The Institute for Humanistic Education and Parenting

The Institute for Humanistic Education and Parenting has helped families raise children with respect, genuine communication, concern for emotional development, mutual accountability rather than punishment, and the possibility of lifelong friendship between parent and child.


From The Institute’s Mission Statement:

The Institute implements community programs to promote peaceful conflict resolution, child-centered teaching and parenting, anti-bias education, communications skills, and problem-solving skills. We hold a shared commitment to peace, social justice, environmental health, and the empowerment of all people, especially children. We teach and encourage a global awareness and appreciation of the world’s diversity. The goals are to develop, assist, support, and promote structures in all arenas of human life which are based on a respect for the dignity and worth of each human being, a belief in the capacity of humans for self-realization and self-actualization, a respect for the earth that sustains us, and a belief in the possibility of peaceful living in the global community.


The Institute Programs

Play Mountain Place

The Institute’s school for humanistic education.

Peaceful Parenting Program

This program provides a full spectrum of workshops, meetings, audio recordings, films, books, and articles to assist families in learning healthy, non-authoritarian ways of interacting. For parents participating in Play Mountain Place, this program also includes on-going communication and support, and frequent parent conferencing with skilled staff.

Humanistic Education Program

The Humanistic Education Program provides training for professionals in teaching, counseling, psychology, and organizational development. Interns in this program are placed in the school’s daily program for a practicum. Supervision meetings, weekly seminars, readings, conferences, and writings supplement the practicum. The program is suited for independent learning or college credit.

Anti-Bias Leadership Program

The Institute’s anti-bias leadership program encourages parents to question and challenge stereotypes, prejudices, and biased behavior. It is offered to parents and teachers at Play Mountain Place through workshops, discussions, and observation of the program at work in the school.


The Institute Workshops

The Institute is pleased to offer workshops to help all people gain lifetime skills in communication and non-violent interaction. The workshop we offer most often is our Communication Skills Workshop. Over the years, we have also offered workshops in Listening, Family Meetings, Prejudice Reduction and Anger Outlets for Children and Parents. If you are interested in taking the Communication Skills Workshop, please give us a call. We keep a waiting list, and once we offer the course to the currently enrolled families, we call the waiting list to fill the class. If you would like to be on the waiting list for the Communication Skills Workshop, please call us at (323) 870-4381.

Communication Skills Workshop

This workshop introduces the basic skills needed for respectful communication in both calm and highly charged situations and illustrates how to use them in conflict resolution. These skills — which increase the respect level in communication, open blocked communication, and accommodate high emotions — are deceptively simple but require practice. They are subtly different from ordinary communication.

This workshop includes sessions on “I-Messages”, “Active Listening”, facilitation and conflict resolution. The workshop is experiential and includes time to practice the skills. Course Fee of $500 can be paid here.

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