Family Articles

Listed by most recent articles first.

• The 5 C’s of Effective Discipline: Setting Rules for Children
  People don't just stumble upon good parenting. Parenting well, like any other skill in life, is something ...
• The Alzheimer’s Family: Helping Caregivers Cope
  If you were asked to name a terminal illness, it is likely that Alzheimer's would not be your first choice.  However, from my own perspective, when you consider that there is no cure for this ...
• 21 Tips for Raising Kids with ADHD When You Have ADHD Too
  Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) tends to run in families, so it’s common for both ...
• After Schizophrenia
  I was not sure what to expect when I first opened Margaret Hawkins’ After Schizophrenia. Memoirs about people suffering from mental illness are quite common these days and I was interested to see if the ...
• Courage and Limits with Your Teen
  This column uses a story based on a real-life situation in therapy to represent both the teen and parent viewpoints on ...
• Competing Family Loyalties in the Holiday Season
  The holidays are ripe for unearthing family dramas, often featuring a popular story line about competing loyalties. Though there are ...
• ‘Tis the Season to Regress
  What is it that makes perfectly reasonable adults start to act like teenagers as soon as they hit their parents’ front door? ...
• The Christmas “Not To-Do” List
  ‘Tis the season for list-making: Lists of gifts to buy. Lists of cards to send. Lists of people to see and things ...
• Brave Girl Eating: A Family’s Struggle with Anorexia
  Between three and six percent of all teens struggle with some type of eating disorder, be it bulimia, binge eating, or anorexia. Because these illnesses involve eating, they seem to take a blow at family ...
• Transform Your Life Now
  If you Google the phrase "transform your life," you get results showing you how to do just that in 5 easy ways, in less than 30 minutes, with 10 technologies, by 10 truths, or in ...
• The Empty Chair at the Holiday Table
  Getting ready for the first Thanksgiving after David died was very, very hard. The loss of my husband’s brother ...
• Saying No (Kindly) And Then Letting Go
  Is it challenging for you to say no without feeling bad, anxious, and uncomfortable? If so, you may be ...
• Emotionally Focused Therapy: Bolstering Couples’ Emotional Bonds
  Western culture views independence as a virtue. We’ve been taught that a truly strong person doesn’t need anybody to survive ...
• What To Do About Attention-Seeking Kids
  The preschooler I observed in the grocery store yesterday was doing everything she could to get her mom’s attention. She whined. ...
• October is Domestic Violence Month
  Domestic violence remains a huge and largely hidden problem. The purple ribbons you may have seen recently on car bumpers and people’s ...
• Cry Depression, Celebrate Recovery: My Journey through Mental Illness
  Barbara Altman, a St. Louis, Mo., native, earned her Bachelor of Music degree at Fontbonne University and taught music therapy at St. Louis Institute of Music.  She now teaches piano and guitar in her home ...
• The Sibling Effect: What the Bonds Among Brothers and Sisters Reveal About Us
  I am what science calls a singleton. And according to G. Stanley Hall, a psychologist, professor and the first president of the American Psychological Association, I am without a doubt narcissistic, spoiled and a bumbling ...
• Runaway Mind: My Own Race with Bipolar Disorder
  Runaway Mind by Maggie Reese was a thoroughly enjoyable, engaging and educational book filled with firsthand accounts of what life can be like with bipolar disorder.  Maggie invites us into her life during this very ...
• Supporting Your 20-Something Child into Healthy Adulthood
  Are we doing enough to support our 20-somethings' transition into a healthy adulthood? In some ways, today’s young adults have ...
• Understanding Recovery Avoidance in OCD
  Dan would sit in a chair for hours, “stuck” and unable to move. He couldn’t eat, socialize, or enter most buildings. My ...
• Silent Voices
  The book Silent Voices is an intriguing story about how a family dealt with mental illness and how a lack of support from professionals caused a family to endure tragedy that changed their lives forever. ...
• The Long Goodbye
  In her book, The Long Goodbye, Meghan O’Rourke explores the fifteen months following her mother’s death. In a culture that has few traditions and rituals for mourning, O’Rourke longs for something, anything, that will help ...
• Mistaken for ADHD
  After reading this book I believe the title says it all: “Mistaken for ADHD.” The author, Dr. Frank Barnhill, attempts to help parents, teachers, social workers and doctors who deal with adolescents and young children ...
• Finally Out: Letting Go of Living Straight
  By all external indicators, Dr. Loren Olson was a success in life as a devoted husband and father who was making strides in his career as a psychiatrist.  At age 40, he was a mature ...
• Peace in the Heart and Home: A Down-to-Earth Guide for Creating a Better Life
  Charlette Mikulka — psychotherapist, social worker, wife, and mother — has created an incredibly all-encompassing book with Peace in the Heart and Home: A Down-to-Earth Guide to Creating a Better Life for You and Your ...