If you have a child heading back to school, you may be wondering how to best support them with the transition to a new school year after summer break. While some kids thrive on the routine of school, others struggle to adjust to a new environment, new peers, or new demands placed on them.

Think back to when you first noticed feeling negatively about your body image. How old were you? Many adults say they had good self esteem about their body until third to sixth grade.

For adolescents with social anxiety the pandemic could be described as, for lack of a better word, a rollercoaster.  As a child and family therapist, I have had an up close look at the many peaks and valleys.

Having a therapist can be very helpful for many people who are going through a divorce. Here are a fewT reasons why working with professional on both the legal front, and the mental health side, can be beneficial.

Many parents are very reactive to disrespect from their children. Often this stems from being raised in a household where that kind of disrespect was not tolerated, and often when it was punished in a very harsh way. It can also come from a need to feel in control, or when we feel like the way our kids behave is a direct reflection of our parenting (hint: it often isn’t!)

I often write about helping kids cope with anxiety or recognizing anxiety in children, but what about when parents are dealing with anxiety themselves?

The holidays are a wonderful time to get together with family, and while big holidays like Thanksgiving are often filled joy and connection, they can also bring up issues of boundaries, become a reminder of strained family relationships, or cause stress and anxiety.

Most parents don’t want to yell at their children. And yet, ALL parents find themselves yelling at some point. I experience shame around yelling at my son because I TEACH positive discipline classes! Who am I to tell people to calmly set limits with their children when I am over here yelling, “PUT YOUR SOCKS BACK ON RIGHT NOW! WE NEED TO LEAVE!” as I try to head out the door for work.

“Me Too” has been popping up on my news feed all day for the last couple days. I shared my own “Me Too” post, and I believe every woman I know has one, whether they chose to post publicly or not.

“Logical consequences” is a phrase I hear used a lot. It is often used inaccurately to describe a punishment disguised as a “consequence”. It is also often confused with “natural consequences”, which are the consequences that naturally occur with no intervention from an adult.

There are a few phrases that I love teaching in parenting classes because they are simple, easy to use and teach, and remember. They also can be powerful tools for changing the language we use with our kids.

In Part 1 of “Find Your Inner Parenting Compass”, I talked about how difficult it is today as parents to figure out the right way to raise our children with all the contradicting advice out there.

Today, I’m writing about how to find your own voice.

I have been spending much of the day today thinking about honesty and why it’s so important in relationships. I saw Glennon Doyle (author of Love Warrior, which if you have not read yet, you really really should) speak at Together Live last night in Portland and was incredibly inspired to bring more honesty and authenticity into my life and my writing.

Parenting is truly challenging these days.

In addition to the exhaustion, tantrums, diaper changes, and multitude of tasks facing parents each day, we are also bombarded with an unrelenting onslaught of contradicting advice and opinions. A brief glance through parenting articles posted by friends on Facebook yields dire warnings for nearly every parenting choice.

For those of you who don’t know me, I am Kaleigh, a Child and Family Therapist in Portland, OR. I have spent over a decade of my life working with children in some capacity, as professional nanny, a teacher, a therapist, and now as a parent to a delightful and active three year old boy.