Tina Payne Bryson

Dr. Tina Payne Bryson (she/her) is the author of THE BOTTOM LINE FOR BABY (Random House 2020) and co-author (with Dan Siegel) of THE POWER OF SHOWING UP (Random House 2020) and THE YES BRAIN (Random House 2018), as well as two New York Times bestsellers -- THE WHOLE-BRAIN CHILD (Random House 2011), and NO-DRAMA DISCIPLINE (Random House 2014) -- each of which has been translated into over fifty languages. THE WHOLE-BRAIN CHILD has now sold over a million copies.Tina is a psychotherapist and the Founder/Executive Director of The Center for Connection, a multidisciplinary clinical practice, and of The Play Strong Institute, a center devoted to the study, research, and practice of play therapy through a neurodevelopment lens. Tina keynotes conferences and conducts workshops for kids, parents, educators, clinicians, and industry leaders all over the world, and she makes frequent media appearances (for example, in TIME Magazine, “Good Morning America,” Huffington Post, Redbook, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and Real Simple). A graduate of Baylor University, she earned her LCSW and PhD from the University of Southern California, where her research explored attachment science, childrearing theory, and the emerging field of interpersonal neurobiology.Tina emphasizes that before she’s a parenting educator, or a researcher, she’s a mom. She limits her clinical practice and speaking engagements so that she can spend time with her family. Alongside her husband of 27 years, parenting her three boys is what makes her happiest.Tina’s professional life now focuses on taking research and theory from various fields of science, and offering it in a way that’s clear, realistic, humorous, and immediately helpful. As she puts it, “For parents, clinicians, and teachers, learning about how kids’ (and their own) brains work is surprisingly practical, informing how they approach discipline, how they help kids deal with everyday struggles, and ultimately how they connect with the children they care about.”