The Adoption Cluster: Abandonment, Attachment and Trauma in Teens Dr. Jack Hinman is a clinical director for InnerChange, a company that specializes in the treatment of… Read More
My Teenager Argues About Everything According to family psychologist, Jack Hinman, argumentativeness is a necessary developmental pattern for adolescents. The good news?… Read More
Stressed-out Teen? Talk to Spot! Want a good role model for stress management? Spend some time watching your family pet. Dogs, in… Read More
Managing Anger as a Parent A particularly toxic issue for many parents dealing with a difficult teen is that of unresolved anger… Read More
Screen Addiction: Teens Screen-based technologies are ubiquitous these days. Cell phones, tablets, portable game consoles, portable video players, laptops, smart… Read More
Troubled Teen to Troubled Adult For parents of older teens struggling with behavioral or emotional problems, that teen’s 18th birthday may come… Read More
Turning Crisis Into Opportunity When a family faces a true mental health crisis it often feels sudden regardless of the warning… Read More
Treating Enmeshed Teens and Parents Just what is enmeshment and how can a family recover from this dysfunctional relational pattern? To find… Read More
Understanding Enmeshment: Definition, Causes & Signs You May Need Help A word that frequently comes up in family therapy is “enmeshment.” It’s a therapeutic term that is… Read More
Is My Teenager Depressed? Is your teenager irritable? Apathetic? Withdrawn? Does she sleep in, seemingly forever, on weekends? Does she express… Read More
While your Daughter’s Away… SELF-CARE FOR PARENTS Your child is in residential treatment because you are absolutely committed to getting her… Read More
Negative Personality Traits Knowing that our dominant personality traits usually have two sides to them can help us cultivate their… Read More
Blue Zones at Home Teenagers are drawn to whatever’s fastest, easiest, edgiest, biggest, newest or “best.” Hence the teenager’s penchant for… Read More
Doing Therapy: A Beginner’s Guide Unlike a visit to the dentist—“open, rinse, say ahhh, spit”—the rules for a psychotherapy session are not… Read More
Screen Obsessed Science is finally confirming with what astute parents have known for decades: too much TV is bad… Read More
ADHD in Adolescent Girls Though there is a movement afoot among parents, educators, and therapists to create a separate diagnostic protocol… Read More
Can A Teen “Catch” Negative Behaviors? We know, of course, that colds and flu and other illnesses are contagious. When a cold is… Read More
Asperger’s Syndrome Treatment While more severe forms of autistic-spectrum disorder require specialized care, many children and teens with Asperger’s disorder… Read More
Designer Drugs Part two of a two-part series on easily accessed substances frequently abused by teens and young adults.… Read More
Treatment Tips: Teens in Treatment However you ended up at treatment, you may feel manipulated, forced, tricked, betrayed, etcetera by the very… Read More
The Choking Game: A Dangerous Epidemic In 1995, the CDC began collecting data on a dangerous adolescent phenomenon called “the choking game” in… Read More
Who’s on the Team: Adolescent Treatment Professionals This is a partial overview of the types of mental health professionals typically found in a private… Read More
Treatment Possibilities for Eating Disorders This is part three of a four-part primer on eating disorders provided by eating-disorders specialist Isabelle Tierney,… Read More
Psychological Causes of Eating Disorders This is part three of a four- part primer on eating disorders provided by eating disorders specialist… Read More
Therapeutic Wilderness Programs If you’re new to the adolescent therapeutic world, you know that the number and variety of treatment… Read More
Milieu Treatment For Cutting For a person who has had no experience with intentional self-harm—or “cutting”—behavior, it is a confusing and… Read More
6 Things Your Child Needs From You to Reduce Cutting (Self-Harm) Behaviors Self-Harm is an increasingly pervasive symptom of emotional distress among adolescent girls. Because it involves physical damage… Read More
Treating Self-Harm "Treating Self-harm" is the second article in a series of three about self-harm. Article 1: What Drives… Read More
Causes of Self-harm: Understanding Why Teens Harm Themselves "Causes of Self-Harm" is the first article in a series of about self-harm. Self-Harm is an… Read More
Dealing With Peer Pressure Most teens begin to reconfigure their relationship with authority almost immediately upon reaching puberty, seeking advice and… Read More
The Antidote To Low Self Esteem Like many adolescent emotional issues, low self esteem presents a number of chicken and egg conundrums. We… Read More
Raising A Teenager: Time To Stop Rescuing When our children are young, we must constantly intervene to keep them from pulling the dog’s tail,… Read More