Promoting Empathy With Your Teen

The most efficient way to address everyday issues with your teen.

by Ugo Uche, M.S., L.P.C.

What if the Mother Featured on the TIME Cover Looked More Maternally Ubiquitous?

I see parents during family therapy blush about the idea of talking to their sons and daughters about sex, even though their child is just a click away from a porn site on the smart phone, or tablet the parent purchased. Read More

What Does Trayvon Martin's Death Teach Our Children About Conflicts?

"I work with teenagers in my practice, who are sometimes hostile and I never bring a gun to work." Read More

How to Respond to Insults from your Teen

"A common mistake most parents make is trying to fix their son or daughter's bad mood." Read More

Why Are Teens So Angry?

"Feelings of inadequacy resulting from living in a consumerist society is the number one reason why teens today are angrier than generations past. (This is simply my opinion.)" Read More

Sex, Your Child and Mobile Gadgets

"Needless to say the mind of a child is in no way shape or form mature to process any sexual information, particularly images. Children who consistently see these images, begin emulating what they see." Read More

Dealing with an Addicted Teen During the Holidays

"We convince ourselves that things are happening the way we want them to be happening. It’s the equivalent of closing our eyes and hoping that the problem will disappear on its own." Read More

What to Do When Your Teen Has Joined a Gang

"If anything, scolding and berating will definitely make things worse, as it will reinforce the teen’s belief that he or she is truly bad and only belongs with a negative peer group." Read More

The Illusion of Wealth

"If one has a goal, a vision, or an ambition, of what relevance is such a dream if you have to sacrifice your morals and values en route to meeting your goal?" Read More

Helping Your Child Make Better Friends

In most cases of bullying, when kids resort to bullying another peer, it is usually the bully’s way of saying, “you don’t belong to this group, now leave or I will continue to make your life miserable.” Read More

Using Empathy to Diffuse Hostility

So what do you do if you have being slapped or even hit in a public square? Read More

How to Respond To Insults

"This is where the danger lies, when we come to believe and rely upon other people to follow certain rules about what they can and cannot say, we unintentionally teach our children to become emotionally spineless. " Read More

The Problem with Absolute Thinking

Well it's this simple, human beings, regardless of race, religion or culture are likely to embrace any belief that is absolute. This is because absolute beliefs are simple, easy to comprehend and false positives that offer us a false sense of security. Read More

Why Sports Programs Don't Belong in High Schools and Colleges

"The idea of working in a professional field as a college student should constitute an internship, where the student’s compensation is considered quality experience earned, or compensation in the form of a scholarship for tuition fees." Read More

Is Generational Baggage Overrated?

"I continue to find it fascinating how old beliefs, attitudes and values held by a person's ancestors from generations past still influence their descendants after so many decades." Read More

School Forces Little Girl to Apologize to the Boy Who Raped Her

"I can write that I too have witnessed a significant increase in the number of referrals to my practice for children between the ages of 8 and 12 who have offended sexually against a peer or younger sibling." Read More

A Relationship Between Anger and Stockholm Syndrome

"In 1973, Nils Bejerot coined the term stockholm syndrome to this interesting phenomenon, after hostages from a Swedish bank robbery fiercely defended their captors. This is despite the fact they had just been rescued from five days of captivity." Read More

A Relationship Between Incompetency and Deceitfulness

"However, I can write with a fair degree of certainty that those journalists of the now defunct “News of the World”, who engaged in immoral activities to collect information, would have achieved more success if they had relied on the fundamentals of their profession." Read More

Understanding the Egotistical Teen

"So if you have a teen who presents as been egotistical, chances are that he or she feels very inadequate in a significant portion if not most aspects of their lives. Remember, empty bottles make the loudest noise." Read More

Lack Of Empathy In Any Community Leads To Increased Incidences Of Collective Cowardice

"When we allow ourselves to follow rules that go against our nature of being assertive and caring to ourselves and others, we are in essence engaging in an act of cowardice, and that's not okay. Therefore it makes sense if our children are willing to be bystanders and passive witness to any of their peers getting hurt." Read More

Closing The Gap Between Social Acceptance And Academic Achievement

Of what good is an education if you can't use it to solve your problems? Social relationships are an important aspect of any one's life, and history is filled with role models who were are able to successfully navigate through unjust ostracism in their societies in order to accomplish a great deal for themselves and their respective communities. Read More

Why People Subscribe To Foolish Beliefs

"People have a tendency to give into beliefs that suggest they are at an advantage, never mind that there is an absence of concrete evidence, or the presence of contradictory evidence. I like to call this the feel good phenomenon, "if you feel good about the belief, then it must and should be true". Read More

A Teen's Guide To Taking The Road Less Traveled

"According to Strelecky, a significant number of parents and guardians give their children irrational advice on what studies to pursue, when they have no experience in that profession." Read More

Creating a Healthy Awareness of Sexuality with Your Child or Teen

Human beings are sexual animals. Walk up to any checkout register and you will see magazines with scantily clad people. Read More

Promoting Delusions of Entitlement

What happens when children are raised with the belief that they are entitled to nothing materialistic, and everything they receive from their parents is a blessing? Read More

A Great Tool For Teaching Toddlers With Spectrum Related Disorders

"With a sensory processing disorder mainly characterized by visual and auditory hypersensitivity, I have come to notice that my son relies mostly on his tactile senses to make sense of his world." Read More

What To Do When Your Teen Has Gone Over Thirty Days Without Speaking To You

Here are four things you can practice on a daily basis to maintain a healthy and meaningful relationship with your teen, regardless of whether or not he or she speaking to you. Read More

Increasing Reports of ADHD: Do Higher Expectations In Academics Play A Role?

"The number of reported cases of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) with students ages 4 through 17, increased from 7.8 percent to 9.5 percent between 2003 and 2007."

The most effective method of increasingly the likelihood that your son or daughter excels academically is by viewing academic performance as being based on necessary skill sets. If you think about it, we acquire skills to function in all other aspects of our lives, from riding a bicycle, playing a sport to cooking. Read More

Effective Behavioral Responses to Threats (Real or Perceived)

A growing number of teen bullies have caught on to the latest gun craze sweeping our nation. These days it not unusual for targets of bullying to receive direct or indirect threats to their lives. Read More

RE: Interview on Bam! Radio Network -"Why Bullying is the New Mini Skirt"

"I have come to the belief that the reason why we have been reading more about incidents of bullying is because more people in our present day are becoming conscientious and outspoken about their compassion for others." Read More