Articles

When their parents are getting divorced children will have a whole range of emotions. They might feel bewildered, sad, angry and afraid. Teenagers can be very impacted by their parents splitting up but they have one thing in their favour. They are old enough to have the understanding and the language skill to ask the…Read More.

In the holiday season, many families eagerly anticipate getting together with loved ones and sharing these special holidays. On the opposite extreme are those for whom the thought of these weeks fill them with feelings of dread. I am referring here to individuals or families who have experienced a significant loss. This might be the…Read More.

If you are reading this then maybe being around people feels scary. Maybe your experience of social anxiety is relatively mild. In social situations, you might feel anxious in the beginning and then slowly start to relax, especially if you find someone nice to talk to. On the other end of the spectrum are feelings…Read More.

Sibling rivalry and sibling jealousy are difficult issues to deal with for parents. To some degree these situations are normal and, with sensitivity, can be managed with siblings growing out of these unhelpful emotions. It becomes far more of a problem if this continues and manifests later on into serious adult envy. If you are…Read More.

Sibling rivalry and sibling jealousy is to some degree normal and healthy. Learning to co-exist with siblings can teach children some valuable lessons about relationships in the greater world outside of the home. Many parents will report that when the second baby came along there was an increase in negative behaviour from the first child….Read More.

Do you have signs of depression? We all feel sad at times, that is part of being human. Often our sadness can be triggered by an external event. We may be grieving a relationship breakup, we may lose our job, someone in the family may be ill or perhaps life is just stressful. This kind…Read More.

I am going to take the liberty of sharing some personal information as many of the authors I admire in my field do. The original article ‘ Success at School, What Are The Secrets?’ was written when all three of my children were at school. Two were in high school and my youngest was in primary…Read More.

The first food related article I wrote, Hunger, Appetite and Eating, was written in in the late nineties. I was asked to submit something interesting, related to children, for a fundraising publication. It was known that at a much earlier stage in my career I had run a diet counselling practice and still retained a…Read More.

The summer holidays are almost at an end and children everywhere are starting to prepare for school. Some are anticipating, with the mixture of anxiety and relief, their final year, the HSC. Others are entering high school having to face the pressures of an increased workload, plus all the demands and responsibilities that are part…Read More.

An obsession about food, weight and the size of your body is a painful and engrossing activity and can become a way of life. There are many adults who have spent half their lives grappling with the issues around what is the ideal weight for me, how can I get there, how can I stay…Read More.

As babies all of us send out many cues that kept us alive and healthy. Some of these are messages around sleep, temperature control and pain and hunger. Hunger is an internal cue from our body that tells us we need nourishment. Mary Pipher PhD, in her book Hunger Pains, writes that hunger pangs are…Read More.