Children, Parents & Families
All clients exist in a network of family relationships–as someone’s child, sibling, parent, or grandparent. Exploring familial bonds can help clients make sense of attachment patterns and improve relationships with partners, children, and others.
In these articles, we dive into the issues shaping and influencing child and adolescent mental health. You’ll learn how therapy’s thought leaders address family dynamics, from working with boundaries and cutoffs to early attachment, parental neglect, and child abuse.
Learn from Nedra Glover Tawwab, Lindsay Gibson, Sal Minuchin, Mona Delahooke, Lori Gottlieb, and others.
The Clinician Game Master
How Dungeons & Dragons Can Help Clients Explore New Skills
Why Gen-Alpha Slang Matters More Than You Think
Exploring What It Really Means in TherapyBoundaries & Cutoffs
How do you know when to support a client’s decision to cut off contact with someone in their life? Explore case-based reflections to help you differentiate self-protection from avoidance and better support clients.
Child & Teen Therapy
Children and adolescents rarely arrive in therapy able, let alone willing, to name what’s wrong. Learn to work effectively with young clients by emphasizing attunement over technique and viewing your presence as a central intervention.
Early Attachment
Across personal narratives, case examples, and skills-focused teaching, these stories offer a clinically rich look at how small moments of responsiveness and curiosity can open new developmental pathways.
Family Dynamics
Articles in this category explore how the relational patterns we’re born into ultimately shape our view of, and experiences with, the world and ourselves. Throughout, you’ll find stories and insights into therapy’s role in helping real families that have lived, clashed, and grown together across the lifespan.
Parental Neglect & Child Abuse
When children’s protectors become a source of pain, the fallout can last a lifetime. These articles explore the profound impact of mistreatment, neglect, and abuse by caregivers.
Parenting
Learn how to best support parents as they handle the daily pressure and never-ending task of raising emotionally healthy and resilient children in today’s world.
Cutting family members off is one of the most fraught decisions a client can make—and one of the hardest to navigate as a therapist. Read more
There's power in asking our clients—and ourselves a radical question: What do you want? Not, what do you think you should want, but what do you actually want? Read more
Psychologist Jonice Webb—who named childhood emotional neglect—shares how to spot it, treat it, and help clients transform it. Read more
Why do so many parents struggle with trusting themselves, and how can we help them conquer self-doubt? Read more
Parental guilt is often misunderstood by clinicians. The Change Triangle can bring this tricky emotion out into the open and help people work through it. Read more
Decades later, a psychotherapist returns to summer camp, this time as an employee, and discovers the true meaning of growth and community. Read more
Genetic testing has led to shocking "DNA discoveries"—secrets unburied, followed by pain, grief, and trauma. Here's how therapists can help. Read more
Are some things really best left unsaid? Years after a near-death experience, a father contemplates telling his daughter what kept him alive. Read more
Here's a four-step exercise therapists can use to help survivors of parental abandonment process trauma triggers. Read more
We all know that there’s no such thing as a “perfect” parent, but even so, many parents hold themselves to unreasonably high standards. Read more
An unflinching look into a shadowy corner of the for-profit troubled teen industry: wilderness therapy. Read more
A mother’s lonely quest to help her undiagnosed Autistic child leads her on a wild goose chase for solutions. Read more
Given our culture's incessant messages about the joys of motherhood, it's critical for therapists to help new moms to speak openly and honestly about their... Read more
Here's a five-step process for working with survivors of parental abandonment that helps mitigate self-blame and build trust with the therapist. Read more
The way neglect can shape a child’s brain is often misunderstood. Read more
Do interpersonal conflicts about environmental choices require a unique approach to boundary setting? Read more
The prescriptive, one-size-fits-all version of “gentle parenting” promoted on social media may work with many kids, but for parents of “big reactors,”... Read more
Building a trusting relationship with a surrogate requires a wide array of interpersonal and self-regulation skills— and can be the ultimate exercise in... Read more
Rather than a deficiency, “mommy brain” is an asset—and therapists can help their clients embrace it in the workplace. Read more
With so many newer approaches focusing on here-and-now experiences, are we forgetting about psychotherapy’s foundation of exploring childhood wounds? Read more
Understanding the impact of “resemblance talk” and the challenge of “parental claiming” can help the parents of donor-conceived children feel... Read more
What happens when a whole generation of children are overprotected on the playground and underprotected online? Read more
Janina Fisher explores how to help your clients heal the parts of self-hatred and treat attachment trauma. Read more
A family with stark religious differences finds its way. Read more
The PACE attitude is a way of interacting with your child, especially around difficult topics or situations, that will help them feel less defensive and more... Read more
Is there anything trickier for modern-day parents than separating a 13-year-old from an iPhone, even if it’s just for a few days? Read more
Author Lindsay Gibson reveals how exploring our parents’ emotional lack of maturity can free us up to become more emotionally mature ourselves. Read more
In a world that seems to reward narcissists, how can we help parents raise kind, empathetic kids with a healthy, balanced sense of self? Read more
When a hoarding mother won’t face her illness, what choice does a daughter have? Read more
Senior writer/editor Alicia Muñoz talks with author, therapist, and Instagram influencer Nedra Glover Tawwab about boundaries and maintaining drama-free... Read more
.svg)