I’d like to start this blog post with a question for all of us to ponder. Have you ever met someone who has been touched by suicide or has thought of suicide? I think the answer would be more to the affirmative than most of us would like to admit. Many of us have been […]
Creating a Culture of Respect for Your Family
One of the biggest problems that I see in counseling, particularly between parents and teens, is a lack of respect between family members. I have lost count of how many times, I’ve seen and heard shouting matches take place in session between a parent and a teenager. Most of the fights that occur between parents […]
Resolving Family Conflict
How many people like conflict? I think I can safely say that no one does. But when it comes to relationships, conflict is inevitable. This is especially true within our families. In an earlier post I wrote about effectively coping with conflict. Now I’d like to put a special focus on resolving conflict between family […]
Suicide Prevention: How We Can Be There for Each Other
Suicide is an uncomfortable fact of our society. We love to treat it like the boogey man and shove it underneath the proverbial bed, away from everyday life. We are terrified to even let the word pass our lips. If we hear people talking about the very subject of suicide, we abruptly try to change […]
Coping with Family Conflict
When I say the word “family,” I’m sure that several different feelings come to mind. Let’s be real here, family can either bring the greatest joy to our lives or the greatest amount of pain. I’ll bet that many of you who are reading this post started thinking of all the awkward Thanksgiving dinners […]
Children and Grief
As adults we can very firmly attest that grief is hard enough for us to understand or heal from. Can you imagine what it is like for a child or teenager to move through those difficult stages? The challenge that children face whenever they are going through grief is that depending on their age, […]
The Messiness that is Grief
I think we can all agree on this one statement: grief is a messy process. There are days when you feel like you can’t get out of bed to live in the real world due to the pain. There are other days when you are so angry that you can’t even say a civil […]
How to Cope When Your Child is a Victim of a Traumatic Event
As a therapist, there are times when I have to inform a parent that their child has been the victim of a traumatic event. The reactions that come up in the session room can range from angry to completely devastated that their child has been hurt. Also, depending on the trauma, many parents may find […]
Strengths of Military Families
Military families come in all shapes, sizes, and many cultural backgrounds. The main commonality is the idea that they have someone that they love who serves and protects our country. This of course brings a whole new dynamic to these families as a whole. As I wrote in my previous piece, the military lifestyle is […]
The Challenges of Military Families
I’m sure that we’ve seen these clips before. We’ve seen the clips where military family members run to greet the service member who has just come home from a long deployment. From a civilian point of view, it is hard to understand why these family members get so excited at seeing their loved one come […]
