Parenting

Your Child and Self-Control: Job or Jail?

Whether your child grows up to lead a productive, satisfying life — or instead grows up to lead a life of crime — a new study shows that self-control is a determining factor.  An added benefit for those who have learned this form of personal power at an early age?  Fewer health problems and fewer… Read more »

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Bullying and Beyond: How to Stop Violent Behavior

Every day, an average of 160,000 children in the United States stay home from school for fear of being bullied. Last year, bullying made national headlines when physical and emotional violence towards LGBT teenagers led to a series of painful suicides. The immediate response to this was impressive. Dan Savage created the “It Get Better… Read more »

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Being a good therapist and being a good parent require the same skills

The qualities that are manifested by a good parent are the same as those that are characteristic of a good therapist. This is because parents and therapists are involved in a similar pursuit: supporting and encouraging the growth and development of a unique and autonomous human being. Obviously, this task is more formidable in the… Read more »

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How to stop yourself from "losing it" with your child

When it comes to parenting, perfection is an unrealistic goal. As much as we would all like to be emotionally attuned and sensitive to our children 100 percent of the time, even the best parents are prone to losing control and overreacting in times of stress. Many of us have witnessed or experienced the scene… Read more »

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How to be a good parent: It’s all about you!

So much of the information out there about how to be a better parent focuses on techniques for modifying your child’s behavior. But it is missing the mark. Research has shown that the one thing a person can do to be a better parent is to focus on developing him or herself. This is where… Read more »

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Should our goal for our kids be for them to be happy?

Many times in my office parents say their goal is for their child to be happy.   As a therapist, I have to wonder if being  happy is really what we want?  When are our children happy?  When they get a birthday present; get a cookie they wanted; win at a game.  If life consisted of… Read more »

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Is Candy Evil?

On Halloween our children indulge in flights of the imagination, flirting just as often with the concepts of princesses and firemen as with the concepts of the paranormal, the macabre, the wicked.  Is candy a piece of the shadowy, sinister, malevolent tenor of the holiday?  Spawning visions of the evils of tooth decay, financial decay,… Read more »

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How Your Relationship Affects Your Kids

When a study group recently asked kids to answer how they could tell if a couple was married, one answer that kept arising was “If they are arguing, then they are probably married.” This response might seem comical if it were coming from an adult, but coming from a child whose intentions are far from… Read more »

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Changing the Developmental Trajectory for Infants with Autism

A diagnosis of autism changes lives.  The future a parent may have pictured for their child, for their family, is quickly reduced to the day to day attempts to grapple with this painful and baffling condition.  While currently a reliable diagnosis cannot be made before the age of 2, a network of scientists across North… Read more »

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Raise an Emotionally Healthy Child

From the moment our children are born and the doctor takes them to be weighed, measured and bundled, their health becomes one of our very highest priorities. As parents, most of us are instinctively attuned to every sneeze, scratch and sleep disruption. We are careful to never miss a check up or ignore a cough…. Read more »

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