Self-compassion is an important part of parenting children and adolescents. A few years ago, the Washington Post published an article called “Teaching Children Self-Compassion by Modeling it Ourselves” by Mandy Lange. The article addresses the idea that children learn how to respond to their difficulties, stressors, and mistakes through their own experiences, and through what […]
The summer before college represents a huge transition between high school graduation and leaving for school in the fall. Families are proud, excited, worried, and quite busy. There is much to do and prepare for, especially if that teen is headed to college in the fall. The summer after graduation is an exciting and overwhelming […]
….When kids struggle, parents often suffer too. And they often suffer alone, while trying very hard to appear like everything is ok to everyone else…..So how DOES a parent of a child who is struggling with mental health issues stay sane?…
“…talking about sexual abuse with your child can be one of the hardest, yet most important things that parents can do.”
It’s really hard to be a student You don’t have a choice over how your day goes. You have to ask permission for everything. It’s easy to feel like your day is full of people trying to catch your mistakes. You are constantly being evaluated. You have a full day of class, then a full […]
Depression is serious business, particularly in children and adolescents. Depression impacts about of 20 percent of teens prior to adulthood, and research supports that these numbers are increasing. Sadly, when depression rates increase, so do rates of suicide, self-injury, and substance abuse. Many times, as parents, we struggle with how to help and what to […]
Perfectionism, or the tendency to want to do everything flawlessly, is often associated with increased stress and anxiety. Perfectionism combines excessively high personal standards (“I have to do my best at everything”), as well as feelings of failure if the person falls short of those benchmarks. Oftentimes, our need to be perfect stems from fear. […]
“Just like our fingerprints, people are all different. It’s no surprise that we learn differently too.” The above explanation is one that I often provide to young people when they are diagnosed as having learning disabilities. I also explain to them that most of the time, our schools teach the most common, and sometimes the […]
Children today are often online, using phones, computers and electronic devices. So are their parents. Like it or not, electronics are a part of our children’s lives. Most of the time, children’s use of electronics is harmless, and can even be fun or enjoyable. Parents often believe that supervision is key to their child’s experience […]
Teens today face many life challenges. One of these is drug abuse, particularly prescription drug abuse. Many times, as parents or caregivers, we are under the illusion that these issues will not impact our own children or people that we know. However, data suggests that prescription drug use is quite common among teens, with some […]
This blog-post is addressing a serious and potentially controversial topic: spanking. It’s a tough thing to talk about, so thank you for being brave and reading this article. New research regarding spanking has been in the news recently, with two ground-breaking studies in the last month. As a result, as a Clinical Child and Adolescent […]
In my work with adolescents, marijuana issues are occasionally discussed. Sometimes, the teen has been using. However, often she or he reports that other friends and classmates are regular users. Frequently, I am told that it is easier for teens to buy marijuana than alcohol or cigarettes. Marijuana is a common drug that is used […]
