Here’s the discussion from my March appearance on Up to Date with Steve Krakse in it’s special COVID-19 time slot. We talk about how to explain social distancing to kids of all ages, why folks with anxiety may actually be doing better right now than less anxious peers, how to create safe social interactions for…
Category: Parenting
Moving from Sex Talk to Sex Conversation
Here’s the material from the Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States (SIECUS) I discussed on the air (listen to attached clip), with the annotations taken from our slowly forthcoming book Consent-Based Sex Education to be released in 2020 (finally!) Key Concept I: Human Development Goals: Help children[1] to appreciate their bodies. Provide information about…
Understanding How A Teen's Conflict in Gender Identity Can Come Out Pretty Great
In this segment of Up to Date with Steve Kraske, I’m joined by Peter, a twenty-four-year-old transman who recently underwent top surgery–the removal of breast tissue to to confirm gender. I’ve known Peter for many years and have watched him on his journey from insecure and dysphoric teen to confident and hopeful young adult. As…
Make Consent an Everyday Conversation
In the wake of the #metoo movement there’s emerged a necessary and welcomed conversation about consent and its importance in the reduction of sexual assault. On the local level there has been a strong emphasis on self-defense classes to help empower individuals against potential attackers. While this is important work, it leaves out a key…
Setting Media Limits with Kids
One of the biggest battles for today’s parent is balancing our children’s technology use. As a parent and a therapist, I deal with this in my home and at the office. Although internet/technology addiction has not yet found its way into the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, professionals in the mental health field are witnessing the negative…
Fox 4 Therapy Thursday: The Easiest Solution for Limiting Phone and Game Access I've Ever Seen
I’m pretty tech savvy. I know how to set up an alternative, filtered web browser on my son’s iPhone. I can time his cellular access from the Verizon website. I can shut down my router after 11pm. But even I don’t want to do that every time I need to redirect him to homework or…
Teaching Kids to Be Good Consumers of Media
The term “Fake News” has come to mean something completely different than it’s original intent, making it that much more difficult to help teens, pre-teens, and even young adults, sort through what’s real and what’s not. In this segment of the KLWN morning show, I join John Flood and Joel Becker to discuss ways to…
Finstagram: Weird or Wonderful
According to traditional media, teen culture is weird. We can’t define what “dating” is, we send nudes to each other and think nothing of it, we can’t afford diamonds, we’re always on our phones, and we waste our money on avocado toasts. We’ve detached emotion from our sex lives, make memes, and laugh about our…
ADHD: To Medicate or Not to Medicate, That Is the Question
Note: Portions of this article were contributed by Kelsey Daugherty, DPN, Family Psychological Services nurse practitioner. “He just can’t sit still” “He has a lot of energy” “It’s like she doesn’t hear a thing I say.” Do these sound familiar? Have you had conversations with your child’s teachers about academic and learning behaviors? Discerning typical…
Fox4 Therapy Thursday: Are Teens Really More Anxious Now?
According to the National Institute of Mental Health 25% of teenagers will at one point or another be diagnosed with an anxiety disorder and 6% will be considered severe. Eighty years of research suggests either an increase in anxiety among teens or a better recognition of a condition that’s existed all along. Either way, I’ve never…