Parents Have Feelings, Too - by Hilary Jacobs Hendel & Juli Fraga

Book Synopsis

This practical guide teaches parents how to understand and process their emotions-and how to teach this valuable, life-changing skill of emotional intelligence to the next generation.

Parents are stressed. It's not uncommon for modern-day pressures and expectations to compromise a parent's emotional well-being, causing them to lose control of their emotions and lash out.

But when parents let their anger and frustration lead to outbursts, the fallout can have lasting effects on their children, leaving them anxious, insecure, and hurt by the words and actions of their overwhelmed caregivers.

Parents desperately need real, actionable, long-lasting advice that helps them process their emotions in a healthy and productive way. In Parents Have Feelings, Too, psychotherapists Hilary Jacobs Hendel and Juli Fraga provide the tools parents need to understand and effectively work with their own potent feelings, breaking the chain of intergenerational trauma, and passing along emotional intelligence to their children to create a generation of people with emotional regulation skills.

Parents Have Feelings, Too includes the following:

• Practical strategies to help parents process their feelings
• Stories and examples
• Tools that build confidence and emotional know-how in their children
• New approaches that break the intergenerational transfer of trauma so parents can raise emotionally healthier people who can thrive amidst the many challenges of being human in society today
• Expert insights and insight-building exercises that support parents on their emotional journey

Parents have feelings. And when they can identify what they are, where they are coming from, and how to work with them, parents are empowered to help their children understand and navigate their own emotions.

Review Quotes

Praise for Parents Have Feelings, Too
"Parents Have Feelings, Too explores the emotional lives of parents--especially the often-overlooked experiences of fathers. Hendel and Fraga offer practical, judgment-free steps to help caregivers move through guilt and shame, while making sense of the complex emotions that come with raising children.″
--Eve Rodsky, New York Times bestselling author of Fair Play and Find Your Unicorn Space

"When we can recognize, tolerate, and recover from our unpleasant emotions, we can effectively and empathically respond to our children instead of freaking out or falling apart. Parents Have Feelings, Too teaches readers exactly how to do this in a compassionate, accessible, and non-judgmental way.″
--Carla Naumburg, PhD, LICSW, author of How to Stop Losing Your Sh*t With Your Kids

"A rare gem: a compassionate, science-based guide to navigating the emotional journey of parenting... This book offers more than tools; it offers the possibility of transformation.″
--Diana Fosha, PhD. Developer of AEDP, editor of Undoing Aloneness: the Transformation of Suffering into Flourishing: AEDP 2.0

About the Author

Hilary Jacobs Hendel is a Certified AEDP psychotherapist and supervisor, and psychoanalyst. She is the author of the award-winning and acclaimed It's Not Always Depression, and her work has been featured in outlets such as The New York Times, TIME, and Oprah.

Juli Fraga is a psychologist and parenting educator. She has contributed to national outlets like The New York Times, Parents magazine, and NPR. She is also on the medical advisory board of Baby Center and teaches classes for expectant parents at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) hospital.