If you live with a teenager, you know all too well that their big emotions can turn into big actions. This is because every emotion has an action or urge attached to it.
Focusing on SKILLS and not a “vent sesh” will help you as a parent to feel more effective in communicating, interacting with and responding to your teen to help to de-escalate emotional situations.
If you have a teen in treatment, learning the skills to validate their experience AND continue to support positive change are critical to your teen’s long-lasting success.
Why not lay the foundation with skills that can last a lifetime and lead your teen into effective choices and stable successes… not intermittent times of joy that are so fragile that we’re afraid to look at what’s not working for fear that it’ll ruin it all in an instant.
Most of the time parents and professionals will try to increase or to boost self-esteem. But, boosting self-esteem is just a temporary fix. It's like putting a band-aid on a wound that doesn’t heal.
