Psychotherapy for Individuals, Couples, Families, Women's Groups

Tag: Family

Parenting Challenges

  • Do your kids tend to bring out the worst in you?
  • Do you need some new ‘kid-management’ skills?
  • Is one of your children a particular parenting challenge – or a mystery to you?
  • Are you at your wit’s end or exhausted dealing with your kids?
  • Do you wonder why you chose to have children in the first place??

parenting-child

I believe that the most effective parenting involves a warm genuine emotional connection between parent and child. But studies have shown that parental love is not enough to insure effective parenting.

Often their own and their children’s emotions get in the way of parents being able to talk to their children when children are sad or afraid or angry.

It is the quality of emotional interactions between parents and children that is of utmost importance.

Channeling parental caring through their own example and by coaching children in the principles of emotional intelligence seems to make all the difference. The secret lays in how parents interact with their children when emotions run hot!

Parenting Workshops

Each Workshop I lead illustrates the principles of emotional intelligence from a unique perspective and to a specific audience. Parents are encouraged to make the best use of the golden moments they have with their children by actively coaching them in key human skills such as:

  • Understanding and handling troubling feelings
  • Controlling impulses and
  • Empathy

In his book, Raising an Emotionally Intelligent Child, Dr. John Gottman sums up my approach to parenting:

Friend & Family Problems

  • Do you struggle with annoying family members? …parents, …in-laws (or out-laws) …extended family?
  • Are you having trouble with friendships?
    • drawing boundaries,
    • finding close girl friend relationships,
    • managing couple friendships

Sometimes it’s the people close to us that majorly challenge us in our everyday lives! They can drain our emotional energy causing us to question ourselves, leaving us confused and wondering what just happened!

Other times those around us may frustrate or anger us so that we simply want distance.

Still other times we may feel abandoned, used, or taken advantage of by those we most want to be close to.

Because of our emotional involvement, we easily lose perspective and have difficulty discerning how best to handle these relationship dilemmas.

The beauty of therapyThe beauty of therapy is that it offers a safe place to sort out the confusion and frustration with a person who is unbiased and caring.

Together as we lay out the pieces of the relational puzzle and explore alternatives, answers may emerge with increasing clarity.

My goal with our time together is to highlight relevant applicable principles of relationship and to create a climate that will help you determine the best approach to your situation.

Marriage Problems

Are you

…Needing some help with conflict resolution in your relationship?
…Trying to save your marriage?
…Going through a divorce?…Contemplating a divorce? …Recovering from a divorce?
…Reeling from the revelation of pornography use? …Devastated by the discovery of your spouse’s affair?
…Personally struggling with an extra-marital attraction?

In the midst of marriage problems, the situation can look very bleak! But with the right help, there is HOPE for you to come to peaceful resolution – whatever your situation may be.

countryside-coupleOf course, not every troubled marriage can be saved – for a variety of reasons. But, a vast number can be rescued and elevated to a much greater level of satisfaction with the help of a trained third party.

The notion that “…if we really love each other, we should be able to work through all our problems,” is mythical idealism. It makes no more sense than saying, “if we eat healthfully, we should have no medical issues.” We gratefully enlist the help of medical personnel, dentists, and hospitals as needed.

Finding a marriage therapist when the relationship hits an impasse is a wise use of time, energy, and resources – for the entire family.