Children's Minnesota, Sanford Health, Tulane, and Anschutz Medical Center

Virtual 5-week program in the Fall, 2021

Empact Parenting is a world-recognized comprehensive outcomes-based parenting program for families that have children with special needs and medical conditions. The Empact Parenting Basics program is a introduction to some of the parenting topics and tools that are typically included in Empact Parenting programs.

Topics included are -

  • parenting styles
  • "new normal"
  • dreams and visions
  • entitlement vs empowerment
  • feelings
  • managing undesirable behaviors (part 1 & 2)
  • elements of effective communication

This program is a hybrid. It is a self-study and includes videos and exercises that require about 3-hours of time. Then, parents will be invited to participate in live facilitated zoom sessions to discuss their perspectives about the program's content and their own life experiences of having a teen or young adult with a bleeding disorder. Parents will be provided a hard-copy handbook. Students should use the handbook to capture their notes and to complete the parenting exercises. The dates and times of the zoom sessions will be announced in the near future.

The five weekly parent-to-parent zoom sessions will start on Wednesday, October 20th at 7:30P CT/ 6:30P MT.

This program is being hosted by the HTCs at Children's Minnesota, Sanford Health-Fargo, ND, Tulane, and Anschutz Medical Center - Denver, CO. Other HTCs may become hosts by inviting their parents to participate in this program. If you are an HTC and would like your parents to participate, please contact us at [email protected].

This program is is available through a sponsorship provided by Bayer Pharmaceuticals.


Your Instructors


Danna Merritt, MSW
Danna Merritt, MSW

Danna is a licensed clinical social worker with over four decades of experience working with families that have children with serious medical conditions and special needs. She founded the original Empact Parenting program over twenty years ago and launched the Energizing & Empowering Minds non-profit in 2016 to continue to ensure that parents have access to the support that they need. Danna retired from Children’s Hospital of Michigan and lives in Noblesville, Indiana. She is a mother of two daughters with six grandchildren. She enjoys spending her spare time with her family creating experiences and memories.


Frequently Asked Questions


When does the course start and finish?
The course starts now and never ends! It is a completely self-paced online course - you decide when you start and when you finish.
Who should take this course?
This course has been uniquely designed for parents of children with special needs or medical conditions.
What if I am unhappy with the course?
We would never want you to be unhappy! However, since this program includes downloadable content, there will be no refunds.

This course is closed for enrollment.