Deliberate Parenting
School, music lessons, sports practice, games, and tournaments. Family outings, extended family events, church. Work, friends, workouts, and somewhere, sleep. Busyness rules many people’s lives; some wear it like a badge of honor. Folks trying to outdo each other as to who is busier and who’s more exhausted. I get how busy life can be. My wife and I raised two kids who were very active in sports, church, and school and both of us worked full time. At one point, though, I found myself not too proud of my parenting in that I was simply living in reaction [...]
Wisdom on Depression and Anxiety in Adolescents (from Adolescents)
In our culture, with the desire to educate people on mental disabilities, the terms depressed and anxious are used a lot, especially with today’s teens. However, the chronically depressed and panic-disordered teenagers we work with indicate that the terms need to be better defined. These clients report that they feel a need to educate their friends on what depression and anxiety actually is—and isn’t—but at times they feel too overwhelmed by life to do so. So, in this article, we share with you how several brilliant teenagers define those terms. Depression Depression is NOT: Feeling sad because you got in [...]
How to Know if You Are in an Emotionally Abusive Relationship (And What to Do About It)
How to Know if You Are in an Emotionally Abusive Relationship (And What to Do About It) You are in an emotionally abusive relations if your partner: Prevents or discourages you from seeing friends and family. Tries to stop you from going to work, school, or seeing a doctor. Constantly needs to know where you are and what you’re doing. Demands passwords to personal accounts, like your phone, email, or social media. Exhibits intense jealousy or even accuses you of cheating. Completely controls your finances and how you spend your money. Makes decisions you should be making yourself, like what [...]
Forgiveness
Forgiveness. That one word provokes an assortment of responses from people. Some smile and say that they are forgiven while others drop their heads and tell you how guilty they feel. Some trumpet the freedom that resulted when they forgave a long-time enemy. Others stare and voice the impossibility of forgiving someone who hurt them years ago. If challenged about unforgiveness, they forcefully provide an assortment of reasons as to why they should never forgive the person who betrayed them. This issue of forgiveness stirs up all sorts of emotions and responses from both churched and the unchurched. Why? Why [...]
EMDR: What It Is and How It Can Help
Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) can be used to help people recover from trauma and other difficult life experiences. The ultimate goal of EMDR is to allow individuals to examine the events that have shaped their lives in a healthy way and to move forward stronger and more resilient. What Is Trauma and What Does It Do to the Brain? One of my favorite illustrations for trauma is that of a river dividing two banks. One bank is the rational/logical side of the brain; the other is the emotional side. Normally these two sides are connected and communicate back [...]