Dr. Jill Thurber, Child & Adolescent Psychologist

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Nurture a relationship with your child that is unique and deeply rewarding.


Whether your child is highly sensitive, neurodiverse, or easy-going, Dr. Jill will help you nurture a relationship that is unique and deeply rewarding.

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American Psychological Association
Texas Psychological Association
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Society of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psycholog Division 53 of the American Psychological Association
San Antonio Society for Psychoanalytic Studies, Local Chapter of APA Division 39

Therapist Insights &
Parenting Tips


How do we create the best fit between parent and child? We start with understanding the current research on child development, like what to expect of our child at each stage and how to build on their innate strengths. We then combine that with a good understanding of who we are as unique individuals and build on those strengths as a parent. It may sound like a huge undertaking, or one that you believe is too late to try, but it’s never too late in your parenting journey. Nurture yourself with the information and tools I have curated for you. Your relationship is worth the work! Sign up to get my tips right to your inbox. —Dr. Jill

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Child & Adolescent Therapy


You can learn to create a more attuned relationship with your child using Dr. Jill’s expertise and curated tools from over 20 years of clinical experience. Whether your child is highly intense, neurodiverse, or easy-going, Dr. Jill will help you nurture a relationship that is unique and deeply rewarding. The key to developing a strong relationship with your child is to understand how to create the best “fit.” Interested in a space where you can learn how to develop a relationship-centered approach to your child?

Nurturing Workshops & Retreats


Nurture yourself and learn how to develop an integrated approach to your child by participating in one of Dr. Jill’s parenting retreats. Whether you are stuck in a negative cycle with your most intense child, or wanting to renew and refresh yourself before returning to the daily life of parenting, Dr. Jill’s learning intensive will give you the tools to achieve both. Dr. Jill’s approach integrates current research on child development, neurobiology and parent-child temperamental match with the teachings of The Nurtured Heart Approach®. Join other like-minded parents who want to invest in themselves in order to nurture their relationship with their child.

Parents sitting in a circle connecting at a parent workshop

Jill R. Thurber, PhD, ABPP

Speaking Engagements


Dr. Jill has presented on many topics relevant to child and adolescent mental health including, but not limited to:

  • The Rise in Anxiety Disorders in Children and Adolescents
  • Addressing the Problem of Bullying at Home and in the Classroom
  • Understanding the Highly Sensitive Child
  • Gender Differences in the Neurodiverse Child

Interested in having Dr. Jill present at your school, hospital or organization?  Contact us to explore options and scheduling.

Parent Coaching


In addition to her therapy services, Dr. Jill offers virtual parent coaching. While therapy focuses on meeting treatment goals to address a psychological or medical diagnosis, parent coaching involves receiving education and support specific to your child.  Dr. Jill’s approach to parent coaching is an integrated model.  She integrates her knowledge of child development, neurobiology and attachment theory with the tools from The Nurtured Heart Approach to create the best fit for you and your child.

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NurtureNook ™ blog logo

Parenting tips and other therapist-approved insights by Dr. Jill Thurber,
board-certified child and adolescent psychologist.

  • A parent talking to his child

    How Connected Parenting Can Build Lifelong Connection with Your Child

    Parenting is a lifelong journey; it is not a destination. Just as in life, parenting has ebbs and flows. There are moments of joy and heartache and there is plenty of the mundane and boring when one is a parent. To truly be engaged and at peace with parenting, one must accept that the experience…

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  • Nurturing family with their child

    Improve Your Parent-Child Relationship with Nurtured Heart Parenting

    Over the years I have helped many parents work on improving their relationship with their children. My approach has always been to build positive connections while reducing negative interactions. Recently, I became certified in Howard Glasser’s Nurtured Heart Approach to parenting. This approach resonated with not only my instinct about parenting but also with the…

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  • Families with their children

    8 Tips for Disciplining and Connecting with Your Emotional or Intense Child

    So often when parents ask about how to best discipline their child it comes from a place of desperation. “Nothing works with this kid “is a typical refrain. I believe them. I’m sure their kids are difficult to discipline. It might be that they have a child with an intense, sensitive, or neurodiverse make-up that…

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  • Two students talking in front of a school

    Ideas for Balance: Coping with Your Child’s Social Struggles

    As with so many of my blog posts, I was inspired to write about coping with your child’s social struggles after a particularly emotional session with a parent whose child was entering the middle school years. She tearfully described how gut-wrenching it felt watching her tween daughter struggle to be accepted for who she is…

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  • Happy diverse children having fun and jumping

    Ages and Stages of a Child’s Social Development

    Parents often worry about whether their children are behaving in ways that are “normal”. Although normal is a relative term, we do have general guidelines from child development and pediatrics to help us navigate this aspect of parenting. I lean on the work of Erik Erikson (1956). According to Erikson, the socialization process consists of…

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  • Children displaying many emotions, like angry anxious and sad.

    What Does Anxiety Look Like in Children?

    Over the last 25 years of private practice, I have seen the rates of anxiety grow exponentially for children and adolescents. There are many reasons for this increase in rates which include the rise in environmental stressors, daily exposure to news and events through social media, and a deterioration in the sense of community and…

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  • Helping Children Manage Intense Negative Emotions

    I think the term tantrum has gotten a bad rap. When anyone thinks of the word tantrum, most see a toddler falling to the floor as she wails at her caretakers to give her what she wants. Every human has tantrums. We never grow out of them. Tantrums allow us to release the emotional valve…

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  • Mother holding an umbrella to protect her daughter

    How can I become more attuned to my child’s emotions?

    Attunement is a key concept in the world of child and adolescent psychology. When our child is born, we define attunement as those subtle interactions we have with our infant that communicate with him/her that we feel their emotions.

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  • Mother doing chores with child and taking out the trash

    What are age-appropriate chore expectations for my child?

    My answer to this is emphatic: YES! This won’t surprise anyone. What might surprise you is the best answer to these questions is that kids should have chores without expecting any sort of allowance. Don’t get me wrong, I think allowance is a great idea, but it should be completely independent of performing chores.

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  • College kids on campus

    How can I help my teen deal with college-application stress?

    If you are reading this NurtureNook entry, you are likely a parent of a teen who is approaching the end of her/his high school experience. This also means that you are negotiating the “next step” with your teen. The first decision is whether the next step is college, the workforce, or perhaps taking a gap…

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