Untangled

Leading clinical psychologist Lisa Damour identifies the seven key phases marking the journey from girlhood to womanhood, and offers practical advice for those raising teenage girls.

We expect an enormous amount from our teenage girls in a world where they are bombarded with messages about how they should look, behave, succeed. Yet we also speak as though adolescence is a nightmare rollercoaster ride for both parent and child, to be endured rather than enjoyed.

In Untangled, world authority and clinical psychologist Lisa Damour provides an accessible, detailed, comprehensive guide to parenting teenage girls. She believes there is a predictable blueprint for how girls grow; seven easily recognisable 'strands' of transition from childhood through adolescence and on to adulthood. Girls naturally develop at different rates, typically on more than one front, and the transition will be unique to every girl.

Each chapter describes a phase, such as 'contending with adult authority' and 'entering the romantic world', with hints and tips for parents and daughters, and a 'when to worry' section. Damour writes sympathetically and clearly, providing a practical and helpful guide for any parent, and for teenage girls too.



After graduating with honours from Yale University, Lisa Damour received her doctorate in Clinical Psychology at the University of Michigan. She has worked for the Yale Child Study Centre and directs the Centre for Research on Girls at Laurel School, maintains a private psychotherapy practice, consults and speaks nationally, is a faculty associate of the Schubert Centre for Child Studies and is a clinical instructor at Case Western Reserve University.

Damour's 2012 TED talk:

http://tedxtalks.ted.com/video/TEDxCLE-Dr-Lisa-Damour-The-Diff;DigSign



Finally, there's some good news for puzzled parents of adolescent girls, and psychologist Lisa Damour is the bearer of that happy news. [

Untangled] is the most down-to-earth, readable parenting book I've come across in a long time.



Anna Freud wrote in 1958, 'There are few situations in life which are more difficult to cope with than an adolescent son or daughter during the attempt to liberate themselves.' In the intervening decades, the transition doesn't appear to have gotten any easier which makes

Untangled such a welcome new resource.



Damour offers a hopeful, helpful new way for parents to talk about-and with-teenage girls... Parents will want this book on their shelves, next to established classics of the genre.