Parent-Child Relationships

Supporting Teenagers Through Difficult Times
January 14, 2025

Adolescence is a time of growth, change, and challenges. For many teens, it can be difficult to navigate academic pressures, social dynamics, and personal struggles. As a parent, it can be challenging to know when to step in and...

Size of the Problem: Helping Children Match Their Feelings and Reactions to a Problem
October 1, 2024

Size of the Problem (SotP) is a tool used to help individuals think critically about how their feelings and responses to a perceived problem impact themselves and the people around them. Simply put, it helps people understand how big...

How to Talk to Your Child About School Shootings
September 26, 2024

It grieves me to be writing this blog regarding a topic that so deeply affects our students, parents, school staff, and community today. The anxiety and confusion surrounding school shootings is prevalent for us all. This is made more...

Helping Your Student with Back to School Feelings
August 13, 2024

With summer quickly coming to an end, children and teens in your home may be experiencing familiar and competing feelings like excitement, dread, anticipation, and anxiety. Often, these feelings may not be expressly spoken, but there are clues your...

What You Need to Know About ASD
July 9, 2024

What Exactly is ASD? According to the DSM-5-TR, the autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is comprised of Asperger syndrome and the other autism-related diagnoses which make up the autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a developmental disorder...

Benefits of Authoritative Parenting
July 9, 2024

You may have heard of the term parenting style. There are four main parenting styles: authoritative, authoritarian, permissive, and distant. Authoritative parenting is known as a balanced approach and is widely regarded as the most effective parenting style, because...

How to Support Emotional Regulation in Your Teens
July 9, 2024

What is emotional regulation you might ask? Emotional regulation is the “ability to exert control over one’s own emotional state.” It is quite common for teens to struggle with emotional dysregulation due to the flood of hormones rushing through...

Parent Child Interaction Therapy and Childhood Cancer
June 12, 2024

Facing cancer is an immense challenge for anyone, but for children, it means grappling with their mortality at an age meant for dreams of being a princess or a superhero. For their parents it is a terrifying ordeal to...

How to Build your Child’s Self-Esteem
May 21, 2024

A child’s self-esteem begins with a positive self-identity, which is critical for building a foundation for confidence, happiness, and emotional well-being. When children have a positive self-identity, they can navigate through life with a sense of purpose and feel...

Unlocking Discipline: The 5 Critical Components
May 21, 2024

Discipline is often misconstrued as a form of punishment and what comes to mind most is spanking. However, the essence of discipline is teaching and guiding. At its core discipline means providing structure, consistency, and setting limits. Schedules and...

The Fewest Words
January 16, 2024

As a therapist, but also a human being who was not blessed with the most loving of families growing up, I find myself often giving to others more than I give back to myself. Like so many others, I...

The Power of Play Time
January 3, 2024

Many children are involved in increasingly rigorous academic programs. Parents who want their children to have a better life often focus intensely on academics and neglect play. Neglecting to prioritize play can have the opposite effect that parents want...

“Will My Child Grow Out of It?” The Crucial Role of Early Intervention for Young Children with Behavior Issues
January 3, 2024

As parents, we often find ourselves wondering whether our child’s challenging behavior is just a passing phase or something more significant. The common belief is that children will grow out of biting, defiance, tantrums, destructive, aggressive, hyperactive, or anxious...

Helping Your Child Deal with Anger
January 3, 2024

Anger and temper tantrums/meltdowns in young children, especially under the ages of 7-9, are to be expected and even healthy for a child. It is important for children to be able to experience all emotions. Having these hard emotions...

Monkey Bars and the Normal Grief of Living Well
December 1, 2023

In playgrounds, there used to be a structure called the Monkey Bars. I believe they’re too dangerous to be included in most public spaces anymore, but they were the test of endurance and strength (and bravery) for an entire...

My Child Won’t Remember That…. Will They?
October 30, 2023

As many children do not hold memories before 2-3 years old and even then, memory is often pretty vague, parents tend to be more lenient about what they say in front of their child before that time period or...

How to Support Your Child’s Behavior Over Holiday Breaks
October 19, 2023

As the holidays are fast approaching, one thing parents often state their frustration about is behavior regression or increased outbursts during breaks from school. Children thrive when they understand expectations and know boundaries and limitations. The holiday season can...

Strategies to Get Children to Listen and Take Responsibility
October 10, 2023

It can be a battle getting kids to do things they are supposed to do. It gets even more frustrating when kids know the expectations but choose not to do them. Having to remind kids repeatedly to complete tasks...

12 Signs Your Child May Benefit from Therapy
October 10, 2023

As a parent, it’s natural that you want the best for your child. Sometimes, children don’t have the language to let us know that something is wrong or that they need to talk to someone. As a parent it...

How to Support Students Facing Academic Pressure & Stress
October 10, 2023

As we approach the fall, school begins picking up and the weight of different responsibilities can begin to feel overwhelming. Many of our students deal with high levels of school anxiety and academic stress. They are being asked to...