Sometimes, instances of emotional dysregulation in children (“acting out” behaviors) or in adults under the most severe stressors can be viewed as the only available response in circumstances in which overwhelmingly strong emotion must be expressed, such as in the context of an emotionally abusive family environment or in times of great personal upheaval.

A large body of research suggests that alcohol use can increase underlying emotional disturbance and disrupt cognitive functions that are very important in emotional self-regulation. Support for this hypothesis comes from studies that find associations between alcohol use and short- and long-term emotional change. In the short term, alcohol can disrupt emotional stability by effectively removing barriers against violence, verbal abuse, and inappropriate behaviors. In the long term, alcohol dependence and addiction can create a false persona in which it becomes difficult if not impossible to distinguish between the individual’s genuine personality traits and those modified or instigated by alcohol use.

Emotional disorders, particularly when they are characterized by pervasive emotional dysregulation, are often characterized by high negative emotionality and low positive emotionality. A significant challenge in trying to downregulate negative emotions is to become less vulnerable to negative or distressing emotions, with the objective of increasing calmness and resilience in stressful situations.

What Causes (And Cures) Emotional Dysregulation

The amygdala has been implicated in emotional dysregulation, aggressive behavior, and psychiatric illnesses such as depression. Anxiety disorders and dysregulation may be the result of too much activity in the amygdala and not enough activity in the prefrontal cortex (PFC), which is the executive center of the brain that sets boundaries of behavior and responds to criteria of calm, assertiveness, and emotional regulation.

Stress, coupled with a genetic vulnerability, decreases the production of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF). BDNF is a protein that acts on the nervous system by helping the survival of existing neurons and promoting the growth and differentiation of new neurons and synapses. A reduction in BDNF production causes a thinning of neuronal structures, which can results in emotional disturbance. These structural changes make the prefrontal limbic governing system vulnerable to disruption and dysregulation. Thus, emotional stress, loss, or other significant psychological factors cause the system to lose self-regulation.

Treatments such as counseling coupled with antidepressant medications, a good regimen of exercise, sensible nutrition and good social support can reverse this process, increase the production of BDNF, renew neuronal growth, build more resilient self-regulating circuits, and return the individual to a healthy mood and re-build good self-management skills.

To achieve better emotional regulation, biological change and contextual change are needed. Biological change is achieved by reducing individual reactivity to emotional stimuli. Even when this reactivity may be due to genetic dispositions (temperament) and early developmental experiences (nurture), most people can learn ways to better control their emotional expression. There is a combination of skills and interventions that is particularly helpful in promoting biological homeostasis and emotional stability. These include treating any underlying physical illness that may have a negative effect on mood, balancing nutrition and eating to replenish and maintain physical resources, staying off non-prescribed mood-altering substances, getting sufficient but not excessive sleep, and getting adequate physical exercise.

Better self-managemeht skills include learning and practicing emotional resiliency, which is the ability to minimize negative effects of stressful events and situations, and to maximize the positive effects of positive outcomes and opportunities. The skill of resiliency is learned and reinforced by intentionally accumulating positive life events, i.e., making a conscious and deliberate catalog of what’s positive in one’s life and referring to it often until it is present and readily available in time of need. It also consists of acquiring practical psychological tools that build a sense of generalized mastery and promote self-esteem, e.g., completing school, obtaining additional job training, taking an assertiveness course, and the like. All these skills and tools can be learned and mastered at any age, most effectively with the help of a skilled counselor who can act as a guide and coach during this process.

Disorders of Emotional Regulation

PTSD, or posttraumatic stress disorder, is characterized by very significant emotional dysregulation. Its sufferers experience unwarranted arousal—often caused by stimuli processed outside of conscious awareness—and exhibit an exaggerated startle response, vivid intrusive thoughts, and flashbacks and nightmares related to past traumatic events. PTSD victims may frantically try to avoid physical or psychological reminders of their trauma, and may experience dissociative symptoms or emotional numbing. PTSD is a disorder of emotional dysregulation characterized by excessive fear, triggered by a severe and often life-threatening traumatic event.

Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is characterized by emotional dysregulation, the temporary but frequent inability to change or regulate emotional cues, experiences, actions, verbal responses, and nonverbal expressions. Individuals with BPD experience greater emotional sensitivity, greater emotional reactivity, and slower return to normal levels of arousal after intense stimulation.

Frontal lobe disorders, which have become rather common among combat survivors, are the product of traumatic brain injury and are characterized by emotional dysregulation, attention deficit, impulsivity, lack of inhibition, poor insight, impaired judgment, and low motivation. These frontal-subcortical disorders can result not only from war zone trauma, but also from infection, cancer, stroke, and neurodegenerative disease. Explosive violence, often directed at family members, is a common occurrence, particularly in individuals in whom impulsivity, disinhibition, and emotional dysregulation are the most dominant features.

Finally, obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is characterized by emotional as well as cognitive dysregulation, brought on by a disruption of both the “thinking” prefrontal and the “feeling” paralimbic networks.

In these and other disorders that feature emotional dysregulation, it is interesting to note that the anatomic structures that are affected have emotional as well as cognitive functions. This coincidence highlights once again the close interdependence of affective and cognitive operations in the human brain. We can’t feel deeply without thinking intensely, and vice versa.

This is one of those moments in life when there are several paths to take.  What shall I do?  My options include doing something: healthy, productive, sensible, indulgent, daring, disregarding, soothing, and/or creative?

What do you gravitate toward when no one is looking?  When your time is unaccounted for what are your patterns?  We certainly can find an inkling of our core character by the choices we make when we are given freedom.  Do our choices benefit ourselves and others?  Are they self-defeating?

The motto of the Christian Men’s Fraternity is: Go forward, reject passivity, accept responsibility, lead courageously, and always expect the greater reward, God’s reward.  We cannot pass along – to our peers, our kids, our corporation, or our community – what we do not possess.  The strength of character starts with looking in the mirror and then going forth in fine tuning ourselves.

In Matthew 7:16-20 you will find:

By their fruit you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thorn bushes, or figs from thistles?  Likewise every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit.  Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.  Thus, by their fruit you will recognize them.

And many of us get sick of repeating our old patterns and know that the development of our character cannot be done alone.  We simply do need to reach out to a friend, our church, or our counselor.  If you need us here at The Summit, you know how to find us.

Play is an essential activity in life. As adults, most of our earliest memories involve play in some way. We may not remember details of when we were little, but most of us can remember what our favorite toy was or the games we liked to play with our friends. An infant’s earliest activities are also play related- peek-a-boo, this little piggy, tummy time, etc. Therefore, it is not surprising that play is one of the most natural and comfortable activities to engage in throughout childhood and beyond. In fact, children learn to play long before they learn to speak.

What is Play Therapy?

The Association for Play Therapy (APT) defines play therapy as, “the systematic use of a theoretical model to establish an interpersonal process wherein trained play therapists use the therapeutic powers of play to help clients prevent or resolve psychosocial difficulties and achieve optimal growth and development.” Play Therapy is based on the fact that play is a child’s language and toys are their words (Landreth, 2002). Children communicate their thoughts and feelings through play like adults use words. They don’t tell us, they show us. So often I hear parents tell me how intuitive their children are or how they seem notice things that you wouldn’t think they would notice. This goes to show that children’s cognitive abilities develop early while their verbal communication abilities are slower to progress. Therefore, when a child is struggling with social, emotional or behavioral issues, it just makes sense to use a child’s natural language to find solutions. Using play therapy breaks down the barriers of communication that exist for children. They are still learning what words mean and how to use them properly but using words to express themselves accurately and appropriately isn’t developed fully.
Play Therapy is creative by nature and is tailored to children and their individual needs. Therefore, the interventions and metaphors used during a session are uniquely designed to suite each particular child. A child’s interests are also often incorporated. Metaphors, analogies, and symbolism can be found anywhere. The death star from Star Wars can be used to represent anger. A playbook can be transformed from football plays to coping strategies for ADHD or anxiety. The transformation of a caterpillar into a butterfly can be used to transform a child’s self-esteem. By making something interesting and familiar, it becomes more memorable and effective.

Therapeutic Play vs. Regular Play

Therapeutic play is more than just getting to play your favorite game. When a child enters the playroom, he/she is given the opportunity to express themselves in a way that they feel most comfortable, using such things as sand, puppets, dolls, knights, castles, art supplies and so much more. Their play has a purpose other than entertainment and having fun.

While play therapy is fun for the child involved, it also involves “work.” However, the work isn’t like school work. They use the toys to process and work through whatever it is they are struggling with utilizing symbolism, metaphors and analogies to express themselves accurately. A child might use an egg to represent feeling breakable, dragons may represent their anger (or an obnoxious sibling), fences or barriers may be a child’s way of feeling trapped or contained. Toys give children the freedom to express themselves in a way that makes sense to them when words just don’t seem to fit right. Play Therapy uses this form of expression to facilitate such things as healing, growth, and development.

The Importance of Safety and the Relationship

One of the most important aspects of play therapy, aside from the play space, is the relationship between the child and therapist. Like any therapeutic relationship, trust, safety and security are vital. According to Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, a sense of safety and security is second only to food and shelter. Therefore, when children enter the therapeutic playroom, they won’t find a counselor sitting in a grown up chair looking down at them asking questions, like most other adults they know. Instead, they will see their counselor on the floor surrounded by toys and objects that speak their language. Rather than being told what to do and given a lot of rules to follow, they will be given the freedom to explore and decide how they want to spend their time. The first few play sessions with a child center around building trust and safety rather than jumping straight to the problem at hand. Once the rapport is built however, a child feels safe enough to begin diving into what has brought him/her to therapy. Then the next phase of therapy begins.

The Benefits of Play Therapy

Play therapy addresses a wide range of childhood issues such as anxiety, depression, low self-esteem, behavioral issues, learning disabilities, developmental delays, divorce, grief and so much more. The benefits of play therapy include:

• Encouraging open, effective, and voluntary communication
• Learning appropriate behaviors and coping skills
• Healthy emotional expression and regulation
• Enhanced self-esteem and self confidence
• Stress Reduction
• Promoting creative problem solving skills
• Enhanced social skills

The Power of Play

Children often come into play therapy defeated, confused, overwhelmed, and feeling as though their world is out of control. However, once a child sees the playroom and realizes that it is a world they can understand and communicate in, they often visibly relax. Allowing children this freedom to explore what is bothering them is healing in and of itself. Children heal from a nasty divorce, learn to calm themselves before they explode into a temper tantrum, and develop a high level of confidence to overcome struggles with anxiety, depression, or bullying. They move from self-loathing to self-acceptance and high self-esteem. That is the power of play.

• What is going on with my teen?
• Why is he/she so impulsive?
• Why can’t he/she see the importance of studying, respecting adults, and showing appreciation or gratitude?
• Why is my teen so moody? She/he is isolating himself/herself or they only want to spend time with their peers, refusing to participate in family outings.

Early adolescence is a time when conflict with parents escalates beyond childhood levels. This increase may be due to a number of factors: the biological changes of puberty, cognitive changes, and social changes focused on independence and identity.

Biological Changes

One of the most obvious changes in adolescence is rapid physical maturation, including hormonal and body changes. However, the rate and type of these changes varies widely among individual teens. Whether your child experiences early or late maturation, the timing of these physical changes can influence their focus during these years.
Early maturing girls are more likely to smoke, drink, be depressed, have an eating disorder, request earlier independence from their parents and have older friends; and their bodies are more likely to elicit responses from males that lead to earlier dating and sexual experiences. Interestingly early maturing girls have a higher body image in 6th grade, but by 10th grade studies have shown that late-maturing girls are the ones on average with a greater positive body image.

Early-maturing boys have a higher self image and better peer relationships during adolescence but by 30 years of age late-maturing boys have a greater sense of identity when compared to their early developing peers. This may be because studies have shown that early maturing boys continue to focus on their advantageous physical status instead of career development and achievement.

As a parent it is important to understand both the positive and negative emotions and pressures your individual child is feeling about their physical development and to realize that you can help mentor them through these rough years once you can empathize with what they are experiencing.

Cognitive Changes

What we know about brain development during adolescence is really in its infancy. However, recent fascinating discoveries have focused on the changes that happen in the emotional center, the amygdala and the higher-level cognitive functioning center, the prefrontal cortex. Researchers have determined that the amygdala, which is responsible for processing information about emotion, matures earlier than the prefrontal cortex, which is responsible for making decisions and other higher-order cognitive functions. These findings seem to suggest that an adolescent might be more likely to respond with a “gut” reaction to emotional stimuli, whereas adults might be more likely to respond with a rational, reasoned response. In fact the prefrontal cortex is the very last part of the brain to mature. It is here where planning, setting priorities, suppressing impulses and weighing the consequences of one’s actions take place. This means that the brain region for putting the brakes on risky, impulsive behavior and thinking before acting is still under construction during adolescence.

The healthy, balanced viewpoint for the parent of an adolescent would be to find a flexible position that would provide structure for a teen whose prefrontal cortex is still developing and freedom to explore and develop their individual self-identity.

Social Changes focusing on Identity Development

It is healthy and expected that during the adolescence years teens explore and develop their individual self-identity. During this time they may experiment with many different roles and worldviews. Identity development is a long process that happens in starts and stops and consists of all areas of a teen’s worldview including but not limited to: interests, values, faith, relationships, personality, sexuality, gender, cultural, political and vocational. Those teens that successfully navigate this stage emerge with a strong and acceptable sense of themselves and where they are headed in life. Those who do not work through this stage are stuck in what is called “identity confusion”. Teens who experience identity confusion most often have parents who are either permissive, providing little guidance, or autocratic controlling the teen without giving them an opportunity to express themselves. Teens experiencing identity confusion will either isolate themselves and withdraw from family and friends or lose their identity in the crowd. Parents can help their teens navigate this identity development by understanding this is a time for teens to question and explore many roles and ideas. Parents are most effective when they listen and discuss ideas and decisions with their teens while giving them room to make some of their own decisions.

During adolescence many parents see their teen changing from a compliant child to someone who is non-compliant, oppositional and resistant to parental standards. When this happens parents tend to clamp down and put pressure on the adolescent to conform to parental standards. Parents often expect their teen to become mature adults overnight, instead of understanding that the journey takes 10-15 years. Parents who recognize that this transition takes time handle their youth more competently and calmly than those who demand immediate conformity to adult standards. The opposite tactic – letting adolescents do as they please without supervision – is also unwise.

Competent adolescent development is most likely to happen when adolescents have parents whom:

• Show them warmth and respect
• Demonstrate sustained interest in their lives
• Recognize and adapt to their cognitive and socio-emotional development
• Communicate expectations for high standards of conduct and achievement and
• Model constructive ways of dealing with problems and conflict

These can be difficult but rewarding years. Be kind to yourself and your teen and remember this is a marathon, not a sprint!

Here are few quick tips for protecting your children:

First, get real!  Don’t pretend this doesn’t happen.  Statistically, 1 in 4 girls, and 1 in 6 boys  will be sexually abused before their 18th birthday – so don’t be lulled into being asleep.  Keep sharp!

Secondly, reduce the opportunity for your child to be abused SIMPLY by limiting how often they are in one on one situations with adults (unsupervised). 

Thirdly, let your kids know that they can talk to you about ANYTHING — AND let them know that it is NOT okay to have a secret with other adults outside the family.  This is a very common ploy used by child sexual abusers – “this will be our secret – just between me and you.”  Let your child know that it’s not okayto keep secrets like that.

For more tips and information check out the following websites:
www.StopItNow.org
www.darkness2light.org

If The Summit Counseling Center can help you, let us know!  Call (678)893-5300.

Can what we eat influence our mental health and contribute to the onset or worsening of such disorders as depression, anxiety and other mood disorders?  There is increasing evidence that this could be the case, and that the richest foods (in terms of calories, fats and sugar content) may have the strongest link to mental health problems.

Nutrition and Inflammation

Psychological stress is known to increase the production of pro-inflammatory cytokines. The deriving inflammation is accompanied by an accumulation of highly reactive oxygen species, also known as oxidative stress, which is a contributing factor in the development of severe depression. A diet rich in antioxidants, vitamins, minerals and fiber is associated with reduced systemic inflammation. Conversely, diets that are low in essential nutrients, such as magnesium and sugar- and fat-rich western diets are associated with increased systemic inflammation.

A new study of 3040 Australian adolescents 11 to 18 years of age collected information on diet and mental health by self-report and anthropometric data by trained researchers. Improvements in diet quality were mirrored by improvements in mental health over the follow-up period, while deteriorating diet quality was associated with poorer psychological functioning. Researchers concluded that the quality of one’s nutrition is associated with adolescent mental health both cross-sectionally and prospectively. Moreover, improvements in diet quality were mirrored by improvements in mental health, while reductions in diet quality were associated with declining psychological functioning over the follow-up period.

There are many ways in which an insufficiency of healthy foods and/or an excessive intake of unhealthy and processed foods may increase the risk for mental health problems in adolescents. Fruits and vegetables, as well as other components of a healthy diet such as whole grains, fish, lean red meats and olive oils, are rich in important nutrients such as folate, magnesium, b-group vitamins, selenium, zinc, mono- and polyunsaturated fatty acids, polyphenols and fiber. Many of these nutrients have already been reported as of importance in depressive illnesses, however the critical importance of these food components as modulators of reactive oxygen species (inflammation) and immune system functioning, both pathophysiological substrates of depressive illness is increasingly appreciated.

A new meta-analysis, reporting on data collected at many time points and thus more reliable, has reported large generational increases in self-reported mental health problems among American high school and college students between the 1930s and 2007. Paralleling this increase in the rates of psychological illness among young people are data indicating a reduction in the quality of adolescents’ diets over recent decades. A report based on trends in adolescent food consumption in the US identified a reduction in the consumption of raw fruits, high-nutrient vegetables and dairy foods, which are important sources of fiber and essential nutrients, between 1965 and 1996, with an associated increase in the consumption of fast food, snacks and sweetened beverages.

Concurrently, population surveys demonstrate a substantial increase in overweight and obesity among children and adolescents over recent decades. Obesity does not necessarily indicate nutritional deficiency: paradoxically, high-energy foods typically have poor nutrient content.

Fast Food, Depression and Anxiety

Another study of 5731 men and women 46 to 49 and 70 to 74 years of age found that those with better quality diets were less likely to be depressed, whereas a higher intake of processed and unhealthy foods was associated with increased anxiety.

A third study examined the extent to which the high-prevalence mental disorders are related to habitual diet in 1,046 women 20–93 years of age. Results showed that a “traditional” dietary pattern characterized by vegetables, fruit, meat, fish, and whole grains was associated with lower odds for major depression or log-term depression (dysthymia) and anxiety disorders. A western diet of processed or fried foods, refined grains, sugary products, and beer was associated with a higher prevalence of mental disorders. These results demonstrate an association between habitual diet quality and a higher prevalence of mental disorders.

In a fourth study (1999–2010) of 12,059 Spanish university graduates discovered a detrimental relationship between a diet rich in trans unsaturated fatty acids (TFA) and depression risk, whereas weak inverse associations were found for monounsaturated fatty acids (MUFA), polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) and olive oil. These findings suggest that cardiovascular disease and depression may share some common nutritional determinants related to fat intake.

Most notably, results of a 2010 randomized placebo controlled trial showed that fish oil supplements prevented conversion from a subthreshold psychotic state to full-blown schizophrenia. Another recent randomized controlled trial study suggested that omega-3 supplements may help reduce anxiety.

Your companions are like buttons on an elevator. They will either take you up or take you down.
“He that walketh with wise men shall be wise: but a companion of fools shall be destroyed.” Proverbs 13:20 –from God’s Little Devotional Book

When GRAPES members (Our teen therapy group, held on Tuesday evenings from 7 to 8pm) were recently asked about the top things they believe should not happen when parents and teens are in conflict, their appeals included:

• “Never bring up stuff from the past!” In other words, if it happened in the past leave it in the past and don’t hold it over my head now.
• “Don’t overreact about stuff” and blow the situation out of proportion; basically, don’t major in minors!
• “Don’t compare me to other people” in the family – it feels like a put-down and doesn’t motivate me to change.
• “Don’t insult others or say things personal like, “I hate you … you are a jerk …”
• “Don’t mumble.”
• “Don’t get physical – don’t hit or throw things.”
• “Don’t take your anger out on someone else!” Essentially, take care of your anger before you direct it at someone who is not truly the source of your frustrations simply because they are the “safer” person.

The wishes of the teens above are very common and are a lot like the pleas I’ve heard over the years when counseling other young adults and adults alike. So, what have we been modeling to our teens? Can we expect our kids to possess effective communication and conflict management if day after day they are witnessing unfair fighting and ineffective engagements? The interactions I have witnessed over the years in my counseling practice inspired me to come up with a list of the top 10 unfair fighting moves commonly made in conflict.

So, let’s consider for a moment your normal interactions with your family members. Peruse the sample of fair fighting rules below and notice how many you have violated in the past or are engaged in presently.

Sample of Top 10 Unfair Fighting Moves
(found in Rock Solid Parenting: Secrets of an Effective Parent)

• Put-downs — Labeling, name calling, insulting, sarcastic remarks, etc. *Communicated directly, indirectly, or mumbled.
• Dominating — Hitting, yelling, throwing things, etc.
• Multiple Topics at a time — Bringing-up unresolved issues from the past or multiple topics at once
• “D” moves — Intimidator style of fighting such as being demeaning, domineering or dogmatic. Or, the distancing style of fighting; where you intentionally, or unintentionally, try to control another through isolating yourself from the person for long periods of time, or, become passive and give the silent or nearly silent treatment, in an effort to hope they will “get it … get it together…”
• “You, you, you”– Focusing mainly on what you want the other person to change or do.
• Fighting to the point where you forget the main topic or purpose
• Assuming — Initially taking over and jumping to conclusions before gathering all the facts.
• Bringing-up others such as siblings or friends in an effort to pressure the person to change.
• Fighting for hours, all night, or for days — With no timeouts or reaching out to people who truly can help (youth pastors, counselors, etc.).
• “It’s my way or the highway/no way!”

One of the most common reactions I encounter from individuals after they read the top 10 unfair fighting moves is a humble snicker and a comment such as: “I do many of these…obviously I need to do better, but what in the world can I do?” We clearly never intend to be thoughtless and careless with others, but unintentionally we are. So, if after reading this article you feel you need to work on your communication and conflict resolution skills feel free to reach out to someone here at The Summit or begin reading books like, The Anger Solution by John Lee or Rock Solid Parenting.

When we hear the word “engagement” in the context of a marriage relationship, we usually think about that memorable occassion where a guy gives a girl a ring to start the whole matrimonial process!  But what happens when the couple gets “engaged,” gets married, gets on with life, has a house and 2.3 children???  Are they still “engaged”?  For many couples, this is when their “engagement”–their emotional engagement–gets strained.  It’s hard to stay emotionally connected while “doing life”!

So, what’s an easy way to stay ”engaged” (emotionally)?

One low stress way to stay engaged is “The Daily Check-In”!  Spend 15-20 minutes per day with your partner “checking in,” debriefing your day and giving and receiving emotional support.  Couple tend to do this naturally when they are dating – either seeing each other in person or spending time on the phone.  But the stress and schedule of married life gets in the way.  However, if couples don’t find ways to defeat this stress and scheduling challenge, they can quickly become disengaged!  In just a little more time than it takes to “Check-In” on Facebook, you can “Check-in” with your spouse–with a lot more personal and positive results!

So, what do we talk about?

The average couple has tried this before, but one of two things tends to happen.  Either they 1) bore each other to death with endless talk about what happened in meetings, carpools and work, OR 2) they dive into bickering about whatever unresolved conflict has been festering between them!  Like Bob Newhart said playing a therapist in the famous YouTube Clip - “Stop it!”

A great strategy for running this session is to ask the “high-low” question.  Ask your partner, “What was your emotional high point of the day, and what was your emotional low point of the day?”  Easy, huh?  this simple two part question gets your partner to screen out all the boring stuff of the day and get straight to the “point” of what really mattered to them — positively or negatively — in the course of their day!  What a great gift!  YOUR job is to ask the question, listen (and don’t interrupt), and to offer emotional support (NOT advice, corrections, competing stories, criticism, NOTHING else – nada, nothing).  By doing this, you are telling your partner that you care,  that their life and experience matter to you and that you are willing to listen.  You will get BIG extra credit if you also REMEMBER this information and ask follow up questions as you check back in over the next few days!  Once one partner has completed this process, let the other partner take their turn as well.  This is about mutual support and two person engagement.

In a future post, I will let you know WHY this matters so much!

If you would like to read more, check out John Gottman’s book, Seven Principles For Making Marriage Work.  You can buy in The Summit Store through our partnership with Amazon books!

The PGA Championship Youth Clinic was held at River Pines Golf Course on Monday, August 8th. The participants received personal and group golf instruction from 30 Georgia PGA Section Professionals. After the clinic the youth had the opportunity to attend the Monday afternoon practice rounds of the PGA Championship.

The PGA also made 25 adult tickets available to The Summit for each day of the practice rounds. Each adult ticket included four youth tickets, therefore allowing over 200 youth from six local church youth groups and two high school golf teams the opportunity to experience the PGA Championship!

“We are grateful to the PGA Championship Community Relations Program for making this opportunity available to our community,” said David Smith, Executive Director of The Summit Counseling Center, located at 2750 Old Alabama Rd. in Johns Creek.

The Summit also received ten tickets to each day of the championship rounds. “As a non-profit organization, we rely greatly on funding from our donors and partnerships with local churches in the area,” said Smith. “We were able to use the PGA Championship tickets to say thank you to those who have supported us throughout the years.”

The PGA Community Relations program has an annual goal to leave a community legacy with each host city of a major championship. The Georgia-based charities benefiting from the PGA Community Relations Program focus on youth, health, wellness, education, sports and family services.

The Summit Counseling Center is a non-profit counseling center providing professional, faith-based counseling. With a staff of 9 licensed therapists, The Summit serves people of all ages and provides a wide range of services that include individual, couples and family counseling for anxiety, depression, alcohol and substance abuse, marital issues, parenting concerns, and children’s issues.