June is convocation month, and all around the world students are celebrated as they make their way out of their post-secondary, and often, personal, nests as they fly toward the next phase of their lives. Most of us watch them cross the stage with joy at the possibilities that we imagine for them, as well […]
From the moment we’re born until the day we die we are continually absorbing messages that tell us who we are, what we’re worth as human beings, what we should be doing at any given time, how we should look (and especially how we shouldn’t look), what we should eat, what we should buy, what […]
Since it’s the season to bring “joy to the world,” I thought this might be an appropriate occasion to ask you to consider what brings joy to you. Somebody asked me this question recently, and I had to think for a few minutes. I’d somehow forgotten that joy is something that’s not only important in […]
Teenage males and men hate to go to therapy. Therefore, let’s address this issue. Here is a link for a movie, “The Mask You Live In” https://youtu.be/hc45-ptHMxo. The above trailer contains explicit language, but it is language your third grader hears every day at school, from friends and television. Men and teenage boys are very […]
Working with teenagers, I hear very often from parents that they feel their teenager is not responsible and they have concerns about trusting their teenagers. I also hear from teenagers how they are upset with their parents for not trusting them and not allowing them to make decisions. I understand the parents’ concerns, but at […]
A common argument I hear daily in my office is how much time should an adolescent be spending on their laptop or their smart phone. Parents typically believe that their adolescents are spending too much time on their cell phones and laptops. Of course adolescents feel that their parents are being unfair and not allowing […]
Many kids, despite what they say, really enjoy school. They like seeing their friends, their teacher and learning. However, some kids are not as excited and even worried about going to school. Many of these kids were bullied last year and they are afraid of being bullied again this year. Often when a child is […]
Many of the teenagers that I see for psychotherapy come to therapy believing that no one loves them. They tell me their parents don’t love them, their siblings don’t care about them and no one at school cares about them. They feel they are unloveable and no one cares if they live or die. Because […]
According to researchers, anxious children are more likely to be submissive and therefore their worries tend to be overlooked. As such, parents should be attentive to their kids’ worries, create a list of their worries, observe their kids’ behavior in social situations; i.e. parties, pool, play grounds, and understand their kids’ anxiety rather than ignoring […]
According to the Canadian Mental Health Association, 3.2million Canadian youth between the ages of 12-19 are at the risk of developing Depression. Shocking? Right. Children and adolescents can develop depression if they are/ have experiencing/ experienced: Huge pressure from school, society, or family Stressful transitions, such as changing school, neighborhood, city, or country A major […]
