welcome image

"Cutting" is a visible sign to the world that you are hurting.

You cannot reason with someone who is being unreasonable.

The teenage years require a delicate balance between the young person's need to gain independence, and the parent's need to retain authority.

Children fare better when expectations on them are clear and firm.

If there is no relationship - nothing else matters !

"Unexpressed feeling never die. They are buried alive and come back later in ugly ways." (Stephen Covey)

The way we talk to our children becomes their inner voice. (Peggy O'Mara)

Many clinicians find it easier to tell parents their child has a brain-based disorder than suggest parenting changes. Jennifer Harris (psychiatrist)

Don't wait for him to turn 10 before you reveal that you are not in fact the hired help whose job it is to clean up after him.

A tantruming toddler is a little ball of writhing muscle and incredible strength. It's like trying to carry a greased pig past a slop bucket.

Learn more.

Contributing Factors to Teen Depression

Contributing Factors to Depression
1. Genes                – there is a genetic component
                                – most children of depressed parents do not become depressed but there is an increased risk
                                                                         
2. Brain chemicals – it is believed that serotonin & norepinephrine are involved
 
3. Kindling – once brain gets used to thinking in    depressed ways it becomes progressively easier to slip into this pattern
 
4. Life Stress       – stress becomes too great
                                – perceived as inescapable
 
5. Learned Helplessness – interferes with desire to help    oneself
 
6. Past experiences – relevant to the extent that it affects  current thinking, feelings, & behaviours
 
7. Hormones – puberty, birth control pills
 
8. Lack of sunlight – SAD 

Back to Top

Workshops

+ Behaviour Management (now available online)

This full day or 2 evening workshop will introduce you […]

Learn more

+ A Parent’s Guide to the Teenage Brain

  A teenager’s brain is not just an adult brain […]

Learn more

+ Reading Rescue

A program for children with reading problems

Learn more

+ A Guided Tour of ADHD (now available online)

This workshop will present the facts, myths, misconceptions, controversy and […]

Learn more

See more of our workshops


Contact

2720 Rath Street, Putnam, Ontario
NOL 2BO

Phone: (519) 485-4678
Fax: (519) 485-0281

Email: info@rickharper.ca

Archive


Parents' Comments

“Our daughter was the joy of our life until she turned 13, then all hell broke loose. Rick helped us understand what was happening to her and we made some adjustments that helped us get through it. She’s now in University and doing well.”

(D.A. – St. Thomas)