Counseling News from the Week of June 19, 2026
Explanation: Although I scan the Internet primarily for counseling articles, in the process I run across quotes and interesting facts that I sometimes include in these first two sections. If you’re just interested in the counseling articles, you can skip these first two sections and go directly to the section called Counseling Articles. HV
Interesting Quotes
“When truth cannot make itself known in words, it will make itself known in deeds.”
Roger Scruton
"The legal system can force open doors and sometimes even knock down walls. But it cannot build bridges. That job belongs to you and me."
Thurgood Marshall
“We should regret our mistakes and learn from them but never carry them forward into the future with us.”
Lucy Maud Montgomery
“Make it your business to know yourself, which is the most difficult lesson in the world.”
Miguel de Cervantes, "Don Quixote"
"Common sense is seeing things as they are; and doing things as they ought to be."
Harriet Beecher Stowe
"A house divided against itself cannot stand."
Abraham Lincoln, in "House Divided"
Who then is free? The wise man who can command himself.
Horace
“It’s not how long, but how well one lives that matters the most.”
AUDIE MURPHY
Fascinating Facts: I'm not including anything here because of the number of counseling articles available.
Counseling Articles
“Questions Every Christian Counselor Should Consider” Now Available
The book contains handouts developed for classes on 21 questions Christian counselors will sometimes need to answer in the counseling process. Purchasing the book gives you the information to use in your counseling but also includes permission for you to print off any specific chapter to share with a client who is struggling with that particular issue. To view a description of the book or to purchase and download it go to sfacc.net, look for the new tab, bookstore, and click on it or click on the link below.
Click here
The Most Important AI Experiment You’ve Never Heard Of
This fascinating experiment was done in May of 2026. Five AI models were tested to govern hypothetical cities: all were given identical instructions. Each town had hypothetical citizens and a working government with laws, and records were kept of the crimes committed in each city. The city run by Grok collapsed in four days, and by the end of the week all inhabitants were dead.
The city run by Gemini lasted a bit longer but recorded 700 crimes and by the end the citizens had burned their town hall, the pier, and then their office building.
The city run by OpenAI recorded only two crimes, but people stopped doing the things necessary to sustain themselves, and by the end of a week, all had passed away.
The Anthropic model fared the best. People kept working, there was no crime, and by Day 15 all were still alive.
The fifth city was one where all four AI models were used together. In this model even some of the Anthropic citizens began committing crimes.
The researchers’ conclusion is that AI is only as good as the human values that are programmed into it, and that the foundation for any community has always been human choice. And it still is.
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The Lie of Living Your Truth
In this article Rosaria Butterfield, who was a lesbian and a professor at Syracuse University, tells how she met a pastor at an evening meal. They had a conversation that started her on the path to Christianity and to giving up the philosophy of postmodernism and exchanging it for truth of Christianity. She has now been living as a Christian for 27 years. Read the article to learn about her remarkable change.
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Move Toward What You Fear: Freya India on Gen Z's Search for Love and Community
Freya India is a spokeswomen for Gen Z women and the fears they have about getting married. She discusses those fears are and what is causing them, and then gives young women her suggestions about how to best overcome them. If you counsel with young women, I highly recommend this article.
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Keep It Local and Relational: A Conservative Case for Child Care
Research suggests that children get the best start in life if they can have personalized childcare during the first three years of life, whether this is personalized care by a parent, grandparents, relatives, nannies or by daycare centers. Personalized care by parents may not be possible for those years for financial or other reasons, so it will be up to parents to identify the best option for their children if they cannot do it personally. The article gives some suggestions to think about.
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Surprising Mix of Trad and Egalitarian Values
It has been shown that liberals are less likely to get married and have children than conservatives. However, blue families do exist, some of them have children, and many of them rarely divorce. What characterizes these blue families that seem to be bucking the trends normally associated with liberal couples? This article describes how some of these families are accomplishing this.
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7 Surprising Facts About the History of Bipolar
Now known as the “forgotten physician,” the Greek physician Aretaeus identified mania and melancholia back in the 2nd century. The ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle, who some identify as the father of psychology and the scientific method, recognized the relationship between mood and creativity. In the Middle Ages physicians encouraged bathing in pools of water containing salts, perhaps presaging our recognition that lithium would become an effective treatment for bipolar disorder in coming centuries.
By the 18th century it was increasingly recognized as a mental disorder.
German psychiatrist Emil Kraepelin, who is considered the founder of modern psychiatry, was one of the first to differentiate bipolar disorder from schizophrenia.
While we still don’t have a cure for bipolar disorder, we have many treatments that lessen the severity of the illness.
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30 trillion reasons sex can’t change
In case you’re wondering about this title, it is estimated that the adult human body has roughly 30 trillion cells, and each of them specifies that the person is either male or female. This article by Walter Heyer, who had a sex change and spent several years living as a woman, explains why he believes the transgender movement is wrong (it is impossible to change a man into a woman or vice versa even though it is possible to cosmetically change some superficial characteristics of their bodies), it is harmful to the person and not really a solution. Now in his 80s and looking back on his life, he shares insights from living on both sides of the transgender movement.
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Why MAID May Not Be the Peaceful Death Many Expect
People who choose Medical Assistance in Dying (MAID) usually do so because they want to prevent a long, drawn-out, painful dying process. However, as this article points out, most of the drugs used in MAID have not been tested for that purpose so they are used off label. Often death occurs as expected, but there are reports of extended dying (one man lived 6 days after taking the drugs given him), and there have been reports of family members seeing their loved ones vomiting, gasping, and experiencing other unpleasant symptoms before they died. Therefore someone considering MAID should at least be told of this possibility so they can make informed consent.
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The Science Behind Effective Pain Management Strategies
If you have a client who is experiencing severe pain and typical home remedies have not worked, they may come to you for answers. This article gives a summary of some of the most recent treatments available. An encouraging note to those who are dealing with chronic pain: Be aware that this field is constantly improving, and that there will be treatments in the coming years that are not available today. My pain specialist from Abbott gave me insights this week that were not available just a couple years ago.
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Why Some People Love Sports and Others Are Not As Interested
This six-minute video explains why some people love watching or participating in sports while others are less interested or even uninterested in such, and that both orientations are okay. It also discusses that there are benefits for those who appreciate doing other things than watching or participating in sports.
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The Myths of Christian History
In this Breakpoint article the authors briefly refute claims that have sometimes been used to undermine the credibility of Christianity. It’s worth 90 seconds to remind ourselves that our faith is rooted in solid historical evidence that Christ lived, performed miracles, died and rose again, that early Christian doctrines came directly from Jesus and the apostles, and that early Christianity was not spread by coercion.
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What Terrifies Men [with ADHD]? Vulnerability.
There are lots of articles about children or women with ADHD. This is one of the first I’ve read about men with ADHD, and how ADHD may affect their psychology and their responses. Worthwhile new information.
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ADHD and Intimacy Problems: Top Challenges and Solutions
This article includes comments from two therapists who have written books about the effects of ADHD on marriage and marital intimacy and includes suggestions from their clients who have ADHD on what has helped them. Helpful information for those who work with adult clients with ADHD.
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Are Juries Still Willing to Do Their Duty?
This is a quote from the British newspaper, the Telegraph, from the June 17th edition. Although it is a reference to Britain’s jury system, the warning could be relevant for us in the U.S. in the years ahead.
“Britain’s 350-year-old jury system is facing a quiet revolution. From Palestine Action to climate activists, protesters are successfully appealing to jurors’ consciences to secure acquittals despite overwhelming facts. As “my truth” replaces objective law, this romantic right to rebel risks poisoning the very legal foundation designed to protect us.”
One in Four Teen Girls and Young Women Are At Risk of PMOS
PMOS stands for polyendocrine metabolic ovarian syndrome (it was previously called PCOS). According to a new study that involved 1,500 females, 1 in 4 teen girls and young women have at least one risk factor pointing to this disorder. It is caused medically by something called “hyperandrogenism.” One symptom that sometimes occurs are irregular menstrual periods.
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FTC sues World Professional Association for Transgender Health for deceptive practices
WPATH, which for years was considered the world’s leading organization in treating gender dysphoria and was once a highly respected authority on that subject, has experienced increasing criticism of its endorsement of “gender-affirming care.” In light of the fact the three components of gender-affirming care have not been supported by strong evidence, Great Britain since the release of the Cass Report has fully stopped these treatments and many of the other European countries that fully encouraged them are now taking a more cautious approach about affirming this way of treating gender dysphoria.
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How Kindness Reprograms Your Immune System
This 19-minute video by Makai Ellias Calles shares several research studies that show how kindness improves the person’s own happiness, but more than that, when people make kind behaviors toward another person it even improved their body’s metabolism.
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Student Cheating Is Becoming Impossible to Detect in an A.I. Era
New AI models are becoming so sophisticated that it has become impossible for K-12 teachers and college professors, even with the use of AI models themselves, to detect when students have used AI to complete assignments. Teachers are worried that students who use these tools will not learn the necessary skills to achieve academic success.
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Supreme Court Narrows Law Banning Drug Users from Owning Guns
In a recent Supreme Court decision that surprised many of us, the Supreme Court recently overturned a federal gun control law banning drug users from owning guns. The justices ruled that the government’s use of the law was overbroad, sweeping together recreational drug users with people addicted to drugs who posed a danger to public safety, and thus violated this plaintiff’s second amendment rights, since he was only a recreational marijuana user.
This recalls the point made by Supreme Court Justice Amy Comey Barrett in her book Listening to the Law, where she said that judges are to apply the law as written, and if laws need to be rewritten, that is a task for legislatures.
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Mapping the Clitoris Reshapes Our Understanding of Women’s Health
I think many of us are aware that the clitoris is larger than a small nubbin on top of the pelvic bone, but what this article makes clear is that female anatomy has been seriously understudied, and there are many things, which if they had been given the attention they should have in previous years, could be significantly improving women’s health and happiness. This article helps us become aware of these facts.
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Good News About the Current Role of Fathers
You may not be able to read these two articles if you don’t have subscriptions to the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal, but the upshot of both articles is that American fathers are spending about 60 minutes longer each day with their children than the typical father did 50 years ago, and they say they are enjoying it more. They are typically doing it by cutting down on the time they spend at work and the time they spend watching television. What wonderful news to celebrate on Father’s Day!
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Have a wonderful weekend!
Henry Virkler