Counseling News from the Week of September 4, 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.

Second explanation: This week has not included as much counseling research as some other weeks have. For that reason I am including a few more articles that may of interest to Christians in general and a few articles that just seem interesting to people in general. By looking at the titles and general desciption you can determine if it is interesting to you.

Interesting Quotes

"Nothing in life is more liberating than to fight for a cause larger than yourself, something that encompasses you but is not defined by your existence alone."

John McCain

“To say that a work of art is good, but incomprehensible to the majority of men, is the same as saying of food that it is very good but that most people can't eat it.”

Leo Tolstoy, "What is Art?"

“It is a wise father that knows his own child.”

William Shakespeare, "The Merchant of Venice"

"In recognizing the humanity of our fellow beings, we pay ourselves the highest tribute."

Thurgood Marshall

"When you are happy, you can forgive a great deal."

Princess Diana

"Chess is a matter of delicate judgment, knowing when to punch and how to duck."

Bobby Fischer

Fascinating Facts

Answering the Muslim “Lost Aramaic” Argument

If you have Muslim neighbors or Muslim clients, you may hear the following argument against the Christian Bible. Quoting from an article in Stands to Reason “While I was visiting a large mosque in Atlanta, a Muslim scholar argued that although Jesus is a prophet of Allah, his words aren’t captured in his native tongue. Jesus spoke Aramaic, the Gospels were written in Greek, and you’re reading his words in English. You’ve lost the Word of God to changes, additions, and translations. By contrast, the scholar continued, Allah revealed the Quran to Mohammed in Arabic, Mohammed recited the Quran in Arabic, and Muslims read the Quran in Arabic. Unlike the New Testament, there are no changes or additions to Allah’s words.

Do Muslims have a valid point? Have we lost Jesus’ words? Does our Bible not qualify as the Word of God? While there is some truth to what Muslims claim, here are three problems with their argument.

First, it is an advantage, not a liability, that the New Testament was written in Greek instead of Jesus’ own languages of Aramaic and Hebrew (though he probably also knew Greek since he grew up in a region where it was spoken). Greek was the lingua franca of the day and was widely used in trade, education, and daily life in the eastern part of the Roman Empire. By the first century, it was a shared language for people of different backgrounds. In fact, the Old Testament was translated into Greek (the Septuagint) to make it more accessible to people who didn’t speak Hebrew. Therefore, writing the New Testament in Greek ensured that its message would reach far and wide throughout mixed congregations and to different nations.”

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Why You Should Never View a Solar Eclipse Without Eclipse Glasses

There have been several places in the world where there has been solar eclipses recently. One might think that, since the sun is totally occluded, you could be able to look a solar eclipse safely. This article explains why you cannot.

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Universe’s Fastest Star

The universe’s fastest star is traveling at an estimated 56 million miles per hour, or about 100,000 times faster than most commercial airliners! 

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5 Misconceptions About Twins

Interesting article about misconceptions we may have about identical and fraternal twins.

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This cookie started its life as a plastic bottle

NASA is doing something that could provide food for astronauts but could also help the world’s growing garbage problem. It has used microbes to turn plastic (like used plastic water bottles) into edible cookies. The cookies reportedly smell appetizing but have not been eaten yet until safety tests are completed.

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Flying Cars are Coming: Florida becomes ‘biggest aviation hub in world’

Florida may be starting to test flying cars later this year, but you may not be able to afford one right away. The initial cost is estimated to be $400,000.00 per car but is expected to eventually come down.

Counseling Articles

I Study Successful People. They Have One Habit in Common.

Our American culture often touts rugged individualism as something to which we should aspire. But this psychologist studies successful people, and the thing she has discovered that they all have in common is that they all surround themselves with people who help them accomplish their goals. This aligns with biblical teaching. Like a body, which needs each part to function effectively, we do better when we recognize our dependence on each other for success.  

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I Was Crazy on Birth Control

Respected journalist Mollie Engelhart tells us a story that is important for all counselors who work with women should know. While many women do not suffer serious emotional consequences from taking contraceptives, some do. Mollie started taking a contraceptive at 15 to reduce painful menstrual periods but for her, they made her “crazy.” For a few women they cause depression. So while contraceptives are a boon to many women, we should be aware that for a minority they may cause psychological problems.

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6 things Dolly Parton said about faith, anointing: 'My life's purpose is to do something for God'

This brief article identifies six things that help us understand the wonderful spiritual inspiration Dolly Parton was to the world. While Albert Mohler makes some good points about concerns some Christians have about her support of LGBT issues and the fact that she called herself “spiritual but not religious” and never attended church, she did sing songs about faith, gave away millions of books, was very committed to her marriage and her husband, and showed grace to even “prickly” interviewers such as Barbara Walters. So, as most of us, she was a combination of many good things and some imperfect things.

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The Science & Power of Parent Coaching

This brief article gives two examples of how parent coaching can improve two common scenarios that happen frequently with children who have ADHD, including both what parents typically do and what coaching encourages them to do instead. It also includes links to other coaching tips for parents.

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Could an Occupational Therapist Improve Your Child’s Life?

Some children with ADHD have behavioral difficulties that stymie their parents. This article suggests an option that most of us might not think of, but which might be helpful in some of these situations.

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Something in the Environment Could Be Driving Up Autism

Autism diagnoses increased some when the DSM criteria were modified, but the rapid increase in autism diagnoses is due to more than that. Genetic variation changes slowly, so the rapid increase is not likely to be due to that. This article proposes that the large increase in chemicals available in our environment may be a cause. It is likely that there are multiple causes interacting with one another, but the increasing presence of chemicals is likely to be one contributor.

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Managing Hypersexuality in Bipolar Disorder

Almost 60% of those with bipolar disorder are affected by hypersexuality, even though this topic is frequently avoided in clinical conversations, even with one’s psychiatrist. Tanya Hivilitzky, who has lived with bipolar disorder herself for many years, gives some helpful advice about how people with bipolar disorder can deal with this challenge.

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Retreat from Reality: 'Digital Alternatives’ and Young Men

This article discusses the fact that many young men are retreating from reality—high school, college, and relationships and are engaging in digital alternatives—video games, pornography and AI boyfriends or girlfriends, and the unhealthy consequences of that behavior.

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Female-Breadwinner Couples Are Still More Likely to Split Up

16%. Initially these couples were more likely to split up, but this was attributed to the fact that these marriages were outside the norm. But now research from several countries over several years has found that this pattern of higher dissolution of marriages when the wife makes more than the husband seems highly persistent. If you work with young couples where this may be relevant you may want to bring this up for discussion.

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If You Are Looking for a Husband, Try the Midwest

This title is slightly simplistic. The Midwest isn’t some ideal location for finding a husband, but certain communities are. Communities shape our values and behavior, and finding not just available men, but employed available men is important. Also finding communities who shape men into desirable husband material, regardless of where those communities are located, is important.

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Rings to Roofs: How a Marriage Recovery Would Reduce the Housing Shortage

Many communities are attempting to remedy the lack of affordable housing by encouraging the building of “starter homes.” That is certainly one solution. But the authors of this article also say that part of addressing this problem is encouraging young adults to change their attitudes toward marriage, find a suitable marriage partner, and get married, so they could use their shared income to purchase a first home.

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The Meta Settlement Proves the Child Safety Movement Was Right

The staggering (at least to most of us who have normal incomes) settlement that Meta agreed to pay, while not admitting liability, suggests that their software was designed to lure young people to spend more time on its sites. Parents will need to be involved in implementing and enforcing these restrictions, but many agree that these are the first step in helping children have a healthier childhood.

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Here’s What Darwin’s Theory Can’t Explain | Michael Behe

Here is a 1 hour and 12-minute discussion with Michael Behe, a biochemist who has been studying plant, animal and human cells for the 30 years. He grew up believing Darwin’s theory about how life developed, but as he studied biochemical processes, he found things that Darwin’s theory couldn’t explain.

One thing he found that functioning cells have irreducible complexity, that is, every cell includes numerous machines that are necessary for the cell to function. Darwin’s theory asserted that life started from very simple blob of protoplasm, and that by making many incremental changes, eventually complicated cells developed. However, if any of those complex machines are not present and functioning, the cell will not function. Therefore the primary premise of Darwin’s theory—that life developed from very simple structures over thousands of years, doesn’t fit with modern biochemistry, which says that every cell already has multiple complex machines (machines that often are more complex than our most complicated human machines), and that if all these machines are not functioning correctly, the cell will not survive and be able to reproduce.

One example of irreducible complexity is how our eyes produce awareness of what is happening around us. When a photon of energy strikes the retina, it produces a string of multiple biochemical changes that happen in a specific sequence, and the last step in this sequence then sends an electrical signal to the brain. But once entering the brain, several other processes must occur for the brain to recognize and understand what it is seeing (i.e, the brain must receive several visual stimuli and then process them in order for the organism to understand what it is seeing. If any of these processes do not occur, the entire process does not occur. Therefore even the simplest of human cells could not develop as Darwin hypothesized.

Behe has written three books in which he summarizes what he has discovered. While I normally do not recommend lectures as long as this one. However, since Darwinian theory has such a strong foothold in the secular environment, I think it is worthwhile to understand how, considering modern biochemical research, we find that his theory of how life developed from some sort of amorphous protoplasmic substance is clearly implausible. So if this issue is important to you or to some of your clients, I encourage you to consider watching this video.

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There’s Really Only One Way to Stop Students from Cheating

I spoke about this article in last week’s Friday News, but after thinking about it more, I thought it was so important that I’ve downloaded the article and will try to remember to attach it to this week’s Friday Mailing. I encourage you to read it to possibly discuss with some of your clients at some point in time.

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The Rational Case for God 101

A free series of five-minute videos produced by Prager University which presents the rational reasons we should believe in God.

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The Truth About Female Desire

Although this article is about a year old from Psychology Today, I think it contains some helpful information about female sexual desire that you can use in your counseling.

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Are Guardian Angels Real?

Dr. Robert Jeffrees gives a three-minute answer to the question “Do we have guardian angels?”

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Your Brain Changes Every Time You Lie

Some of you have heard previous discussions by Makai Ellias Calles. This is another fascinating 11-minute discussion by him. As with previous videos he compiles several research studies that show how lying changes the brain in less than positive ways every time a person lies.

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Scientist Find More than 1,000 Genetic Variants that Influence Personality

This is from the New York Times, so you may or may not be able to read it, so I’ll summarize its major points. We know that multiple factors influence our personality, but this research found there are at least 1260 genetic factors that play a role in how adventurous, extroverted, anxious, etc. we are.

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Florida moves first to block welfare cash from covering tattoos, vapes, and theme parks

Governor Ron DeSantis has moved to block welfare checks from being used at tattoo parlors or for psychics, vaping products gaming and theme parks. No other states have done this yet, but many people are calling on other states to follow Florida’s lead.

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I hope you have a wonderful Labor Day weekend!

Henry Virkler