Many parents feel helpless and frustrated at times but if your child has ADHD, you may feel this way more often. It’s not uncommon for parents I see in my therapy practice to report feeling overwhelmingly frustrated and exhausted by the effort it takes to enforce simple daily routines. That’s because typical parenting strategies don’t work well for a child with ADHD. Children with ADHD are different. Read on to learn my top 5 parenting tweaks that actually work for kids with ADHD.

Responding to misbehavior with harsh words or severe consequences isn’t the most effective way to teach children how we want them to behave. But what do you do when you’re SO FRUSTRATED that how you react isn’t as loving or graceful as you want it to be? In this post I’m sharing my top strategies to yell less and communicate more.

Negative thinking can make life more difficult. Learn why this happens to us humans and one simple way to move toward a more positive mindset and improve your overall feelings of self-worth and happiness.

Children with ADHD do their best when they know what to expect. Establishing a consistent routine for morning time, homework time, playtime and bedtime helps a child feel confident and secure while also smoothing transitions from one activity to the next. Today I’m sharing 5 strategies that support executive functioning and are useful tools for establishing structure in the home environment.

This is part two in a two part series where I use neurobiology to challenge popular arguments used to blame victims after sexual assault.

This is part one in a two part series where I use neurobiology to challenge popular arguments used to blame victims after sexual assault.  

It isn’t the disturbing details of the sexual assault victim’s story that is most upsetting to me as a therapist. It’s listening to survivor after survivor blame them self for not doing more to prevent or stop the assault that I find unreasonable.

This is a guest post by Erika Zheng of Just Letter Perfect Proofreading & Writing

Do you find yourself lying awake long after you’ve turned the light off and decided it’s time to sleep? Do you struggle with being able to relax enough to drift off?

It can be hard to wind down after a stressful day full of work, chores, and kids, so here are ten simple ways to relax and get ready for sleep.

Every parent knows the feeling when we want or need our kid to do something and that simple request blows up into an all-out battle of the wills. Your child refuses to do what you’ve asked and you’re feeling more and more angry as the battle goes on. There are no winners in a power struggle. Even if you can finally convince them to comply, you’ve lost time and energy in the process. Because kids with ADHD have difficulty feeling motivated by what other people want them to do, it’s important for parents to learn how to use external motivation to gain cooperation.

Here’s what you need to know about middle school. This information is especially important to read if your child has ADHD and didn’t have difficulties in elementary school. If you’ve already read my e-book, you know that the primary feature of ADHD is a deficit of regulation. Difficulty regulating means the brain has difficulty organizing itself to attain future goals. The transition to middle school represents a major shift in the demand for self-regulation. Because of this, for students with ADHD many problems begin in middle school that didn’t occur in elementary school.

Many parents feel helpless and frustrated at times but if your child has ADHD, you may feel this way more often. It’s not uncommon for parents I see in my therapy practice to report feeling overwhelmingly frustrated and exhausted by the effort it takes to enforce simple daily routines. That’s because typical parenting strategies don’t work well for a child with ADHD. Children with ADHD are different. Read on to learn my top 5 parenting tweaks that actually work for kids with ADHD.

In my practice I often see power struggles between parents and children. Parents typically want to raise a child to be a responsible and productive member of society. Sometimes, as parents, we lose focus of the end goal- we focus more on our child complying with what we want.  However, we want to raise kids to become adults who are able to problem solve and, at times, question things in an appropriate way. My solution on how to parent without power struggles and raise children who can think independently, is using Natural and Logical Consequences.  This method is appropriate for children of any age.  Kids tend to learn the lesson in a way that is easily understood.  This should ideally make our job as a parent much easier, right?

My exposure to the concept of transgender in graduate school probably consisted of a paragraph in my human sexuality book.  In 2001, the topic was not really discussed in the news as frequently as it is today.  Although my college experience was not super helpful on the subject, I have had the privilege to learn from a handful of courageous teens that remain very close to my heart.  Witnessing their struggles has compelled me to write a blog to give them a voice in an environment where they feel they have none.

Parents see anxiety in their children more intensely than anyone else. Our children are with us the majority of the time and they look to parents to help them feel better. Sometimes worries are so big that loving words and hugs aren’t enough. If you are among the many parents who feel helpless and frustrated, then you can benefit from my top tips on how to calm a worried child.

Overstimulation occurs when there are too many sights, sounds, or activities going on in the environment for a person to handle. The typical holiday season creates changes in routine and diet that when added to the excitement of the season causes overstimulation for both parents and kids. Recognizing the cues for what happens before you or your child becomes overstimulated is the first step to better coping through the holidays.

As of 2011 11% of 4-17 year olds were reportedly diagnosed with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). That’s about 1 of every 9 school age children. Here’s the surprising part: it’s likely that the estimate is low. This is because historically, referral for diagnosis and treatment has been directed to the overtly hyperactive child and often missed the less noticeable inattentive or easily distracted child.