So often, children come into our office for treatment of symptoms, and we later discover that parents are struggling with issues of their own. This might seem obvious–especially since COVID, what parent doesn’t have some level of stress, overwhelm, or some trauma from the past few years?! I have had so many parents express their fears to me: what if ...READ MORE »
This blog post is a followup to last week’s post on THE Parenting “AHA.” It outlines Galinsky’s Stages of Parent Development (plus two of my own suggestions) and aligns it with Erickson’s Stage Theory of Child Development. Why is this important to side-by-side? Because we grow as parents alongside our children as they grow. When we are thoughtful about ...READ MORE »
I see as you’re struggling, and I have so much compassion for you. For the nights you lie awake worrying about your kids, the moments of guilt after you scream because you’ve reached your wit’s end, the painful goodbye as you leave your crying child at school or cry as you leave your child, the anxiety-filled silence as you wait ...READ MORE »
This post follows last week’s post about How to Give Yourself A Parent Check-UP. It offers you a way to take what you assessed last time and put it into a plan of action for growth. First, let’s consider the questions from your check-up. There were A LOT, I know. Let’s condense that information into a summary for you ...READ MORE »
This blog follows up on an earlier 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 ...READ MORE »
So here we are. After 4 posts about contemporary sexual practices and expectations for our teens, we are ready to talk about how to promote positive sexual health with your teen. From my research, I believe that the sex positivity movement from the 1990’s lends us a hand in this goal. Sex Positivity: What it Means and How ...READ MORE »
This blog post is the 4th in a five part series on healthy sexuality for children and teens. Last post, we boosted parents up to tackle conversations with their daughters about sexual health. In this post, we want to add boys to the mix. First, let’s think about a framework for helping boys view themselves as developing young men (assuming ...READ MORE »
Calling all parents who are parenting girls! Please come GET REAL with me. I have an almost 14 year old daughter and her sexual development is front and center for me lately. She’s 5’5”, fully developed, and heading to high school next year. All I have to do is think back to my 14 year old self, and realize ...READ MORE »
As a child/teen therapist for almost 25 years and a leading mental health consultant, I often have conversations with parents and educators about how to have difficult conversations with kids. These adults come to me knowing that I’ve spent countless hours talking with children and teens about their problems, which often are due to painful experiences. And having treated ...READ MORE »
I was inspired to write this five part blog series after I listened to podcast on healthy sexual pleasure by Dr. Lori Brotto, “Restart Your Sex Life,” which was hosted by Glennon Doyle Home – We Can Do Hard Things – The Podcast (wecandohardthingspodcast.com). It focused on how adult women (especially) can create more health in their sex ...READ MORE »
