Talking to Young Children About Addiction Open discussions about substance use and drug addiction can occur at different ages and can start when children are still young. This is a personal decision for each family, of course, and there may be complex factors that contribute to your considering whether or not to disclose information on
Mom Guilt There is a phenomenon in the parenting world known as “Mom Guilt” and it thrives on negative self-talk, minimizing our own needs, and convincing ourselves that any time we engage in a self-care activity, it is selfish and detrimental to our children and families. Mom Guilt can become this constant and consuming
Exploring Stigma and Mental Health The issue of stigma as it relates to the topic of mental health and mental illness is an important conversation to continue exploring as information and understandings of mental health evolve. Consider what the term stigma means to you? In what contexts have you heard this term used and how
Sleep Hygiene Part II: Coping Strategies to Promote Restful Sleep As a continuation of our previous blog post, we will now discuss potential coping strategies and healthy sleep habits that will aid in improving the quality of your sleep and promote restfulness and relaxation. It is important to understand that each person has a different
Sleep Hygiene Part I: Understanding What is Getting in the Way of a Better Night’s Sleep Sleep serves as an essential function in our daily lives, helping us to restore our energy, recharge our minds and allow our bodies to engage in restorative and protective tasks that are meant to keep us healthy. It is
Coping Strategies for Back-to-School Stress In today’s blog, we will focus on basic coping strategies that you can use with your child or they can use on their own to help in managing the intensity of their feelings, whether they are anxious, frustrated, embarrassed, or overwhelmed. Not every child will be open to using all
Managing Back-to-School Anxiety for Parents With the new school year approaching, some children may be experiencing heightened anxiety with the pending transition out of summer activities and back into an academic routine. Depending on your child’s age, there may be different factors to consider as they approach the start of a new school year. These
Recognizing and Expressing Validation in Our Relationships Within our relationships with others, there exists a core need for the experience of validation. We may have varying ideas and levels of validation that we might consider as we evaluate our relationship with others and ourselves. One might understand validation as finding a way to accept or
Understanding Boundaries Part III: How to Effectively Communicate What You Need For our third blog post in this series on boundaries, we will explore ways of communicating our needs and limits effectively with others and ourselves. Much of the information represented in this blog post stems from organized material written within the Interpersonal Effectiveness module
Understanding Boundaries Part II: How Do I Know I Need Them? In our previous blog post, we explored what boundaries are and the different types of boundaries that we may experience or utilize in our daily lives. Consider the question “What do boundaries mean to me and my life?” As you engage with this blog
Understanding Boundaries Part I: What are Boundaries Before we talk about how to set effective boundaries, it is important to understand what we mean by the term “boundary” and how we come to understand this concept in different facets of our lives. It is important to understand that boundaries exist in different forms- some
Parenting: Defining Our Roles as Parents Whether you are a first time parent or have experienced the caregiving of multiple dependents, it is not unusual to want to adapt our roles and approaches to parenting as we grow and our children develop. There are no specific guidelines or rules that come with being a parent
