6 Signs Your Teen is Over-Scheduled and Stressed
Today’s teens, especially where I am in Los Angeles, are often over-scheduled and stressed out. Their schedules are packed with extracurricular activities and endless homework. Instead of getting much needed sleep every night to recharge for the next day, teens stay up late trying to finish homework and study for tests. Even Learn More
6 Questions to Ask Yourself Before Withdrawing or Transferring Colleges
The decision to withdraw or transfer colleges is a big one! If you’re struggling with what to do, try asking yourself these six questions first. Learn More
6 Ways to Help Your Grown and Still at Home Child
It can be frustrating and bewildering when your grown child still lives at home with you. You’re not quite sure how to help them become independent enough to leave the nest. Here are six tips to help you! Learn More
How to Handle Your Child’s Challenging Behavior
Sometimes our teens and emerging adults are just straight-up challenging. They do things that get under our skin and frustrate us to no end. Your relationship strains and worsens over time, and soon you’re not sure what to do to make things better. Here are eight things you can do to handle Learn More
How to Talk So Your Teen Actually Hears You
We adults are very wise. We have the benefit of hard-earned life lessons and perspective. So how come every time we try to impart some wisdom, our teens and emerging adults shut us down? In my experience from working with parents, usually there are a few things that can be in play. Learn More
24 Ways to Ground Yourself When You’re Feeling Overwhelmed
When overwhelmed with emotional pain, you need a way to untangle from it so you can better manage your feelings. If you stay completely absorbed by your negative emotions, then it’s more likely to snowball into stronger and more heightened negativity. Grounding is a set of strategies to help “ground” you back Learn More
How Do I Know if My Child Needs Therapy?
The typical mood swings and hardships of adolescence or emerging adulthood can sometimes make it difficult to know if this is typical of the developmental period or if something is wrong and needs to be addressed by a professional. This video gives you two things to consider before deciding to have your Learn More
3 Ways to Address Fear of Failure
Fear of failure can hold back even the most capable of our teens and emerging adults. Though fear of failure is rooted in deeper issues that should be addressed in therapy, there are three things you can do in the meantime to address it. Learn More
How to Create an Effective Living Agreement: A 15 Minute Mini-Training
I’ve heard mixed thoughts from parents about using living agreements with their emerging adult child living at home. Some say that living agreements feel too business-like and cold. Others report that the living agreement didn’t work. There are many that swear by using one. Most parents are willing to give it a Learn More
Handle Office Politics Without Being a Jerk
It can be easy to get sucked into office politics. You want to get ahead at work, but you don’t want to constantly stab your colleagues in the back. Thankfully, there is a way to handle office politics without being a complete jerk! Learn More
What the Research Says about Teens and Electronics Use
One of the parents in my Grown and Not (Yet) Flown group, an online support group for parents of teens and emerging adults, asked me to speak to the effects of electronics use on our teens and emerging adults, and I thought I’d share my findings it with my blog readers, too. Learn More
My Teen or Emerging Adult Has No Motivation- Help!
It’s one of the most common complaints I hear from parents: My teen or emerging adult has no motivation to do anything! That’s almost never the case. Usually what’s happening, is your teen or emerging adult has motivation to do things that are not aligned with what you want them to do. Learn More
Survive the Holidays with 5 Emotion Regulation Tips
It’s no surprise that feelings of anxiety and depression increase during the holiday season. You’re surrounded by impossible standards of holiday cheer round the clock and the pressure to do it all, be it all, and buy it all is overwhelming. Thankfully, there are five things you can do to stay even-keeled Learn More
8 Tips to Handle Family Holiday Stress
Everything seems to get heightened around the holidays— celebrations, joy, expectations… and stress! There’s often immense pressure to adhere to family rituals. Sometimes there’s unrealistic expectations that holidays should be a certain way. As a result, we overextend ourselves physically, financially, and emotionally during the holidays. It can feel easier to just Learn More
How to Effectively Communicate Your Concerns
There are times in everyone’s life where they need to share their concerns or assert a boundary. You don’t want to be submissive, and you don’t want to be aggressive. Finding that perfect balance to achieve effective assertiveness can be difficult. Thankfully, using the “DEAR MAN” method can help you effectively communicate Learn More
8 Ways Lawyers Can Manage Stress and Burn Out
Being a lawyer is stressful. There’s no getting around that. Frequently, you have so much work that you can’t possibly fathom how you’re going to finish it all on time. If you leave that stress and overwhelm unchecked, you’re at risk for burning out. This can cause you to make mistakes at Learn More
Why C-Suite Execs and Successful Professionals Love Concierge Therapy
CEOs and other high-achieving, successful professionals often find themselves isolated. There’s immense pressure to measure up, and you often lack people to confide in or lean on for support. There’s a general expectation that you are always in control and have all the answers. That kind of pressure can be crippling on Learn More
What To Do If Your Employees Hate You
You recently realized that your employees hate you. Maybe you caught on to little clues, like they avoid you, tense up when you’re around, or can’t maintain eye contact when speaking with you. Or maybe, like some of my Los Angeles executive clients, people lodged complaints against you with HR or other Learn More
Preventing and Addressing Physician Burnout
Physician burnout (or career fatigue) is the not so hidden, dirty little secret of the medical world. In a recent study, 41% of doctors reported at least one symptom of burnout. Another study showed that physicians have the highest rate of suicide of all professions. Rates were significantly higher than the general Learn More
Supporting College Readiness
As a psychologist known for assessing and supporting college readiness, I receive calls each summer from anxious parents. They’re worried that their college-bound child might not be ready for college. Honestly, I wish more parents reached out to me (and earlier). Why? Because, sadly, many of these teens aren’t ready for the Learn More
Saying Goodbye to Your College-Bound Kid (Part 3 of 3): After the College Drop Off
You’ve dropped your baby off at college… now what? Check out this video and learn what three things to keep in mind for a smoother transition. Learn More
How to Be Alone When You Hate Being Alone
There are so many different reasons people may hate being alone. For one person, boredom creeps in and she doesn’t know how to entertain herself. For another, negative thoughts intrude and he thinks about all of his regrets when he’s not busy and occupied. Someone else feels deep, depressing loneliness when she’s Learn More
Saying Goodbye to Your College-Bound Kid (Part Two of Three): The Day Of
The day of college drop off is filled with a swirl of competing emotions– you’re proud of your emerging adult, and you’re going to miss them like crazy. You’re happy… and you’re sad. You see your child becoming an awesome adult, and you wish you could hold on to him forever. This Learn More