Every parent wants to do well and help their child to thrive.
Every parent needs support, encouragement, and resources to make that happen.
Let’s build whole communities of well-resourced parents caring for thriving children together.
Welcome!
I’m Emily Murray. I’m a mom to an 18 year old and 10 year old and live in Southern Maine with my family. For the past 20+ years I have been bringing transformational support to parents and families.
I began working in this field before I had children of my own because I could see the impact that better support and more resources could have on a family. Ripples of this support flow out to the community and the world.
I began working as a birth and postpartum doula which led to founding Birth Roots Center for Community Supported Parenting and the Facilitating Community facilitation style. Birth Roots is still going strong serving hundreds of families every year.
I found Hand in Hand Parenting when my oldest was a toddler because there was a surprising gap between the parent I wanted to be and the parent that was coming out of my mouth.
With the tools that I now teach to parents and professionals, I was able to close that gap and feel a whole lot more connected to my kids and way better about myself.
I want to help you feel confident in how you respond to your child’s needs and off track moments, too. I can help you cultivate the conditions for more laughter, connection, and flexibility to grow in your family.
If you’re a professional who works with children, parents, or communities or you lead an organization that does, I have support for you, too! We can create ripples together with this vital work of equipping parents with effective and flexible tools to be the parents they want to be.
It’s All About Chemistry
I wish I could share the parenting manual that would be guaranteed to work for every family but it just doesn’t exist. Parenting is relationship-building and it takes understanding each person and the context they live in to create good communication and connection. That leads to more cooperation and less chaos.
The practice of parenting is working on the chemistry of all the factors in your family life. My classes and programs provide opportunities to experiment, compare notes, make plans, and refuel your energy so you can be a confident connection chemist.
Experimenting means that sometimes we mess up, but don’t worry, I have the repair tools to support that work, too. Parenting is a life-long relationship that is forever growing and changing and evolving. These tools and this approach grows with you and can be applied in whatever situation emerges.
Our best work happens when we are well-supported and working in a community of others.
I am the Program Director at Hand in Hand Parenting where I support our instructor community all over the world as they bring these connection tools into their communities. It is such a joy to be a part of the evolution and growth of all of our programs. Teaching our Foundations for Professionals Course, presenting webinars, and co-managing the Parent Club Community provide opportunities for me to see the transformational effects of these Tools and keep me inspired in this work. Hand in Hand teaches 5 simple but powerful tools that foster connection and understanding in families and communities.
I am the co-founder of Birth Roots Center for Community Supported Parenting, a nonprofit in Portland, Maine. We’re celebrating our 20th anniversary supporting the families of Southern Maine and raising the bar of expectations for perinatal support and care. We created and pioneered the Facilitating Community facilitation style and Community Supported Parenting prenatal and postpartum programming. These unique approaches create pluralistic spaces where participants can make sense of their experience, connect with others in the same phase of life, and find perspective amid the personal metamorphosis that happens in pregnancy and early parenting.