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Each week, we post the latest articles and new blog content across a variety of categories. Browse our latest.
The Self-Esteem Builder Checklist
by Amy Churchill, LPC I recently spoke to group of parents about how to help promote self-esteem in the home. Although social pressures and competition are not new concepts, these self-esteem deflators are definitely magnified in today’s generation of children. The pressures to stand out, be the best, or be “perfect,” are all messages children are receiving from their outside worlds. Decades ago, children would experience social pressures at school, [...]
Defining Borderline Personality Disorder
by Jennifer DuBos, MA LPC The recent signing of receiver Brandon Marshall to the Chicago Bears has created a new wave of public interest in Borderline Personality Disorder due to his own diagnosis and advocacy. Personality disorders receive little attention from the media or the entertainment industry. They are also not part of the general public’s repertoire of psychological knowhow, which usually includes anxiety, depression, and ADD. Unlike the former [...]
Understanding Your Role in Shaping Your Child’s Behavior, part 2
by Amy Churchill, LPC In Part 1 of this article, I defined 4 important ways that parent can help shape their children’s behaviors: Validation, Reinforcement, Modeling, and Punishment. Now we will explore how these techniques can be used in real life examples. When parents come in and express difficulty in dealing with a child’s behavior or expression of emotion, I often find myself often telling parents to, “validate the feeling, [...]
Understanding Your Role in Shaping your Child’s Behavior, Part 1.
by: Amy Churchill, LPC There are several defined ways that parents can help shape their children’s behavioral responses, as well as help their children feel understood. I'd like to take a look at those with you in this article, with a second section that will further explain these reinforcement methods through common real life examples, in order to help you be prepared to implement these techniques with your own children. [...]
Identifying the Three Fundamental Fears: Death, Abandonment and Failure.
by Jen DuBos, MA LPC People can be afraid of literally anything: Snakes. Sleep. Germs. Airplanes. Malls. Relationships. Pogo sticks. Even a toothbrush going through the back of your head. But as varied as one’s external, concrete fear may be, they can all be melted down to one primal fear: Xenophobia – Fear of the unknown. We don’t know if the snake will bite or we’ll have bad dreams. [...]
How Does Guilt and Shame Impact Relapse?
by Steve Wright, LPC As a substance abuse counselor and now a supervisor of counselors treating both substance abuse and mental illness, I hear about many different reasons clients relapse back into drinking and using drugs. Triggers that pull someone back into the life of abuse and addiction are as varied and numerous as there are people. However, the most common reason I see is an inability to cope with [...]