Ph.D. Psychologist
Newton, MA
Articles on Difficult Conversations
By Dr. Lynn Margolies
Practical tips for dealing with teenagers to build trust, respect, and better communication.

Parents get intimidated when their teenager refuses to talk or shuts down conversations. Here are 3 simple tricks to get your teenager to talk, listen, and engage in a two-way conversation.

Find out why matching with certain types of people can lead to surprising outcomes you did not expect (or want).

Helping teens make good choices. Reduce risky behavior. Proven strategies for teaching how to make the right decisions and better decision making.

We can all probably easily recognize this story as a clear case of a child being put in the middle between divorced parents. But what can be done?…Children can have qualitatively different attachments with each parent. Research consistently shows that a secure attachment with a parent or other trusted adult can ameliorate the effects of troubled attachments and trauma, creating new experiences and new pathways in the brain.

In order to help teens, we must accurately diagnose why a particular teen in a particular context is irritable or reactive – rather than respond in a reflexive way.

Learn the psychology behind bad apologies (and a simple formula for success).

Well, forgiveness is not so simple. We cannot just decide to forgive and command ourselves to make it happen through sheer force of will.

This column tells a story based on a composite of real-life situations in therapy to represent both teen and parent viewpoints on anger and guilt in families during divorce. Sabrina, 18, was a freshman away at college. Shortly after she arrived at school she found out that her parents had just split up. Sabrina also soon discovered that her dad had been having an affair since she was in high school, and was still involved with the other woman.

How do we deal with getting our loved ones to do what we want them to do? In all relationships we feel the tension created by this dilemma. The subtext of interactions between parents and children facing conflict shapes the template kids develop and carry with them.

Teen drinking alters brain development, increasing anxiety and cravings, and heightens risk for adult alcohol use disorder and addiction.

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