Picking the right books for your family’s needs
If there were one perfect book out there that fit every family, when we went to find one there wouldn’t be so many darned books to choose from! In fact, there are a wealth of wonderful books out there. The trick is finding the right one to fit your family and your child’s needs. Part of the reason I started this blog was to have a place to quickly reference good materials for the families I work with and to keep myself accountable for staying up-to-date on publications that will help families. Anyone with more than one child knows they are like snowflakes- each one is different. Below are a two books I typically recommend along with the types of parents/families I think they will work for.
Parenting with Love and Logic, by Cline and Fay
Cover via Amazon
This is a classic series and has several different offshoots from the original. There are Love and Logic books for adolescents, for very young children, for grandparents raising grandchildren, etc. What I like about the Love and Logic parenting book is that the first half gives a realistic, reasonable framework for parents to follow, then in the second half the authors give you real examples of how to parent to specific issues while using the framework set up in the first half. I do want to point out that this is a Christian oriented book. I do not identify as a Christian counselor, however, the religious aspect of this book is not too heavy and I think it is a helpful book for families regardless of religious orientation. Because I also work with attachment disordered children, I would also like to add the techniques taught are helpful to all children, including kids with AD.
Inner Peace for Busy Women by Joan Borysenko
Cover via Amazon
If you are female and you have children, this book is for you. It is one of my very favorites. While it is geared more toward moms that work outside the home, I think it is helpful to mom’s that are at home full-time as well. This is not a “do it my way so you can do it right” book. To use the author’s description, she acknowledges that we are all living in a whirlwind of activity and that our goal is to be the calm center of the storm as it whirls around you. With humor and understanding Dr. Borysenko helps us all to be more gentle to ourselves and to find peace. I personally listened to this book as a book on tape, then loved it so much I bought the book as well. If you have the opportunity, I would highly recommend listening to this book for some good soul nurturing.
It is no mistake I picked these books first to tell you about since I find myself recommending them so much to parents I work with.
Stay tuned for more good book recommendations.
Happy reading!
You can easily find these books on Amazon by clicking on the amazon widget link at the top right on this screen. Please see my disclaimer page.
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About me
Kate Oliver, LCSW-C (Licensed Clinical Social Worker) has been a clinician working with traumatized and attachment-disturbed children for almost two decades. She is co-owner of A Healing Place, a private practice in Columbia, Maryland, since 2007.
At the beginning of her career, Kate found that while some children responded to traditional child therapy practices, there were a significant number of children who showed little or no improvement in their overall emotional well-being. This led her to seek out specialized training to learn more about attachment, the bond between parents and children, and found that by using attachment-based strategies in addition to treating trauma, even the most challenging children and their parents, saw major, life-changing shifts, not only for the children she was working with, but the parents as well.
Early in her career, Kate was privileged to work as the clinical director for Tamar’s Children, a program that took pregnant, incarcerated women from prison to a treatment facility that worked on teaching the women to bond with and attach to their babies, while also helping the women to heal their own broken attachments, and history of trauma and addiction. This program was internationally recognized for having a successful, evidence-based practice using an attachment-based model. From working with some of the most severely disenfranchised parents, Kate received important information about how to help all parents maintain a happy, healthy relationship with their children.
In 2007, Kate co-founded A Healing Place, a mental health private group practice in Columbia, Maryland, where she focuses on working with families with children who have a history of trauma and/or attachment disturbances. A board certified supervisor, Kate has been an invited presenter to teach continuing education courses for other social workers and psychologists. In her courses, Kate teaches attachment-building techniques and presents about her sub-specialty, working with families headed by gay and lesbian parents. Kate has also worked as a trainer for Building Families for Children, a therapeutic foster care agency.
Kate is a former board member for the organization COLAGE, a non-profit group that works toward community building for people with gay, lesbian, bisexual and/or transgender parents. She is currently a member of Attachment Disorders Maryland, a group that works to educate parents and professionals about working with children with attachment related issues. She is a Trust-Based Relational Intervention (TBRI) Practitioner and Educator.
Kate lives in Columbia, Maryland is the mother of two amazing daughters, the partner to a fantastic husband, and the daughter of one mother and two gay dads. She loves to read any book that crosses her path, write (of course), and she recently started dancing again, a passion she has had since her youth.
Kate can be reached by email: helpforyourfamily@gmail.com for questions or you can find her on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/#!/Help4yourfamily.
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I love the Love & Logic approach ever since we were trained in it as part of the training process to become foster parents.