With over 35,000 in print and now published by Guilford, this engaging guide helps men and women understand the different perspectives each brings to parenting, resolve conflicts more effectively, and discover the joys of raising kids together as a team. Dr. Ronald Taffel brings his rare blend of astute insight and common sense to illuminate the gender issues that underlie typical parental battles. Engaging examples and vignettes bring to life the recurring conflicts that many Moms and Dads experience around making rules and setting limits; managing mealtimes and bedtimes; spending quality time with kids; providing emotional support and nurturance; and handling the juggling act of school, play dates, and extracurricular activities. Parents of both sexes learn proven ways to redistribute responsibilities more equally; avoid undermining each other's authority; and grow closer and more accepting both as parents and partners.

How do you help your child open up to you? With so little time in a busy day, how can a parent find that elusive "quality" time? What discipline techniques work for young children, and why? An empowering book that emphasizes real-life parenting situations and practical, compassionate solutions, Parenting by Heart is filled with specific advice tried by thousands of families. Showing what actually works rather than what theoretically "should" work, here are hundreds of step-by-step, tested solutions that will help make parents feel more confident about how to instill values, be in charge, and stay connected with today's kids in these modern and often difficult times.

If you have a teen or pre-teen, you recognize the phenomenon already-perhaps without even knowing it has a name. "The second family," as uncompromisingly described by renowned therapist Dr. Ron Taffel is the immense collective power of the peer group and pop culture-a force so pervasive, it threatens to, and often succeeds in, overwhelming the first family of adults at home and in school. Derived from thousands of interviews with kids and adults, The Second Family uses real-life, sometimes graphic examples to bare the truth about the world of adolescence today and to illuminate the new set of rules by which kids operate.

The second family can be scary to adults. While many parents bury their heads, insisting "not my child," Taffel reveals that even "good" children:
- Chronically lie without a trace of guilt
- Have sex at astonishingly early ages
- Do drugs and alcohol not to be bad but simply because they are there

Yet there are healthy aspects to the second family that often go unrecognized:
- A secret moral code of peer support that will surprise you
- Boys and girls as best friends
- Boys taking care of friends in emotional need
- Girls becoming powerful group leaders
- A social structure for teens that provides a type of intimacy, support, communication and honesty he or she can't find anywhere else.

It is impossible to understand today's teens or preteens without understanding the Second Family. Taffel opens a window into a closed world of frightening dangers and equally uplifting possibilities.

In these difficult, sometimes violent, times, how can we nurture children who are both good and happy? How can we help them stay safe, be respectful, and reach their full potential? Nurturing Good Children Now outlines precisely what is important to foster in our kids, and how to raise children who have a deep sense of values and an enthusiastic spirit. The most essential traits that children need to thrive in today's world are: mood mastery, expressiveness, peer smarts, body comfort, team intelligence, respect, passion, focus, caution, gratitude.

This compassionate book offers unflinching social commentary, the latest research on child development, and practical advice. We can protect our children's sense of integrity. We can teach them to love learning; to hold onto their passion; to be comfortable with their bodies; to get along with their peers without succumbing to peer pressure; and to manage their emotions. We can nurture good children now, and, for a better future, we must.

A specialist book for mental health professionals, sex therapists and educators to develop and improve their clinical work with trans clients with regards to their sexual relationships and sexuality. It provides an interdisciplinary exploration of the subject, and relates to both clinical practice and theory. Topics explored include the shifting of sexual orientation during or following gender transition; gender dysphoria and co-occurring autism spectrum disorder; negotiating issues of sexuality with partners during transition; eating disorders; and an exploration of the intersection of trans identities and disability. It uniquely touches on perspectives from the field of sex therapy, featuring chapter authors from disciplines including social work, marriage and family counseling, early childhood education, sex therapy, sex education, psychology, and women's studies.

Dr. Ron Taffel, one of the country's most sought-after child-rearing experts, draws on decades of counseling experience and extensive conversations with parents nationwide to offer an original and inspiring analysis of the distinctive challenges parents face in raising children today. Dr. Ron Taffel, one of the country's most sought-after child-rearing experts, draws on decades of counseling experience and extensive conversations with parents nationwide to offer an original and inspiring analysis of the distinctive challenges parents face in raising children today. He also introduces a breakthrough approach for guiding kids--from children to teens--in ways that bring out the best in both kids and parents in these twenty-first-century times. With warmth and clarity, Taffel, who is himself a parent struggling with these issues, helps us to understand our sons and daughters in an entirely new way: as a distinctive "free-est" generation, born to the first generation of "post-baby boomer" parents and the products of a decades-long cultural sea change that intensified in the nineties. As a result, kids of all ages are now a bundle of contradictions: they exude entitlement, back talk shockingly, negotiate endlessly, worship celebrity, do ten things at once, conduct independent lives online, and engage in high-risk behavior at younger ages. Yet, they are also far more open with their parents and each other than kids in prior generations, are strikingly generous and empathetic, and care deeply about ethical issues. In addition, their high-speed multitasking is preparing them for the demands of the future. The key question, then, is how to encourage the good while steering them away from the bad. Taffel believes today's parents, having lived through the beginning phases of the same social changes, are uniquely qualified to bring out kids' best--and he shows you how. Using a wealth of examples, he walks parents through innovative methods to get children's and teens' attention, to set limits they will respect, and to engage them in meaningful conversation to provide the guidance they need. He also instructs on how to rebuild supportive community around us. His inspiring analysis and expert guidance will be embraced as the authoritative new approach to raising their kids that parents have been searching for.