Tina Payne Bryson, Ph.D.

Dr. Tina Payne Bryson is a lecturer, parenting educator, and mom. She is the Director of Parenting Education and Development for the Mindsight Institute where, along with internationally known child psychiatrist Dr. Daniel J. Siegel, she teaches parents and professionals how to understand parenting relationships in the context of the changing brain. Tina has her Ph.D. from the University of Southern California, where her research explored attachment science, childrearing theory, and the emerging field of interpersonal neurobiology.

But Tina emphasizes that before she’s a parenting educator, or a researcher, she’s a mom. Alongside her husband of 14 years, parenting Ben, Luke, and J.P. is what makes her happiest: “They’re my heart. Their little personalities make life so much fun. They’ve also made my research very personal, helping bring together the different roles I play in my life, where I’m part-time educator/researcher, and full-time potty-trainer/super-Jedi-spy-Mom-with-laser-powers. In other words, as I’ve studied attachment and childrearing theory and the science of how brains work, I’ve been able to apply that knowledge and let it help me parent more the way I want: lovingly, intentionally, and effectively.”

Tina’s professional life now focuses on taking research and theory from various fields of science, and offering it to parents in a way that’s clear, realistic, humorous, and immediately helpful. As she puts it, “For parents, learning about how their kids’ (and their own) brains work is surprisingly practical, informing how they handle discipline, how they help their kids deal with everyday struggles, and ultimately how they connect with their children. Most parents haven’t heard this information before, and yet it is so helpful. So one of my main goals is to take scientifically-grounded knowledge, and use it to help parents better understand their kids and themselves, and most importantly, to apply it in the parenting trenches—in their breakfast-table, grocery-store, temper-tantrum, everyday parenting world.” If you want to learn more about Tina, you can check out her website at www.tinabryson.com

ARTICLES BY Tina Payne Bryson, Ph.D.