parenting

An emotionally focused, attachment-based, systemic approach to working with couples in a blended family context.

    “Over the last 30 years, systemic approaches to family therapy have been largely successful at treating even the most intractable problems in family functioning. However, stepfamilies have long proven a particular challenge for family therapists. Recent research has confirmed that, given their unique dynamics, stepfamilies are vulnerable in a way that is distinct from typical “first-families,” leaving them often resistant to traditional family therapy techniques’ (Browning & Artfelt, 2012). In terms of couple therapy in the context of…

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Advice to Generation Z: Be Nomadic.

Once again, the phone rings at my office and an anxious parent on the line is worried about their Generation Z teen and wants me to help him or her. I gently answer that I can’t, but I trust that they can. Their concerns usually revolve around their worries for their teenager’s future, based on slacking grades, demotivation, sedentariness, lots of lip and little help around the house. So I listen attentively and ask them how linear and sedentary their life…

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Why Parents Need to Become Gamers.

  “Our teenage son spends all his time gaming in the basement and it’s driving us crazy! Can you help him?” Is a request from stressed-out parents that I am getting more often over the phone. I gently answer no but tell them that I am pretty confident they can. Once in my office, they go to great lengths explaining to me how exasperated they are with the power struggles that suck the energy out of their family life. And…

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3 Ways Fathers Can Empower their Teenage Daughters.

1. Read the manual: It takes work to understand our daughters. It is a common human reaction to avoid situations where we feel incompetent. Teenage daughters often awaken that feeling in their fathers, who, like a deer in the headlights, are frozen with bewilderment. As one exacerbated father said: “I run a successful company and deal with people from all over the world, but I have no idea what to do about my 15-year-old daughter, I just don’t get her,…

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