NurtureNook

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

Attunement
children
discipline
Emotions
mental health
nurtured heart
parenting
Parenting Tips
Ages & Stages
Child Development
Chores
College Application Stress
Nurtured Heart Parenting
Connected vs. Disconnected
Parenting
Attunement
Discipline
Emotion Regulation
Managing Intense
Negative Emotions
Coping with
Social struggles
Anxiety in Children
Parenting Blueprint
The Integrated Parent
Parenting Tools
  • Illustration of a happy adult with an arm around a smiling child, engaged in a positive and supportive conversation.

    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…

    Read More

  • Illustration of young parents holding their child between them, with Dr. Jill Thurber’s logo in the upper left, symbolizing family unity and compassionate care.

    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…

    Read More

    ,
  • Illustration of two diverse families with their babies, one family playing with their baby and the other holding their baby, symbolizing love, bonding, and family care.

    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…

    Read More

  • Illustration of two students talking outside a school, with a tree and blue sky in the background, symbolizing connection and support among peers

    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…

    Read More

  • Illustration of happy, diverse children jumping and having fun, symbolizing joy and emotional well-being.

    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…

    Read More

  • Cartoon illustration of children displaying various emotions, including frustration, surprise, anger, and sadness, representing the diverse emotional challenges addressed in child and family psychiatry.

    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…

    Read More

  • 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…

    Read More

    , ,
  • 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.

    Read More

    , ,
  • 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.

    Read More

    , ,
  • 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…

    Read More

    , ,

* under construction – load more button + masonry layout – cayden *

Logo for American Board of Professional Psychology
American Psychological Association
Texas Psychological Association
Nurtured Heart logo
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

Get Dr. Jill’s tips sent to your inbox!

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

Sign Up Now
Jill R. Thurber, PhD, ABPP

Work with Dr. Jill

Over the past 20+ years in private practice, I have developed an integrated, relationship-based approach to my work with children, teenagers, and their parents. I believe that all children are born with unique neurobiological and temperamental systems, primed to form strong attachments to their caretakers. Each child’s exquisite make-up is present from the moment of birth. Some of these children are what we’d call “easy” or “typically developing” children. Others are more intense, sensitive, and reactive. And just like every child, all parents have their own unique neurobiological and temperamental system. The key to developing a strong relationship with your child is to understand how to create the best “fit.”

Reach Out for Therapy

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.

Reach Out for Coaching
A Young father helping his daughter with homework