In a world where children are more anxious, angry, and alone than ever before, Hold Onto Your Kids dares to ask a simple but revolutionary question: what if the real crisis isn’t in our kids — but in our disconnection from them?

Told through the intimate lens of trauma-informed therapist and filmmaker Merissa Turner, this film follows a personal and collective journey into the heart of attachment. When her teenage son becomes the mirror to her own questions about love, influence, and belonging, Merissa sets out to understand what’s gone missing in our relationships with our children.

Along the way, she meets families in crisis, parents on the edge, and children silently slipping away. Woven through these stories is the wisdom of renowned developmental psychologist Dr. Gordon Neufeld, whose life’s work has helped thousands reframe children's "bad behavior" as a cry for connection — not correction.

At the center of this journey is Dr. Gabor Maté, celebrated trauma expert and co-author of the bestselling book Hold On to Your Kids. Gabor shares a rare and intimate account of how his own struggles as a parent led him to Neufeld’s work. Their relationship — both personal and professional — grounds the film in a deep urgency: attachment isn’t just theory, it’s a lifeline.

This is not another parenting guide. It’s a cinematic reckoning with a culture that rewards independence before readiness, peers over parents, and performance over presence. But it’s also a film of profound hope — because attachment isn’t something we missed; it’s something we can restore.

Through real-life sessions, raw conversations, and poetic moments of reconnection, Hold Onto Your Kids shows us that it’s never too late to turn toward the ones we love. If we want to change the future, we must start by holding on — not harder, but closer.