With Thanksgiving right around the corner, can we be grateful for….wait for it….the Pandemic?! Maybe. I thought an invitation to all of us to reflect on those things we are grateful for about the pandemic might be an interesting exercise. According to the website Positive Psychology in an article entitled What is Gratitude and Why is it so important the Harvard Medical […]
Mental Health Days for Kids
Often I hear adults in their job situations talking about or taking a mental health day. Usually this is because of their allostatic load of stress, a crisis or some other adversity that they are struggling to cope with. This break is intuitive and can be helpful. As we deal with students who are experiencing […]
Another Explanation for Student Absences
A significant part of supporting student success in school is the regularity of their attendance. Often as we are dealing with students who have struggled to succeed in school, truancy and lack of attendance is a significant part of their profile thereby leading to inability to achieve academic success. It is easy to assume that […]
Embracing Relational Opportunities
In my last blog I invited readers to consider the relational impact of the pandemic. While some things have gone back to a new normal, there is no question that we are still in the throes of this pandemic and may be for a while longer. It certainly takes an emotional toll on us as […]
What to Do When Your Child Struggles with Inflexible Thinking
Our children are growing and developing all the time. They typically learn their routines from practice and sometimes when those practices need to change or if they are surprised by something new they have an intense emotional response. That can take the shape of acting out, anger or a meltdown. It is a very frustrating […]
Interview with Miguel Cardona Regarding the Mental Health of our Children
Those of us who are in the field of education are realizing the immense amount of toxic stress and related mental health issues that are permeating the lives of our students. We are all extremely concerned about what we are experiencing each day. Recently Scott Detrow hosted an interview with Education Secretary Miguel Cardona on […]
The Relational Impact of the Pandemic
In all my studies over the years about the brain and trauma, I am repeatedly impressed by how much we are dependent on our social experiences to maintain our mental health. Here are a few quotes from one of my favorite authors, Louis Cozolino, who describes in his book The Neuroscience of Psychotherapy: Healing the […]
A Report on the Impact of COVID-19 on Children
All of us who are concerned about our children and teenagers know that some very difficult issues emerged during COVID-19 as a result of the impact of the virus and what has happened in schools, homes and communities as a result. Our children were not unaffected. A recent report on the Impact of Children’s Mental […]
Can Schools be Therapeutic for Students?
As a country we have experienced a year where students have been isolated and had significant negative impact from COVID-19. It has created loss of learning, anxiety, depression, and general brain dysregulation. Students who have had these adversities along with other issues will simply not do well in a traditional school. In light of this […]
Recognizing Fair-Weather Friends
A good friend of mine was recently diagnosed with cancer. Her prognosis is excellent, but she has had to go through some surgeries, radiation and lastly chemo. The chemo treatments wipe her out for about 12 days and then she returns to being her normal pre-chemo self, albeit with extra exhaustion. Of course, emotionally she […]
