Category: Family & Parenting

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Triangulation in Family Dynamics December 29, 2010

Host: Armand DiMele
Category: Family & Parenting, Identity & The Self

Triangulation is both a normal developmental step and a source of lasting dysfunction. Armand DiMele traces how children get pulled into taking sides between parents, how gossip and confiding in friends repeat the same pattern, and why splitting the world into all-good and all-bad leaves people stuck. Callers share their own family triangle experiences.

The Secrets We Keep December 7, 2010

Host: Armand DiMele
Category: Emotions & Inner Life, Family & Parenting

Secrets shape every layer of life, from the truths we hide from ourselves to the ones buried inside families for generations. Armand DiMele examines why some secrets protect and others destroy, when revealing them heals, and when it causes further harm. Callers share their own long-held burdens.

Nature Versus Nurture in Parenting September 7, 2010

Host: Armand DiMeleGuests: Stephanie D'Ambra
Category: Family & Parenting, Identity & The Self

Can good parenting overcome bad genes? Armand DiMele and Stephanie D’Ambra, LCSW, dig into the nature versus nurture debate through real cases: a mother baffled by her troubled teen, a neuroscientist who carries a psychopath’s genetic profile yet lives normally, and callers including an adoptee who found her musical gift written in her DNA.

How Technology Rewires the Brain July 22, 2010

Host: Armand DiMeleGuests: Stephanie D'Ambra
Category: Family & Parenting, The Mind & Neuroscience

Every ping and notification triggers a dopamine hit, and Armand DiMele and Stephanie D’Ambra, LCSW argue this makes smartphones and computers genuinely addictive. They examine how constant multitasking fragments focus, why kids now know more about technology than their parents, and how adults can close that gap by letting children teach them.

Mothers Remembered and Mourned May 4, 2010

Host: Armand DiMele
Category: Family & Parenting, Grief & Loss

Mother’s Day triggers some of the deepest and most complicated feelings people carry. Armand DiMele traces the holiday’s activist origins, examines why therapists are trained to watch for crisis around it, and opens the phones to callers sharing tender memories, estrangement, infertility, and the particular ache of becoming an orphan at any age.

Growing Up with a Troubled Parent September 10, 2009

Host: Armand DiMele
Category: Family & Parenting, Trauma & Healing

Children raised by mentally ill or incapacitated parents face invisible burdens that quietly shape their adult choices. Armand DiMele draws on the double bind theory, a case of psychosomatic snow blindness, and research on children of psychotic parents to show how early caretaking roles become lifelong patterns.

The Weight of Caregiving September 9, 2009

Host: Armand DiMeleGuests: David Travland, Rhonda Travland, Sherri Siegel
Category: Family & Parenting, Grief & Loss

When devotion to a sick partner becomes all-consuming, caregivers lose themselves. Armand DiMele and co-host Dr. Sherry Siegel, M.D. speak with David Travland and Rhonda Travland, authors of “The Tough and Tender Caregiver,” who each survived years of spousal caregiving and argue that self-care is not selfishness but survival.

How Depression and Moving Affect Family Bonds June 3, 2009

Host: Armand DiMele
Category: Family & Parenting, Love & Romantic Relationships

Frequent family moves double teen suicide risk, antidepressants quietly erode sexual desire and romantic attachment, and childhood wounds quietly shape adult partner choices. Armand DiMele connects these threads through research and caller conversations, arguing that what couples fight about is rarely what they are actually fighting about.

Father’s Day Feelings June 12, 2008

Host: Armand DiMele
Category: Emotions & Inner Life, Family & Parenting

Why is Father’s Day so emotionally loaded? Armand DiMele walks through the many reasons people carry unresolved anger toward their fathers, from absenteeism and favoritism to criticism and triangulation, and how those feelings quietly shape adult relationships, work, and identity. Callers share fond memories alongside the pain.

A Nation of Wimps with Hara Estroff Marano June 11, 2008

Host: Armand DiMeleGuests: Hara Estroff Marano
Category: Family & Parenting, Personal Growth & Change

Overprotective parenting is producing psychologically fragile young adults, argues Hara Estroff Marano, Author and Psychology Today Editor. Armand DiMele and Marano dig into college mental health data, the neuroscience of play, the danger of misplaced praise, and why letting kids fail early is the kindest thing a parent can do.