I was undiagnosed, but in retrospect clearly diagnosable, with depression from age 12. For much of my youth I “other-reflected” rather than self-reflected. I made the worst attitudes of others my own. I would say that I hated the way others viewed my depression but I really just hated myself.

We’ve all been there and often don’t know how we arrived. But one thing is certain, no parent enjoys being in a power struggle with their child. What brings us to this point?

Parenting is not a one way street. Two separate personalities interact to hopefully produce a loving parent-child relationship. Becoming a good parent is as much about us as it is about our kids.

A recent article in the globegazette.com entitled “Emma, Ethan Lead Iowa’s Baby Name List” by Rod Boshart discusses the most popular baby names today. And also the anxiety that parents experience when they have to come up with a name! In days gone by your name was simply your name, the word by which to [...]

In this wonderful blog post entitled “Permission to Feel,” Coach Nancy points out that parents sometimes curb positive emotions like excitement as well as the more painful ones. All humans have feelings, she says, and by not allowing them to be felt we become unable to process them in healthy ways.

I felt honored to be interviewed by Anamarie Seidel, co-author with her husband Cory, of the upcoming book, “What You Don’t Fix … Your Kids Inherit.” Thank you Anamarie for making me think! The premise of this book is as the title suggests: we need to commit to personal growth during our lifetime if we [...]

What does it mean to have a sense of humour and where does this fit into emotional intelligence? Many successful people have a twinkle in their eyes. They often are able to laugh good-naturedly with others and will often laugh at themselves. However, humour is one of those characteristics that so easily can turn from “feel good” to “feel bad.”

Check out a lovely article in the NCAdvertiser.com written by Julie Butler Evans entitled “Parenting from the trenches – Learning the life lesson of letting go.” Julie beautifully describes the dilemma that many parents face. She says that knowing when and how to draw the line between holding on to our kids and letting go [...]

Several years ago, I got into a car accident and totalled my car (ok, my mother’s car).  Thankfully, no one was hurt and the only injury I sustained was to my bank account, which was hit with a hefty fine for “following too close”.  The other driver was forgiving, my parents showed concern only for [...]

I felt a sadness and a quiet desperation when I read an article in parentcentral.ca by Joseph Hall called “Children Feel Weight of Body Image.” He discusses the tragic obsession about body image and weight in our youth. Nothing new except that the study under discussion looked at about 4,200 children from Nova Scotia and [...]

The experience of ourselves, others and the world is not bestowed upon us, but created by us. The objectivity of events is an illusion, an organizing force born out of our creative minds but attributed to our rational brains. We know what we think and therefore think that we know. Personal perception, however, is anything [...]