Jan Hunt - Biography

Jan Hunt, B.A. Psychology (Magna cum Laude), M.Sc. Counseling Psychology, is the Director of the Natural Child Project, an attachment parenting/unschooling counselor, and a member of the Board of Directors of the CSPCC (Canadian Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children). She is also a member of the advisory boards of Holistic Moms Network, Child-Friendly Initiative, and Attachment Parenting International. 

Jan is the author of The Natural Child: Parenting From the Heart and the bilingual children's picture book A Gift for Baby, and co-edited The Unschooling Unmanual with her always-unschooled son, Jason. Many of her articles are available online at naturalchild.org.

Jan envisions "a world in which all children are treated with dignity, respect, understanding, and compassion." She lives in British Columbia, and is available for counseling worldwide.

Published works

• A Gift for Baby (The Natural Child Project, 2009)

• The Unschooling Unmanual (The Natural Child Project, 2008)

• The Natural Child: Parenting from the Heart (New Society, December 2001)

• "Ten Reasons Not to Hit Your Kids", Appendix D in Alice Miller's Breaking Down the Wall of Silence, (New York: Dutton, 1991).

• Newspaper column: The Natural Child: Parenting and Education that Respects Children, 1989-1998.

• "Nurturing Children's Natural Love of Learning", Foreword to Homeschooling in Oregon, Ann Lahrson, Portland: Out of the Box Publishing, 1994.

• "Ten Reasons to Respond to a Crying Child", Empathic Parenting, Journal of the CSPCC, Summer 1996, pp. 7-8.

Professional Recommendations

"I consider Jan Hunt's writing as exceptionally clear, based on facts, and coming out of her own experience. Parents rarely find in the press the essential, precious information her work could give them. I very much hope that her strong voice will become more and more known in the world through her lucid, well-informed writing." - Dr. Alice Miller, author of Breaking Down the Wall of Silence and Thou Shalt Not Be Aware

"Jan Hunt is a most diligent, energetic, and well-informed person with regard to children's issues. She is one of the few people who understands and can write about the real needs of children as opposed to the rationalized needs of parents in relation to their children. Moreover, she can do this in an engaging fashion that does not put parents off. For the sake of children everywhere, I hope that her Internet columns are widely read and taken to heart." - Dr. Elliott Barker, Director, Canadian Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children

"Jan's writing is insightful, carefully thought out, wonderfully readable, and very useful. I wish for her writing to have as large an audience as possible. Adults all over the world need to hear the ideas she expresses so well." - Rick Lahrson, Executive Director, The Kids' Project