Dr. Matt 

        When Dr. Matt is called to help with children, he always meets with the parents first.  Dr. Matt helps guide parents to create an environment in which their children make healthy choices.  It is quite simple for parents to reinforce and perpetuate behaviors in their children that are deemed problematic.  Many times, when children are experiencing difficulties, the parents' own anxieties increase and they begin to experience feelings of inadequacy and impending failure.  Dr. Matt believes that these emotions are perfectly normal and tells parents that as soon as their children were born they were not only made a mother or father, but they were also made to feel inadequate!

 

        Parents simply do not have the control over their children that they think they 'should' have.  Healthy parents who have healthy children do not have control over the choices that their children make.  On the contrary, parents need to work on obtaining control over the consequences of the decisions that their children make.  Children need help from their parents to make thoughtful, sound choices by thinking through the possible consequences of their actions.  Then, as healthy parents they enact control where it matters most, the consequences of the choices their children make!