Be Happy That Your Teen is Arguing with You!

“Spiteful words can hurt your feelings but silence breaks your heart.”   -C. S. Lewis   A family arrived in my counseling office for their first session. Dad looked nervous, Mom looked relieved and the two teenage kids looked like they had just walked into a morgue. Both parents complained of being driven crazy by […]

Are Your Feelings Getting the Best of You?

“If your emotional abilities aren’t in hand, if you don’t have self-awareness, if you are not able to manage your distressing emotions, if you can’t have empathy and have effective relationships, then no matter how smart you are, you are not going to get very far.” – Daniel Goleman   As a psychotherapist, I am […]

Look Out, Parents! The Kids are Catching Your Emotions

  “Children learn more from what we are than from what we teach.”— W. E. B. Du Bois   Susan* and Larry* called our counseling clinic to get help dealing with the problems of their seven year-old son, Billy.* Billy was falling behind in school, having trouble paying attention in class, getting into skirmishes with […]

How To Enhance Your Kids’ (And Your Own) Motivation: Part 2

“The trouble with most of us is that we would rather be ruined by praise than saved by criticism.” -Norman Vincent Peale   In Part 1 about how to motivate kids, we learned how intrinsic motivation—the built-in desire to learn and grow—is far more powerful than extrinsic motivation at sustaining good habits. But if you’re […]