If I told you that one of these two statements is true and one is false, you could pick out which was which right?
“Most people do not have a problem with alcohol consumption.”
“Most individuals with a drinking problem have an influential relative with the same issue.”
We have all heard: “If dad drank then so does..Read the rest…

Thirty years ago, when I was first training to be a psychotherapist, I took my first course in Family Therapy. The very first day the professor asked us: “What defines a family?”
Her point, of course, was that there are many different combinations of relationships and living arrangements that we consider to be a family. Even..Read the rest…

What exactly is caregiving? We all need care and we all give ourselves various forms of care. Food is care, shelter is too. Sometimes in a multigenerational situation we get too focused on eldercare and childcare or both. We forget about all the other day-to-day aspects of care that each and every one of..Read the rest…

When children are involved in the multigenerational family there is often confusion or disagreement about “What the kids should be told.” Adults need to agree on what limits are placed on family full disclosure. The obvious lines have to do with adult topics like sex, money, perhaps even religion and politics. Particularly when there are..Read the rest…

Some roles in life we take on without giving a thought to training or even whether we are able to complete the task. Perhaps this is because we somehow feel that anyone (everyone?) should be able to “be a good parent” or ” be able to provide care to a father, mother, child or grandparent.”..Read the rest…

We learn from experience.
Yes we do learn from experience but sometimes it is a lot safer not to. Sometimes we are a whole lot better off when we think ahead and plan ahead to avoid some very painful learning situations. One such “think ahead” moment relates to medications in the multigenerational home.
Who takes medications? When..Read the rest…

Does it follow that if a parent has depression their children will be prone to depression as well?
The simply and frightening answer is — yes. Depression does have a genetic component. In addition, living in a household with a clinically depressed parent also kicks in the other half of the equation — the nurture factor...Read the rest…