Parenting is one of the hardest thing in the world to do. That’s why it never hurts to be reminded of a few basic truths. The fact is, children need six things in order to grow up healthy, happy, confident, resilient, and best able to succeed in life: love, guidance, limits, protection, validation and respect. […]
Helicopter parents are in the news a lot these days. These are the parents who can’t stop hovering around their kids. They practically wrap them in bubble wrap, creating a cohort of young adults who struggle to function in their jobs and in their lives. Helicopter parents think that they’re doing what’s best for their […]
In working with people for over twenty-five years, I’ve identified five styles of human interaction. Two of them work really well to create positive personal and professional relationships. Two are more problematic. One can go either way. If you want to be happy and successful in your relationships, you’re going to have to learn which […]
It seems that people have become more and more alienated lately. More often than not, our mode of interaction is transactional, as opposed to empathetic. “Empathetic” and “transactional” are two of the ways that people behave with one-another, and they’re quite opposite. The former is about enjoying and appreciating the other person’s company. The latter […]
Most parents want only good things for their children. Their actions are based on what they believe will best serve their kids. Unfortunately, there are some mistaken ideas going around that are much more harmful to children than helpful. When parents adopt these mistaken ideas they can take actions that will encourage children to be […]
It’s International Women’s Day and I’m celebrating being a woman. I’m also taking the opportunity to vent a bit about an issue that’s been bothering me for a while, now. It’s about the glaringly different ways that men and women are represented in the entertainment industry. First, let me say that I unequivocally support any […]
It’s very strange to me that the notion of feminism currently seems to be equated with man-hating or man-bashing. As a feminist myself, surrounded by many other feminists, it’s clear that none of us have the least bit of animosity, contempt or destructive wishes toward men. For feminists the world over, the term identifies […]
March Break 2017 is almost upon us and everywhere, parents of teens are scrambling to figure out how to occupy their kids’ time for an entire week. Many parents are planning vacations, sports camp or some other fun activities for their teens, but I think that this is a missed opportunity. At a time when […]
Lately, I’ve been thinking about what it takes to live a good life. With all the challenges that we face, with regard to our family, work, health, finances or political situation, it can be difficult to carve out a life that feels satisfying, fulfilling and worthwhile. Fortunately, I had the opportunity a few weeks ago […]
I recently wrote a post about who marries an extreme narcissist. Now, I’m going to talk about what happens to the children of extreme narcissists. In my practice as a psychiatrist, I’ve encountered many such children and they’ve all been adversely affected by having one or both parents with this personality type. The child who […]
