Is Thanksgiving Good For Your Teen’s Well-Being?
It’s a wonderful time of the year. Thanksgiving. One of my favorite holidays. It means lots of family around the dinner table. It means terrific food that we only eat once a year. It means different pies for an unlimited dessert. It means watching the NFL all day. And for teens, it means a long weekend of […]
Is Halloween Increasing Stress and Depression in Your Teen?
It’s hard to fathom that dressing up in costumes, asking for candy, or handing out candy can increase the stress level in our teens. But the shortened daylight hours and longing for one’s younger days when Halloween was innocent and fun can actually cause or increase the level of depression for your teen. Here are […]
How Can You Benefit From Positive Psychology?
What is Positive Psychology? In simple terms, positive psychology is defined as “the scientific study of what makes life most worth living” (Peterson, 2008). It studies human thoughts, feelings, and behavior, with a focus on strengths instead of weaknesses, building the good in life instead of repairing the bad, and taking the lives of average people […]
Therapy 101: Getting Started
What Is Therapy? Therapy, also known as talk therapy and psychotherapy, is the process of meeting with a mental health professional to resolve problematic behaviors, beliefs, feelings, relationship issues, illnesses, and/or somatic responses (sensations in the body). Some things therapy can address include: How Can You Benefit from Therapy? Whether you are involved in individual, couple, […]
September is National Suicide Prevention Month. Don’t Become a Statistic!
I am called a “survivor.” My son, Jake, took his life at age 19 by jumping in front of an oncoming truck on a Montana Interstate. Absolutely horrible and our lives will never be the same. Was he on drugs or alcohol? No. Was he on anti-depressant medication? No. Did he share his feelings with […]
Choosing the Right Behavioral Health Program for Your Teen
Right now, in the U.S., a confluence of conflicting trends in adolescent behavioral health gives us a mix of optimism and concern. On the one hand, the latest data from the Substance Abuse and Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) indicates that with each passing year, more and more teens who need help for behavioral health issues […]
It’s Back to School For Your Teens. Are You Ready For Their Anxiety?
Has this felt like the shortest summer on record for your teen? School begins in just a few days almost everywhere. It was only a few years ago that school systems decided to move the starting date of high school from the day after Labor Day to late August, to now the 2nd week of August. […]
Self-Care 101: Mind, Body, and Spirit
What is Self-Care? Self-care means taking care of yourself so that you can be healthy, you can be well, you can do your job, you can help and care for others, and you can do all the things you need to and want to accomplish in a day. Simply put, self-care is a conscious act […]
July 4th: Independence and Your Teen
Let me begin by wishing you a Happy July 4th, the day of the official signing of the Declaration of Independence when we went from a colony to a country. Millions of Americans have died since 1776 to allow all of us to keep our freedoms and liberties, the greatest experiment in democracy and capitalism […]
Happy Father’s Day From a Survivor
Father’s Day should be a positive day for dads throughout the year. Better than birthdays. Better than Christmas. Even better than your family vacation. All the attention of your family goes into this day. And for your children, all their attention shifts from themselves to their fathers. Fathers feel proud, excited, joyous, and elated about […]
