Exercise and Mental Health
Not every person can tolerate modern psychotropic medications intended to treat many of these psychological conditions. At least 20% of people cannot tolerate medications for allergies or other reasons. Because of that, finding alternative solutions that can be adjusted to personal treatment plans is important. Exercise has many health benefits for both mind and body. You can find hundreds, if not thousands of articles touting
Rock Climbing Improves Mental Health for Students at Trails Carolina
As the seasons turn, so do our adventure programming opportunities in Western North Carolina. The cool weather creeping in allows for ideal climbing conditions and Trails’ students will be headed out for rock climbing. Climbing provides an engaging opportunity for our students to work on their confidence, communication, and cooperation. How Rock Climbing Works Rock climbing is a thoughtful, engaging activity. It takes careful planning and instructions
Is Your Teen Bullying? Five Ways to Address Bullying in Teens
If you have ever experienced bullying, you know that it is not something you’d want others to go through. Bullying is any unwanted aggressive behavior towards another person. Bullies typically seek to harm or intimidate others, which can include making threats, spreading rumors, physically or verbally attacking someone, and excluding someone from a group on purpose. While bullies can exist at any stage in life,
Putting A Stop to Self-Harm
As parents, the first thing we want in the world is for our children to be safe. When they are babies, we strap them in car seats and research the best practices for care. When they are young children, we watch them ride a bicycle for the first time with a helmet, training wheels, and protective pads. It is our instinct to protect them, and
Limiting Screen Time for Teens with ADHD
More than half of teens ages 12-17 report trying to take steps to limit their personal screen time and 57% claim their parents have tried to limit their technology use in one way or another. Limiting screen time can be particularly challenging for teens with ADHD due to difficulties with self-monitoring and inattention. While they may struggle with paying attention in class, screens provide a
A Guide For Parents: How To Help Your Teen With Mental Health Struggles
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, mental health struggles in children and adolescents have reached an all-time high in the past year. Uncertainty around what the future will look like from everything to how kids go to school to how they are able to interact with their friends caused a spike in anxiety, and missing out on important life events such as prom, high school graduation,
Having Fun While Healing: Therapeutic Activities for Teens
The wonderful part of therapy is that it is not a “one size fits all” practice. And while the word therapy often conjures images of couches or circles of people sitting in meeting rooms, there are actually many ways for teens to engage in therapeutic activities. Therapy doesn’t always have to involve a therapist and an individual sitting together discussing the person’s personal issues. Have you
The Pandemic’s Affects on Mental Health In Teens
The negative impact the mental health crisis has had on teens has been growing steadily over the past decade, and these effects have been compounded by the pandemic. For the millions of American children that are struggling with developmental, behavioral, or emotional disorders, they rely on treatment that the pandemic has made it nearly impossible to receive. How the pandemic has had detrimental effects on teen
Wilderness Therapy for Teen Boys: How Rock Climbing Can Help Teens Struggling with Behavioral Issues
I work with adolescent boys who are often struggling with issues like substance use, technology addiction, depression or anxiety. Many of these issues lead to additional struggles in the classroom. I work with many students who are “thrill-seekers”. Thrill-seeking students show up in the classroom distracted, bored, and ready to leave the classroom. They may have some underlying educational issues if they have an underlying
Teaching Your Son About Mental Health
How many times have we heard: “don’t cry, be a man”, when a young boy is upset? Or “boys will be boys” when an adolescent acts out? These may not seem that harmless in the moment, but let’s think about what hearing that over and over again does to young men? They are taught from a very young age that they shouldn’t show emotions because