Raising teenagers often prompts an array of questions and emotions from
parents. In this wonderful book Dr. Sachs presents practical insights and
advice to parents that will be of immeasurable assistance as they develop
more realistic expectations for their teens and themselves--expectations
that can be translated into more effective parenting practices. As in his
previous book THE GOOD ENOUGH CHILD, Dr. Sachs' compassion and wisdom
shine through every page of this book. It is a book I highly recommend to
parents and professionals alike.
--Robert Brooks, Ph.D., Faculty, Harvard Medical School; Co-author RAISING RESILIENT CHILDREN and THE POWER OF RESILIENCE; Author THE SELF-ESTEEM TEACHER
Psychologist Brad Sachs is a great storyteller and a natural teacher. The
Good Enough Teen lets parents sit at Dr. Sachs' feet, listening to the
absorbing stories of the families he has treated in therapy, and learning
from the inspirational wisdom he has gleaned from the many parents and teens
he has helped. I loved reading the book myself, and look forward to
recommending it to the families in my own clinical practice.
--Susan Heitler, Ph.D., author, THE POWER OF TWO: SECRETS TO A STRONG & LOVING
MARRIAGE
With compassion, intelligence, and humor, Dr. Brad Sachs has offered parents a reassuring strategy for finding a positive path through the difficult years of their offspring’s adolescence. His writing is clear and personal and his thinking grounded and insightful.
--James Garbarino, Ph.D. Professor of Human Development, Cornell University, author of PARENTS UNDER SIEGE
THE GOOD ENOUGH TEEN by Brad E. Sachs is a warm, wise and best of all, practical guide to parenting adolescents. Using the same approach taken in his pioneering book, THE GOOD ENOUGH CHILD, Sachs explains how to transform the challenges of raising teenagers into opportunities to forge relationships that last a lifetime. Made accessible with topic headings such as “Uncovering”, “Acknowledging” and “Understanding” and made credible by Sachs’ years of experience as a family psychologist and himself a father of teenagers, THE GOOD ENOUGH TEEN is essential if you have teenagers in your life.
--Celia Straus, author of THE MOTHER DAUGHTER SACRED CIRCLE: MAKING LIFELONG CONNECTIONS WITH YOUR TEENAGER.
I have had the opportunity to follow Dr. Sachs’ career for over a decade. My impression is that he is frequently at the creative forefront of parenting field. This new book is an excellent example of this. It follows in the trend he set with THINGS JUST HAVEN'T BEEN THE SAME and THE GOOD ENOUGH CHILD. Of course, these self help books show again the marvelous lyrical creativity of his music and poetry (as in BLIND DATE).
THE GOOD ENOUGH TEEN is a wonderful book. Although its premise and analysis rests on complex psychological theory, the book reads like a good novel. Brad Sachs has the amazing capability to take complex, usually jargon-laden constructs and present them in a completely understandable and pragmatic way for any involved lay parent. That alone would be sufficient to make this a superb work, but Dr. Sachs takes it to another level when he explores the reciprocity between parent and teen for mutual growth. This notion that parents and teens grow together is very important. Most prior texts in the field discuss, quite properly, how parents must guide and live through their adolescents’ transition. The notion that there is a corresponding parental transition occurring is novel and precious.
At all times, Brad Sachs talks to us parents as if we were friends. He never talks down to the reader. Even when presenting a great deal of new information, he conveys that he shares our concerns. THE GOOD ENOUGH TEEN has significant value to me as a professional. Indeed, I recommended the book to the professor who teaches the adolescent psychotherapy class in our Counseling Psychology Marriage and Family Therapy program. Our graduate students will find it most enlightening.
It also has significant personal meaning to me as the father of a sixteen year old son. At times, it seemed that Brad Sachs was “reading my mail.” It is curious that one weekend when I left the book out on the coffee table, the bookmark seemed to move. Could my son have found it interesting as well?
--Jerrold Lee Shapiro, Ph.D., ABMP, CGP, Professor, Santa Clara University
Author, THE MEASURE OF A MAN
A wonderfully written book full of timely and useful advice for dealing with the typical and sometimes frightening challenges of raising teens. This book should be read by parents and professionals who are seeking greater insight into this most important of developmental stages.
--Dr. Geoffrey Greif, Associate dean and Professor University of Maryland School of Social Work, author of SINGLE FATHERS, BEATING THE ODDS, and OVERCOMING THE ODDS
THE GOOD ENOUGH TEEN is not only a useful manual for parents of adolescents but Sachs presents his information in a kind and thoughtful manner. Parents won't feel blamed for their children's problems, but they will learn how to take the steps they need to be more effective parents.
--Rosalind Wiseman, author of QUEEN BEES AND WANNABEES
What a lovely and powerful book. Dr. Brad Sachs has blended the warmth and love of a parent with the power and leadership children need. He then proceeds to show parents, step-by-step, how to have both -- and do it well. I wouldn't have missed reading it for the world.
--Jerome A. Price, Director of Michigan Family Institute, Inc. Author of POWER AND COMPASSION: WORKING WITH DIFFICULT ADOLESCENTS AND ABUSED PARENTS, and THE RIGHT TO BE THE GROWNUP: HELPING PARENTS BE PARENTS TO THEIR DIFFICULT TEENS
THE GOOD ENOUGH TEEN is an outstanding guide for reframing and normalizing the chaos of adolescence. Dr. Sachs helps parents feel less inept themselves and more accepting, even fond of, their teens.
--Janis Abrahms Spring, Ph.D., author of HOW CAN I FORGIVE YOU? THE COURAGE TO FORGIVE, THE FREEDOM NOT TO
A terrific book, full of sage advice and interesting clinical material. He captures most of the main issues of adolescent development and their impact on family dynamics. Very clearly written and fun to read.
--Dr.H. Paul Gabriel Clinical Professor of Psychiatry - N.Y.U. Medical Center, author of ANTICIPATING ADOLESCENCE
I've never seen a book that better helps parents appreciate the positive side of teens -- and with real and heartwarming stories, how behaviors annoying to parents are not only normal, but necessary for the healthy development of their teens.
--Myrna B. Shure, Ph.D., author, THINKING PARENT, THINKING CHILD
Brad Sachs’s book, THE GOOD ENOUGH TEEN, is a gift to parents, relieving them of the burden of trying to be and raise “perfect” people – an ill-suited concept for humans if there ever was one. The beautiful irony is that in learning to appreciate being good enough, parents are free to entrust themselves again and become the very parent their teenager needs them to be.
--Dr. Janet Sasson Edgette, author of STOP NEGOTIATING WITH YOUR TEEN: STRATEGIES FOR PARENTING YOUR ANGRY, MANIPULATIVE, MOODY, OR DEPRESSED ADOLESCENT
One of Dr. Sachs’s many gifts is to tell the unflinching truth about a family’s journey through the jagged and often terrifying landscape of adolescence... but with great heart. He knows teenagers, in all their seething contradictions, and explains them so that we, their parents, are moved to compassion -- able to forgive them and ourselves. As he relieves me of my need to "get it right" and be the perfect parent to my own teenage son, reassures me of all I do that’s "good enough," and reminds me to focus on the web of enduring connections rather than the day-to-day conflict, Dr. Sachs couldn’t be more eloquent. For the gift of this book, I couldn’t be more grateful.
--Roberta Israeloff, author, KINDLING THE FLAME
With style, wit and wisdom, Brad Sachs offers anxious parents an eye-opening, clear
understanding of the often challenging teenage years. The true anecdotes, sensible strategies and compassionate insights serve to help moms and dads forgive and love their imperfect selves as well as their imperfect children. Parents will learn how to reframe adversity as an opportunity towards positive change, thereby enabling the family to remain connected in a loving relationship at all times.
--Gail Reichlin, executive director of The Parents Resource Network and co-author of THE POCKET PARENT
Every parent of an adolescent needs a wise, compassionate companion to
help make sense of the changes that transform our teens and ourselves. THE GOOD ENOUGH TEEN, eloquent and clinically anchored, is that companion.
--Anne Fishel, Ph.D., Author, TREATING THE ADOLESCENT IN FAMILY THERAPY, Assistant Clinical Professor of Psychology, Harvard Medical School Director, Family and Couples Therapy Program, Massachusetts General Hospital
In THE GOOD ENOUGH TEEN, the wise and cheerful Brad Sachs gives us a highly optimistic and liberating guide to life as the parent of an adolescent or two. Sachs is fully sympathetic with the pressure on teens who are being perfected, and he's also sympathetic with the horror of devoting one's life to raising a child worthy of the parents' love, hope and sacrifice and finding oneself with an exasperating, ungrateful and terrified normal adolescent. How refreshing! How illuminating! And how comforting! This is an extraordinarily useful book for therapists, for parents, and for teens themselves.
--Frank Pittman, M.D., author of GROW UP! HOW TAKING RESPONSIBILITY
CAN MAKE YOU A HAPPY ADULT
Anyone raising an adolescent -- frustrating or otherwise -- would do well to read THE GOOD ENOUGH TEEN. Through clear thinking and rich examples, Brad Sachs explains how much parents' expectations, involvement and personal baggage can impact teenagers, and how much kids
benefit when we give them a little more credit where it's due. THE GOOD ENOUGH TEEN is both a great read and the first step toward a healthier family relationship.
--Linda Perlstein, author of NOT MUCH JUST CHILLIN': THE HIDDEN LIVES OF MIDDLE SCHOOLERS
THE GOOD ENOUGH TEEN is more than a good enough book! It is a gift to parents -- consoling and constructive. Brad Sachs is a wise & practical guide for parents and I only wish I’d had this book when my kids were teenagers!
--Dr. Pepper Schwartz, Professor, Department of Sociology, University of Washington, and author of TEN TALKS PARENTS MUST HAVE WITH CHILDREN ABOUT SEX AND CHARACTER
In an era when parents of adolescents are under tremendous pressure to be perfect and to raise perfect children, THE GOOD ENOUGH TEEN is a welcome relief. Brad Sachs helps us learn to accept ourselves for who we are, teaches us to focus on what we want for our children instead of what we want from them, and gives us the tools we need to make the teen years a time to enjoy and treasure instead of to dread.
--Armin Brott, author of FATHER FOR LIFE: A JOURNEY OF JOY, CHALLENGE, AND CHANGE
This is the book every parent of every teenager has been waiting for. You can't go wrong with Brad Sachs.
--Marguerite Kelly, Syndicated Columnist, THE FAMILY ALMANAC, co-author THE
MOTHER'S ALMANAC
This is an unusually intelligent parenting book with some surprising observations and insights. The chapter on managing your relationship with an ex-spouse is worth the price of admission.
--Wendy Mogel, Ph.D., Author, THE BLESSING OF A SKINNED KNEE
This book is the most heartfelt and commonsensical I have come across in years. It will help parents to raise the kind of kid always wanted to have had. I urge all parents of preteens and teenagers to give themselves the gift of this sensitive and wise guide.
--Robert Shaw, M.D., Director, The Family Institute of Berkeley and author of THE EPIDEMIC: THE ROT OF AMERICAN CULTURE PERMISSIVE & ABSENTEE PARENTING AND THE RESULTANT PLAGUE OF JOYLESS AND SELFISH CHILDREN
A lovely, accessible, reassuring book that explores the tangled intersection between our midlife journeys and the development of the adolescents we love. In a clear, informative manner, filled with compelling and vivid case examples, TGET takes us through the five stages of parental self-knowledge that will lead us to loving the teenagers we actually have for the flawed but marvelous people they are. In the course of developing greater awareness, Sachs writes persuasively, we can become good-enough parents, too. In the process, we will help our adolescents stay connected as they grow, fostering their ability "to be both an I and a we." This terrific book will be useful for parents of children as well as adolescents--and anyone even planning to have a child!
--Martha B. Straus, PhD, author of NO TALK THERAPY FOR CHILDREN AND ADOLESCENTS