Being estranged from your adult child can be one of the most agonizing experiences in life. If your adult child has severed the connection, you undoubtedly have experienced pain and trauma. The reasons for these breaks vary; sometimes it is never completely clear why such a hard loss occurs. If this is the case in your life, now is the time for self-reflection and examination. An exploration of … [Read more...]
In small towns across the United States
This article introduces a specific and potentially harmful type of trauma-stress syndrome, typically experienced within family systems. To date, this syndrome -- domestic emotional distress disorder (DEDD) -- has not been submitted for consideration as a formal diagnosis by the psychiatric community. Post-traumatic stress disorder or PTSD delayed (symptoms of PTSD displayed beyond six months) … [Read more...]
Playing the money game with kids
So much pressure these days to work harder and longer hours. Meanwhile, the economy continues to ride an unpredictable roller coaster. It's important to pause and look closely at not only how we budget our money but what really, at the end of the day, brings our families pleasure and connection. So often our kids will come up and say, "Mom (or Dad), can I have 5 bucks for this and that?" … [Read more...]
Choosing ‘good enough’ over perfection
In the 1950s, a wise pediatrician from Great Britain named David Winnicott came up the idea of the "good enough" parent. Having treated children and families for many years, Dr. Winnicott recognized that children do well when a parent does a "good enough" job raising them. What that meant from his perspective was for parents to provide good enough custodian care and good enough emotional … [Read more...]
Monkey love: When hugs mean everything
Back in the 1950s, Harry Harlow of the University of Wisconsin conducted an important study of baby monkeys at his research lab in Goon Park. The purpose of Harlow's study was to see under which conditions did baby rhesus monkeys best thrive. For the experiment, Harlow used wire frames to create two kinds of surrogate mothers. He presented these artificial moms to infants who had been … [Read more...]