Insights

Good Question!

I’ve been asked many questions as a counselor before I start seeing somebody. Recently I spoke with a mom who asked some great questions and inspired me to think more about what may be some good questions to ask...

Happy Mother’s Day to Single Mothers

How to Support Your LGBTQ+ Child

Having family support for your child identifying in the LGBTQ community can be beneficial to their overall mental health and physical health. Being accepted by your family can decrease mental health symptoms such as isolation, depression, anxiety, substance abuse,...

March Madness Milestones

By the time you’re reading this, an NCAA basketball champion will have already been crowned and the NBA Playoffs, NFL Draft and MLB Opening Day will be gearing up, keeping the sports machine going… The sports machine never quits....

De-Escalating a Meltdown

On airplanes, we are taught to put on our masks first before helping others in a crisis. The same goes for managing a meltdown with little ones. This may mean stepping away first from the situation (assuming the child...

Strategies for Communicating with Your Teenage Daughter

There comes a time when every mother-daughter relationship has stress – which usually comes around the teenage years. Mothers are always trying to protect their daughters which can lead to confrontation around this age period. As mothers, you naturally...

Can You Mourn Something You Never Had?

By Dr. Mollie Innocent-Cupid, Deputy Executive Director As a child therapist, I work with many children who have been abandoned by one or both of their biological parents. Some of these kids are unaffected by their abandonment and have...

Parenting: Giving Yourself Permission to Self-Care (Guilty Feelings Not Included)

I’m even more grateful for growing up with the Christmas experience of older brothers assembling gifts together for me when I was a little, especially now as a parent of a seven-year-old girl whose favorite things in the world...

What is Play Therapy, Exactly?

The subgenre of play therapy is one that has many sceptics due to the subjective nature of play. Many people (including therapists of other subgroups) struggle with feel like ‘playing’ is a valid and beneficial form of therapy; however,...

Sharing With Your Child Their Autism Diagnosis

Has your child been diagnosed with autism? Are you wondering when and how to share that diagnosis with your child? In this article, we are going to discuss how to best share this diagnosis with your child. It is...

Today’s Worries are Enough for Today

“No one ever sank under the burden of the day. It is when tomorrow’s burden is added to the burden of today that the weight is more than one can bear.” -George MacDonald It seems that anxiety is on...

How Can I Help My Child When They Are Emotional?

This is a question that many parents ask. When children are upset adults often believe they can process and express how they feel. This is not always true; however, here are few tools that can begin to change the...

Checking-In With You

Like many children, I was fascinated with questions. Any parents reading, I imagine you have found yourself frustrated by the infamous question of “why” that your child may ask when he or she doesn’t get their way. I also...

Helping Your Child Regulate Their Emotions

Children and adolescents learn so much about how to navigate obstacles simply by watching their parents. They are like little sponges that soak up a lot of what they observe from their own homes and people in their lives...

Keeping Routines Through the Holidays

Last school year, kids were constantly wondering if they would be in the school building or learning virtually. Teachers and parents spent the beginning of this school year fielding the questions of what will this year look like? With...

Parenting: Using Encouragement Over Praise

When your child gets a good grade, figures out how to do something, or completes something we often respond with praise such as “Great job!”, “Excellent”, “Way to get an A on that!”.  This is defined as praise.  While...

How to Support Your Teenager with Anxiety

Most of the teenagers I work with experience anxiety in some form. Over my years working with this population, I have found that I often am supporting the parents and family as well. I do not often hear people...

Is Social Media “Influencing” Our Youth?

Social media: something that has become impossible for some of us to live without. Especially the teens in our life. Social media is a great way to stay connected, this past year has proved that. But how much is...

Tips for Parenting in Stepfamilies

Newly married couples with children from a previous marriage are often surprised at the challenges they face as a stepfamily. For many children, adjusting to divorce is easier than becoming a stepfamily. Depending on the age of the children,...

Improving Communication with Your Teen

The parent/teenager relationship is one of the most important relationships a teenager will have in the emotionally charged teenage time of their lives; however, oftentimes the opposite occurs, with the teenager pushing the parent away. This can, in turn,...