Why Third Spaces Matter for Teens (And Where to Find Them)
In today’s fast-paced, digital-first world, many teens find themselves trying to balance the demands of school, family responsibilities, and the constant pull of social media and the internet. Kids are busier than ever, juggling academics, sports, extracurricular activities, and even caregiving duties for younger siblings. Home and school often serve as teens’ primary and secondary environments; however, these spaces are not always where teens feel fully comfortable expressing themselves or exploring the world around them. This is where the "third space" comes into play.
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13 Thoughts Your College Bound Teen Isn’t Telling You & How to Help
Big changes are on the horizon as families prepare to send their teens off to college this year. Whether your child is moving far from home or staying nearby, enrolling in a four-year program or starting at a community college, the transition from high school to college can be a daunting one. But remember, you and your teen have navigated each step along their development so far - college is simply the next step on their journey toward adult independence.
Here we highlight 13 of the most common thoughts and feelings your college bound teen might be experiencing and provide practical tips on how you can help support them:
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Preventing Burnout - Easy As ABC?
Feeling overwhelmed, stressed, and exhausted lately? You're not alone. Burnout remains an all-too-familiar experience, increasingly so in the post-pandemic-work-from-home world. In fact, studies show that 75% of people surveyed report experiencing burnout at work, with 2/3s of all workers claiming that the pandemic in particular exacerbated employee burnout. Preventing burnout can be hard, but there are steps you can take to protect your mental and emotional well-being - we’ll try to make it as easy as ABC.
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How to Handle the Holidays
Peace, joy, and love. Three words that are often said and heard during the holiday season. But what about all of the other emotions and worries that come with this season?
For many, the holiday season brings mixed feelings of joy, stress, love, and loss. It can be difficult to handle the holidays when it has been a hard year, finances are tight, loved ones have been lost, or family relationships are strained. Here are some tips to help you take care of yourself during this holiday season:
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Getting SMART with Setting Goals
Setting goals, an undertaking often strategically pushed off until the New Year, can be a daunting task for many individuals. Where to start? How to start? When to start? These questions create a barrier at times and may even result in full on procrastination or inaction. For some people, setting the goal becomes more of a task than actually completing what they have set out to do. That’s where SMART goals can help - an easy acronym to ensure that you are setting yourself up for success.
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Tips to Improve 1/3 of Your Life: A Sleep Guide
Sleep takes up, or should take up, a significant chunk of our lives, but how does it help us? Adequate sleep, meaning both amount and quality of sleep, facilitates vital physiological processes, such as metabolic and immune functioning, and is linked to increased productivity and concentration, physical performance, reduction in inflammation, disease prevention, improved mental health, and positive socio-emotional outcomes. With so much at stake, how do we achieve a restorative night of zzzs?
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Live Online Video Group for Teens: Stress Less
Feeling stressed and unsure about the future? Maybe you are feeling isolated and disappointed with school closed. Stress Less: A Video Mindfulness Group is a live online video group for high schoolers to process and learn how to manage anxiety during these uncertain times. This group is an opportunity for teens to learn how to manage emotions, cope with change, and improve overall health and well-being.
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Working From Home: How to Preserve Your Relationship
With working from home and social distancing policies taking effect across the globe, knowing how to preserve your relationship in close quarters marks a new challenge for couples and families.
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All You Need Is Love? How to Make A Relationship Work
All you need is love. We’ve all heard it. We’ve all felt it. We’ve all sang along to the Beatle’s song. But is love all we truly need to make a relationship work?
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Making New Year's Resolutions Work for You
How do you make New Year’s Resolutions work for you? Well, I have never been a big fan of New Year’s Resolutions. Many resolutions are based on a deprivation model (i.e. stop eating sugar, no more TV) which makes these goals nearly impossible to achieve or maintain. I even set out to write about alternative strategies to resolutions. But when looking at some of the most common resolutions, I realized something…
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Eighth Grade The Movie: A Therapist’s Perspective
A few weeks ago, a friend and fellow therapist took me to see Eighth Grade the movie, a story about an adolescent girl’s last week in middle school. While Bo Burnham's movie generated buzz due to its ‘R’ rating, I found the film to be an accurate reflection of many of the issues I see when working with adolescents and teens.
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Stress Less: A Mindfulness Group
Stress Less: A Mindfulness Group is a way for high schoolers to learn how to manage stress and anxiety through mindfulness training and other skills. Group leader and therapist, Shelby Stone, uses cognitive behavioral techniques, a strengths-based approach, to help teens:
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Santa Monica Therapy Resources
Searching for help? Thankfully for people in need, there are a number of therapy resources and counseling options in Santa Monica and on the West Side of Los Angeles. The facilities and resources below are a list of the best and most reputable organizations to help people struggling with various mental health and psychotherapy-related issues.
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Benefits of Gratefulness Featured in LA CAMFT Newsletter
This past June, the Los Angeles Chapter of the California Association of Marriage and Family Therapists (LA CAMFT) featured my article, The Science of Gratitude, on the benefits of gratefulness in their newsletter.
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Fighting the Loneliness Epidemic
Social connection plays a large role in not only how we live our daily lives but also how we view ourselves. Unfortunately, it seems that loneliness has been on the rise in society and many are fighting the loneliness epidemic.
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10 Great Self-Care Spots in Santa Monica
You’ve heard it before: Self-care! But what exactly is self-care and why should you practice it? As a transplant to this beautiful and challenging city, I have come up with a list of 10 great self-care spots in Santa Monica to practice making the most out of where you are.
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Dating in 2018: How to be Emotionally Intimate
Dating in 2018 is hard. There is no way around it. Millennials tend to hear the same things over and over again about “hookup culture” and how social media and dating apps have reshaped the dating scene. It is easy to feel discouraged and disengaged. But talking about how hard dating is doesn’t make it any easier.
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Is My Child Lazy?
Parents can worry that their child is lazy or not trying hard enough in school. If your child is not wanting to get out of bed or go to school, this is probably not just laziness. For kids, school is their playground. Yes, it has distressing tests and homework, but kids who are “just lazy” will have more fun being lazy at school than at home.
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3 Quick Fixes for Your Child’s Anxiety
When you notice your child in a state anxiety or panic, you may feel helpless. Your child may be experiencing difficulty breathing, racing heart, sweating, shaking, loss of control, or fear. Learning to manage stress and anxiety can take time, but what can you do right now? Here are 3 tricks to help your child take back control in the moment:
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