Title: Emotions! Making Sense of Your Feelings
Author: Mary Lamia, PhD
Basic Overview:
Fear. Loneliness. Sadness. Embarrassment. Envy. Love. Happiness.
Does this describe the emotional roller coaster of your teenager? How is your teenager coping with these emotions? How are you helping your teenager cope with these emotions?
Emotions! Making Sense of Your Feelings, by Dr. Mary Lamia, takes an in-depth look at these and seven other common emotions that are encountered throughout life. Written in a format that is easy to understand and apply, Dr. Lamia combines research-based information with real life experiences to help parents and their teenagers gain powerful insight into a significant part of who they are.
Parts I Liked Best:
The premise for the book is that emotions have evolved to help us. Dr. Lamia shows that even negative emotions, when handled constructively, can benefit one’s life. The book is arranged in chapters dedicated to each of the emotions covered. Each chapter is written following the same pattern: a real life situation introducing the emotion; current research-based information on the emotion; strategies on how to positively address the emotion; and a conclusion that sets the reader up for the next chapter. Because the format is predictable, the material is easy to follow. No surprises.
This isn’t a book that you or your teenager would read cover to cover. Instead, it works best focusing on one chapter (or emotion) at a time. The chapters could serve as great conversation starters for discussions on what is going on in your teenager’s life and provide “practice” for dealing with those feelings.
How this book made an impact in my life, especially as a mother (or why I just really like it):
As a mom who has raised teenagers and a grandmother in training, I see the value in this book helping me to better understand and empathize with the teenagers in my life. Since parents and grandparents often times can’t or don’t want to remember the emotional turmoil of their youth, this book provides valuable reminders into what feelings teenagers encounter in their daily lives. The more we know about their emotions, the better prepared we will be in helping them work through their feelings.
Emotions! Making Sense of Your Feelings would be a welcome addition to anyone’s family library and a great resource for navigating teenage emotional development.
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