The loss and pain of divorce can be extraordinarily challenging. When children are involved, parents’ hurt feelings are often re-activated as they find themselves needing to communicate extensively with the very person who has caused them such hurt and pain. While most parents know that their children will be better off if they communicate amicably and cooperatively with their child’s other parent, confusion and hurt feelings can lead parents into a “conflict dance” that can generate further pain for the whole family. [Read more…]
Welcome to Our Blog!
This blog is written by the clinicians at Jonah Green and Associates, a mental health practice based in Kensington, MD that provides quality services for children, teens, families, and adults. It is intended as a resource for families who are seeking to expand their knowledge about mental health and mental health services, and also as a resource for families who are seeking quality mental health services, especially in the mid-Atlantic region. Please feel free to post questions and comments on any of the entries as well as on any topics or articles from our companion web site www.childandfamilymentalhealth.com.
Grieving Teenagers: Supporting Your Teen Following the Loss of a Loved One
Losing someone we love is a painful experience for anyone. For parents, it can be difficult to know how to best support children after the loss of a loved one. This can be an especially challenging task with teenagers, as their quests to prove independence can lead them to present façades of composure. Educating yourself about grief in teens can help you recognize appropriate grief in your teenager and offer support. The following questions and answers offer some clarity. [Read more…]
What to Do When the Kids Start Fighting
Please enjoy this guest post–a clear and very practical piece written written by Jennifer Kogan, LICSW, who provides counseling and support for parents at her office in NW DC.
What is a parent to do when the kids start fighting?
For parents to answer that question, it can help to look back at our own relationships with our siblings. Can you remember your parents yelling at you both to “stop fighting and get along,” or being ordered to, “go to your room” or perhaps being spanked? Did any of these methods work to help you get along better with your sibling? Most likely they did not.
One thing you can do that is different from what our parents may have tried is to pick up a copy of the book, Siblings Without Rivalry by Adele Faber and Elaine Mazlish. Both Faber and Mazlish were parents of young children thirty years ago. They participated and wrote about the lessons they learned in a parenting group they were in led by the renowned child psychiatrist, Dr. Haim Ginott. [Read more…]
Recommendations to Prepare Your Child for School
It’s mid-August, and believe it or not, soon your child will be transitioning back to school! The following ideas m toight be able ease the transition. Many of the suggestions are adapted from Robin Allen, PhD., a behavior specialist and parent educator in Montgomery County, Maryland. [Read more…]
Fostering Resilience in Children
Resilience refers to the ability to recover from adversity and to function successfully despite difficult situations, stress, or trauma. As parents, we sometimes wish that our children will never have to deal with anything bad or hard, but we also hope that our children will be resilient if they need to be.
So how do we foster resilience in children? Building resilience is not unlike building muscles. Though some people are naturally more muscular than others, we all start out with level of strength. And everyone can bolster their resilience muscles through practice and training. Here are a few things parents can do to foster resilience in their children: [Read more…]
