Family & Relationships

My husband has been seeing a therapist for a while. And now he wants me to attend his session with him. I’m scared to go because I know they’ve been talking about me and our relationship. It feels like I’ll be ganged up on since it’s his therapist. She will probably take his side on everything. Should I even go?

As a parent or caregiver, you anticipate and meet your child’s physical needs, such as hunger or tiredness, and are attuned to their mental and emotional needs. You can guess when your child feels sad, angry, anxious, or depressed. You can help identify why they are feeling this way. But how do you know when your child’s feelings won’t pass, and what meaningful actions can you take to help? 

I am a 33-year female struggling with my relationships with my two older sisters. To do this day my sisters continue to make up lies about me and spread them around to the family and/or on social media. ​​​​​​​How do I deal with my sisters going forward and should I have called the police after the physical event in the car?

My wife complains about how she looks - her hair, her weight, her nose - all the time and I'm not sure how to respond. I think she's beautiful! And I tell her this, but it doesn't seem to sink in. I worry all this negative talk is harmful. And I'm tired of hearing it. I love her - what can I do to reassure her?

We fill up with sunshine when we see victory in our children’s lives, and the moment we start to let our shoulders drop in relaxation, another storm comes seemingly out of nowhere. But that does not mean healing isn’t happening. It means that it is layered and multifaceted and complex. It means that trauma goes deep, and so must healing.

My 13-year-old son (soon to be 14) is having a hard time maintaining friendships. As a result, he tells his dad and me that he is lonely and then moves to “online friends,” which are really people he doesn’t know. He says that when he goes online, he can be who he wants and can just tell them the good stuff. Any suggestions on how to cultivate friendships with kids he has actually met through baseball, school, etc.?

A fixed mindset often focuses solely on the end result. A growth mindset focuses on the journey and the effort put in, and not on the end result itself. Neither of these are wrong nor bad, as encouraging your child is always a great thing to do. However, by parenting from a growth mindset, you instill the idea of resilience and learning to achieve goals. So, how can you move your family from a fixed to a growth mindset? 

My mother-in-law is very critical, and she makes negative comments about things I say or do, and this really bothers me. My husband is aware and even though he agrees that she is inappropriate, he never sticks up for me or says anything to stop it. It makes family events very uncomfortable. What can I do to encourage my husband to come to my defense?

My husband and I are getting a divorce, but we are amicable. We have been having problems for quite some time and after a lot of couple’s therapy, he came out that he is gay.  As hard as this is, we both know that he needs to be true to who he is. We have two younger children ages 8 and 6 and we want to keep things as normal as possible for them so we have decided to keep the children in the house and he and I will rotate staying at the house every other week. We are going to share an apartment and rotate living there as well. Is this type of arrangement good for children?