• When Parents Hurt

  • Compassionate Strategies When You and Your Grown Child Don't Get Along
  • By: Joshua Coleman PhD
  • Narrated by: Paul Boehmer
  • Length: 8 hrs and 43 mins
  • 4.4 out of 5 stars (95 ratings)

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When Parents Hurt

By: Joshua Coleman PhD
Narrated by: Paul Boehmer
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Publisher's summary

This unique book supports parents who are struggling with the heartache of having a teenager or an adult child who is troubled, angry, or distant. Such rifts can cause unspeakable sorrow that parents too often must bear alone. Psychologist and parent Joshua Coleman, PhD, offers insight, empathy, and perspective to those who have lost the opportunity to be the parents they desperately wanted to be and who are mourning the loss of a harmonious relationship with their child.

Through case examples and healing exercises, Dr. Coleman helps parents:

  • Reduce anger, guilt, and shame
  • Learn how temperament, the teen years, their own or a partner's mistakes, and divorce can strain the parent-child bond
  • Come to terms with their own and their child's imperfections
  • Understand how society's high expectations of parents contribute to the risk of parental wounds

By helping parents recognize what they can do and let go of what they cannot, Dr. Coleman helps families develop more positive ways of healing themselves and relating to each other.

©2008 Joshua Coleman, PhD (P)2016 Tantor

Critic reviews

"This is a hot topic." ( Library Journal)

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What listeners say about When Parents Hurt

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Not worth tour time...

Reading was very poor and very robotic. Stopped listening after 1st chapter. Would actually love to gett money back.

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5 people found this helpful

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    2 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars

Not a good audible selection

I do believe the content provided by Dr. Coleman is worthwhile. However the format of the book, with questionnaires interspersed throughout, made it difficult to listen to in audible format.
I forced myself to listen through to the end, so grateful when it was over.

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4 people found this helpful

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Very good

The voice of the narrator is fine. Ignore those who are criticizing it. The questions are fine as well.

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2 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Gives clear steps of what to do.

Really appreciate the clear steps given to take in estrangement. Was shocking to hear him describe me to a T as a result if my childhood.

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2 people found this helpful

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A lifesaver

I will listen to this book multiple times. The questions raised really do make you think of your own actions and how they contributed to the place you find yourself in with your grown children. I am grateful for the suggestions here that allow me to hold on to hope and get through some of the most difficult moments.

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1 person found this helpful

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worth a Listen

I appreciated the efforts the author made to understand. I would have liked a special mention of what to do when your adult daughter gushes love onto your spouse but blames you and cuts only you out of their lives.

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Very Biased

My experience of this book is that the writer is exceptionally biased against the children of the parents and throws them under the bus. Instead of working toward reconciliation or acceptance, the writer instead moves towards validating very negative perspectives from the parent’s point of view. In trying to affirm these parents, the writer only manages to create a document that justifies parental entitlement and justification of poor behavior.

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    4 out of 5 stars
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A wonderful resource for parents and clinicians!

This book is a wonderful resource for parents and clinicians (maybe even attorneys to recommend to their clients).

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  • :)
  • 01-15-24

Relatable

Covers many different angles towards finding comfort, feeling of not alone with a tough relationship with one out of my three children.
Thanks for the insight this book was able to give me!

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Great parenting book

Excellent book both to read as an adult child, and as a parent. It helps to understand parents, and why they did what they did, and how we may have been brought up and how that upbringing reflects in how we parent, which in turn reflects on our kids behavior.
Tools are given to navigate many possible scenarios.

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