A focused course in development
You hear the words leave your mouth. They sound too much like the home you grew up in.
You love your child, you’ve thought carefully about the parent you want to be, and then bedtime arrives after a day with nothing left in it. This course looks at the moments when your own history enters the room, and at what repair can look like after a moment you wish had gone differently.
Hear when enrollment opens. No payment or enrollment commitment.
Who this is for
Open a situation to see where the curriculum explores it. These aren’t diagnostic questions, and you don’t need a particular job, income or level of outward functioning to consider the course.
The Parent Pause section considers the moments when one more request meets a day with nothing left in it. Your history matters alongside exhaustion and the help you actually have.
Explore this part of the course ↗The repair section asks what your child needs to hear and see next. Endless self-punishment and taking responsibility aren't the same thing.
Explore this part of the course ↗The history section considers what you were taught about limits and what you're trying not to repeat. Avoiding one extreme doesn't always tell you where you want to stand.
Explore this part of the course ↗The Parent Pause material looks at your response while keeping the actual child and present situation in view. Their feeling and the history it brings up for you aren't identical.
Explore this part of the course ↗The repair material considers an apology that belongs to the child rather than asking them to make the parent feel better. Adult distress needs adult support.
Explore this part of the course ↗The Both/And section makes room for parenting while still learning your own history. You don't get a separate empty season in which to finish all the personal work first.
Explore this part of the course ↗Parenting Past the Pattern
Join the waitlist and I’ll send the course details when enrollment opens. There’s no payment or commitment to enroll today.
Explore the planned course
Read about each part of the curriculum. Nothing you open here is recorded as a personal assessment or used to score your history.
Planned module 1 · Your History
Consider how your own childhood roles and relationship experiences can influence parenting. Look for a coherent account of your history without turning every difficult moment into proof that you’re repeating it.
Join the waitlistPlanned module 2 · The Parent Pause
Explore the Parent Pause and the situations where you’re most likely to react quickly. Consider how to notice old feelings while remaining aware of the child and circumstances in front of you.
Join the waitlistPlanned module 3 · Repair
Look at good-enough parenting and the process of repairing after conflict. Consider words and actions appropriate to a child’s age, without asking the child to reassure or take care of the parent.
Join the waitlistPlanned module 4 · The Both/And
Consider parenting while attending to your own healing. You can take responsibility for your behavior and recognize the circumstances and support needs that make change difficult.
Join the waitlistParenting Past the Pattern
Join the waitlist and I’ll send the course details when enrollment opens. There’s no payment or commitment to enroll today.
What we’re working toward
One difficult moment doesn’t have to be the end of the conversation.
These are learning goals and practices to explore, not guaranteed outcomes or a recovery timeline.
Inside the written material
The planned written material gives you room to put an idea into the terms of your own life. Finished sample pages will be available once this course's workbook is ready.
01 · Planned written material
A planned pause for noticing what is happening before choosing a response.
02 · Planned written material
Proposed written examples for different ages and ordinary parenting ruptures.
03 · Planned written material
Prompts about what you want to keep, change and get support with.
Annie Wright, the course creator, has been featured in
Explore the media archive ↗
The person behind the curriculum
I’m a licensed psychotherapist and an EMDRIA-certified EMDR therapist with more than 15,000 clinical hours. I’m also someone with a relational trauma history of my own. Those are different kinds of knowledge. Both inform how I teach.
I once bought a one-way ticket to the Esalen Institute in Big Sur with one suitcase and a few thousand dollars in savings. One month became two, then nearly four years of working, apprenticing and studying. I had to face the past in order to have a future.
Later, I founded, scaled and sold a multimillion-dollar, multi-state mental health company. Achievement was something I loved, and it had also been armor against shame and a path out of poverty. Understanding that distinction became another layer of my recovery.
I bring this clinical perspective into courses because an idea can be easier to work with when you can pause, return to it, and see how it connects with the next one. Your history is particular to you. The teaching gives you a structure for considering it, not a prescribed version of the life you should build.
Licensed in 15 U.S. jurisdictions, including Colorado for telehealth only, and registered to provide telehealth in Florida under Fla. Stat. 456.47.
Read more of my story ↗On the writing & professional resources
Readers tell me about the paragraph they sent to a friend, or the explanation they came back to when a familiar situation happened again. Colleagues tell me how they use the writing in their own work. Here are some of those notes.
Reader · Excerpt
“You're a gifted writer, you offer empathy and clear headed explanations for complicated issues. You address real life issues in a user friendly/supportive way.”
Annie, with your writing, you are making an important contribution to a wider audience than could ever meet with you one on one. You're a gifted writer, you offer empathy and clear headed explanations for complicated issues. You address real life issues in a user friendly/supportive way. It's beautiful and a gift. AND, you back up what you say with solid research.
Fellow therapist · On Annie’s writing · Excerpt
“As a therapist myself, Annie's work is my go-to resource for my clients with complex relational trauma.”
As a therapist myself, Annie's work is my go-to resource for my clients with complex relational trauma. I can't count the number of times I have assigned a client the homework of, 'read Annie Wright's blog.' Without fail, my clients report back feeling seen, understood, and less alone.
Reader · Excerpt
“I'm so grateful to have found your writing. I see so much of myself in your posts (hello, hiding in a packed calendar!).”
I'm so grateful to have found your writing. I see so much of myself in your posts (hello, hiding in a packed calendar!). And what I enjoy about your writing is your skill at delving deep behind the whys of behavior, and also providing practical applications folks can try to walk a new path. Thank you for opening your wisdom to the world!
Fellow therapist · On Annie’s resources
“For years, I struggled to find resources that spoke specifically to family estrangement. Annie's work is the resource I wish I'd had years ago.”
Reader
“Your articles are always informative, wise, balanced, real and always resonate. I appreciate you very much.”
Reader
“Whenever I think the blog isn't going to apply to me, it always hits the nail on the head. Thank you, Annie!”
Newsletter reader
“This email was amazing. You gave the parts application outside of 'x does this because of y' textbook examples. Thanks so much for writing it.”
Article reader
“Annie, I'm so grateful for this article and space. It matters so much to have these important conversations and break the silence around trauma.”
Article reader
“Dear Annie, so pleased to get a deeper understanding of the complexity of relationship after reading this article. A degree of ease has since settled into my crowded thoughts with what I am going through at the moment.”
Reader · On Annie’s writing · Excerpt
“I've continued to follow Annie's work as she offers realistic suggestions about how to heal through relationship.”
Annie first captured my attention in her work about complex relational trauma. From this work, I began to realize the many maladaptive thoughts and beliefs I've been carrying throughout my life and the problems they were causing me. I've continued to follow Annie's work as she offers realistic suggestions about how to heal through relationship.
Reader · On Annie’s writing
“Annie's work has provided me with an understanding of my place within my birth family, guidance on being true to myself and caring for myself, and tools for thoughtfully and compassionately dealing with my family before and after my father's illness and death.”
Fellow therapist · On Annie’s writing
“As a therapist and a human, I work and live in all of this. Thank you for your beautiful, eloquent words of truth.”
Reader · On posts and newsletters
“Thank you for this! There are times when I look at what I have and know it's more than I ever imagined and I ask myself 'Why am I not blissfully happy, why isn't it enough?' Luckily we have your posts and newsletters. Thank you!”
Reader · On Annie’s writing
“I think it's a tremendously powerful analysis. I know that it has triggered realisations in myself and with others with whom I have mentioned this.”
Reader · On Annie’s posts
“Thank you for another incredibly beautiful post, Annie. It resonated so deeply with me that I looked back in a folder where I keep 'doodles,' things I have drawn or written at times that I feel something rising up that needs to be acknowledged.”
Parenting Past the Pattern
Join the waitlist and I’ll send the course details when enrollment opens. There’s no payment or commitment to enroll today.
Course details
You love your child, you’ve thought carefully about the parent you want to be, and then bedtime arrives after a day with nothing left in it. This course looks at the moments when your own history enters the room, and at what repair can look like after a moment you wish had gone differently.
When enrollment opens
You don’t have to decide today whether this is your next step. Joining the waitlist asks me to let you know when the course is available.
Join the waitlistNo checkout, payment or immediate course access.
Payment and course terms ↓Parenting Past the Pattern
Join the waitlist and I’ll send the course details when enrollment opens. There’s no payment or commitment to enroll today.
Before you decide
You should be able to understand what you’re considering without having to guess what the title means or what comes next.
No. A more useful question is what happens before a difficult moment and what you do afterward. The outline gives attention to pauses, responsibility and repair, not the promise that you’ll never lose patience.
It isn’t an individualized parenting assessment or treatment plan for your child. The focus is the connection between your history and your parenting responses. A child’s developmental or clinical needs may require separate professional support.
The published outline includes age-adapted repair language from toddlers through teenagers. That doesn’t make every example right for every family. The final materials and age coverage will be confirmed before enrollment.
This course is in development, and enrollment isn’t open. Join the waitlist to hear when it’s available and read the finished course details before you decide. No release date is promised here.
The outline describes the planned subjects and written material. I'll share the final lessons, resources, access terms and price before enrollment opens.
No. The course is a separate educational offer. You don’t need to be in my practice, have a particular career or meet an income threshold to consider the material. A course doesn’t include an individual assessment or treatment relationship.
The material may give you questions to discuss with your therapist. Whether it fits your circumstances and the timing of your care is something to consider together. A course isn’t a reason to stop support that’s helping.
The planned format is self-paced. No required live group or community access is being promised on this page. You can read the outline and explore the cards without sharing your history or receiving a score.
You’re asking for updates about this specific course. Joining the waitlist doesn’t purchase access or commit you to enrolling. You can unsubscribe from course emails.
The next step
Join the waitlist and I’ll email you when enrollment opens, with the details you need to decide.
Joining doesn’t purchase access or commit you to enrolling. You can unsubscribe from course emails.
For when enrollment opens
Joining the waitlist is free. The course price, contents, access and support details, and refund policy will be available before you decide whether to buy.
