Lakeside has a history of dealing with students who have faced many life difficulties. Often, they have had school experiences that have been negative and choose not to go to school because of their fear or for other reasons such as bullying. Formerly we labelled this as truancy and sometimes there were legal consequences to […]

We have become a society possessed by the selfie. We see people taking photos of themselves in certain environments as part of their social media presence and communication to others.  Some of it is just pure fun but one consequence, particularly for young audiences, is that it can create a fixation about how they look. […]

At Lakeside we design therapeutic environments within our schools because of the types of students that are referred to us. In their lives there are a lot of pressures, stressors, trauma, adversity, and some personal and educational struggles. It is expected that Lakeside would have environments that are based on healthy relationships with our staff, […]

With the increased stress that most of us have been feeling for over a year and a half, you may have noticed that people have very short fuses whenever they have conversations around anything potentially controversial. Sometimes fights erupt around the most minor issues: where to put the milk in the refrigerator, whose turn is it to put away the […]

We have all had experiences where we have been ashamed of something we have done or a habit that we have. It could be something like being overweight or addicted while maintaining a coping intervention that is unhealthy or even chronically hurting others in our family.  Regardless of what we are dealing with the impact […]

For most of us these last 18 months of living in isolation and having to avoid going into public places has seemed endless. Most of us have experienced high degrees of anxiety, stress, loneliness, fear and at times a desperation to return to normal.  As things begin to open up, even if we never get back to the way things used to be, we […]

Often, I have the experience of talking to individuals that have faced a great deal of adversity and/or trauma. Their life narratives can be shattered. They can have flashbacks, panic, intense fear, anxiety, depression and a number of related problems. Also, some individuals have been so dysregulated that they used experimental drugs, became addicted, acted […]

At Lakeside we deal with teenagers who have a number of emotional and behavioral challenges. Often, we find that substance abuse is part of their coping strategies. We know that this is not healthy and recent research also suggests that it is extremely risky. In a recent article on the Child Mind Institute website, Caroline […]