September is dedicated to suicide prevention. Therefore, I decided to write this article. As a psychotherapist who treats teenagers, I work with many parents who are worried that their teenager is depressed and may be suicidal. Many parents worry because suicide is a mental health issue for children and teenagers that often is ignored. In…
Art therapy and Trauma informed art therapy Art therapy is a combination of psychological approaches and art to address psychological, psycho-social, emotional, and behavioral issues. The goal of art therapy sessions is often to improve the individual’s overall well-being and reduce the negative symptoms of disorders. According to the American Art Therapy Association, “art therapy…
What is art therapy? Art therapy is a modality, in which art and psychology are combine to address the presenting emotional and behavioral difficulties. The focus of art therapy sessions is often on exploring emotions, thoughts, and behaviors from a symbolic way, in which clients are not obliged to verbalize their thoughts or how they…
Psychedelics and drugs like ketamine are all the buzz these days showing promising results for some with symptom reduction for all kinds of mental health disorders. However, is the hype grounded in reality? It begs the question of who is a good fit for these treatments and what makes a doctor qualified to administer such…
https://www.pbs.org/video/hiding-plain-sight-youth-mental-illness-101/
September is suicide awareness month. Many parents of teenagers ask me, if their child could be suicidal and what to do if their child is suicidal? I have been getting this question even more now that the pandemic has lasted so long. As a result of teenagers and children having to stay in the house…
More and more people seem to be burdened with some sort of mental illness or condition. The medical industry, where much of the psychotherapy is conducted, seems hooked on palliative ‘solutions’ such as medication and curtailed programs of manualized ‘sausage-machine’-style psychotherapy which assume that every patient is the average patient. There’s no time to actually…
Last night, April 24, 2019 I was watching The Seal Team on TV and rather than being entertained, I was very aggravated. It presented a former Seal team member as having PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) and other ailments. The member went with a friend to the local VA to get help. When they went…
As the school year is starting many parents are focused on their children’s transition into High School or Kindergarten. However, there is another important transition for children. Beginning Middle School is a major transition for pre-adolescents. As a psychotherapist who works with adolescents, I am very familiar with what is happening on High School and…
I read an article about a 15 year old girl in Pensilvania who killed herself this week. She was the victim of bullying at school. The family described her as a nice, care girl. However, the bullying was severe enough to cause her to take her own life. We need to remember that bullying is…