This unique book provides compassionate strategies to help parents work through the pain, shame, and sense of loss that they feel when dealing with family conflict or when their relationship with their older or adult children has not turned out as they hoped or expected.
Sometimes, despite our best efforts, we lose the opportunity to be the parent we desperately want to be and must mourn the loss of a harmonious relationship with an estranged adult child. Although this situation may seem hopeless, When Parents Hurt is a parenting guide designed to help us through this intensely difficult situation with compassion and thoughtfulness.
Through healing exercises and case examples, Dr. Joshua Coleman helps parents:
- Reduce anger, guilt, and shame
- Learn how temperament, the teen years, a partner's or their own mistakes, and divorce can harm the parent-child bond
- Come to terms with their imperfections, as well as their child's
- Develop strategies for reaching out and for maintaining their self-esteem through trying times
- Understand how society's expectations contribute to the risk of parental wounds
By helping parents recognize what they can do-and to let go of what they cannot control-When Parents Hurt offers a clear path toward healing for parents and helps families develop more positive ways of relating to themselves and each other.
In When Parents Hurt, psychologist and parent Joshua Coleman, Ph.D., offers insight, empathy, and perspective to those who have lost the opportunity to be the parent they desperately wanted to be and who are mourning the loss of a harmonious relationship with their child. Through case examples and healing exercises, Dr. Coleman helps parents:
- Reduce anger, guilt, and shame
- Learn how temperament, the teen years, their own or a partner's mistakes, and divorce can strain the parent-child bond
- Come to terms with their own and their child's imperfections
- Develop strategies for rebuilding the relationship or move toward acceptance of what can't be changed
By helping parents recognize what they can do and let go of what they cannot, Dr. Coleman helps families develop more positive ways of healing themselves and relating to each other.
"This is an incredibly insightful and sensitively written analysis of a difficult subject. . . .I have recommended it to many of my clients. . . I highly recommend it to all parents who hurt."
