On the Circuit

Several hundred thousand people nationwide have heard Dr. Taffel in person. As keynote speaker at countless conferences, he has given nearly 1500 talks over the last twenty years to groups of a few hundred to several thousand.

Dr. Taffel’s popularity is due in no small measure to his “information-inspiration” message. Because of his charisma at the podium, Taffel’s lectures create an exuberance not usually associated with parenting lectures, and in response, The New York Times, as well as 20/20 and Dateline (see “On-the-Air”) have covered his workshops.

Print

Dr. Taffel is the author of four popular and two professional books with well over 100,000 copies in print, sixty-five magazine columns, and dozens of articles for professional journals. His first book, Parenting By Heart: How to Be in Charge, Stay Connected and Instill Your Values – When It Feels Like You’ve Got 15 Minutes a Day (Addison Wesley, 1991), was excerpted in a half dozen national magazines and instantly acclaimed. Virtually every issue Taffel covered in Parenting By Heart has since become part of the national discourse on childrearing. Mary Pipher, author of Reviving Ophelia, writes:

Ron Taffel understands modern families. He knows the complexity, the isolation, and the general weirdness of home life in the 1990’s. But he exhorts us not to despair. He offers practical advice on everything from how to get the kids’ bedrooms cleaned to when to call in a therapist. Ron recommends protecting kids from the worst of what’s out there and connecting with the best, including other parents. I recommend this book to all those parents who feel in over their heads which is all of us, I guess, at one time or another.

Dr. Taffel’s second book, Why Parents Disagree: How Women and Men Parent Differently and How We Can Work Together (Morrow, 1993) was equally on target. His clinical observations were validated by a wealth of research released just after Why Parents Disagree was published.

More recently Taffel’s work on strengthening character in younger children, Nurturing Good Children Now (St. Martin’s Press, 1998) has become an evergreen used as an introductory text for parents in workshops throughout the country. His book on adolescence, The Second Family received a starred review form Publisher’s Weekly and was hailed by noted experts such as Michael Thompson (Raising Cain and The Pressured Child), Ruth Peters (Overcoming Overachieving), James Garbarino (Lost Boys) and Robert Brooks (The Resilient Child).

Taffel’s books have been translated into a half-dozen foreign language editions,  and have been distributed throughout the world.

On-the-Air

Dr. Taffel has been seen on 20/20 and Dateline where a number of segments have been devoted to his ideas. Viewer response was so strong the Taffel pieces were rerun several times each. 20/20 included two of his segments in John Stossel’s “Best of Parenting” special. Dr. Taffel has developed and been featured in additional segments for NBC’s Dateline. He has also appeared on Good Morning America, Primetime Live with DianeSawyer, ABC News, CBS News, Larry King Live, and numerous times on The Today Show.           

Taffel also appeared on Prime Time Live, serving as the psychological expert for a special segment on sex in the media. He has covered other issues raised by his books and columns on Good Morning America, The Home Show, Live at Five, Lifetime, four times each on CNN News and CNBC News, on dozens of cable TV shows and more than 120 radio shows.

Corporate Projects

Dr. Taffel has been approached by a number of corporate entities who want to tap his expertise. TJ Maxx, a retail chain, hired him to create a booklet on family togetherness while shopping, of which hundreds of thousands were distributed in stores throughout the country. In addition, Dr. Taffel acted as a consultant to the Children’s Television Workshop in the development of their “How To Raise a Responsible Child” series; and to Lindsay Knight, an independent produce for the BBC who created Fortysomething, which won Britain’s equivalent of an Emmy. Recently, he has helped produce and is featured in a Work Family Direction audiotape entitled “Strengthening Your Relationship When You Both Work.” This will be distributed to thousands of corporate workers and executives. Taffel has also consulted to Employees Assistance Program directors and numerous corporations including HBO, Time Warner, and Conde Nast.

Dr. Taffel has earned a doctorate in clinical psychology at New York University, did post-graduate work in family therapy, child development and adult psychology – studying at the Philadelphia Child Guidance Clinic and Family Institute of Westchester among others. He did an internship at Albert Einstein Medical Center and, upon completion in 1975, became the first psychologist to become Director of Treatment at the Child and Adolescent Treatment Division of the Downstate Medical Center, where he remained until 1979 when he established a private practice in Manhattan.

Taffel also founded the Family Therapy Division at the Institute for Contemporary Psychotherapy in New York City, which grew from one class of supervisors in training and a few clients in 1982 to become one of New York’s largest family training centers and clinics. Taffel served as Chairman of ICP’s Board of Directors from 2000-2003. Additionally, Dr. Taffel has, for the last twenty years, been a consultant to dozens of schools and parent associations in the tristate area and beyond, where he has worked with school administration, parents and children to create partnerships in areas of common concern.

Books

Click on the book titles below to purchase Ron's books at Amazon.com

PARENTING BOOKS
Parenting By Heart (Perseus)
When Parents Disagree
Nurturing Good Children Now
The Second Family

PROFESSIONAL BOOKS
Getting Through To Difficult Kids and Parents (Guilford Press)
Breaking Through To Teens (Guilford Press)