The Parents' Guide to Psychological First Aid brings together an array of experts to offer parental guidance in helping your child navigate and recover from the everyday stresses they will encounter growing up. Clear, practical, and to-the-point, this is a go-to reference that parents will find themselves returning to again and again as their children grow. With practical tips, nonjudgmental advice, and suggestions for additional resources at the end of each chapter, this useful and thought-provoking book will be of immense value to new and seasoned parents alike.

"With uncommon sensitivity and intelligence... [this] book offers parents a window into their kids' often tumultuous relationships with classmates." - Time Friends broaden our children’s horizons, share their joys and secrets, and accompany them on their journeys into ever wider worlds. But friends can also gossip and betray, tease and exclude. Children can cause untold suffering, not only for their peers but for parents as well. In this wise and insightful book, psychologist Michael Thompson, Ph.D., and children’s book author Catherine O’Neill Grace, illuminate the crucial and often hidden role that friendship plays in the lives of children from birth through adolescence. Drawing on fascinating new research as well as their own extensive experience in schools, Thompson and Grace demonstrate that children’s friendships begin early–in infancy–and run exceptionally deep in intensity and loyalty. As children grow, their friendships become more complex and layered but also more emotionally fraught, marked by both extraordinary intimacy and bewildering cruelty. As parents, we watch, and often live through vicariously, the tumult that our children experience as they encounter the “cool” crowd, shifting alliances, bullies, and disloyal best friends. Best Friends, Worst Enemies brings to life the drama of childhood relationships, guiding parents to a deeper understanding of the motives and meanings of social behavior. Here you will find penetrating discussions of the difference between friendship and popularity, how boys and girls deal in unique ways with intimacy and commitment, whether all kids need a best friend, why cliques form and what you can do about them. Filled with anecdotes that ring amazingly true to life, Best Friends, Worst Enemies probes the magic and the heartbreak that all children experience with their friends. Parents, teachers, counselors–indeed anyone who cares about children–will find this an eye-opening and wonderfully affirming book. "Relevant and compelling... Parents will be wiser for reading." - The Boston Globe "The stories in this book come from many perspectives - those of therapists, educators, and parents. The wise, kind authors give us a fresh and cogent analysis of this critically important issue." - Mary Pipher, Ph.D., author of Reviving Ophelia

When children lose someone they love, life is never the same. In this sympathetic book, the authors advocate an open, honest approach, suggesting that our instinctive desire to "protect" children from the reality of death may be more harmful than helpful.

You’ve seen it on the news too many times to count. School shootings, adolescent addictions, bullying, eating disorders, depression and suicide, cutting, pregnancy. There is no lack of bad news to be told about teenagers today. Maybe you believe that will never happen to “my child.” And maybe it won’t. But crises aren’t always the stories that make the evening news. The spectrum of crises an adolescent may face can range from something as (seemingly harmless) as getting caught cheating on a test to dealing with the breakdown of the family, to acting out and getting in trouble with the law. And the reality is that someone they know will likely experience some kind of crisis—and that can affect your teen significantly. Either way, when a crisis affects your teen, wouldn’t you want to be prepared?Rich Van Pelt and Jim Hancock, both of whom have raised teenagers into adulthood and have spent decades in youth ministry and crisis management, bring together their expertise and insight to help you identify and understand what a crisis is and how you can help your teen live and grow through it. Inside, you’ll find practical responses for issues like: • Suicidal thoughts or behavior• Accidents• Cheating• Death (of a friend or loved one)• Divorce• Eating disorders• Hazing• Pregnancy• Sexual abuse• Sexual identity confusion• Substance abuse or addiction• And more...In addition to learning appropriate responses to crises, you’ll learn how to prevent some of these issues, and how to get professionals involved when necessary.Whatever it is your teen is dealing with, your influence in their life is still the most important one. So be prepared to walk them through their crisis with wisdom, compassion, and the tools to help them heal.