Emotional Regulation
Teaching your daughter to successfully regulate her emotions can help her overcome myriad behavioral health struggles. Learn more about the skills your daughter can learn to regulate her emotions.
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How to Stop Overreacting in a Relationship
Relationships are hard, especially when you’re a teenager. As a parent, it’s easy to forget that growing up is a stressful process. Fights with friends, planning for college, involvement in sports, and developing a personal identity can lead to some big breakdowns. When this happens, it can be hard to know how to stop overreacting in a relationship…
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Mental Health Crisis Plan
If you have a teenager, you have seen them go through significant changes in friends, interests, and personality. Whether it’s stonewalling or throwing tantrums, there are going to be emotional extremes. Here are some principles to help families in mental health crisis. Recognize the Pattern First things first, realize your child most likely has some…
Read MoreCrisis De Escalation
Helping run a treatment program for adolescent girls, I’ve had many opportunities to intervene, and de-escalate crisis situations therapeutically. Crises often come at unexpected times and can be overwhelming for all involved – even parents and seasoned professionals. When we, as caregivers, are thrown off and overwhelmed, it’s easy to react in ways that escalate…
Read MoreIs My Teen At Risk For Violence?
In the wake of the tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary School this week, many parents are asking not only how they can keep their children safe from violence, but how they can keep their children from turning violent. “I asked my 15 year-old son what he thought about the shooting,” a friend told me at…
Read MoreWillpower Exercises for Struggling Teens
According to Dr. Kelly McGongal, a health psychologist and Stanford University instructor, self control isn’t something you either have or don’t have. It’s a strength that can be developed over time; like a muscle, your self control can be exercised to make it stronger. She also reminds us that lapses are normal and should be treated as such; normalizing these failings can help them have less power to discourage us…less power to push us deeper into victimhood.
Read MoreManaging Anger as a Parent
If your teenager is having difficulties, chances are she’s also causing difficulties—especially for those who love her the most. Parents of emotionally troubled teens often suffer just as much or even more than their struggling child. It’s the instinct of all good parents to put the needs of their children first. In a crisis, it’s normal (if heroic) parental behavior to abandon their own well being in order to protect, assist or rescue their child.
Read MoreEmotional Dysregulation and Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT)
Many young people who suffer from disorders such as borderline personality disorder or intense depression have great difficulty regulating their emotions.
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