How to Reset Your Family’s Screen Time After the Pandemic

 Another recent study, of parents in California’s Central Valley, also highlighted the conflict that parents were experiencing around their children’s screen use during the pandemic. “I would say it’s been negative for us just all the way across the board,” said one mother. Another mother explained, “Well, I would honestly not like that much [screen] time but then I say, well, what else can they do?”

While parents also recognized the potential benefits of screens, like helping kids stay connected with friends and learn about technology, they voiced concerns about how much time their children were on screens, its “addictive” nature, and how it reduced their children’s physical activity.

For more click here.

Editor's note:

There should be "media fasts" which are times when screens are set aside so people can focus on other activities. For example should screens be allowed a the dinner table? Should they be allowed when people are visiting? Could we have couple time or family time when screens are not allowed so we can focus on our interactions with one another and not be distracted?

There is an etiquette and there are manners to be employed when it comes to screens and we are trying as a society to figure out what they are. Do you have some rules you've come up with for your own behavior? Do you have preferences you would like to see implemented in social situations? Leave a comment.

The Psychology of Forgiveness: A Four Step Process

 

 The booklet can be downloaded as a PDF and saved to your computer and/or be printed out.

The morning after pill is nobody's business except the woman taking it and her health care provider.

 

From the New York Times , May 13, 2021

Last month, the Food and Drug Administration announced that people seeking abortion pills during the Covid-19 pandemic will no longer have to visit a doctor’s office to get a prescription. Under the Trump administration, patients were required to receive the first of the medication’s two doses in person, a mandate upheld by the Supreme Court in January. The new policy instead allows for telemedicine consultations and pills sent by mail.

The decision is a practical one for the Covid era: It reduces unnecessary face time in doctor’s offices, which cuts down the potential for exposure. It could also be a huge blow to the anti-abortion movement. Groups like the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists have been pushing the Biden administration to make the F.D.A.’s decision permanent. Last week, in a legal filing, the agency announced it was reviewing their restrictions on the medication.

For years, anti-abortion activists have tried to impose their morality under the guise of women’s health and protection. Legislators have proposed anti-choice bills with names like “woman’s right to know,” which sound compassionate but in reality force doctors to falsely claim that women who end their pregnancies suffer physical and mental harm. The primary political strategy of abortion foes relies on the claim that abortion is brutal and dangerous, a myth that is much harder to perpetuate when people can easily access medicine to safely end their pregnancies at home.

For more click here.

Editor's note:

Social Workers believe in the client's right to self determination. Politicians should have little control over a woman's choice about her reproductive status. Forcing a woman to have a child is an inappropriate policy stand for a politician to take and act on. A woman's right to choose is a basic component of her mental health.

Nature draws out a happy place for children New study explores children's perception of their own wellbeing using art

 "We identified indicators of wellbeing that were made explicit in children's drawings, such as the need for safety, happiness and positive relationships. Interestingly, the representations of nature mainly exist in the background and were rarely the main focus of the drawings..

"The drawings depicted nature and outdoor spaces as being interconnected with all aspects of wellbeing. For example, being able to play outside boosts physical wellbeing, while being able to stay calm and appreciate the beauty of nature can be linked to emotional or mental health.

"Previous research has shown that wealth affects access to nature, with children living in deprived areas significantly less likely to have access to green spaces and outdoor places to play. Our research suggests that nature and open spaces underpin these children's consideration of wellbeing.

"As such, making nature explicit, and restoring the interconnectedness between the arts and nature should be a key priority for research to help improve children's wellbeing."

For more click here.

Editor's note

The report of this study reminded me of Richard Luov's book, Last Child In The Woods: Saving our Children from Nature-deficit Disorder which was published in 2008.

I find that children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder especially like and benefit from playing outdoors.

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Traumatization of black Americans by racist police is major mental health issue.

 

What happens when black people are arrested and falsely accused by the police?

There is a very good article on NBC News on 05/11/21 well worth reading. You can access it by clicking here.

Editor's note:

Over my 51 years as a Psychiatric Social Worker and a white male of privilege, I have been made very aware of the racism my black clients and co-workers have experienced in their interactions with police. At times, it has brought me to tears to hear their stories.

All helping professionals should read the above article so that their consciousness is raised so that they can better understand the experience of their black clients and their families and community..

Book Discussion - Spiritually Integrated Psychotherapy - Bio-psycho-social-spiritual components of human functioning.

Bio-psycho-social-spiritual: the four components of human functioning.

After all, psychology is still a young field, just a little over a hundred years old. And the study of spirituality is even younger, after having been largely neglected by psychologists for many years. My hope is that this work contributes in some way to a more integrated approach to understanding and addressing the spiritual dimension in psychotherapy.

Kenneth I. Pargament PhD. Spiritually Integrated Psychotherapy: Understanding and Addressing the Sacred (Kindle Locations 55-57). Kindle Edition. 

Most psychotherapists since the 1970s have been trained in the bio-psyco-social model of human behavior. In the last twenty years “spiritual” has been added so now we have the bio-psycho-social-spiritual model.

All four components of the model explaining human functioning are important. Kenneth Pargament is one of the early pioneering psychologists exploring the spiritual in addition to the other three models.

There is an important distinction to be made between “religious” and “spiritual.” Religious refers to membership in an institution and an ethnocentric identity which involves membership, adherence to creedal beliefs, certain practices and traditions, and respect for expert leaders of the religion as well as for sacred texts.

Spiritual is one’s relationship with one’s Higher Power whatever the person considers their Higher Power to be.

Some people are religious but not spiritual. Some people are spiritual but not religious, and some people are both religious and spiritual.

Being spiritual does not require a belief in a god. In fact many atheists consider themselves spiritual in the sense that they believe in a transcendent reality greater than their own egos if only a belief in the rightness of atheism itself.

One of the important aspects of a psychotherapist’s activity is to try to understand the client’s view of the world. The three major spiritual questions are: why was I born, what is the purpose of my life, what happens when I die? Unless the psychotherapist understands how the client would answer or does answer these three major existential questions, the psychotherapist may not be able to be of much help to the person.

These three questions are not often explicitly stated and discussed, but as the psychotherapist comes to know the client’s story and the client’s situation, an empathic psychotherapist will have a good sense of how the client views themself and the world.

Opening up these questions for exploration and examination may be an important part of any helpful episode of psychotherapy.