Articles from the Week of June 27, 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

"To listen well is as powerful a means of communication and influence as to talk well."

Chief Justice John Marshall

"The reward for work well done is the opportunity to do more."

Jonas Salk

“The task of the modern educator is not to cut down jungles but to irrigate deserts.”

C.S. Lewis

“Everything that irritates us about others can lead us to an understanding of ourselves.”

Carl Jung

"If you win through bad sportsmanship, that's no real victory."

Babe Didrikson Zaharias

Fascinating Facts

Mapping the Atlantic’s Strongest Hurricanes

June to November is considered the hurricane season. In a single day hurricanes release 200 times the electrical energy created by the entire world in that same time span. Each year an average of 10 tropical storms develop in the Atlantic of which six become named hurricanes. Here is a map of the Atlantic’s strongest hurricanes since 1924. (In case you’re wondering, even though 2025 was predicted to be an above average hurricane season, it’s starting off as a very slow season to this point.)

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Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung Were Once Good Friends. What Drove them Apart?

When Freud and Jung first met in person they talked non-stop for 13 hours. They lectured together in the U.S. In later years their relationship deteriorated and ended. This is an informative 4-minute lecture that discusses their relationship and their theoretical differences, some of which probably contributed to their relationship ending.

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What to know about ‘Alligator Alcatraz,’ Florida’s immigration detention site in the Everglades

“Alligator Alcatraz” has been approved by Governor DeSantis and will soon house up to 5,000 illegal aliens with criminal records. There are limited needs for guards: mosquitos, alligators and pythons will deter most inmates from trying to escape.

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One Sign of the End Times

In a sermon at our church last Sunday our pastor reminded us that one of the prophecies about what will occur before Christ comes back is that Christians will be persecuted for their faith. Although persecution is not serious now during the current U.S. administration, as I scan the world news, nearly every day there are multiple reports of churches being attacked and Christians killed. I don’t include them in this Friday compilation, which is primarily focused on counseling news, but please remember to pray for our brothers and sisters in other countries, and even though persecution is not happening here at the present time, it does not mean this prophecy is not being fulfilled elsewhere and we should be prepared that the Lord could return at any time.

Humans are Not the Most Complicated Genetic Organisms

As of 2024, the organism with the largest known genome is the New Caledonian fork fern, with 160 billion base pairs, over 50 times more than humans.

Counseling Articles

Believe: Why Everyone Should Be Religious

A few weeks ago I mentioned the above book by Nicholas Kristoff, who has been the Religion Editor for The New York Times for the last 15 years. During that time his audience has become increasingly secular. In this book he describes how our culture has gradually embraced existentialism and the idea that there is no supernatural world and that humans, if they are to have meaning, must create it for themselves.

However, this has left many with the feeling that the world, and relationships, are meaningless. In this book he encourages readers to look at the four major world religions and recognize that the reason they have persevered is that they have identified some important spiritual and moral truths, although they do not align exactly. But he encourages that there is enough evidence to suggest to the thinking person that there is something beyond this natural world. He encourages each person to start by embracing the religious tradition that makes most sense to them at this time but be open to new insights (and perhaps even to a different tradition) as they continue their search. In the last chapter he identifies why he has ultimately embraced the Christian faith.

If you are working with a client who is sensing that their life doesn’t have the meaning and they would like it to have and are searching for something more, this might be a helpful book to recommend to them. I encourage you to read it yourself first, as I would recommend you do any book before recommending it to clients, but then if you agree that it might be helpful, you could recommend it to them.

I’m going to attempt to attach an extended summary and review of the book on the Wild Apricot site along with this edition of the Friday News. If that isn’t successful and you with the summary and review send an email request to hvirkler@aol.com

Why Americans Aren't Getting Married and Having Kids—and How to Change That  

This article shares several interesting pieces of research and thinking about marriage. It talks about two models of marriage—the capstone model, in which people first obtain an education, a job, and establish a career, and then begin looking for a mate. The cornerstone model views finding a marriage partner as the cornerstone of life and often results in earlier marriages and families, believing that it will be helpful to have a partner to go through these experiences with. The research also found that people are delaying marriage, not because they are afraid of commitment, but because they haven’t found the right one. It disputes the idea of finding a soul mate, instead of finding someone who is committed to going through the challenges of life and working them out together. And it found that those people who rated their relationships happiest were those who found their partners in church or in religious settings. As someone who found my wife of 55 years in a Bible study at the center of a very secular college I can attest to this finding.

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Disentangling the Effects of Genes and Parental Separation on Children's Educational Outcomes

This interesting article discusses several research studies and compares the results. It was found that if children had a low propensity for education but their parents stayed married, they were more likely to earn a college degree themselves. If their parents separated or divorced, those children were less likely to earn a college degree and frequently did more poorly on several metrics. Children with a high propensity for education were more likely to earn a college degree even if their parents separated or divorced. Thus there is some interaction between genetic potential and the effect of parental separation on children.

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Young Americans Want Single-Family Homes

This research found that young Americans strongly preferred single-family homes to living in apartments or townhouses. They also were willing to have longer commutes to accomplish this. Good information for our housing planning committees to consider.

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Five Breakthroughs That Changed Medicine

A twelve-minute lecture on five breakthroughs in the last 250 years that have changed medicine, many of which occurred in just in the last 100 years.

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She Killed So Many People, She Lost Count — Then ‘Satan in a Skirt’ Stunned Cops During Interrogation

This is obviously not a counseling-related article, but it is such an interesting psychological article that I’m including it. It’s the story of Russia’s most notorious female serial killer, who reportedly killed 17 elderly women. It seems that she did not have a very complex reason for those she killed—she afterwards stole their remaining money (most of these women were poor, so did not have much to steal) and used the money to purchase alcohol.

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A Psychological Analysis of the Intense Hatred Iranian President Khamenei has for the Jewish People

I’ve been looking for an article about this topic, but haven’t found one so far, so I’m including an initial personal analysis. If I do find something this week, I may replace this with that article (I didn’t). The first characteristic I am struck with is that this doesn’t seem like normal hatred; it seems of such intensity it might be described as “implacable hatred.” Secondly, it seems so intense that it fails to see its opponents as human beings, or as even deserving of human life (he has repeatedly threatened the elimination of Israel). Thirdly, it seems so intense that it seems the originator has lost any sense of objective reality. Fourth, it seems that the originator has lost any sense of being able to consider any reasonable compromise about the situation. And fifthly, it seems so intense that at least one of the contributing factors may be an evil supernatural force. And even though his country and his nuclear program has been seriously degraded this past weekend, it does not seem to have changed any of these five characteristics, although we will have to see whether the results of the 12-Day War may have changed his attitude about finding a reasonable peaceable resolution.

If anyone reads an article that speaks more clearly about this matter, please send the hypertext link to me at hvirkler@aol.com and I will read it and perhaps include it in a future Friday mailing.

What It’s Like to Be Highly Sensitive With Bipolar — and 5 Ways to Find Balance

Highly sensitive people are those people who are highly sensitive to the sights, sounds, other sensory experiences, and the emotions of those around them. As you can imagine, having heightened sensitivity and bipolar disorder causes additional challenges. This author identifies five grounding techniques for such people to try.

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How Much Sleep Should Someone With Bipolar Get?

This article explains why it is particularly important for a person with bipolar disorder to get regular, adequate sleep, even when their mood tells them they could stay up longer. If you have a bipolar client who doesn’t get regular sleep and may need motivation to change their sleep habits, this may be a helpful article to share with them.

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GLP-1s: Real Stories From People With Bipolar Disorder

You may have heard some of the stories that the new weight-loss drugs (GLP-1s) may also have benefits for those with bipolar disorder. At the present time no standardized studies have been done, so this appears to be based on anecdotal reports, and clients report quite different experiences based on what GLP-1 they’re taking. So this seems like a topic to pay attention to, but we still don’t have substantial information about treatment recommendations.

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It Takes 2 to Reconcile — A Psychologist Weighs In on How to Approach Relationship Repair

There are several psychological benefits of reconciliation for many relationships. This article discusses them, the difference between forgiveness and reconciliation, and some suggested steps to increase the likelihood that reconciliation may occur.

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6 Old Wives' Tales You Likely Still Believe

I read this article just for fun but discovered that probably some of us (including myself) still believed at least a couple of them.

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Real-World Consequences for the Porn Industry

This article from Breakpoint discusses the findings from Nicholas Kristoff a month ago that has resulted in 70% of Pornhub’s videos being removed, and the more far-reaching fear that porn is harmful because it normalizes behaviors that are harmful to participants even though they are supposedly consensual. In a related development Great Britain (not mentioned in this article) just passed a law that it is illegal to use choking during sex (a practice which is reportedly a common occurrence in porn) in the future.

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Never say these toxic phrases to kids if you want them to actually listen and behave, according to a child psychologist

There are some good suggestions in this article for parents and for counselors who work with parents.

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Theories of Intelligence in Psychology

You probably learned about theories of intelligence in an undergraduate psychology course. If you are interested in a good refresher, this article will do it.

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No Matter How Early I Get Up, I’m Still Late for Work

This question was addressed to an organizational guru by someone with ADHD, but the answer could be useful to anyone who frequently finds that he or she doesn’t get to places on time.

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After the Shame: How to Re-Center Your Bruised Emotions

Another article for those with ADHD but also could be helpful to some other clients. When people face a stressful situation they sometimes overreact and then feel ashamed of their response. Here are five steps that may be worthwhile for them to try.

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A Possible Connection Between Mental Illness and Diet

For many years, the primary belief among psychiatrists was that mental illnesses like schizophrenia and bipolar disorder were caused by neurotransmitter imbalances, and medications were developed to try to treat these illnesses. Some people experienced some benefit from these medications, but some received only partial or sometimes minimal benefits.

Now a new paradigm is arising for explaining the cause of mental illness. At the present time it is only accepted by a minority of psychiatrists, but its proponents have had some impressive results with patients who had not responded to traditional psychiatric treatment. The primary difference is that it asserts that mental illness is caused by metabolic dysfunction rather than neurotransmitter imbalances, and it espouses changes in diet such as the ketogenic diet (or occasionally vegetarian or vegan diets). In selected patients this approach has sometimes resulted in significant improvement in mental illness symptoms, with some patients being able to reduce their psychiatric medications significantly.

While there is still more research to be done before we can make definite conclusions, at the present time it is probably wise to say this new approach does not work for all patients, and it may be that we eventually conclude that some mental illness symptoms are caused by neurotransmitter imbalances, some by metabolic dysfunction, some by the interaction between these two factors, or even some other factor, may be a more comprehensive explanation of the total spectrum of mental disorders.

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I hope you have a wonderful week and that you’ve enjoyed some of these articles!

Henry Virkler