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adolescent

Helping Those With Eating and Substance Use Disorders During COVID-19

Eating Disorder and Substance Disorder Recovery-based Considerations And Resources During COVID-19
As our country continues to negotiate social distancing and increases in community needs and supports, the scientific and medical community has worked diligently to identify those that are most in need.  While the importance of identifying and assisting those in need to prevent medical complications and, at worst, death, is integral for community and public health, there are also communities of people that are being adversely affected by the virus and the resulting, understandable precautions being taken to protect the nation’s population.  As individual and family priorities have shifted in terms of work, school, parenting, shopping and stress, too often those that have vulnerabilities around high risk behaviors can often feel particularly isolated and, without attention or support, can lapse into managing through ineffective and dangerous ways.


adolescent

56 Resources To Help Families During COVID 19

Resources for Clinicians and Families During COVID-19
 

As families have begun to negotiate how to incorporate working from home and providing academic support into their lives, the reality of how to effectively be a parent, worker, teacher and family administrator has taken hold.  In addition to the physical toll that the new responsibilities have taken, the emotional tax and uncertainty of keeping families healthy, managing financial concerns and the overall question of when lives will return to ‘normal’ has taken root.  In addition to parental anxiety, unsurprisingly, kids bring their own fears to the pandemic that can be exacerbated by their changed world as well.


adolescent

Becoming a More Resilient Parent

The marathon that is parenting can provide lots of obstacles along the way that can challenge not just confidence in parenting, but also test our capacity to feel like a competent human being.  Most parents find themselves questioning their ability to handle situations that arise with kids that, seemingly, other parents either do not have to face (probably an unfair assumption!) or appear better equipped to manage it like a seasoned professional (and they are likely liars!).  When we take the time to Monday morning quarterback and break down the details of what went wrong, often we find vulnerability factors that may have played more of a role in the parenting disaster than the actual situation itself.  Sometimes the perfect storm of lack of sleep, stress, worry and/or other real life factors can help any mom or dad lose their superparenting powers.


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Adopting Limits and Forgiveness For The Holidays

The holidays are a stressful time for most individuals and families.  Words and phrases like surviving expectations, holding it together, letting go, getting through and making it often creep into our language while pushing out healthier, relationship and family building practices and descriptions that create Norman Rockwell-like images of what the holidays should elicit.  And while there is wisdom in working toward a conflict-free holiday season, when the stress and difficulties that can accompany family get togethers are avoided or aired to children and adolescents, it can be easy to set a poor example of practices that teach compassion, self-care and forgiveness toward those with whom we share important relationships.


adolescent

The Power of Stress (And How To Win!)

Stress.  There are few words that we leverage to describe so many unpleasant and different states of being, feeling and thinking.  Much like most emotions, however, often when we try and suppress it or dwell in it, stress can become bigger and more impactful in our lives, something few of us want.    Let's explore some ways to help lessen the impact that stress has in our family's life.....


adolescent

Words That Need To Be Eliminated From Our Treatment Language

How we choose to language is integral and often communicates more than what is intended. If you are an advocate of the phrase “It’s not what you say, but how you say it”, you likely are a firm believer in the importance of language.  For professionals, clinicians and parents, we often teach or practice lessons of our language to others or impart it to children and adolescents.  Speaking kindly to others and avoiding words that we may later regret are integral lessons in communication that are important to adopt.  In the educational, behavioral health and addiction fields of practice, clinicians and teachers often find kinder, gentler tones to describe disorders, behaviors and interactions because semantics are important and it is integral to have relationships with colleagues, students and patients that keep them engaged in their treatment and academics and feeling heard, respected and understood.


adolescent

Nine Ways To Increase Your Child’s Happiness

One of the biggest desires for any parent is to ensure that their child is happy.  While rates of anxiety, depression and suicide continue to reach their highest levels among children, adolescents and young adults, there are a number of shared characteristics that families possess that often lead to higher levels of reported happiness. Let's explore 9 ways that parents can increase their child's capacity to experience happiness.


2019

Tips For A Successful 2019 School Year

In May, parents and kids often look like warriors limping to the end-of-school finish line, gasping for that refreshing, rejuvenating summer air that only comes after the final bell on the final day of school.  By August, many of the same parents (and maybe fewer kids) have the same look of anguish as they reach summer's finish line and look to the beginning of the coming academic year.  How can these diametrically opposed races have such different tracks yet, often, the same relief at the finish line?  While school is often targeted as the culprit of bringing too much stress, too many expectations and more social and academic demands than ever, it also provides a structure, something where the majority of children and adolescents thrive.