Counseling News from the Week of June 26, 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

“To be good, and to do good, is the whole duty of man comprised in a few words.”

Abigail Adams

“Wisdom is only found in truth.”

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

"There is nothing more precious than laughter–it is strength to laugh and lose oneself, to be light."

Frida Kahlo

“Advice, like snow, the softer it falls, the longer it dwells upon, and the deeper it sinks into the mind.”

Samuel Taylor Coleridge

The pessimist complains about the wind; the optimist expects it to change; the realist adjusts the sails.

William Arthur Ward

"You did the best that you knew how. Now that you know better, you'll do better"

Maya Angelou

“Reflect upon your present blessings—of which every man has many—not on your past misfortunes, of which all men have some.”

Charles Dickens, "Sketches by Boz"

Fascinating Facts

A Family Story

During a phone conversation, my nephew mentioned that he was taking a psychology course at the university.
"Oh, great," I said, "Now you'll be analyzing everyone in the family."
"No, no," he replied. "I don't take abnormal psychology until next semester."

Popular Vacuum Cleaner May Put Photos of Your Family Using the Bathroom on the Internet

If you have a Roomba robot vacuum cleaner be aware: a Roomba vacuum snapped pictures of a woman using the bathroom and sent them to people in other countries.

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Counseling Articles

The Brady's Wouldn’t Survive 2026

A generation ago, most family television programs centered onchildren facing a dilemma, parents who listened, and together they fashioned a solution that provided a resolution by the end of the story. Today, however, permanent estrangement between parents and adult children is increasingly common in families. The article highlights ways both parents and children contribute to this problem. Counselors may be able to help many families resolve these conflicts.It is difficult for both parents and adult children to go through life estranged from one another.

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A Guide to Raising Teenage Boys with ADHD

 A brief article with some good points on how to raise teenage boys who have ADHD.

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Valuing the Stay-at-Home Dad

Families with fathers who have ADHD may sometimes decide that it is best that Dad be the stay-at-home parent. This change from the traditional roles of parents, and the stress that ADHD puts on a man produces unique stresses that the couple needs to address, probably with the help of a counselor.

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Q: “Why Is My Child Lying to Me About Everything?”

Children with ADHD often lie more frequently than typical children do. This article explains why this may be the case and gives parents some suggestions about how to deal with this problem.

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The Surprising Ways Fatherhood Changes Men

This article identifies several ways that fatherhood changes men, both before and after birth. Highly worthwhile reading.

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 Fatherly Wisdom: The Best Life Advice Nice News Readers Received from Their Dads

A collection of interesting sayings people said their fathers gave them.

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12 ways Christian men can reclaim true biblical manhood

There are several speakers in today’s culture who are advocating ways men can become more manly. This article discusses a dozen ways that Christian men can reclaim true biblical manhood, ways that are quite in contrast to the ways some secular speakers advocate.

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What Gender War?

Activists try to create the impression that men hate women and women hate men. They may raise money through such campaigns, but the author of this article points to many examples of how men and women are working together peacefully and effectively in multiple areas of family life and employment.

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The Vanishing American Father: More Men Are Opting Out of Fatherhood

There have been some encouraging articles this week about contemporary fathers becoming more involved with their children and finding that their lives are made richer by doing so. But there is another side to the picture—the significant number of men who are opting out of fatherhood and missing out on the joys of fatherhood completely. Clearly there is a need for us as parents, churches and counselors to work with young men to help them understand the joys of marriage and parenthood and decide to make this one of their life’s goals.

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How Audiobooks Affect Your Brain

I included a blog a few weeks ago about how reading material from a standard textbook compares with reading it on a tablet. For dense material that you want to retain, reading it in a standard textbook is best.

This research compares reading text versus listening to the same material in an audiobook. If you’re interested, there were some interesting results. It seems that for light, recreational reading, tablets and audiobooks are fine, but for dense reading that you want to retain, standard textbooks are still the best option.

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8 behaviors most Americans find morally unacceptable

Although Americans have come to accept certain behaviors as morally acceptable that were once questioned, here is a list of 8 behaviors that most Americans still consider morally unacceptable.

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To What End?

Richard Simmons tells the inspiring story of Mary Vergese, whose tragic car accident changed her life irrevocably, but through the words of Dr. Paul Brandt and her willingness to adapt to a very changed situation she developed a life that ended up blessing hundreds, perhaps even thousands, of others.

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When Bipolar Depression Doesn’t Fully Lift

Sometimes bipolar depression gets stuck and only partially resolves. This article talks about possible solutions.

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How Britain Enabled the Abuse of Thousands of Its Own Children

This Breakpoint article summarized how a major study in Great Britain recently revealed that a quarter of a million working class women and daughters were sexually abused and trafficked by Pakistani Muslim men for a significant period. These reports were at first minimized and downplayed by officials and news media on the grounds that they portrayed racial prejudice but now are receiving widespread attention there in Britain (similar to how some reports of abuse in Minnesota were similarly downplayed as racial prejudice). The authors make the point that not all religions are equally good.

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To Grow Resilient Kids, Don’t Take Away Struggle

This book appears to have many good insights, but two of them that appear central are (1) people grow through the process of overcoming obstacles, therefore to raise reliant children, give them opportunities to overcome obstacles themselves, and (2) our Christian faith in a loving, all-powerful Heavenly Father should help us develop a resilience we could not on our own.

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Significant Church News

There are two significant things that happened in church news this week that, while neither are are specifically counseling related, I believe Christians can generally benefit by being aware of them. One is that the Episcopal Church membership has been continuing to decline in membership and the denomination has decided to either sell or lease its New York City headquarters.

The other relates to Presbyterianism. The Presbyterian church is divided into two denominations. The Presbyterian Church of American (PCA) has maintained its evangelical identity and continues to affirm the doctrines of traditional Christianity. The Presbyterian Church USA (PCUSA) has become quite theologically liberal. There is now a major debate going on within the PCUSA. On one hand are those who believe that ordained pastors must affirm monogamy: however, this would be marriage between two persons, although those could be persons of the opposite gender or of the same gender. They believe that Matthew 19:4-5 should be broadened to include homosexual marriages. The other group within the PCUSA (and here is what the debate is about) believe that ordained ministry should be broadened to include polygamous relationships, and that these polygamous relationships could include both homosexual and heterosexual relationships. I know that this information is not specifically counseling-related, but I thought it was helpful for Christians to know.

Hope you have a wonderful weekend!

Henry Virkler