How Teachers Can Improve Youth Mental Health and Well-Being
How Teachers Can Improve Youth Mental Health and Well-Being Teachers and school administration are well positioned to identify students that exhibit early warning signs of an emerging mental health condition. Educators make a significant and lasting difference in the lives of these children. Empathy, active listening, and kindness are all important for maintaining a mentally healthy […]
9 Ways to Strengthen Resiliency and Prevent Instances of Mental Illness in Youth
9 Ways to Strengthen Resiliency and Prevent Instances of Mental Illness There are certain factors, including Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) like abuse, neglect and family dysfunction that increase the likelihood of mental health conditions such as depression, anxiety and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). As we have witnessed and experienced, these childhood adversities can have a […]
How to Overcome Emotional Neglect in Childhood
How to Overcome Emotional Neglect in Childhood Family relationships are complex and there are a wide range of issues that fall under the label of family dysfunction. Most people associate it with big events, such as witnessing domestic violence, living through divorce or separation of a parent/caregiver, addictive behaviors, domestic abuse, and/or mental health concerns […]
How to Help Children Coping with Death, Loss, and Grief
How to Help Children Coping with Death, Loss, and Grief Though the death of a loved one is not one of the Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) in the original ACEs study, the death of a loved one is traumatic. Coping with death, loss, and grief is challenging at any stage of life. For children and […]
How Resiliency Transforms the Impact of Peer Pressure
How Resiliency Transforms the Impact of Peer Pressure Friends and peers are an important part of growing up and can bring positive influence and important and supportive relationships into a child’s life. On the flip-side there is peer pressure which can open the door to bullying, cyber-bullying, shame, self-doubt, negative body image, self-harm and even […]
How to Empower Children by Building Their Resiliency Muscle
How to Empower Children by Building Their Resiliency Muscle January is National Mentoring month and this month’s article makes the connection between Mentoring and Resiliency. Did you know that childhood trauma is an epidemic? That one in five children has a diagnosable mental health condition? That childhood trauma is associated, in many cases, with lifelong health and mental health outcomes? […]
Creating Resilient Holiday Traditions
Creating Resilient Holiday Traditions Although there are many holidays throughout the year, the concentration of days that are celebrated in November and December can make this a challenging season for those living with a mental health concern. What is meant to be the happiest time of the year, for some is filled with unrealistic expectations of […]
Kindness is Contagious
Kindness is Contagious Scientific American published an article titled “Kindness Contagion – Witnessing kindness inspires kindness, causing it to spread like a virus.” The article shares the details of research they conducted on positive conformity. How people will model the behavior of others and if they see them “doing good” they will follow suit. Sometimes this […]
Teenage Anxiety a Rapidly Growing Mental Health Concern
Teenage Anxiety a Rapidly Growing Mental Health Concern A recent article in the NY Times titled: Why Are More American Teenagers Than Ever Suffering From Severe Anxiety? sheds light on how anxiety is the most common mental-health disorder affecting nearly one-third of both adolescents and adults, according to the National Institute of Mental Health. “Anxiety is […]
The Impact of Childhood Domestic Violence
The Impact of Childhood Domestic Violence Let’s start with statistics of Childhood Domestic Violence, which are heartbreaking. A study conducted by the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) states that every year an estimated 3.3 million to 10 million children are exposed to domestic violence in their home. ChildStats.gov indicates that there are 73.8 million […]