Jewish Holding Environments

Drawn from the mother-infant relationship, the holding environment is an environment that nurtures and fosters the natural development of a young person.

“I often joke that I do my best parenting Shabbat morning before synagogue, when I am drinking my coffee and absorbed in a book. Sitting at my dining room table, I am just present enough to let my children know they are safe and just distracted enough to let them figure out whatever conflict arises. In my mind, I am creating, what the British psychoanalyst Donald Winnicott termed the “holding environment.”

Read the complete essay on Lookstein Center.

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