For College Freshmen: Adjusting Well and Making the Most of your First Year
Congratulations!
You’re headed off soon to start your first year of college. You may have heard the well-wishes from friends and family that college is going to be the “best years of your life!” We want to make that a reality for you. Making the most of college involves setting your expectations appropriately and having coping skills at the ready so you can tackle college adjustment in 3 key areas: relationships, school, and your health. …
For Parents: Improving Connection with Teens
If you’re the parent of a teen, you already know that some distance and pushback on your limits is part of the deal. However, when negotiations and conflict feel like the only conversations you’re having, your overall relationship can start to feel strained.
This can feel even more overwhelming if you know that your teen is struggling. Whether it’s anxiety, ADHD, or a big life change like starting a new school, we can falter when we try to connect AND also need to set typical parenting limits (no, you cannot stay out until 3AM on a Wednesday!). The harder we try, the further away they may seem. That dynamic is not a failure of the relationship; rather, it’s a product of how teen/parent relationships and emotion dysregulation work. …