by Harper West | Dec 1, 2021 | Parenting, Trauma
It can be difficult to know how to support grieving and traumatized teens following an event such as the gun violence episode at Oxford High School in Oxford, Michigan. I regularly see clients from this town, which has grown a lot in the past 10 years, but still...
by Harper West | Aug 22, 2021 | Parenting, Shame
Aliesha, 9, had reluctantly followed her parents from the waiting room into my office and slumped into a chair. Her parents immediately launched into a description of her latest behaviors and their concerns about how this would cause her to flunk a grade and be held...
by Harper West | Aug 20, 2021 | Parenting, Shame
Would you believe that I can spot low self-worth and poor shame tolerance even in a child as young as three? It’s true. Sometimes it is obvious. I have worked with three- and four-year old children who say things like: “I’m no good,” and “I’m a bad kid.” These...
by Harper West | Jun 27, 2021 | Parenting
I met the mother, father, and daughter in my waiting room for their second therapy appointment. (This case is a fictionalized composite.) In the 20 seconds it took the family to walk from my waiting room to my office, I heard the mother say all of this to the child:...
by Harper West | Jan 19, 2021 | ADHD, Parenting, Trauma
I’m sharing this fascinating article on a study about the impact of a father’s trauma history on a child’s mental health. “New research from Romania has demonstrated a clear correlation between adverse childhood experiences in fathers’ lives...
by Harper West | Oct 1, 2019 | Parenting
So much of my time in family therapy is spent on parenting education about the inadvertent ways parents create anxiety in a child. As this article explains, through their communication and disciplining methods parents can make a child fearful. Most parents come to...
