Mental Health Challenges of Dating for Young Adults

In today’s society, those who are roughly in the 18-24-year-old category have grown up with a tremendous amount of technology and also likely had social media in middle school and/or high school. Both of these things, which can be used for the good, often do contribute to mental health challenges with the dating game of…

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Communication Styles that May Kill a Relationship – Criticism, Contempt, Defensiveness and Stonewalling

  Dr. John Gottman has done tremendous research on couples and has found four patterns of communication that are particularly damaging. He calls them the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse and they are criticism, contempt, defensiveness and stonewalling.  The good news is that we can all work on these ways of communicating and do better! …

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Depression or Emotional Slump?

Depression We all have our days. Or weeks. That’s for sure. But clinical depression is usually something characterized more by time and symptoms. Symptoms ranging from sadness, hopelessness, despair, and isolation most of the time for at least 2-3 weeks would be things to consider in terms of leaning toward clinical depression.   Emotional Slump…

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Learning the Skill of Emotional Validation as Parents

  Photo by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash It makes sense that parents want to raise their children to be healthy, happy and successful in life in whatever way is meaningful to that family. However, we all know that the best of intentions do not necessarily translate into meaningful action 100% of the time. Emotional validation…

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