Dearest parents; the keepers of our children; this page is for you because it is with you in mind that I have explored and will explore various topics. It is your strength and determination that develops the heart and soul of our future adults. Your job is mighty, but you are more capable than you may know.
Within these pages I hope you will find optimism, inspiration, and insight. Many of these posts will be about child development and mental health, and many more will be about parental persistence and discovery. The biggest secret of them all is that child behaviour is the result of a combination of things: temperament, personality, interaction style, possible mental health or other disabilities, and parent interactions and feedback. Oh and don’t forget, normal self-discovery!
As a psychologist, I work from the perspective of behaviourism and cognitive psychology. Sometimes you might feel my responses are too behaviourist for your liking, but I must say, these are the methods that have resulted in the greatest success. Behaviourism does not require emotionless robots, but it does require hard work and consistency.
Occasionally, you will find that I also speak from a family systems perspective and can be slightly psychodynamic when it comes to the self-discovery piece. Understanding yourself and your own personal experiences will help you understand how and why you interpret the world the way you do and how that translates into your relationship with your children, spouse, friends, parents, and work.
I hope you enjoy the information you find here and can appreciate it with some levity. Even without having actually met you, I know that you are doing an amazing job. Because as a parent, you already have the one criteria locked in – you love your child and you want the very best for him or her.
We all make “mistakes” (we’ll talk about my perspective on “mistakes” later) and as long as we strive to learn from them, we are always on the right path.