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Each week, we post the latest articles and new blog content across a variety of categories. Browse our latest.
How To Launch Your Kids (Out of Your House)
By Grant Stenzel, MS Licensed Clinical Professional Counselor Years ago, I had a sit-down with my kids. The conversation was brief. First, I told my son he was moving out of the house and getting his own place on September 1, 2019. Then, I let my daughter know she was on her own on September 1, 2023. Why September 1? It’s a few months after their respective college graduations. “September [...]
Can a Social Network Cure the Loneliness Epidemic?
The Loneliness Epidemic in America America's kids are lonelier and more isolated than they've ever been. Recent research studies using the UCLA Loneliness Scale have confirmed it, and you can read about them here. In fact, a recent Cigna study asked over 20,000 Americans about loneliness and social isolation. The results have been published and action steps are now being taken federally and at the state levels to address this broad-based [...]
Love Languages: How to Improve Communication in Relationships
In his book, The Five Love Languages, author Gary Chapman theorizes that people tend to naturally give love in the way that they prefer to receive love, and better communication between couples can be accomplished when one can demonstrate caring to the other person in the love language the recipient understands. He outlines the basic love languages asreceiving gifts, quality time, words of affirmation, acts of service (devotion), and physical [...]
Process Addiction: Understanding Impulsive and Addictive Behavior
The concept of addiction to alcohol and other drugs is pretty well understood by most people. A chemical creates a reaction in the body that makes us feel so good that it becomes impossible to live without it. But did you know we can react to behavioral stimuli in the exact same way? That’s process addiction. Gambling, sex/porn, spending/shopping, eating and endless rounds of video games can release the same [...]
Youth and the Digital Age
By Deepak Santhiraj, MSW Licensed Clinical Social Worker The Effect of Technology on Adolescents In viewing the contemporary youth outlook in America, unique challenges kids face on a daily basis are apparent: conflicts with peers and parents combine with daily pressures to form a ceaseless helping of stress. Developmental and contextual factors collide, as well. Various social psychologists currently believe that the “adulting self” is an evolving experience in [...]
How To Support Your Teen with Social Anxiety
By Deepak Santhiraj, MSW Licensed Clinical Social Worker America is in the midst of a loneliness epidemic that has gripped the nation with unrelenting tentacles. You can read specifically about the statistical significance here. Social anxiety has a crippling effect. The Adolescent Mental Health Initiative has already painted a portrait of how social anxiety has contributed to the impact of adolescents and their parents, and it identified how social anxiety [...]