Take a second to reflect on the sacrifices you’ve made for your child or children – emotional, financial, relational, even physical. It’s stressful to support any child, and especially so when your child has medical, academic, social or developmental needs.

It’s as if your child balances precariously at the apex of a rock tower and it takes all your powers of pushing and pulling and minute adjustments every second of every day to keep the rock from toppling. Now picture this: you’re the rock at the bottom of this tower. What happens to the pebble at the top when the bedrock wobbles?

Your wellbeing and the wellbeing of your household provide the base on which the wellbeing of your challenged child balances.

And unfortunately, many parents of challenged (or challenging!) children have symptoms of PTSD – your child’s trauma is your trauma. Sure, you move the earth and stars to help your child. But what do you do for yourself? An hour a week seems like an extravagance, but it’s not: by helping yourself, you help your child.

I specialize guiding parents of challenged children toward post-traumatic growth rather than post-traumatic stress. Your child’s challenge is a fork in the road of your own life – you will never be the same, but in what way will you be different?

My first career was in education, first as a grant-funded literacy specialist in a struggling California school and then as a 6th grade teacher in Bozeman, MT. Through education, I met a range of students and families, and was always drawn to working with the support systems of my most struggling kids. Seven years, a PhD in clinical psychology, and an internship at the Boulder Institute for Psychotherapy and Research later, I feel equipped to support the needs of struggling families, which most successfully includes working with the adult members of these families.

I am a licensed psychologist candidate, editor of the American Psychological Association Division 39 publication, InSight, managing editor of the APA Div 39 journal, DIVISION/Review, and editor of the APA Div 39 blog at PsychologyToday.com. I am a published author and frequent speaker. I am also competent and experienced in a range of psychological testing and evaluation, and am EMDR certified.