When Parents Hurt: Compassionate Strategies When You and Your Grown Child Don't Get Along

This unique book helps parents work through the pain, shame, and sense of loss that they feel when their relationship with their older or adult children has not turned out as they hoped or expected

Sometimes, despite our best efforts, we lose the opportunity to be the parent we desperately want to be and must mourn the loss of a harmonious relationship with our child. Although this situation may seem hopeless, When Parents Hurt is designed to help us through this intensely difficult situation with compassion and thoughtfulness.

Through healing exercises and case examples, Dr. Joshua Coleman helps parents:

Reduce anger, guilt, and shameLearn how temperament, the teen years, a partner's or their own mistakes, and divorce can harm the parent-child bondCome to terms with their imperfections, as well as their child'sDevelop strategies for reaching out and for maintaining their self-esteem through trying timesUnderstand how society's expectations contribute to the risk of parental wounds

By helping parents recognize what they can do--and to let go of what they cannot control--When Parents Hurt helps families develop more positive ways of relating to themselves and each other.

Dr. Joshua Coleman, Ph.D., is an internationally recognized expert in parenting, couples, families, and relationships. He is a Senior Fellow with the Council on Contemporary Families. The author of two critically acclaimed books, The Marriage Makeover and The Lazy Husband, he is a frequent contributor to the San Francisco Chronicle, and his advice has been featured in the New York Times, the Chicago Tribune, Psychology Today, the Times (London), and elsewhere. He is a frequent guest on the Today show and has appeared on 20/20, Good Morning America, and many other news programs. He lives with his family in the San Francisco Bay area.