Articles from the Week of March 7, 2025
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
"What to do with a mistake: recognize it, admit it, learn from it, forget it."
Dean Smith
You can’t have a relationship where one person says, “I love you” and the other says, “I’m hungry. Let’s get something to eat” … unless you’re married.
Larry David
“Don’t go to sleep angry?” … I go to sleep angry all the time, because he falls asleep before me. And I’m just like, “Oh, you got nothing to overthink right now? OK.”
Gina Brillon
Failure is a brilliant thing. It teaches you a lot of stuff, you end up coming up with better ideas when you fail at things. I think what’s really great is learning to embrace bad creative experiences.
Taika Waititi, filmmaker
“Believe you can and you’re halfway there.”
Theodore Roosevelt
The power of finding beauty in the humblest things makes home happy and life lovely.
Louisa May Alcott
Love sought is good, but given unsought is better.
William Shakespeare
Outer beauty attracts, but inner beauty captivates.
Kate Angell
Fascinating Facts
After Blood Appears in the Ocean – Tourists Witness Unbelievable Scene, Start Cheering
This article describes the amazing story of a whale giving birth next to a boat full of passengers and of the mother’s first moments helping the newborn adjust to life in the ocean. Read the article for some of the heart-warming details.
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A Unique Group of “Old Ladies”
This group of older ladies has made it their mission to clean up our planet. They go in a well-organized group and clean the trash out of ponds and enjoy the camaraderie of working together on a worthwhile task.
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Resurrecting the Woolly Bear Mammoth
It is possible that some of you may, in your lifetimes, see a woolly bear mammoth in the flesh. If you’re interested, here’s a discussion of how that process of bringing back to life an extinct mammal is going.
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Counseling Articles
Sleepmaxxing: Inside the Viral Trend and How to Make It Work for You
Not a counseling article, but since some of your clients may ask you about it, it’s good to know what the word means. It’s a TikTok term, which refers to using several sleep hacks at once to maximize sleep, such as sleep masks, weighted blankets, etc. The techniques may have value for some people with insomnia and particularly for those with bipolar disorder, where disrupted sleep can trigger a mood episode. This short article has some commonsense advice for getting started for those interested in the topic.
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Why Even Atheists Are Reconsidering Jesus
Another article that is not specifically a counseling article but might be useful sometime in your counseling. It’s an interesting discussion about how even some philosophers and others, who have historically been atheists, are recognizing the validity of some Christian beliefs. Although they may only consider them “useful fictions,” maybe it’s good that they’re halfway there.
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How to Fix Education
Another article that is not specifically counseling, but a topic that applies to us all. The U.S. educational system is not doing well and there are multiple reasons for this. The proposed Phoenix Statement is endorsed by several leading groups and hopefully will be adopted by many schools and school systems.
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Playfulness predicts attachment and jealousy in romantic relationships
This is a fascinating article and too complex to summarize easily. It’s a well-done study and I recommend you take the time to read it. In general people who were playful were less likely to be jealous in their romantic relationships, except for people who were whimsically playful (know anyone like that?) who were somewhat more likely to have jealous feelings.
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Is the ‘bad boy’ appeal a myth? Study investigates Dark Triad attractiveness
There are some personality traits that seem to be associated with the “bad boy” appeal, traits such as narcissism, Machiavellianism, and psychopathy. If you have a female client who finds herself repeatedly drawn to this personality type, you might find this article helpful to discuss since these traits, though they might seem attractive at first, will probably not lead to long-term healthy relationships.
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Why do women get ‘the ick’ from men? Experts explain the psychology behind the feeling
The “ick factor” refers to feeling disgust about a certain behavior or trait. Apparently it occurs in the animal kingdom as well as among humans. It seems like a commonsense solution for women would be to communicate to their partners what is causing their disgust and ask them to stop doing whatever is causing it.
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Strength connected to sexual behavior of women as well as men
If you needed another reason to exercise, this study found that a well-toned body led to better sexual functioning for both men and women. While the researchers based their research on evolutionary theorizing, I think an alternative explanation is that if we keep ourselves healthier we have more energy for things like enjoying sex.
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In Defense of Gentle Parenting
Parenting is tough, and today’s parenting may be even more challenging than in years before. This approach, called “gentle parenting” allows children to feel whatever emotions they are feeling, but puts limits on how they will express those feelings, and then attempts to help them to develop the skills to express those feelings in healthy ways. See article for further details.
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If You Shout, You’ll Never Be Heard
Although this is an article for parents of children with ADHD, I think it’s got a lot of wisdom for most parents with young children. And it ties in with a lot of the ideas about “gentle parenting” from the article above.
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Getting Through to Your Teen with ADHD
Another article for parents of children (this time teens) with ADHD. And again, although this article is directed to parents of teens with ADHD, I think there’s some wisdom for any parents of teens to use.
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Make Marriage a Guiding Priority: A Review of 'Sex and the Citizen'
This book explains why marriage is better than today’s proffered alternatives, and how our present policies work against encouraging young people to pursue marriage. It affirms the research discussed last week by Paul Peterson, who showed that both in Europe and America, and across many ethnic groups and socio-cultural levels, the best place to prepare a child for upward mobility is the two-parent family.
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Treating the Heart of Transgenderism
Here is an article from Christianity Today about one medical doctors’ approach when a patient comes in saying that he or she was born in the wrong body. It explains also the policy of the Christian Medical and Dental Association on treating gender dysphoric individuals. This is an extremely good article: even if you do not deal with transgender youth, I encourage you to read it. And if you do counsel with transgender youth, I encourage you to follow the link to CMDA’s statement on Transgender Identification. It is a very well-documented discussion, including 88 footnotes referencing medical articles that support its statements.
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Brain Changes in Youth Who Use Substances: Cause or Effect?
It has been thought that brain changes in children and teens who used substances were due to their substance use. This research found that there were often neuroanatomic differences between children who later started using substances, and that these may have predisposed the children to be more likely to try the substances. While its true that brain anatomy could predispose children to using drugs, I think good parental guidance can help a child avoid the temptation to abuse drugs, even if they have some innate traits that predispose them to be more vulnerable to those temptations.
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Study Links ‘Love Addiction’ to Emotional Dependence
We’ve believed for some time that there was a relationship with unhealthy emotional dependence and “love addiction” but this research spells out some nuances that many of us had not realized between the two. If you work with anyone—young people or older people who might have symptoms of “love addiction” I encourage you to read this research study for some more nuanced insights.
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Why You Need to Talk About Cannabis with Patients
While this article is written for psychiatrists, I think it has value for counselors. It encourages professionals to include a question on their intake questionnaire about cannabis use, its frequency, any maybe even the way it is used (smoked, gummies, etc.). Although we typically think of cannabis use among young people, many middle-aged and older people are using both recreational and medical cannabis. With the greater concentrations of THC found in marijuana today, this can result in psychological or medical problems (and can cause falls among older patients). So read this article and consider adding this question to your intake form.
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Who are the Mennonites in a Texas community where measles is spreading?
Not a counseling article, but since you may occasionally encounter a person who is Mennonite, it may be helpful to know about this group. This is a good summary of the varieties of beliefs and practices within this denomination. Like most denominations, there are individual churches with more conservative or more liberal views. Some of the more conservative groups may not vaccinate their children, but many Mennonite families do. Most states allow parents to not vaccinate their children based on religious beliefs. Medical experts say the measles vaccine is very safe, and usually prevents a child from having a serious case of the illness or needing to be hospitalized. The child who unfortunately died from measles was not vaccinated.
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Alzheimer's May Develop Differently in Women
Another sad finding. When tau starts to accumulate in the brains of older women, it tends to accumulate faster and lead more rapidly to dementia.
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Court Rules Parents Lack Right to Know About Schools Transitioning Their Children
A circuit court in Massachusetts ruled that parents’ rights are not absolute, and that parents did not have the right to know that their middle school daughter was transitioning. If this ruling is established as a precedent, it may be applied in other states.
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Gender Roles of Husband and Wife in the Home Based on 1880s Gentleman’s Etiquette Manual
You may find this quaint, but you also may find it endearing to read these instructions to husbands and wives 150 years ago.
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How a Book Is Undermining Progress Against Alzheimer's
A couple weeks ago I covered the fact that there has been much questionable research published (some of it has been retracted) about the treatment of Alzheimer's disease. Here is an article about a concern that this new book about Alzheimer's may have insufficiently supported accusations against some of the new treatments for Alzheimer’s. None of these treatments claim to cure the disease, only slow the progression. At this point we don’t know the outcome of these controversies. What is clear is that we need ethical researchers in this and every other field.
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Healing My Marriage and Life After an eating disorder
Kristan Dunham has struggled with an eating disorder for several years. Here she shared five techniques she has found helpful in conquering it and healing her marriage. There’s also a link to a Focus on the Family broadcast with Jim Daly and her and her husband, and the title of a book she has authored.
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People who are highly intelligent but don’t realize it yet often display these 9 subtle behaviors
Interesting article. It indicates that some intelligent individuals may not recognize their own intelligence, but by examining their habits, one can understand why they are effective thinkers. Referred to me by Wynne Stallings. See what you think.
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9 Ways to Get Your Teen to Talk to You
If you are working with parents who say their teen won’t talk with them, sharing this article with them and discussing it might be helpful so they can encourage their teen to talk more with them.
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Are You in a Therapy Rut?
This is from the New York Times, so you won’t be able to read it without subscription, so I’ll summarize some of its major points. You occasionally may have clients who feel they are in a therapy rut, so some of these ideas might be helpful in a discussion with them.
People can feel like they’re in a therapy rut for various reasons, including:
- · “You’ve made as much progress as you can in therapy at this time.
- · You would benefit from a different therapist or approach.
- · You need a new therapy goal.
- · You don’t need sessions as frequently as you did in the past.
- · Your expectations aren’t aligned with those of your therapist.
- · You’re not ready to explore past trauma or a difficult issue.”
The author of this article, Christine Caron, suggests to clients the following things:
- · Don’t jump out of therapy immediately. Everyone has occasional sessions that don’t seem as productive as others.
- · If the feelings continue, talk with your therapist about them and discuss what you might do.
- · It might be useful to try a different approach to therapy for a while or it might be helpful to take a break from therapy until you come to something in your life where therapy could be helpful again.
Click here to read the full article
Don’t forget to change your clocks on Saturday night! Have a wonderful week!
Henry Virkler