…meone they aren’t. On the other hand, parents who are attuned to their children and genuinely responsive to them leave their offspring feeling seen and validated. These children grow up with an accurate sense of who they are and with healthy self-esteem. Studies have shown that children offered compliments for skills they haven’t mastered or talents they do not possess are left feeling as if they’d received no praise at all, often even emptier and…
Learn More
…elves, what has so frightened this child that could make this child frightening to the world. That is where our work begins. Join Dr. Lisa Firestone and Dr. James Garbarino for the CE Webinar “The Origins of Violence in Child Abuse.”…
Learn More
…utinely within couples include unpleasant exchanges about finances and childrearing, hurtful interactions in the privacy of the bedroom, depreciating comments made publicly in front of family, friends, and strangers, and abrasive arguments that disrupt the harmony of a shared activity. Even when overt, these aversive behaviors often remain on the periphery of the offending partner’s consciousness while he/she maintains a fantasy of being loving. T…
Learn More
…Especially as we get older, we can become more self-protective or further drawn to routine. We may start to feel more entitled to our partner or more jealous or possessive and, therefore, put restrictions on each other. In effect, we start to limit or shrink each other’s worlds, rather than expanding them. We can keep love alive by continuing to be game to try new things. The more adventures we can create with each other in our day-to-day lives,…
Learn More
…o nurture and baby females while teaching our males to be tough and manly. Dr. Carol Gilligan, a major researcher on the topic of moral development, found that because of societal variations in the raising of girls versus boys, girls learn to see hurting others as immoral much more readily than boys. Boys tend to focus on reaching justice where as girls learn to be concerned with maintaining relationships, even to the point of self-sacrifice. Rega…
Learn More
…h better to overreact and get help than to underreact and lose the person. Dr. Carol Gilligan, in this clip from our exclusive interview series, describes how neglecting to pay attention to girls expressing their depression and concerns can lead to suicidal acts. GET HELP: IF YOU OR SOMEONE YOU KNOW IS IN CRISIS OR IN NEED OF IMMEDIATE HELP, CALL 1-800-273-TALK (8255). This is a free hotline available 24 hours a day to anyone in emotional distress…
Learn More
…each other. Watch American feminist, ethicist, and psychologist Dr. Carol Gilligan describe cultural stereotypes of men and women: Some sexual stereotypes that pit men and women against each other include: Men are tough and powerful, not helpless and childish like women. Women are sensitive and intuitive, not unfeeling and insensitive like men. Men are logical, sensible and rational, not scatterbrained, unstable and irrational like women. Women e…
Learn More
…p healthy ones. On top of that, psychologists Nicholas Christakis, PhD and James Fowler, PhD conducted research that showed that the things we do and how we feel are contagious in our relationships up to three degrees. They first found this with Obesity and then with loneliness and happiness. So I wanted to help people create environments where there are more value-aligned people in them that will support their brain’s ability to naturally make th…
Learn More
…fiction or a page-turning memoir can resemble meditation in its ability to drown out thoughts irrelevant to what we’re reading in the moment. 3. Writing On the same wavelength as reading, writing also has a way of harnessing our cognition, and requires both a level of introspection and concentration. This similarity of brain function is what links it to sharing some of the same therapeutic benefits that meditation provides. Meditation is supposed…
Learn More
…al pain of someone who self-harms, rather than the behavior itself. Writer James Hunt describes coming to terms with his son Jude’s self-harming behavior after Jude was diagnosed with autism. Around age 2, Jude began having meltdowns, and would slam his knees onto the hard floor, or stomp his feet. Later he would use his hands, “slapping his arms, legs, and feet over and over until they were raw,” and even slapping and punching his face. “I’d do a…
Learn More