Do you ever give your kids a High Five as a way to celebrate an achievement or encourage them to keep going?  The power of high fives has been well documented in a number of studies, and since April 22nd is National High Five Day, I wanted to highlight the power of this great tool you can use with your kids.

In a study titled “High Fives Motivate”, published in Frontiers in Psychology, researchers...

Do you find that as a parent you go from zero to sixty easily, and find yourself snapping or yelling more than you would like?  Emotions are running high as a collective, and our nervous systems are already on edge.  Many parents are feeling like they’re hanging on by a thread, and any proverbial straw can break the camel’s back these days.  

When I first start working with clients, I...

If I asked you how you would describe your child, what would you tell me?  Would you use words like quiet, shy, very social, smart, easy, challenging, anxious or disorganized?  How we think about our child and the words that we use to describe them have more importance than most parents are aware of.

The words that we use to describe our children — how we think about them and what we tell them —...

Are you concerned about the emotional health of your kids?  This week my daughter shared that over 100 students have been hospitalized at her high school for mental health this year.  That’s just one school.  I can’t even fathom what that means on a nationwide basis.

Hearing about this mental health crisis with our kids, have you ever wondered if there is anything that you can do to help...

Are your kids struggling with anxiety?  With everything that’s going on in the world, many people are experiencing heightened emotions.  Our kids easily pick up on the emotions around them, so it’s not surprising that your kids might be experiencing more anxiety right now too.

And, you might be finding that it’s coming up in completely unexpected areas — which is completely normal...

As parents, do you want your kids to think that the world is safe and that bad things don’t happen?  Most parents want to protect their children for as long as possible and for babies and toddlers that is absolutely true.  With the war between Russia and Ukraine featured in every news channel, all over social media, and as the topic of many adult discussions, if your kids leave the house they are...

As parents, we typically have an expectation of how things will go for our kids.  But what happens when they don’t turn out as we expected?  When this happens, do you think that something has gone wrong?  

I invite you to take a minute and think about how you react and how you parent from a place of “something has gone wrong”.  For most of my clients, when they believe...

Are you raising a “difficult” kid?  As a parent we tend to label our kids “easy” or “difficult” based on how they are for us to parent.  Unfortunately, the labels we place on our kids can become self-fulfilling so I’m hoping to introduce a new perspective.  

Characteristics to describe “difficult” children can include easily frustrated, consistently...

Are you raising a “difficult”  or an “easy” child?  As parents, we tend to put our kids into one bucket or another based on how easy or difficult they are for us to parent.  If they listen well, are flexible, and go with the flow, then we label them as “easy”.  But if they are more opinionated about what they want and don’t bend easily to how others think...

Do you think that parenting is hard and wish it could be easier?  If so, you’re not alone.  I hear this from parents all the time — that’s why they come to me for help!   And when we start working together, the first thing we work on is the belief that parenting can be easier!

Before I go any further, I truly want you to know that if you’re really struggling, I get you. ...

When was the last time you got or gave a big bear hug, and you were really present for it?  Hugs make us feel good.  When someone hugs us it’s comforting, and we give hugs as a way to comfort others.  We usually don’t give much thought to it, but there is so much research on the impact of hugs on our physical, mental, and emotional well-being.  Hugs are very powerful from a parenting...

Happy New Year!!  Have you thought about what you want for this year?  Is this the year that you stop yelling and become the calm and effective parent you want to be?  Is this the year that you improve your relationship with your kids so you can stop walking on eggshells in your own house?  How do you want to grow, what experiences do you want to have, and how do you want to feel?  

The...