Awareness of human development among parents is a key factor in the overall growth of their children. For instance, two children born in the same town and the same year to families with similar socioeconomic statuses. Still, one child grows up to be confident and the other grows up to timid and shy. This happens because of the difference in the child’s overall development process. Studies of human development allow parents, guardians, families, and caretakers to understand the full potential of children. With proper implementation of human development programs, parents can create an ideal relationship with their children, allowing them to grow up to their maximum potential in terms of physical, spiritual, psychological, and mental growth. There are several professionals providing consultancy related to human development programs to teachers, parents, caretakers, families, and individuals. One prominent example comes from a husband-wife duo, Ba & Josette Luvmour. The couple is well-known as Luvmour & Luvmour, who are authors, educators, human development specialists and consultants, and public speakers. They have their core specialty in human development, relationship-based education, consciousness studies, adult transformational learning, and various programs that teach the behavior of how adults and children grow together. The couple has also founded a proper human development program, known as Natural Learning Relationships (NLR). This program emphasizes creating relationships between adults and children in order to develop their mental, physical, and overall growth.
Luvmour & Luvmour have been working together since 1984. The couple’s key focus is on children and their parents to ensure the optimal well-being of both adults and children. Josette and Ba Luvmour met each other in 1979 and since they met, they studied and explored together about consciousness and human development. They created their own human development program, Natural Learning Relationships, which maps the evolution of consciousness throughout life. As educators and human development consultants, they have been implementing NLR in their experimental learning programs with parents and schools since the 1980s.
The couple initiated various holistic education schools for children and families. They also created a number of family immersion programs in California and Oregon. They currently serve as educators of children, students, parents, and students at the undergraduate and graduate levels. NLR is the philosophical foundation of the writings and consulting programs that they provide in learning centers, human development programs, and schools that they founded. They also developed and incorporated Rites of Passage programs for youth that spread awareness of developmental sensitivity and whole family support. To date, the couple has founded two non-profit organizations that provide self-knowledge and actualize wisdom in children and families. They also built and initiated a 35-acre retreat center and school in northern California. In 2003, the couple moved to Portland, Oregon, where they continued their services in human development consultancy.
Ba & Josette Luvmour co-founded Luvmour Consulting, LLC in their early professional careers. Then, they started teaching NLR programs to parents, teachers, guardians, and caregivers of children. The couple has also hosted and produced Meetings with Remarkable Educators podcasts that showcase the work, insights, and inspiration of educators.
Together, Josette and Ba Luvmour have authored and published books to educate Natural Learning Relationships (NLR) and human development to the masses. The books include Everyone Wins! Cooperative games and activities – 3rd ed. (2019), Relationship Based Education: Relationships and partnerships in educational environments – Vol. 6 (2019), Brain Development and The Natural Learning Relationships of children – Vol. 5 (2018), A Compendium of writings: The work and ideas of Luvmour & Luvmour 2010 – 2016 – Vol. 4 (2018), Freedom in Education: Talks at the Brockwood Park Krishnamurti School 30th Anniversary – Vol. 3 (2018), Effective Boundaries with children: Creating and maintaining healthy boundaries with all age children – Vol. 2 (2018), Natural Learning Relationships: An introduction to whole-child development – Vol. 1, Win-Win games for all ages: Cooperative activities for building social skills (2002), Tiger by the Tail: Essays on the inherent spirituality of Natural Learning Rhythms (1998), Natural Learning Rhythms: How and when children learn (1993), Everyone Wins! Cooperative games and activities. Philadelphia (1990), and Towards Peace: Cooperative Games & Activities (1989).
Individually, Ba Luvmour has authored Nurturing a Child’s Consciousness: Natural Learning Relationships and the roles of parents, educators and caregiver paperback (2021), Beyond Metaphor: Dialogue from the realm of self-knowledge (2011), and Optimal Parenting: Using Natural Learning Rhythms to nurture the whole child (2006).
However, Josette Luvmour has individually written Grow Together: Parenting as a path to well-being, wisdom, and joy (2017) & Adult development: Emergent wisdom in the family context (2010).