Greetings!
I recently returned from one of the favorite parts of my summer - Pathways Teen/ Family Camp in Dallas, Texas. It is an honor to mention some of the heroes from this week that assisted the families and their teens - Aimee, Ashley, Brent, Brian, Clark, Craig C., Craig K., Harmony, Josh, Kristi, Laurie, Lori, Mark, Patti, Patty, Reed, Reuben. Reagan, Richard, Steven and Teresi.
Once again I was honored to witness a powerful family experience where the parents identified and changed family defeating and self-sabotaging patterns.
What if your family could attend a family camp where your teen or teens learn about accountability and responsibility, you as a parent gain valuable parent skills and your family together creates stronger bonds and learns how to truly communicate from the heart?
How powerful would that be? Teens bond through physical activities as well as through experiential training designed to foster teamwork, thinking through consequences and figuring out who they are and what they want.
Pathways Core Training, Inc. is a non-profit corporation that is the successor to the training created in 1985 by TV talk show host and national best selling author, Dr. Phillip C. McGraw.
Dr. Phil crafted the powerful self-help seminars titled Pathways to help you understand how you got to where you are in your life. But he didn't stop with explaining things in the hard-hitting, no nonsense style of his best-selling Life Strategies book.
Dr. Phil designed these training sessions to be maximally involving and extremely individualized. You don't just get power tools for changing your life. You define who you really are and create a life strategy that works!
"Pathways is an Experience Based training which allows individuals to achieve and create their own results. When you lecture people, they will most likely lose the information within several weeks; however if they work to achieve their own 'conclusions / truths', then that information will most likely remain with them for the rest of their life." Dr. Phil McGraw, Founder and Creator.
Unlike therapy, Pathways doesn't focus on "why" something happened, but rather on the fact that it "did" happen. You learn how to prevent past events from influencing the present and limiting the future.
To apply for tuition assistance for the 2011 Teen/Family Camp, candidates must fully complete the Teen Family Camp Tuition Assistance Program Application form and pay the $15.00 application fee. Read about their success stories - click here.
Visit their website - Createagreatlife.org.
Please consider signing up for this family camp when one or more of the following statements are true for you:
- You think that your family life could be much better than it is now, however you have no idea how to change it.
- Some people want you to give up on your dreams, but you don't want to give up.
- You would like to become a more powerful family to be able to live the life that you all deserve.
- In some situations, people in your family are afraid to speak out or to stand up for themselves.
- You would like to find out how you and your family can lead a life full of purpose and meaning.
- You would welcome the opportunity to know about tools that would help you and your teen's live a great life.
A great life for you and your family doesn't happen by accident.
A great life is the result of allocating your energy, thoughts, time and hard work towards what you want your life to be.
Stop setting yourself and your teen up for stress and failure, and start setting up your life to support success and ease.
I hope to see you and your family there in 2011. I know it would be life changing for you and your family.
Be well,
Dore E. Frances, M.A.
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For Stepparents
 Parenting is difficult these days. Helping raise someone else's child is even harder. Schools typically consider only biological parents, ignoring stepparents. You might feel all alone - although stepparent families are a rapidly growing group in our society. You may wonder: - How can I deal with my anger, hurt, jealously or other feelings, not to mention those of my spouse or the children?
- How do I relate to the children's other biological parent?
- How much authority do I have?
Children always have two parents, even when one is deceased or the parents are separated. The influence of those parents will continue through your stepchildren's lives, regardless of how often or rarely they see each other. As a stepparent, you are a relative newcomer to the family, so you have to define your role. What's more, your role, like everyone else's, will change over time. Stepparents usually fall into one of three general types: primary parent, friend or other parent. Primary parent stepparents usually live in the same household as the children. They operate much like the biological parents with many of the same responsibilities and benefits. The children may call them "dad" or "mom" and accept their role. These relationships most often exist when the counterpart biological parent has little or no contact with the children. They generally develop over time and are more common when the children meet the stepparent at a young age. Friend stepparents do not usually reside with their stepchildren. Older children are most often comfortable with this kind of relationship and may use the stepparent's first name. While friend stepparents may have considerable influence with their stepchildren, this is due to the strength of their relationship, not because of their parental role. Other parent is the role most stepparents play. Their job may be the most difficult because the children continue active relationships with both biological parents. Other parents often have regular parental duties, yet lack authority or the children's acceptance of their role. Other parent stepparents need to maintain clear communication with their partners and accept that it takes time to develop good relationships with the children.
Each of these roles is appropriate in certain circumstances.
Only you, your partner and the children can decide which is the best for your situation, and how the family role will evolve.
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10 Signs Your Teen Has a Drug Problem
- Always asking for more money
- Lying
- Major weight loss
- Making or having a lot of unexplained money
- Missing money or valuable items from the home
- Never at home or school. does not want to come home
- Nodding out during the day
- Pin-point and/or dilated pupils/bloodshot eyes, excessive use of eye drops
- Very defensive, argumentative, irritable, moody
- Year long cold, sniffles
Is there a way you can really tell if your teen is abusing and/or using drugs? The answer is yes. When you recognize just one sign, your teen needs to be watched closely. When you recognize two signs, most likely they have a problem. When you recognize three signs, then there is a problem, and it is now your problem. Your child definitely needs your help. |
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Dore E. Frances, M.A.
Horizon Family Solutions, LLC
541-312-4422
Dore@dorefrances.com
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We serve up a variety of weekly guests that will make you laugh and may even make you cry - and definitely will make you think
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What's the Matter with KIDS Today?
The brain of a teenager is like a car with a powerful gas pedal and weak brakes.
A group - ages 10 to 30 - are asked to solve a puzzle. It involves rearranging a stack of colored blocks on placeholders using as few moves as possible. Each incorrect move requires extra moves to undo it. The test is designed to measure impulse control.
Adolescents tend to start moving blocks almost immediately, which usually means they are spending time rearranging again later.
Those 23 and older tend to take more time to consider their first move, which generally allows them to solve the puzzle on the first attempt.
In a design to measure mature decision-making abilities, the same age group is presented with a choice between a small, immediate cash reward and a larger, long-term cash reward. The adolescents invariably have a lower "tipping point" - the amount of money they are willing to take to get their reward immediately.
Those 25 and older are more willing to wait.
A third opportunity is designed around the effects of peer pressure. Driving a computerized car simulator, this age group is to choose whether to run a series of traffic lights that are about to turn red, both alone and then in the company of friends.
Almost invariably, the adolescents and teens take greater risks when their friends are present; those 25 and older tend not to change their driving in either situation.
This is the kind of research that is helping to shed new light on the differences between adolescent and adult brains. It means we are finally acknowledging that kids are different from adults and need to be treated differently.
Adolescents, as a group, are more immature, more irresponsible, more susceptible to negative influences and outside pressures, and more capable of long-term change than are adults.
While an individual's cognitive abilities (reasoning, thinking) reach adult levels around the age of 16 / 17, studies show that psychosocial capabilities (future orientation, judgment, impulse control and resistance to peer pressure) continue to develop well into early adulthood.
Which answers the question so many parents have undoubtedly asked their teenage daughters or son: How could somebody so smart do something so dumb?
Continued research shows, for instance, that adolescents exhibit more neural activity than adults or children in areas of the brain that promote risky and reward-based behavior.
It also shows that the brain continues to mature well beyond adolescence in areas responsible for controlling actions, emotions and thoughts. Yes, more research is needed.
Currently a large and continuously developing body of social science is researching in order to prove that children who play violent video games can become aggressive, engage in antisocial behavior and perform poorly in school.
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Thanking Our Sponsors
Elan School accepts adolescents with emotional, behavioral or adjustment problems  | |
BestNotes is a HIPAA compliant Customer Relationship Management and Electronic Health Record software system designed specifically for the special needs community  | |
ISER is a directory of professionals, organizations, and schools that serve the learning disabilities and special education communities
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 The Core Training is the flagship training under the Pathways title and was created to help you understand how you got to where you are in your life. |
Articles Currently Being Researched and In Process for Future Newsletters- 10 Ways to raise your self-esteem
- Do you have the people-pleasing syndrome?
- Healing with poetry - it is effective
- How defensive are you?
- How well do you handle being overwhelmed?
- How well do you handle failure?
- How well do you practice empathy?
- Learning to pay attention to "Red Flags"
- Making sleep a priority - are you getting enough sleep for your mental health?
- One-Liners to avoid in an argument
- The power of intention
- What is the difference between being a victim - being a survivor - being a thriver?
- 10 Ways to handle difficult conversations
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