Webinar Series: Failure to Launch

Presented by: Elizabeth Olson, Ph.D., LCSW

In this webinar, Dr. Olson will review common causes that contribute to the difficulties that some young adults experience launching into independence. Young adults encounter many challenges that interfere with their ability to launch into academic studies, career pursuits, and independent living skills. Effective strategies for parents will be discussed to assist parents in developing healthy boundaries, encouraging young adults to find their voice and follow their interests, and exploring how to let young adults fail forward. Parents are charged with the delicate task of relationally guiding their young adults while allowing them to become their own person, independent of the family. Unconscious parental motivations that tacitly interfere with the ability to launch will be explored. Aspects of the young adult brain are important to consider in order to understand how best to intervene. Parents will come away from this course with a better understanding of how to parent a youth who is struggling to launch and how to encourage the successful launch of kids who have yet to encounter this important developmental milestone.