An Introduction from Dr. Rick Capaldi

Hello and thanks for stopping by. I am Dr. Rick Capaldi and I’ve been a practicing family therapist for forty years, specializing in working with children, adolescents and parents. I am also the co-founder of Outreach Concern, Inc., one of the largest school-based counseling services in the country which has been providing counseling and support services to children and families for more than a quarter of a century.

Given my decades of experience, I’ve developed a guide to help parents and teachers steer children toward emotional stability and success. This model has been extremely successful in counseling over a half-million children and parents in over 990 Southern California schools, resulting in the development of cooperative, successful and highly productive family relationships. A ten year Student Accountability Study involving over 58,000 students indicated an 87 percent performance improvement in academic, behavioral, and psychological domains of those children seen by our counselors.

In our fast-paced, competitive world, millions of children struggle to feel safe, secure, and confident. And it isn’t hard to understand why. Today, our kids face challenges and dangers that we never dreamed of when we were growing up; online predators; mass shootings; vicious cyberbullying that can lead to anxiety, depression, and/or suicidal behavior. In addition, they spend more time staring into screens than we ever imagined possible, absorbing an incredible amount of information largely beyond our control. The consequences of these influences and societal pressures can be truly horrifying.

All of this is why I decided to write my parenting book based on a successful school-tested method. 21st Century Parenting describes in detail how parents can use the same tools to improve performance and stronger parent-child relationships. It provides parents a new, dynamic approach to modern challenges and helps parents pay attention to what their kids really need (Hint: it’s not the latest iPhone). These tools can help parents develop capable, sensitive and resilient children into successful adults.

I look forward to taking a deeper dive and sharing more about this method. If you are interested in purchasing a copy of 21st Century Parenting you can do so here.

This is the first of my series of blog posts sharing insights, information and issues surrounding child development in the 21st century.