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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)

Parenting style matters - a lot!

Relationships matter:  change comes through forming trusting relationships. People, not programs change people.

You cannot reason with someone who is being unreasonable.

There has been an explosion in the prescribing of medication for very young children, particularly preschool and kindergarten boys (Juli Zito , Univ. of Maryland)

Removing a child from a traumatic environment does not remove the trauma from the child's memory.

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

"Cutting" is a visible sign to the world that you are hurting.

The best inheritance  parents can give their children is a few minutes of their time each day.

"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 were so naive. We thought our son’s poor behaviour was just a phase he was passing through. Thankfully you led us ‘out of the wilderness'”

(N.S. – London)