‘Parenting and Children’ Questions at Ask the Psychologist: Online Clinical Psychologist

Q: I come from an extremely dysfunctional home. My father is 70 years old and has always been verbally, emotionally and physically abusive. My mother has always protected him. They have been married for 50 years. They are also masters of keeping up appearances. They are so good at looking good that any outsider looking [...]

Q: My daughter is a freshman at our local college and currently living in a student apartment. Up until last year she had never been in serious trouble of any kind, but she met a boy who was not in the same intellectual circle as she, and things went downhill from there.
During her last year [...]

Q: I am a single dad with two children. It wasn’t always that way, but their mother simply can’t deal with them. She only has them 4 days per month but still seems to have difficulty handling them because they stress her out so much.
I started seeing the children’s mother 12 years ago. We had [...]

Q: My husband has Narcissistic Personality Disorder, and I am currently divorcing him after a marriage of over 17 years of torment.
My kids are now teenagers, and my husband has started “using” them to do things that strictly benefit him. He rewards them with a little money for doing these things, effectively manipulating them.
As a [...]

Q: I’m 26 years old, and I was sexually abused when I was 10. My abuser was my brother’s best mate whom my mum had taken in. The day after it happened, he robbed our house, and we have never seen him again.
Although I’ve never really told too many others what happened, I’ve lived with [...]