Mark Brady, Ph.D. is a transpersonal neurobiologist and a neuroscience and creativity educator. Many years ago, together with friends, he co-founded the Children’s Grief Program at Kara, a public service agency in Palo Alto, California where he only stopped volunteering upon moving to Whidbey Island, Washington. Mark spent 10 years at The Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences at Stanford, one of the nation’s premier think tanks (stalking behavioral scientists in their natural habitat) undercover as the maintenance man!). He is also the prize-winning author of a number of books, magazine articles and academic papers. Two popular titles are: Noble Listening and Fierce Listening. paideia@gmail.com. He will be offering a new online program in The Neurobiology of Radical Creativity that can be found HERE.
The Flowering Brain 
Mark – this looks beautiful and excellent. congratulations. really fine.
I love this already! Thank you for including me. I will pass on your website to my community college students, to whom I am always teaching brain development — because what can be more important? I work it into everything (I teach Human Development and Early Childhood Education classes)
Congratulations on an excellent beginning! And what a great bibliography for me to get started on!
Pam
I’d like to be on your e-mailing list. I will be able to use the one I just read with parents of young children. Thanks.
Great job, Mark. I was impressed by your passion in your work in my visit last week, and here it is laid out beautifully. You’re addressing the most critical need in our society. Congratulations.
This is fantastic Mark, thank you so much for letting me know. I also read the first entry and found it fantastic. It was easy to read and understand left me wanting to read more. Again thank you, as a parent your information is very appreciated and valued.
Thanks – I look forward to reading your future articles!
Thank you! It all starts in the brain. Help me help myself and others grow a smarter more resilient one!
Mark,
Congratulations on translating neuroscience into something we all can grasp. The blog looks great. A suggestion: Be sure to keep the posts/bites/bytes in digestible sizes–less can be more on the web.
Your synopsis and linking will be a fantastic resource.
Bravo!
Ruth
“Be sure to keep the posts/bites/bytes in digestible sizes–less can be more on the web.”
I disagree. These articles are about complex subjects. I don’t believe they need to be broken down into one-minute ‘bytes’.
Oh Mark… what a tease. It is truly lovely and caught me right away. Yeah, I will stay tuned. Look forward to your nexty book too. Wow. I love witnessing your mark on the planet; makes me smile. Keep up the good work. It will get digested.
Dear Mark, after 45 years of friendship I can truly say you have found your niche. Your intelligence, curiosity, and creativity have combined to bring the world this important information. I will be sure to pass it on to others.
Great stuff! I love the insight into neurotransmitters. Will you please add the effects of such experiences on the adolescent brain?
Look forward to reading your book on listening and fathers.
Keep at it!
Don;t remember how I got on your e mail list, but thanks for the blog and information. Great and familiar references!
Great info for all parents and anyone thinking of becoming a parent.
Glad I came across your site.
Debbie
What a great dose of humor!!! I know the irrational commitment theory well! After the grafitti, pot smoking, shamanistic endeavors, I keep the commitment to supporting the creativity process! As a friend who has 12 kids, says, “Just love them and feed them!”
Mark…Thanks for your thoughts…keep writing.
Here’s a couple of thoughts regarding irrational committment from a set of my poems on parenting. Enjoy.
A Parent’s Hand
It’s perfectly sensible as sense can be,
That an infant’s cry can find relief,
Only through a parent’s hand,
Attending touch, assuring strand,
Persistent presence of scent, of sound,
For nowhere else can this be found.
More Poems at:
http://jaymeshanny–americaninmeditation.blogspot.com/
JH
Mark,
Thank you for this wonderful work and insight into how to really help kids. As a therapist that works with children, I appreciate this material and see it as a gift for so many. Congratulations.
Hi Mark,
I have never really been able to follow blogs very well. I am a relational learner – I generally need to interact wtih others in order to learn in a meaningful way. (And some of your blog actually helps me understand that better!) But I am pressing myself to engage with your amazing endeavor here because it is so important and so profoundly valuable.
As a parenting educator who sees about 500 parents each year, I am thinking about ways that we can translate this to make it easily accessible to the participants in my classes. Your well crafted messages offer the biological basis of the principles many parenting educators have known intuitively and have been teaching for years.
At the very least I am going to remind the listserv of the National Parenting Education Network and our local network in Connecticut about you. Let me know how else I can best support your work. It is wonderful and inspiring!
I would love to hear more about your work – I just became certified to teach Infant Massage and am hoping to qualify as a post-partum doula early next year. I am drawn to this work by the fundamental importance of good bonding and attachment early in life, and especially love the neuroscience around this area. Glad to have found your writing. Thank you!
Mark:
I am enjoying your newsletter so much. It is both thought provoking and informative add to that a little stretching and tickling of the neurons, wow. Thanks.
Dear Mark,
I have been following your work thanks to Jeanne Denny. Every
new post is so timely for me. I find it interesting, helpful and thought provoking.
I would love the opportunity to correspond
with you regarding your work and the work I am interested in doing with families.
Thank You.
Diana
I am moved by what you say and how you say it. It connects with me deeply as a child still growing and as a parent of a child.
I will add you to my blogroll and look forwarding to visiting here on a regular basis.
Do you ever come to socal to talk?
best, gwendolyn aka art predator
Mark,
I am not sure how I got on your distribution list but I am so pleased that I was included. Thank you Mark for your thoughtful and often humorous insights. I look forward to each new posting as another great opportunity for expansion. Keep it coming.
Namaste…
I LOVE THIS BLOG! I’ll definitely be adding you to my blogroll. As a mental health professional (although I don’t work with children), I have gained insights into my client’s (and my own) lives through reading this blog. Keep up the good work!
Rose
AKA
RosieSmrtiePants
Hi Mark, I like part ll, and will have to scroll back to see what happened to Part l. Maybe this could help my brother, sister-in-law, and neices….So nice to hear from you! Good work!
Hi Mark,
Jeanne recommended this newsletter to me. I love it! And, of course, her article rings true to me, too.
BTW…love the new ITP course module, too, which I just finished editing.
Regards,
Cynthia
Thanks so much for all this wonderful, illuminayting and easy-to-read information.
I admire your love and commitment to create more awareness to be better parents.
Is there anyplace on the web with your articles in Spanish? Are your books going to be transtalated to Spanish soon?
Best regards,
Vilma Olivera
CORA
San Mateo
Hi,
I’m an acupuncturist in NYC and Brooklyn; my specialty is helping adults prepare for parenthood, 1-5 years before actual pregnancy. My work is more focused on the people who are considering parenthood and their potential lifestyle decisions and spiritual choices, more so than it being fertility, pregnancy or baby-centric.
I’m currently writing a book on Conscious Preconception and learning about epigenetics in relation to family healing and preparing for a child. Do you have a half hour or so to speak by phone about your work and books?
There’s more about me on my website,
or I can be reached by email or telephone.
Thank you.
Warmly,
Echo
Mark,
Your blog site was passed on to me through the Oregon Holistic Nurses Assn. I am glad to see your posting about the integrated brain. You made a comment about the controversy of the heart involvement in coherence, but stated you suspected it’s there–we just don’t have the tools to measure and track it. I would recommend you study the work of Doc Childre and Howard Martin–what they are calling the HeartMath solution. They have been studying the connection of the heart with coherence for many years and are able to actually measure and document its existence and profound ability to help us shift into full-body entrainment. They have written many books–one of which is called The Heartmath Solution. They also have a website at http://www.heartmath.com.
Thanks for your contribution to the world.
deonne
Thank you for your timely e-mail. I was just having an e-mail argument re: LH & RH brains comparing Obama and McCain/Palin. I will forward your e-mail to my “opponent” and my argument will be strengthened by your contribution.
I am a Somatic Experiencing practitioner in Los Angeles and welcome your eloquent and thorough review of information that any of us therapists must be equipped with to really help heal trauma.
I will pass it on.
Elizabeth
Dr. Brady –
What a great site. With a six year old at home, I often find myself in these discussions with our neuroscience department. I’ve found their blog fascinating, although much more tecnical and far less useful as a parent: http://krasnow.blogspot.com/
many thanks,
Dr. Andrew Flagel
George Mason University
I appreciate your Blog and look forward to receiving your words, feelings and thoughts.
Keep up the great work.
Bryan
Hi Mark
I like what I’m reading 🙂
So important for parents and, children to be supported in a nurturing and validating way.
Like you, I also write. You might be interested in my first book ‘I Love Myself’, an affirmative book for children and in fact all who read it. It’s available in soft-cover and pdf format. If you contact me with an email I can email you the pdf version. It’s got some great reviews which are up on my website http://www.truepotential.co.nz
I find it so rewarding to know that youngsters here in New Zealand in some of our schools are affirming that they love themselves. Each page starts with “I love myself… followed with different applicable statements of every day situations such as “I Love myself … when other’s aren’t nice I say ‘please stop’ … anyways, just let me know if you’re interested and best of luck with all of your ventures,
Angela
Dear Mark,
I enjoy reading the information you are giving to all the parents. You are a blessing in this world. God will be with you and guide you as you continue this journey.
Bhagya
I just wanted to add to the many words of gratitude for your life and all you breathe out into this world. My childhood story shares a lot with yours. It is inspiring and encourages me to let my heart stay open like you so obviously have allowed yours.
Thank you,
Shoshana.
Mark,
I’ve got to admit, some of your topics are above my head; insightful but heady. I’ve visited several times now and the info and angle it’s presented from is eye opening.
Thanks for sharing your knowledge.
Mark, I just read the most recent post from your friend Jeanne. It resonates with me at so many levels! Thank you for sharing her with us. And, I also just wanted to check in on you and see how you are doing.
Sending lots of good thoughts and energy your way,
jody, in pa
mark– i posted a link to the corporal punishment blog on my facebook page- thought you may want to take a look at some of the replies!
Mark–I’m not sure how I got on your listserve, maybe because I am a midwife, but yours is the only blog I read every week. The brain is such a fascinating organ/soul, and parenting is the most difficult work we ever do. You combine current neuroscience knowledge with humor and wisdom. Thanks!
HI Marc,
what a great blog, congratulations!
I’m disseminating this nice inetrview with Natalie Goldberg and i saw your comment about her..
http://www.futureprimitive.org/interviews/156
also I want to share this gorgeous wild interview with the cibernetic/systemic psychologist Brad Keeney…it’s a great insight!
http://www.futureprimitive.org/interviews/62
warm greetings
JL
Mark,
Thanks! I was tipped off to your work through Linkedin today and am glad to see someone talking about these issues of early brain development and its impact beyond the academic. I am an independent children’s literacy consultant who promotes using literacy as a relationship-building tool (not an academic hothouse) in families. Feel free to visit my website and my blog for parents (http://parentsandkidsreadingtogether@blogspot.com).
Article I found interesting, and thought you might, too:
http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20527427.100-you-wont-find-consciousness-in-the-brain.html
Mark,
Just wanted to drop a note to say how much I enjoy your blog. I find it helpful in my roles as therapist and mother. I have no idea how you found me but I’m so glad you did. I read all the entries that come to my e mail. Sometimes I post them on facebook for others to read. Hope that’s Ok.
Best, Julie Minoff LCSW private practice in SF. Work with adults and teens
I haven’t got very far through your site, but am committed to coming back. My website has some similar goals, including looking at the neuroscience, but my background as a parent & teacher of at-risk 13 to 16 year olds & as a parent educator bring a little different spin.
Little. We are saying many of the same things. I love the information you have to back up what is true, and maybe you would appreciate what I have to offer in the backing it up department.
Very exciting. I will put a link to your website and recommend people check it out. With your permission, I would like to create a page or post under both my “Brain Science” and “Kid Betterness” sections that says a little something about your 3 Primary Parenting Practices with a link to your page(s).
🙂 Caitlyn
Thanks so much….your posts have become a Sunday ritual for me….
Hi from over in PT, Mark!! A friend shared this fascinating (and immensely fun to watch!) Rifkin YouTube with me today and I thought of you…
I REALLY wonder how the critical issue of solid attachment/bonding (and that subsequent neuro impact) ties into availability/responsiveness for this theory?
Would love your thoughts on this…
Blessings,
Melissa Layer
How did I know you would have a beard?
Hello!
How about a quick article on how to explain death to your 4 year old? My father passed away a couple years ago and my son has no memory of him but just did the math and realized he’s missing a grandad. We’re trying to work the cycle of life angle and explain that no one really knows what happens… people have varying beliefs…
And he’s still asking if we can talk to my father on the phone…?
Thanks!
Kimmy
Had to send you this after reading the reference to your out-coming book on listening today!
“to listen another’s soul into a condition of disclosure and discovery may be almost the greatest service that any human being ever performed for another”
Quote from Douglas Steere, 20th Century Quaker writer…
Meredith