Now, listening to intuition is sacred to me, but learning to trust it has taken years. I've written my book "Second Sight" to assure anyone--especially children--who thought they were weird or crazy for having intuitive experiences, that they are not!

As a child my intuition wasn''t encouraged. I grew up in Beverly Hills the only daughter of two-physicians with twenty-five physicians in my family. From age nine, I had dreams and intuitions that would come true. I could predicts illness, earthquakes, even the suicide of one of my parentís friends. This confused and alarmed me, as it did my parents who were entrenched in the hard-core rational world of science. At first they tried to write my childhood intuitions off as coincidence. Finally, though, after I dreamed my motherís mentor would loose a political election--which to my horror, came true--she took me aside and told me, "Never mention another dream or intuition in our house again!" I''ll never forget the look in my dear mother''s exasperated, frightened eyes, nothing I ever wanted to see again. So from that day on, I kept my intuitions to myself. I grew up ashamed of my abilities, sure there was something wrong with me. My healing path has been to integrate intuition into my medical practice and life, something I teach parents and children.

As a psychiatrist I want to encourage you as parents to trust your intuition, and help your children to do the same. Intuition is a gut feeling, a sense something is right or feels "off" that goes beyond what you know with your linear mind. When this is supported in children they learn to trust their gut and develop a strong sense of confidence in themselves. For instance, when your child says, "I''m not comfortable with someone" ask them about it instead of saying, "How can you say that. You don''t even know the person." This gives you a chance to honor and explore your child''s feelings and empower them by listening to their intuition.