Bill Kortenbach

Counterpredators: Survival Response Conditioning and the Parent / Child Connection. Bill Kortenbach

"Counterpredators" is a modern solution to an ancient problem: Parents face the overwhelming responsibility of training their children to navigate the threat environment and safely molding them into powerful, self-aware, authentic adults. At the same time, many parents do not themselves possess the necessary skill set--and when their children sense this, they begin to adopt questionable heroes and role models. In the natural world, animal parents train their young by repeatedly exposing them to hazard, while demonstrating efficient risk management, yet our society teaches us to do the exact opposite: Shelter and protect our children from whatever might harm them. As a result, many children are profoundly unprepared to deal with real threat. Since both animal and human young are equally vulnerable, it is easy to spot the weak link: The unprepared human parent. To solve this problem, parents need to assume a powerful new identity, something unique and elemental that rivets the attention and imagination of their children. They must become counterpredators: individuals who have the skill and the will to engage and overcome human threats.