in the large bookstore chains of Argentina.

Excerpt:

Family life is the best setting for shaping and unfolding one’s identity. In this space, we can transmit and develop two skills that are fundamental to our children’s growing psychophysical health: loving themselves and loving others. Is there a more intense and conditioning relationship than that between a parent and their child? The parent-child relationship is the bond that lays the foundation for one’s relational history—it is where the primary identifications that will make us who we are take place, leading to the dynamic framework that we will carry throughout our entire lives.

In this ever-changing culture we live in, educating children can be a quite challenging experience. On a daily basis, we encounter limitations as we attempt to achieve fluent communication at home. The aim of establishing a dialogue between parents and their children is to get to know one another and show each other affection. This is what allows the child to grow, to expand and to trust their own potential. Dialogue is a solid ground that can provide security, protection and encouragement, but for this to occur, it is necessary that we find a clear way of putting our thoughts into words. This is what this book is about: setting the tone for conversation and building a perspective that can provide our children with clear paths.

In writing this book, I also had the goal of building up parenting networks; it is a book that can be read in groups: with each parenting group that meets at my workshops, I reinforce the idea that work is easier when shared. Watching over a child is a meticulous craft, and reflecting within the context of a network truly makes the whole experience much richer. For this reason, the book includes questions and exercises that might be useful if approached either individually or as a group.

We will discuss identities, communication and, at the core of it all, we will discuss the sublime love between parents and children.

Asking questions and increasing our awareness of what is going on around us will allow us, through new courses of action, to connect with our loved ones in a healthy manner. I will seek to provide thought-provoking words and, with them, create images that help us pivot towards a greater relational growth.

About the author:

A professional psychologist with extensive experience in family relationships, Matías Muñoz has always taken an integrational approach when dealing with the differing views of each family member. He was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in 1968. He earned a BA in Psychology from the Universidad del Salvador. Later on, he pursued studies in psychodiagnostics as well as psychoanalytical, systemic and humanistic theories, and completed a postgraduate course in systemic relational therapy at the Fundación Familias y Parejas in Buenos Aires. He currently works as a university professor and a clinical psychologist, and organizes preventive and counseling activities for families at educational institutions and companies.

 

Translated by Sofía Yáñez / Edited by Marita Propato