Drs. Les and Leslie Parrott

Husband-and-wife team, Les and Leslie Parrott, not only share the same name, but the same passion for helping others build healthy relationships. They are master communicators; they are entertaining, thought-provoking and immeasurably practical.

Married since 1984, the Parrotts bring real-life examples to their speaking platform. Their professional training—Leslie as a marriage and family therapist, and Les as a clinical psychologist—ensures a grounded presentation that is insightful and cutting-edge. In 1991, on the campus of Seattle Pacific University, the Parrotts founded the Center for Relationship Development, a groundbreaking program dedicated to teaching the basics of good relationships.

Each year Les and Leslie speak in over 40 cities. Their audiences include a wide variety of venues, from churches to Fortune 500 company board rooms. The Governor of Oklahoma appointed the Parrotts as the first ever statewide Marriage Ambassadors and the Commander of the 2nd Battalion, 5th Marines, invited them to assist his soldiers with re-entry into family life upon returning from Iraq.

Their books have sold over one million copies in more than two dozen languages, and include best-selling and Gold-medallion winner Saving Your Marriage Before It Starts. Other popular titles include The Control Freak, I Love You More, Becoming Soul Mates, Relationships, Questions Couples Ask, Shoulda Woulda Coulda, and High-Maintenance Relationships. Their work as been featured in Family Circle, Redbook, Men's Health, Focus on the Family, Brides, as well as USA Today and The New York Times.

The Parrotts have been guests on many national TV and radio programs such as CNN, Good Morning America, CBS This Morning, The View with Barbara Walters, NBC Nightly News, and Oprah. They are hosts of the nationally syndicated radio program Love Talk and are weekly guests on the Fox TV morning show in Seattle.

In addition, the Parrotts have partnered with Bluefish TV to produce several video series: MAKING MARRIAGE WORK, PARENTING YOUR TEENAGER, PARENTING THE EARLY YEARS, and YOU MATTER MORE THAN YOU THINK. All of these video based Bible studies are available at BluefishTV.com or at SmallGroupExchange.com.

Les and Leslie Parrott “Unplugged”

Our team spent some time with Les and Leslie working on a ministry project. During that time, we asked them some questions about parenting:SmallGroupExchange.com.

How do you advise parents to help their teenagers deal with anger?

Les and Leslie Parrott: When it comes to expressing anger in a healthy way, you have to identify what that is and usually and most of the time anger is a result of being threatened…if you can think about that as a parent—what is threatening to my son or daughter right now? What is it that’s scary to them? What is it that’s causing them to freak out right now?—then you’re getting at the source of their anger. That will help them identify, that’s when you can reflect it back and clarify it with them…usually they feel threatened personally and they need to protect themselves or a goal that’s important to them gets blocked and that’s threatening…if we can help them get at what the need is that they wanted to meet, maybe they want to do something with a peer that you think is not a good choice…help them find another way to meet that need for fellowship, but in a good way, then you solve their problem.

There are so many issues teens face today, what is one of those that is not always evident that parents should be aware of?

Les and LeslieParrott: I think depression is one of those things because there’s nothing that announces the presence of depression…it is one of those sneaky things that sort of covers our adolescents like a blanket. They get increasingly withdrawn, a little quieter. We don’t necessarily notice…we might start thinking some negative things about them…they’re kind of lazy, they are watching so much TV…we start thinking maybe it’s a character issue. The truth is, when we take a step back and start looking at a cluster of symptoms we’ll realize they’re dealing with depression and this is a heavy burden for a teen to bare.

How do you encourage parents to handle important topics of drinking and smoking?

Les and Leslie Parrott: Don’t be shy as a parent about saying where you stand on issues. I think sometimes we are a little afraid we’re going to come down heavy-handed and the truth is research shows it really matters that we’re clear about our values when it comes to drinking, smoking, and doing drugs—what we say about that matters and how we live with those substances matter…be clear about that so that they can have a chance to live up to that value.