Reviewed Resources
Reviewed Resources
Embedded Files
Wellesley BRIDGE Parent Leadership Team (PLT)
The Wellesley BRIDGE Parent Leadership Team is a set of parents who have volunteered to come together and contribute ideas and resources to share with parents who are new to the ‘Transition Experience’. The ideas and resources generated within this team will be shared with 50 + Transition Programs across the state to provide parent-generated educational and support resources for parents who are new to the experience.
Bridge Parents!
The following lists a few resources that we have found very helpful on our journeys.
Please let us know if you have a resource you would like to add!
(book, video, podcast, article, app, etc)
Podcasts
Ask Lisa: The Psychology of Parenting
Lisa Damour is a renowned clinical psychologist and author of a number of books on teens and mental health. This podcast focuses on parenting tweens and teens. She and her co-host, Reena Ninan, answer listener questions about teen relationships, stress, social media and technology, anxiety, and many related topics.
Parent Review:
The central question is how to raise emotionally healthy and resilient kids, but it's easy to navigate through the episodes and pick the ones that are relevant to you. This podcast is research based but also really straightforward and easy to apply to life.
The Flusterclux podcast is a great resource for parents dealing with anxiety in their kids or themselves. Lyons is the author of a key book on anxiety patterns in families, Anxious Kids, Anxious Parents as well as The Anxiety Audit, which focuses on different ways that anxiety can manifest in individuals.
Parent Review:
Lynn and her co-host Robin are very upbeat and can see the funny side of parenting. The way they approach anxiety makes it clear and predictable so you understand how to improve things in your own family. Each episode focuses on a topic, guest, or listener question and gives parents concrete advice on how to respond to their kids’ anxiety in new and effective ways.
Clinical psychologist and mom Dr. Becky Kennedy is amazing at pointing out traps and traditions in parenting that just don’t work. The Good Inside podcast focuses on parenting stressors, questions, and trends with humor and compassion.
Parent Review:
She helps us see the good in ourselves and our kids, even when we’re at odds. Dr. Becky wants to help parents develop a vision of how we want to parent that’s do-able and values-based. I really appreciate her positive approach and the way she prioritizes every family member’s wellness.
Links:
Parent Review:
They have a lot of helpful links and many webinars that could be helpful for other parents to see. The doctors featured are experts in the field and patients come from all over this region and beyond for treatment.
Brene Brown TED Talks
Parent Review:
Brene Brown’s TED Talks are engaging, real, and entertaining. She has extensively researched vulnerability and shame and speaks to her own experiences with both emotions. The talks cover embracing vulnerability, connection and disconnection (the shame and fear of “not being good enough”), and learning to embrace a sense of self-worthiness. Suggestion: Watch Vulnerability talk followed by the Shame talk. Highly recommend both for parents and teens/young adults to watch.
Joanie Geltman Blog
Parent Review:
This Teen Psychologist is local and is a great resource. She does do local talks, has written some books and has been featured in The Globe. We met with her one on one to discuss some issues with our son, and she was able to give us great coaching on what to say, how to say it and what is a big deal/not big deal. She also gave us a great referral to a therapist for our son. We are BIG fans.
Parent - Child Conversation Video, Story Corps
From website:
Twelve year old Joshua Littman, who has Asperger’s Syndrome, interviews his mother Sarah in this one-of a-kind conversation.
Parent Review:
This could possibly be a great thing to watch with your child as a conversation starter. The video made me cry. I really loved listening to how she answered some of those questions. Great parenting.
Books
Overcoming Borderline Personality Disorder: A Family Guide for Healing and Change
By Valerie Porr, MA
Parent Review:
This book is written by a family member of someone with BPD. It isn't written by a parent, but the content is applicable for parents, siblings or partners dealing living with BPD. The content is informative and validating. There is a chapter on the experience of grief that a family member might feel. I found this really helpful. The book talks about two approaches to reduce reactivity in the home - DBT and mentalization. It was easy to read and I could relate to almost everything in it.
Helping Teens Who Cut, Understanding and Ending Self-Injury
By Michael Hollander PhD
Parent Review: A really helpful, relatively short book about a very tough topic for most parents to deal with. It’s very helpful in understanding the issue of teen “cutting”, understanding why they feel the need to do it and then how to help them to stop it. It also draws on the benefits of DBT therapy. Very insightful for parents.
Parent Review: My husband and I literally devoured this book. It really helped to know there was a way to “help” (our daughter).
Buddha’s Brain, The Practical Neuroscience of Happiness, Love & Wisdom
By Rick Hanson PhD w/ Richard Mendius MD
Parent Review: This is about how to train your mind to overcome emotional distress and achieve emotional balance. Links age old meditative practices with new and fascinating brain research to demonstrate how we can actually reshape our thoughts and mental reactions
DBT SKills Training Manual
By Marsha M. Linehan
Parent Review:
We participated in an intensive 12 week therapy DBT group for the parents of children also going through DBT. We did not actually own this book however at each weekly session our group leader used handouts from this manual. Many of these handouts helped us to learn key DBT skills and vocabulary. It may be too much material for a parent to use on their own but for those already working on DBT, perhaps it can be a help. Or if a parent doesn’t have access to a DBT group, it may help guide them. Definitely worth looking at.
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