Children and teenagers, at times, seem to be very different than us. Is your child or teenager from another world? Maybe an alien? (I have nothing against aliens, in case you were wondering). Maybe or maybe not, but they respond differently and think differently than we do in certain situations. To help children learn, grow, and heal, making a connection with them is of upmost importance. How do we do that if we don't understand them at times?

As a child, my home was filled with poverty and abuse. While I understood now that both of my parents had a mental illness, at the time it was devastating. I initially had good self-esteem as a young child, but eventually after hearing negative things over and over, and being physically and emotionally abused, my positive self-esteem was destroyed. I didn’t think I had anything to offer the world. However, I wanted to work with children and teenagers who struggled through