Calling Home Foundations

All the content we produce at Calling Home is based on these eleven pillars. You can return to these anytime to reinforce your family's foundation.

Respectful Communication

At Calling Home, we believe that family members should treat each other with kindness, respect, and compassion. This means that family members expect to receive respect as part of their membership in the group and are also expected to give respect in return.

Boundaries

Families with boundaries have better relationships, improved health, increased confidence, and more effective communication. Adult family members who are able to communicate their boundaries effectively have more satisfying family dynamics.

Rituals and Traditions

Family traditions connect us and provide meaning and enrichment to our lives. Calling Home helps family members identify what is meaningful to them and how to integrate it into their lives.

Family Values

Family values have the power to shape and change the entire family unit. They are the guiding force in a family that impacts how the members behave, their decisions, and how they feel as family members. When you become aware of your family’s values and accept that you have the power to shape them, you can take control of your family’s narrative and well-being.

Conflict Management

Conflict is a normal part of family life, it’s all about how it is handled. Family members can grow closer through conflict by using respectful communication and the right conflict management skills.

Active Listening

Actively listening builds deep, positive relationships and inspires change without threatening the person who is speaking. Research clearly shows that active listening is one of the most effective ways to promote change in individuals and groups. People who are listened to become more emotionally mature, more open to new experiences, less defensive, more democratic, and less authoritarian.

Dysfunctional Family Traits

Family dysfunction often happens as a result of an interplay between a variety of complex factors. When families are aware of the factors that can lead to dysfunction, and they know what dysfunction looks like, they can work together to change.

Functional Family Traits

Functional, healthy families still have conflict and problems. They are just able to adapt when facing a challenge and strive for closeness in moments of struggle. At Calling Home, we teach members what functional families look and sound like.

Routine

Your family’s routine is how you organize your life and where you spend your time. Routines also tell your family what is important. The things that we do every day are the things that matter most. Our routine habits can strengthen our family bonds by promoting belonging, togetherness, and continuity across time.

Safety

Family safety is extremely important to us at Calling Home. We believe that all family members should feel safe with one another and in their homes. We teach members how to create emotional and physical safety in their families.

The Family Meeting

Ideally, your family will sit down for a regular meeting at the frequency that makes sense for you. Most families appreciate (at a minimum) a weekly check-in and a more intensive monthly meeting. What matters most is that you are consistent and clear and that important members of the family are able to participate. At Calling Home, we teach families how to structure and host regular meetings.