Raising a teen who has a hard time feeling empathy, who has a hard time understanding someone else’s emotional experience, or who is prone to extreme emotional outbursts can be tough on the entire family. The good news is that empathy and self-management can be cultivated by helping your child foster emotional intelligence skills. What […]
7 Practical Tips to Raising A Child With Autism
Finding out our son had autism was a major blow to the idealistic picture we held of what parenting might be like. Parenting, in general, is far from easy, but parenting a child with autism can be particularly demanding. In my last blog, I shared our journey about what extreme parenting sometimes feels like, and if you’re […]
Finding Out Your Child Has Autism
The day I discovered I was pregnant with our first child was one of the happiest days of my life. My husband and I had been married for three years and were ready to expand our party of two. My pregnancy was a healthy one, and I was thrilled about our next stage of life. […]
How to Bust Stress During the Holidays
Like the song says, the holidays are supposed to be “the most wonderful time of the year.” But, people with anxiety may disagree with that. The preparation and company the holiday provides can bring worries instead of joy. You could be feeling overwhelmed by looking at your long shopping list or seeing judgmental relatives. These […]
4 Ways to Respond When Someone Shares their Traumatic Experience
Trauma takes many forms. It can be loud and instantaneous. It can be silent and sustained. Perhaps it’s the rumble of the catastrophic earthquake that devastates a community and is gone moments later. Perhaps it’s the individual who suffers hidden abuse at the hands of a trusted family member for years. While the manifestations of […]
6 Tips on How Teens Can Cope With Back to School Anxiety
Let’s face it, we were really hoping that we would be in the post-pandemic phase of life. But, sadly, that just isn’t the case. And as the effects of Covid-19 continue to unfold and as the contentious debates about how to deal with it rages on, parents and teens are naturally anxious about what this […]
Help, My Kid Is Really Mad at Me
With more family time than ever before, the likelihood of family conflict is high. And lovingly responding to your child who is mad at you—is hard. Being on the receiving end of your child’s seething anger can be exhausting. Conflict between parents and kids is inevitable. I still remember being a tween and my parents […]
5 Ways to Support Your Kids During Scary Times
Let’s face it, we were really hoping 2021 would be phenomenal. And it still may be. But the images of the violence that took place in our nation’s capital were deeply disturbing and once again, placed us parents in the undesirable position of having to engage in really tough conversations with our kids. As parents, when chaos […]
4 Tips for Talking to Kids and Teens about Racism and Social Unrest
Over the past few months, our world has changed in profound ways. The effects of the global COVID-19 pandemic have been far-reaching and are now occurring in tandem with the quest for racial justice. The convergence of these events has made our jobs as parents even more challenging. Parents are now grappling with questions related […]
A Call to My White Therapist Friends for Humanity, Connection, and Leadership
Our nation is enduring a double pandemic. We went from a global health pandemic, COVID-19 to a racial pandemic which is taking a toll on the psychological well-being of those we serve, particularly our black clients. As therapists, we know all too well the damaging effects of enduring one significant crisis after another can have […]