Journaling is a well-known and widely used practical approach to gain insight and clarity by processing your emotions on paper. Over the past decade, gratitude journaling has gained popularity for its benefits, including better sleep, fewer symptoms of illness, and more happiness among adults and kids. The premise of gratitude … Read More
Gratitude is Good for Your Health
Each year before Thanksgiving dinner, my family has a tradition of going around the table and sharing one thing we’ve been grateful for in the past year. What strikes me every year is that the things that are shared, year after year, have to do with support, love, connection, faith, … Read More
Depression in Teenagers- See the Signs
Teenagers today are faced with ever-increasing pressures. From the changes of puberty, the pressure to fit in, meeting academic and parental expectations, peer pressure and the media, it’s no wonder that an estimated 3 million adolescents aged 12 to 17 in the United States experienced at least one major depressive episode. … Read More
The Crisis of Modern Parenting
In her TED Talk, writer, and author of “All Joy and No Fun,” Jennifer Senior raises the question to parents, “Should our goal as parents really be to raise happy kids?” With so many advances in parenting, have parents today placed unnecessary anxiety, confusion, and panic onto themselves by creating … Read More
Rationalization is Unhealthy
Over the past few months, I’ve written about a number of defense mechanisms and the important role they play in human interaction. Defense mechanisms reflect the mind’s brilliantly creative approach to protecting itself. While each of them can be effective in different situations, I freely admit that rationalization is my … Read More
Conflict in Marriage: Two Kinds
Conflict in marriage is what brings many couples into counseling. With two unique individuals coming together, values, opinions, and personality traits are bound to collide. According to John Gottman, a leading research scientist on marriage and family, all marital conflicts fall into one of two categories: either they can be … Read More
How’s Your Emotional Hygiene?
Have you ever stopped to consider that many people spend more time taking care of their physical health than their psychological health? Ignoring psychological injuries (failure, rejection, loneliness) can worsen just as much as ignoring a recurring migraine or strained muscle. In his TED Talk, “Why We All Need to … Read More
Personal Finances: Part 1
Many people feel uncomfortable talking about, or even thinking about, their finances. Personal financial planning is not something that is taught in school and unfortunately, many people learn the hard and expensive way how to manage their finances. Even when they realize they need to pay more attention to personal … Read More
Parenting with Mindfulness
The practice of mindfulness has gained popularity in the field of Psychology as a practice for improving well being, health, and managing stress and anxiety. Mindfulness requires you to be fully present in the moment, attentive to your thoughts and feelings without judgment. Parenting can benefit from this mindful approach … Read More
Yours, Mine, and Ours: 5 Tips for Merging Two Families
When families blend and stepfamilies are created, it is not uncommon for problems or conflict to arise. This adjustment process comes with its own unique rewards and challenges. Research findings suggest that a stepfamily takes several years to develop into a family unit. In order to increase your best chance … Read More
