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Many clinicians find it easier to tell parents their child has a brain-based disorder than suggest parenting changes. Jennifer Harris (psychiatrist)

Good parenting requires sacrifice. Childhood lasts for only a few brief years , but it should be given priority while it is passing before your eyes

Children mimic well. They catch what they see better than they follow what they hear.

Children do not develop on their own - they only develop within relationships.

If you (parents) tend to overreact to your child's misbehaviour - your child learns that he can't trust you. Mom, Dad, stay regulated!

"To be a man, a boy must see a man."  (J.R. Moehringer)

When a child is disregulated - is the time parents need to be regulated.

Adolescence can be the cruelest place on earth. It can really be heartless.  ( Tori Amos)

The way we talk to our children becomes their inner voice. (Peggy O'Mara)

"Moody" and "unpredictable" are adjectives parents will often use when referring to their teenagers.

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Contributing Factors to Teen Depression

Contributing Factors to Depression
1. Genes                – there is a genetic component
                                – most children of depressed parents do not become depressed but there is an increased risk
                                                                         
2. Brain chemicals – it is believed that serotonin & norepinephrine are involved
 
3. Kindling – once brain gets used to thinking in    depressed ways it becomes progressively easier to slip into this pattern
 
4. Life Stress       – stress becomes too great
                                – perceived as inescapable
 
5. Learned Helplessness – interferes with desire to help    oneself
 
6. Past experiences – relevant to the extent that it affects  current thinking, feelings, & behaviours
 
7. Hormones – puberty, birth control pills
 
8. Lack of sunlight – SAD 

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Workshops

+ Behaviour Management (now available online)

This full day or 2 evening workshop will introduce you […]

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+ A Parent’s Guide to the Teenage Brain

  A teenager’s brain is not just an adult brain […]

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+ Reading Rescue

A program for children with reading problems

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+ A Guided Tour of ADHD (now available online)

This workshop will present the facts, myths, misconceptions, controversy and […]

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See more of our workshops


Contact

2720 Rath Street, Putnam, Ontario
NOL 2BO

Phone: (519) 485-4678
Fax: (519) 485-0281

Email: info@rickharper.ca

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Parents' Comments

“We are foster parents who took in a 13 year old girl (going on 18!) and she ran us through the wringer. Rick helped us learn how to set limits that made the difference.”

(G.E. – Strathroy)