Helping Foster Kids (and all kids) Handle Unknowns and Stress with Less Self-Destruction
Today’s interview was originally created for parents and practitioners supporting foster kids that are spiraling down or getting into trouble, like skipping school, getting into drugs, or acting out. I’m sharing here because all kids and teens work the same way. Like foster kids, on some level all kids and teens face uncertainty, insecurity, anger, […]
Embracing a Life of Mistakes and Apologies: Taking the Easy Route
A client reached out this week that I helped 15 years ago when she was a troubled teen. She’s 30 now, doing great, and thanked me for something I’d taught her. It had turned her life around. What I taught her was such a small point I don’t even remember talking about it. But I […]
Connecting with Younger Clients: Finding Freedom from the Myth that You have to Fix or Save Them
A lot of the questions I get from practitioners working with younger clients focus on how to handle certain issues, what to say to them, how to say it, what to do. Often the dilemma is that the problems young people have are so different from what they themselves faced growing up. I’m 49, for […]
Making sense of ‘extreme behavior’ in Teens, Tweens, and Young Adults
I recently had a therapist who’s worried about her teen client. This client spends most waking hours under her covers. She dropped out of the school play, two sports, and stopped going out with friends. She mentioned another young client that gets so angry playing video games he’s broken two Xbox controllers, a tv, and […]
Trauma vs The Human Spirit: We’re All Born with the Drive to Survive
Today I’m sharing something I wrote for a young client that’s in the hospital right now. He’s been terrorized by a recent and very severe traumatic event. Unable to have a phone or Zoom call, I decided to write something to him. I share it here because after reading it, I realized almost every client […]
Clarity and Enthusiasm: All You Need to Get Started
If you’ve ever started a business, moved somewhere new, or made a big life change, there’s always a moment at the very beginning when you first hatched the idea. Some of those ideas come together right away, and sometimes they need time, months or years even, to gestate, take shape, or wait until their time […]
Two Keys For Success In Any Relationship
One of the most destructive sources of friction for couples is the little stuff. Not the big stuff. The little stuff. People can unknowingly start to anticipate, track and fester over their partner’s habits – he’s messy, she interrupts me, he thinks he knows everything… Those little habits are harmless on their own. But when […]
Quarantine, Close Quarters, and Getting Along with your Teen
Parenting is a funny thing. We clearly have the instincts for it because chickens and sloths do it without the help of books, blogs and coaches (that we know of). And yet so many people find it to be the hardest thing they’ve ever done. One of the reasons is that there’s no formula. The […]
The Heart of Parenting (with guest Dr. George Pransky)
For this webinar I teamed up with my former business partner of 20 years, Dr. George Pransky, the founder of Pransky and Associates. I wanted to share George’s 30 years of clinical experience working with teens and parents with all of you. But what REALLY made me want to present with George is this: in […]