126: Problem Solving with Dr. Ross Greene

Let's talk problem solving!  Many of us have tried it, but it's so common to get stuck...and to think that the method doesn't work, and then return in exasperation to the methods we'd been using all along.  These often involve coercion, or forcing the child to do something they don't want to do - but what's the alternative? In this episode we talk with Dr. Ross Greene, who developed the Collaborative & Proactive Solutions (formerly Collaborative Problem Solving) approach in his books The Explosive Child and Raising Human Beings.  I really enjoyed digging into the research for this episode (why do all the papers describing CPS compare its effectiveness to behaviorist-based approaches?) but I ended up really taking one for the team: we didn't have time for all of my questions on the research because I wanted to make sure to address the challenges with problem solving that parents in the free Your Parenting Mojo Facebook group described when I asked them about this topic.

These challenges included:

How to problem solve with very young children

What to do when the same issue recurs over and over and the solutions we decide on together don't seem to help

How to navigate a child not wanting to leave the park when it's time to go

How to approach a child who doesn't seem to be able to or refuses to communicate their feelings

For more information on Dr. Greene's work, check out his books Raising Human Beings and The Explosive Child.

Parenting Membership 

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[accordion][accordion-item title="Click here to read the full transcript"]Jen Lumanlan  00:03

Hi, I'm Jen and I host the Your Parenting Mojo podcast. We all want our children to lead fulfilling lives. But it can be so hard to keep up with the latest scientific research on child development and figure out whether and how to incorporate it into our own approach to parenting. Here at Your Parenting Mojo, I do the work for you by critically examining strategies and tools related to parenting and child development that are grounded in scientific research and principles of respectful parenting. If you'd like to be notified when new episodes are released, and get a free guide to seven parenting myths that we can safely leave behind seven fewer things to worry about, subscribe to the show at