Family Psychology

Parenting is hard. That's why self-compassion is so important. In this empathetic resource, mindfulness expert and psychologist Susan M. Pollak helps you let go of constant self-judgment and treat yourself with the same kindness and caring you strive to offer your kids. Simple, yet powerful, guided meditation techniques (most under three minutes long) are easy to practice while doing the dishes, driving to work, or soothing a fussy baby. Learn to respond to your own imperfections like a supportive friend, not a harsh critic.

Why don't our kids do what we want them to do? Parents often take the blame for misbehavior, but this obscures a broader trend: in our modern, highly connected age, children have less self-control than ever. About half of the current generation of children will develop a mood or behavioral disorder or a substance addiction by age 18. Contemporary kids need to learn independence and responsibility, yet our old ideas of punishments and rewards are preventing this from happening.

Supporting the mental health and well-being of children and young people is a top priority for parents, caregivers, and teachers, but it can be tricky to find reliable and evidence-based information. Written by an experienced child and adolescent psychiatrist, in a user-friendly question-and-answer format, this book outlines the mental health challenges facing our children and young people and offers practical advice on how to best support them.

Most kids get their first smartphone at the same time that they're experiencing major developmental changes. Making mistakes has always been a part of growing up, but how do parents help their kids navigate childhood and adolescence at a time when social media has the potential to magnify the consequences of those mistakes? Rather than spend all their time worrying about the worst-case scenario, listeners get a bigger-picture understanding of their kids' digital landscape.

Disrupt family patterns and heal from inherited trauma with this powerful guide, so you can break the cycle of silence for generations to come. Filled with stories, research, practical tools, and exercises, the book helps listeners understand how their family history impacts their lives and begin to open conversations that can heal.

Lying is a healthy and inevitable part of child development. But when do lies become a problem? In this book, psychologist Victoria Talwar, director of the Talwar Child Development Lab at McGill University, presents practical science-based strategies to address lying and foster truthfulness in children, from early childhood to the teenage years. Backed by years of psychological research, this common-sense, practical guide reveals which parenting strategies promote truthfulness in children—and which ones don't.

Raising Multiracial Children gives caregivers the tools for exploring race with their children, offering practical guidance on how to initiate conversations; consciously foster racial identity development; discuss issues like microaggressions, intersectionality, and privilege; and intentionally cultivate a sense of belonging.

If you have obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), you may seek constant reassurance from others, lose time to compulsions, struggle with unwanted thoughts and intense emotions, or act out in ways that are ineffective. These symptoms can put a major strain on your relationships-whether it's with family, friends, partners, or other relationships. So, how can you reduce the impact of OCD on your relationships? Drawing on evidence-based practices, psychologist Amy Mariaskin offers a comprehensive guide for managing your toughest symptoms-before they hijack your relationships.

What does a three-pound brain have to do with one’s sex life? A lot, actually. Hooked is about what’s happening to your brain when you’re having sex. Learn about your brain, the positive effects of sex within permanently committed relationships, and how you can protect yourself (especially your brain) from the dangers of casual sex.

We have long attributed man's violent, aggressive, competitive nature to his animal ancestry. But what if we are just as given to cooperation, empathy, and morality by virtue of our genes? What if our behavior actually makes us apes? What kind of apes are we?

Embark on an enlightening journey through the complexities of human connections with the audiobook "Attachment Theory in Practice." This comprehensive guide explores the transformative potential of Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT) in enhancing relationships for individuals, couples, and families. In this immersive audio experience, listeners will delve into the nuances of how attachment bonds can become disrupted due to misunderstandings, past traumas, and persistent insecurities.

In Bringing up Bébé, journalist and mother Pamela Druckerman investigated a society of good sleepers, gourmet eaters, and mostly calm parents. She set out to learn how the French achieve all this, while telling the story of her own young family in Paris. Bébé Day by Day distills the lessons of Bringing up Bébé into an easy-to-listen-to guide for parents and caregivers.

Rachel Simmons is a New York Times best-selling author and the founding director of the Girls' Leadership Institute. The Curse of the Good Girl looks into the phenomenon of the glass ceiling placed on girls who attempt to live up to the standard of being "good". Simmons then shows how parents can help build girls' self-esteem and give them the strength to pursue their goals.

When Catherine Cho and her husband set off from London to introduce their newborn son to family scattered across the United States, she could not have imagined what lay in store. Before the trip’s end, she develops psychosis, a complete break from reality, which causes her to lose all sense of time and place, including what is real and not real. In desperation, her husband admits her to a nearby psychiatric hospital, where she begins the hard work of rebuilding her identity. In this unwaveringly honest, insightful, and often shocking memoir, Catherine reconstructs her sense of self.

In prospective, long-term research with over 700 couples, Gottman has discovered certain factors that distinguish happy, stable couples from both unstable, ultimately divorcing couples and stable but unhappy couples. These findings, which are explained here in understandable, nontechnical language, form the basis of his Sound Marital House theory of marriage, which guides the new therapy. This therapy has two goals: changing the marital friendship and teaching couples to regulate conflict.

Ready or Not explores how today’s parenting techniques and our myopic educational system are failing to prepare children for their certain-to-be-uncertain future - and how we can reverse course to ensure their lasting adaptability, resilience, health, and happiness.

In her groundbreaking first book, 20 Things Adopted Kids Wish Their Adoptive Parents Knew, Sherrie Eldridge gave voice to the very real concerns of adopted children, whose unique perspectives offered unprecedented insight. In this all-new companion volume, Eldridge goes beyond those insights and shifts her focus to parents, offering them much-needed encouragement and hope.

"Is this normal picky eating stuff, or is there more going on here?" It's a question many parents worry about, and the same question one mom asked Jennifer Friedman in a session about her son Ryder, who struggled to eat more than chicken nuggets and french fries. In Stories of Extreme Picky Eating, Jennifer invites you into her nutritional therapy office to meet real kids struggling with serious food aversions, and learn the strategies that helped them come to eat a wider variety of nutritious foods with more ease.

As parents today, we often feel that our role is to protect our children from the world: to cushion them when they fall, to lift them over obstacles, and to remove sharp rocks from their path. But controlling a child’s entire environment and keeping all pain at bay isn’t feasible—we can’t prepare the world for our children, so instead we should focus on preparing our children for the world.

This is the story of a beautiful, young woman — a talented athlete and musician, raised in a loving home, surrounded by friends — undermined by a ruthless inner voice that claimed her body and her spirit. Emilee: The Story of a Girl and Her Family Hijacked by Anorexia reveals the cracks in our health care system, the institutions we are taught to trust, as well as our own prejudices and misinformation about eating disorders, mental illness, and addiction.