Becoming a mother is one of the biggest changes that someone will go through in their life. A woman’s brain goes through several neurological changes once she becomes pregnant and then again once her baby is born. According to a review of research on the maternal brain, Dr. Jodi Pawluski found that during pregnancy and postpartum, women’s brains are at ...READ MORE »
Thanksgiving is upon us, the annual time of year at the end of November when we gather with friends and family, eat Turkey, stuffing, mac and cheese, cranberry sauce, sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes…you get the point. Turkey is actually my least favorite Thanksgiving food. Give me all the stuffing and in my best Ron Swanson impression, “Wait, wait, I worry ...READ MORE »
I’m writing this blog the week before Thanksgiving. So, of course, gratitude and thankfulness are broadcasted everywhere these days—at Target, on your favorite podcast, in your feed, and in those pesky pop ups when you are shopping online. Yet, I want to take a completely different spin on Thankfulness this time. During this long stretch of coping with COVID, I’ve ...READ MORE »
What is Parent Management Training? Parent Management Training (PMT) is an evidenced-based psychotherapy intervention, designed specifically to teach parents behavioral interventions they can use at home when dealing with unwanted behaviors, emotional outbursts, or general defiance. PMT was developed in the 1960s by Alan Kazdin at Yale University. It has been thoroughly researched, particularly over the last 40 years. The most ...READ MORE »
Do you ever feel you act differently at work versus with family? Have you ever said to yourself, “Part of me wants to do X, but another part of me wants to do Y.” The complexity of the human brain is such that we are capable of having multiple emotions, perspectives, and goals at the same time. Within our overall ...READ MORE »
Why play? Parents hear the term ‘play therapy’ as a recommendation from physicians and mental health professionals all the time…but how can play be therapeutic? Parents, this is an incredibly appropriate question to ask your provider and it makes sense that you want to know how investing time and money to see your little one play in a therapy room is ...READ MORE »
This blog is a sequel to last week’s blog written by our Clinical Director, Amanda Good, LICSW who wrote on August Scaries, which is about how to cope with feeling fearful during this month’s transition back into pandemic protocols and school year routines. As a family therapist in Washington, DC and a parent myself, I have been thinking about ...READ MORE »
Ever heard of the “Sunday Scaries” – or maybe you get them? It’s those feelings we get at the end of the weekend, the crash after a couple of days off work or school, the anxiety or dread thinking about the week ahead, or the “funk” we might fall into without even recognizing why. It’s really normal to feel this ...READ MORE »
This blog serves as a summary of the last two blogs on how parents can self-assess their parenting needs as they transition out of the pandemic, and ways that they can attempt to recover from the demands of the past year and a half. By offering a sample Parent Development Plan that parents can complete and execute on their ...READ MORE »
This blog follows last week’s post on Pandemic Hangovers for Parents. It offers a checklist for a PARENT CHECK-UP that parents can use to assess their needs and form better plans for themselves as they emerge from pandemic restrictions. Recently, I was meeting with a school counselor who supported hundreds of kids and almost twice that many parents during ...READ MORE »
