A letter to my almost 16-year-old son for him to open as he goes on a 9-day adventure with Outward Bound in the Pisgah National Forest in the Linville Gorge area of the Blue Ridge Mountains. First, he did NOT want to go. He wanted to attend a basketball camp or perhaps, on the off [...]
Cindy Austin's message is relevant and delivered in a powerful and engaging manner! I love that Cindy was a teacher, school counselor and is a mom of two teens today. Cindy is insightful, practical and solution oriented in her work. She shares stories and examples from her own life and of the folks she has worked [...]
Dear Mom, Here is a snapshot of just some of the memorable moments and events I appreciate so much sharing with you throughout our time as mother and daughter this Mother’s Day 2018. I know I share many of these with my 6 siblings. And as I ripen as a mother, too, with [...]
Pia Mellody joins the company of those who have created highly effective therapeutic models and who can put their theories into practice with unusual skill. Pia’s approach is phenomenological, resulting from her own painful struggle with codependency, as well as from thousands of hours spent interviewing and working out healing strategies with patients at The Meadows. Pia began her [...]
New Ways for Families® is a structured parenting skills method intended to reduce the impact of conflict on the children in potentially high-conflict divorce and separation cases. It can be used whenever a parent or the court believes one parent needs restricted parenting time (supervised, no contact, limited time), at the start of a [...]
The Ugly Truth About Middle School Today I miss the days when everything I said didn’t have to be classified as sexual or inappropriate. I miss the days when I could say, “That was hard!” and not have some ignorant kid yell, “That’s what she said!” I miss the days when someone said, “I’m coming!” [...]
Dating in the world of hookups “Hit it and Quit it!” It’s one of the dating cries of Generation Z-- (also known as iGeneration or iGen and Post-Millennials) the people born between 2000 and present. Having gotten this far into this newsletter means you have put forth much more effort into reading this than many [...]
Parents, Hold Your NO! Holding your NO as a parent is not always easy. But for heaven’s sake, hold it! And hold it tight and true! I recently posted a video of me having to come to terms with this fact all over again. And I already knew it. Talk about teach and [...]
Holding Court: We Need More Men Like Coach Nichols! Tonight I went to my son’s spring basketball banquet. It was mostly what you’d expect from a high school event like this. Perfunctory speeches from coaches who are mostly reluctant public speakers, awkward teen-age boys wearing the same ties they’ve worn to each game day carefully [...]
I’ve been asked this many times as I’ve been dating. It’s an understandable question once people know that I am a psychotherapist. That is in essence what I do for a living. I analyze people. I’ve learned to respond with “Yes! And I hope you’re doing the same thing too!” But they’re not. What I’ve [...]
