Dr. Ray Guarendi

Strained or broken relationships are an unfortunate fact of life for most of us. Friends fall away, siblings drift apart, children sever ties with their parents, and despite our best efforts, these painful fissures are difficult to mend.

Bestselling author and clinical psychologist Dr. Ray Guarendi shares practical wisdom and usable strategies to aid you in navigating your way through such situations. With strong doses of humor and hope, he will help you form healthy habits in the ways you talk, think, act, and react to strengthen your relationships and live a more virtuous life.

Through Dr. Ray's down-to-earth style, professional experience, and personal stories, you will learn his tried-and-true rules for life and profit from them. You will discover the key to neutralizing insults and offenses and changing any relationship for the better. In these engaging pages, you'll also learn:

Dr. Ray teaches you techniques for avoiding "psychological claptrap," for responding better to hurtful comments, and for improving your communication skills. He shows you how to become more easygoing, more forgiving, less driven by reactive emotions--in short, a better practitioner of the Golden Rule--and sets you on the path toward peace of mind, heart, and soul.

This is the book you need to master your anger so your anger won't master you. Popular TV host, clinical psychologist, and best-selling author Dr. Ray Guarendi incisively cuts to the heart of the matter to help you determine whether your anger response is justified -- and what to do when it isn't.

Dr. Guarendi unpacks for you the many types of anger and the types of people who suffer most from anger. For some, anger is a trait; for others, it is a state. Some are "wired fiery," with an anger that is always simmering or on a low boil, while the anger of others often comes and goes quickly.

You'll learn why feelings aren't neutral, and whether anger is a product of your nature or nurture. You'll also learn the difference between righteous and unrighteous anger -- and why those closest to us can anger us the most.

In his straightforward, engaging, and humorous style, Dr. Guarendi also unveils healthy strategies for coping with those who make us angry and how we can make choices to regulate our emotions. From this compelling, life-changing book, you will also learn:

Best of all, this book will help you grow in virtue as you develop Christlike patience, charity, self-control, forgiveness, and humility in your relationships with others. By responding prayerfully and choosing to love deliberately, you will attain greater happiness, clarity of mind, and peace of heart.

From raunchy television shows to immoral peers, the barriers to raising moral and mature children are higher and more treacherous than ever. In Raising Upright Kids in an Upside-Down World, acclaimed Catholic psychologist Dr. Ray Guarendi offers parents a roadmap through this difficult and sometimes frightening terrain.

Dr. Ray brings to bear his decades of clinical experience--and his experience as a father of ten--with some of the hardest questions of modern parenting:

Raising Upright Kids in an Upside-Down World is a clarion call for strong, confident parenting in confusing times. More importantly, Dr. Ray gives you the resources to grow in that confidence: the knowledge of an expert, the insight of an experienced clinician, and the wisdom of decades of fatherhood. This is a book for parents who aim to form children who value the things of God, no matter the work and the effort. Dr. Ray is here to tell you: it's worth it.

With wit and wisdom, Dr. Ray Guarendi gives parents the tools they need not only to navigate the teen years but also to enjoy them. Teens are "full of life, enthusiasm, energy, and laughter," Dr. Ray asserts, in defiance of a culture that conditions us to expect a far gloomier reality. Too often, the world tells parents to be content with mediocrity instead of the prospect of raising respectful and responsible children with strong character.

In a lively question-and-answer format, Dr. Ray unpacks issues ranging from sibling relationships and peer pressure to curfews and chores to overcoming backtalk and teaching your kids to avoid drugs. He equips parents to give their teens a safer, more stable adolescence and help them develop virtues for a lifetime. If you feel as if you've been a weak disciplinarian, Dr. Ray explains that "there are . . . critical reasons to reverse your parenting, even if it seems late." He offers practical approaches such as:

You will also learn four key sayings for communicating more effectively with your teens. In addition, you will find out specific ways to cultivate an attitude of gratitude in your kids. Most significantly, you will learn how to help your children treat you with respect, so that they will develop this habit in their relationships with others as well. As you grow in becoming a stronger parent with calm, loving resolve, you will learn how to foster quality time with your teens and have real fun together.

This book is wise, perceptive, and laugh-out-loud funny. Dr. Ray uses his trademark humor-with-a-dash-of-sarcasm to give those parents who are barely treading water some good, sound, logical advice to change the tone and tenor of their households for the better.