Parent Choices For Struggling Teens

Dr. Laura Kastner PhD, 206-324-6444, kastneri@comcast.net, www.laurakastnerphd.com, Professor at the University of Washington, a clinical psychologist with a private practice and parent workshops and authored four books: Getting to CALM: Cool-headed strategies for parenting tweens and teens, and Wise-Minded Parenting: 7 Essentials for Raising Successful tweens and teens. In the insight packed interview with Lon Woodbury, Dr. Kastner emphasized one of the most important aspects of successfully dealing with teens is mastering self-regulation so when a teen confronts a parent, the parent avoids escalating the situation and maintains necessary control while they train their teen to learn how to control themselves. CALM is an acronym for the steps a parent can use to establish self-control when confronted by their teen. She explained several approaches parents could use to parent their children from a base of the parent having strong self-regulation.