Family Counseling

With statistics showing that one in two marriages end in divorce, it can be tempting to “normalize” the event. Its frequency, however, in no way diminishes the personal effect that divorce has both on the couple and family, including the children of divorce. A divorce is a traumatic occurrence and, much like a serious head-on collision, requires a long road to healing for the victims involved. While this road will look different for every son and daughter, it’s critical to identify that the emotional trauma exists, and will play out in various ways, for years after the divorce papers have been filed. It’s also not a case of whether it will be processed; but rather how this will happen – in a tangible albeit painful way, with counseling and healthy family support, or subconsciously, in a way that will impact a child’s character development and future patterns of behavior in relationships. Broken in Two A family is a singular unit, with an action taken by one member affecting every other person in the family. A child’s well-being (emotional, spiritual) is interwoven with the integrity of their parents’ marital wellbeing – the husband and wife have been joined through holy matrimony, and while the break that happens occurs between the mom and dad in divorce; it happens within the child. While sometimes the analogy of ‘gum on a rug’ is used to describe the messy and incomplete separation caused by a broken marriage, with the children of divorce the breaking effect is internal – they will feel like they’ve been cracked in half into two things. While this emotion may not be felt or expressed explicitly, they will still respond in some way to the tension, because the separation is real. The effects are far-reaching, often more than are immediately [...]

Growing up has many joys, but many growing pains too. As one moves from being a young child toward adulthood, the intervening teen years can be daunting to navigate and make sense of. As young people go through life and come into their own, they may wrestle with a variety of issues such as sex and sexuality, identity, self-esteem, peer pressure, and bullying. For parents and teens, this can be a bewildering time of life. Some kids pass through the adolescent years without incident. For others, this stage of life shifts the very ground beneath them, and they change in ways that can confuse them and their parents. This is a time when your children are dealing with deep questions and issues that will impact their future and shape how they view themselves and interact with the world around them. Parenting your child through these issues can be challenging and overwhelming, especially if it feels like you’re losing your connection with your teen. For many parents, it can be hard to know the difference between normal teenage angst and deeper problems that may require professional intervention and help. This article will try to help you to make sense of some of these challenges and give pointers for when to seek professional help, such as Christian counseling for teens in Pasadena. When to find help for your teen It is important to note that each child is different – what is normal, baseline behavior for each child will be different based on a variety of factors such as personality and life experiences up to that point. Most parents can pick up when their child is acting differently. What can be more difficult and complicated is being able to tell if your teen is simply behaving like a normal teenager going [...]