In their role as allies and social justice agents, school counselors are uniquely positioned to address myths about LGBTQ youth, to advocate for these students and to effect change.
Tag: youth
Recent research has revealed an alarming development: The number of youth admitted to the hospital for a suicide attempt or suicidal ideation nearly doubled between 2008 and 2015. The findings, published in the May 2018 issue of the journal Pediatrics, analyzed seven years of billing data for emergency room and
Having kids and young adults train rescue dogs isn’t technically animal assisted therapy, but for the kids—and dogs—involved in the Teacher’s Pet program, the result has definitely been therapeutic. The youth —with the help of professional animal trainers— use positive reward-based training to increase local rescue dogs’ chances of being
As counselors, we come in contact with clients who are angry or heartbroken and oftentimes feel defeated. This sense of pain and loss is frequently realized in the forensic setting in which I work with parents who are desperate to rebuild a parent-child relationship that is severely damaged or estranged.
One of the many reasons solution-focused counseling is a good fit for school settings is because it’s a client-directed approach, says John Murphy, a longtime school psychologist and author of Solution-Focused Counseling in Schools. School counselors often find the bulk of their time consumed with noncounseling tasks. When they are
When working with adolescents in a group setting, it is important to provide opportunities to explore, evaluate and process the dynamics that occur within their homes. After all, eventually they will be faced with the dilemma of figuring out how to apply what they have learned in therapy to situations
Technology has changed the way adolescents bully one another. What once happened during an eight-hour school day now happens online within the home environment. This form of bullying is inescapable and occurs at all hours of the day and night. For victims, the consequences of being targeted by this behavior
In a matter of months, 16-year-old “David” had gone from being a successful student to spending 12 or more hours per day playing video games. He lost his scholarship to a private school, then dropped out of school altogether, refusing to leave the couch, even to bathe. He also stopped
When discussing the idea of girls in the wilderness, the topic of vulnerability comes up often. Typically it is in the context of how girls are vulnerable in fragile ways that we should protect or shelter. However, having been a teenage girl myself, and now having worked as an adolescent
The prevalence of nonsuicidal self-injury (NSSI) among adolescents and young adults has rapidly and significantly increased in recent years, leading mental health professionals and researchers to describe its pervasiveness as epidemic. By definition, a person does not engage in NSSI with intent to die. Rather, NSSI is a means of