The following article was written by Rachel Gordon, a Certified Substance Abuse Counselor with Lakeview Psychological Associates and Rula Health.
There are so many dangers to development and options as parents nowadays. Perhaps you find yourself fearful that you may accidentally damage your children, feeling at a loss for how to help them make good choices, or frustrated that they will not interact with the family.
I have been working as a mental health counselor for the past nine years and as a Licensed Substance Abuse Counselor over 12 years. For seven-and-a-half of these, I have been counseling students in the Manitowoc Public School District, having a partnership inside of Washington and Wilson Middle Schools, and Lincoln High School. This has given me great insight into the views and beliefs of children in our area. I also work with younger children and adults in an outpatient office setting. In addition to those, I am also the mother of two teenagers, so I have been able to get direct experience with children in multiple settings.
Prior to this, I had also worked at an in-home therapist in Green Bay, which gave additional insight into how family interactions can shape behaviors and personalities in general. During my career, I have done significant training and research into trauma, having become trained in several different trauma treatment modalities, in addition to traditional Cognitive Behavioral Therapy.
I have also obtained my certification as an Autism Specialist, having completed training for both children and adults on the spectrum. I enjoy working with my clients, both one-on-one and as a family. I love to be able to offer tips and tricks to help everyone function more easily! I have given public presentations at conferences and hosted an online coping skills series for this specifically.
On February 19, from 6-7 PM, I will be giving a presentation in the Balkansky Community Room at Manitowoc Public Library called Mental Health and Teens: A Primer for Adults. During this program, I’ll be addressing some options for parenting more effectively. I will discuss some of the environmental, technological, and developmental differences between our children and prior generations.
Here are some if the topics I plan to cover during Mental Health and Teens: A Primer for Adults:
- Anxiety—what is it and how do we help manage it
- How can you tell if your child is addicted to technology and what to do about it
- How much supervision is really needed
- What on earth do our children think is important these days and how can we work together to help their future endeavors
I also plan to give a few tips for “Dos and Don’ts” as parents in our modern society. I know I am not the expert in everyone’s lives, so I plan to open up the floor for your questions. Hopefully, we can work together to give a somewhat firmer grasp of skills and interventions you can use at home and school to help you and your families. There is so much to discuss we likely will not have enough time to get in-depth about everything, but I hope we can all find at least a few nuggets to take home from Mental Health and Teens: A Primer for Adults. I look forward to meeting you all on February 19 from 6-7 PM at Manitowoc Public Library.