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Counseling News from the Week of January 9,2026

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

"All that is gold does not glitter, not all those who wander are lost; the old that is strong does not wither, deep roots are not reached by the frost."

JRR Tolkien, from "The Fellowship of the Ring"

Failure will never overtake me if my determination to succeed is strong enough.

Og Mandino

"I love to think of nature as unlimited broadcasting stations, through which God speaks to us every day, every hour and every moment of our lives, if we will only tune in and remain so." George Washington Carver “Freedom is not procured by a full enjoyment of what is desired, but by controlling the desire.”

Epictetus, "Discourses"

"Adversity is the pillar of success."

Abraham Lincoln

"One of the basic rules of the universe is that nothing is perfect. Perfection simply doesn’t exist … Without imperfection, neither you nor I would exist."

Stephen Hawking

“You will never be able to escape from your heart. So it’s better to listen to what it has to say.”

PAULO COELHO

Fascinating Facts

 About 97% of the galaxies in the observable universe are moving away from us faster than the speed of light (because the universe is expanding)

If you studied physics (and still remember what you studied), you may remember that special relativity says that objects cannot move faster than the speed of light. However, the fact that the universe is expanding, this movement of the galaxies apparently does not contradict the theory of special relativity since the galaxies are moving with the expanding space rather than through it. (In case you have trouble comprehending this, be thankful that you’re a counselor rather than a theoretical physicist.)

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Florida Woman Gives Birth in Jail Without Physical Contact

In a rather bizarre story, a woman who is in prison in a Miami jail accused of murder apparently became pregnant from a man, also in jail for murder, even though the two reportedly never had any direct contact with one another. The article describes the unusual method they used to conceive the child. The child has been born and is now living with relatives. (He has been moved to another prison far enough away that they won’t be able to have a second child in this same manner.)

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Counseling Articles

A Powerful New Drug Is Creating a ‘Withdrawal Crisis’ in Philadelphia

This is from the New York Times so you won’t be able to read it without a subscription, so I’ll summarize it. This will be of particular interest to those of you who work with substance abusers. However, the header for this article is a little misleading, because the drug is spreading to many cities besides Philadelphia. Medetomidine, a veterinary sedative, can be mixed with fentanyl, and the mixture has been sending thousands to emergency rooms; doctors in some hospitals in Pennsylvania emergency rooms have been overwhelmed by it. The drug combination causes almost instantaneous blackouts, but if a repeat dose is not taken every few hours, it causes very powerful withdrawal symptoms. While right now it is predominantly showing up in Northeast and Midwest cities, it will probably come to Florida soon.

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Musk’s Grok AI undresses women without their consent

You can’t read this without a subscription to the Guardian, but I think the headline is a bit overstated. Grok allows users to put bikinis or tiny thongs on images of people. Musk responded to the furor by placing a picture of himself in a bikini on Grok.  (Some other newspapers have said that Grok allows users to undress and make pornographic pictures of women, but this apparently is incorrect, unless bikinis are considered pornographic.)

Two competing AI programs, Google’s Gemini and OpenAI’s ChatGPT both have rules banning users from altering people’s pictures to create sexually suggestive images.

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Dark Chocolate Ingredient Linked to Slower Biological Aging

Dark chocolate may not only sweeten your day: it can also lengthen your life. Scientists in London have just discovered that theobromine, found in dark chocolate, slows cellular aging. However, don’t give it to your dog, hoping to prolong his or her life: theobromine is toxic to dogs.

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‘Z-Drugs’ for Disordered Sleep in Early Pregnancy: New Safety Data

Women who are pregnant often have trouble sleeping. Sometimes they are prescribed “z-drugs” (nonbenzodiazepine drugs) to help with them sleep. A safety study was done and indicated that these drugs were safe to use during pregnancy and did not increase birth defects.

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Truth and Creation Order

This is a conversation between Albert Mohler and Dr. Robert P. George, Professor of Law at Princeton University. Dr. George has written several books, the latest of which is Seeking Truth and Speaking Truth: Law and Morality in our Cultural Moment. He is a committed Christian, and how this book (and this conversation) relates to Christian counseling, is that he makes the strong point (which is also a biblical one) that the moral law (e.g. people should be honest, murder is wrong, cheating is wrong, infidelity is wrong, etc.) is true for all humans, whether or not they are believers. I found their conversation very enlightening, so if you have about 55 minutes to invest in this topic, you can find this very interesting interview at

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America Needs More Husband Material

This article, written by William Galston, is from the Wall Street Journal, so you won’t be able to read it without a subscription, but I’ll summarize some of its major points. Women who would like to get married, particularly secular women, are discovering a dearth of eligible men. There are a surprising number of 40-year-old men who have never been married and probably never will. Many more women than men are choosing to go to college today: in many colleges the ratio is 70% women to 30% men.

While this is not in Galston’s article, here are two points that may be helpful, especially when you counsel with Christian women. There are a higher percentage of Christian men who do go to college and want to get married and have a family. And another thing that Christian women should consider is that many Christian men who do not go to college but who learned a skilled trade (e.g. becoming electrician or mechanic) can end up earning a very significant income and become excellent husbands.

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New Study Finds Lasting Effects of Divorce on Kids

Some studies on divorce have been criticized for being based on small groups of children and teens or only following young people for short periods of time. This study of 1 million children over many years overcomes those two criticisms. It documents that there are several long-term negative effects of divorce on children. Clearly it is in the best interests of both the adults and their children to help struggling couples build healthy marriages and stay together whenever possible.

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Can AI chatbots trigger psychosis in vulnerable people?

This article is written by Kurt Knutsson (you probably know him as “Kurt the CyberGuy.”) It’s actually a very accurate summary of whether AI chatbots can trigger psychosis. In summary, they seem to trigger psychosis in people who use them a lot and already have some psychological vulnerability. It could be a good article to share with clients who meet these two criteria.

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Brain-Computer Interfaces (Brain Implants)

There are now several BCIs available that do incredible things for people who have lost some sensory or motor function, and many of them continue to perform well and make for a much better life for recipients. (I have one, not in my brain, but interacting with my brain, called a spinal cord stimulator, that has relieved me of almost unbearable back pain, for several years. When it recognizes a pain signal going to my brain, it somehow changes it, so I don’t experience pain. It’s designed by Abbott, and I’m regularly thankful for it.)

I want to encourage the development and use of such brain-computer interfaces because they improve the lives of so many people. I’m including a hypertext link to the following article because it highlights one of the few downsides to such technology, i.e., when the company that manufactures the implant goes out of business and no one is available to maintain the implant. My suggestion would be that if you or a client is considering a BCI, see if there’s some way to assess the financial stability of the company, or if they have some guarantee that the devices will be supported even if the company does not continue.

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(Abandoned: The Cost of Neurotechnology Failure)

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Surprise, surprise—pro-Maduro protesters are leftist fakes

This is not a counseling article, but I think it is so relevant that it is wise for us all to be informed. Many of us were surprised by the protesters appearing in Washington, D.C., New York City and several states supporting Maduro, even though he and his wife have governed a country mercilessly and a country that has produced and distributed cocaine and fentanyl that has killed hundreds of thousands of Americans. Apparently these “protestors” were financed by leftist groups with close ties to Communist China.

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Greta Thunberg is a warning to parents raising ideologically captured kids

This article is also a bit more political than I normally include in this newsletter, but it does include an important message for those of you who work with families, so I encourage you to read it. It reminds us that when we allow children to become ideologically captured by contemporary society they may, in the process, lose their moral compass.

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How Do Kids Find Porn in 2026? 13 Pipelines Targeting Your Child You Need to Know About Now

Probably most parents are unaware of the multiple ways that children can access porn on the Internet. Children often initially access porn accidentally, because porn purveyors use algorithms to identify and target them. But then dopamine can cause children and teens to keep coming back. Defend Young Minds has developed a good booklet that tells parents the top 13 ways purveyors target their children and includes practical suggestions about ways those parents can try to protect them.

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Two Issues in the News this week Regarding the Gender Identity Controversy

The Issue in California Regarding Parental Rights Versus Teachers Lying to Parents about A Child’s Right to Affirm the Gender Identity and Give Themselves a New Name While in School

A federal judge has made a court ruling, after carefully considering the arguments of both parents and school officials, that California does not have the right to punish teachers for failing to be honest with parents about a child’s gender identity conflicts. He made a ruling that parental rights must be respected. While this ruling is long (52 pages), it may be of interest to some readers and to some parents. (The ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has put a temporary stay on this ruling and ultimately could decide to side with the judge or the teacher’s union. Expect this issue to eventually go to the Supreme Court, which historically has favored Parental Rights.)

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The Question of Whether the Federal Government Can Deny Medicare and Medicaid Funding for Hospitals Providing Gender Transition Treatments to Minors

Last week in a press conference it was announced that Medicare and Medicaid would not give funds to hospitals for the provision of gender transition treatments to minors, calling this procedure “medical malpractice.” Gender transition treatments provide a significant income to some hospitals and doctors (doctors were also warned that if they provide such treatments they could also lose Medicare and Medicaid funding). Nineteen states (all Democratically led) immediately sued to block this change. (On the other side of the debate, several states have already passed laws prohibiting such procedures.)

(I’m not sure how long this article will be available because the NPR board of directors voted this past Monday to disband NPR because of loss of funding.)

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The Cass Review

Although I’ve included this report before, for those who are interested, Dr. Hillary Cass, a highly respected pediatrician in Great Britain, spent four years reviewing the research that had been done on medical gender transition treatments. She concluded that transgender medical treatments did not benefit children, that many children who began them decided to detransition, and ended up recommending counseling rather than medical transition treatment to support children who had gender identity questions. Based on her extensive study, Great Britain stopped providing gender transition medical treatments. For a summary of her study, or for the full study, go to the following:

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8 Habits of People Who Age Gracefully

Here is an article written by a younger person (someone in their 30s) whose been visiting a gym that has several people exercising who are in their 70s and 80s. By observing them, he’s come up with 8 qualities or habits he’s seen regularly in these healthy older people that I think correlate well with what we know about healthy aging.

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Doctor's orders: Eat ice cream, and other tips for a long and healthy life

Although this title might seem whimsical, Dr. Ezekiel Emmanuel’s tips for living a long and healthy life are very consistent with what other research scholars have concluded about what makes for long and healthy living.

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Philip Yancey admits extramarital affair, will step away from ministry work to focus on marriage

Many of us have loved and been blessed by Philip Yancey’s books, so it came as a surprise that the 76-year-old recently confessed to an eight-year-long affair with a married woman. If you read the article I think you will be impressed with the thoroughness of his repentance. He admits that the affair was a contradiction to what he believes and has written about in his books. He has apologized to the husband and is withdrawing from writing, public speaking and social media while he commits himself to rebuilding his wife’s trust in his 55-year marriage.

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The Cost of Neglecting Spirituality

This author, although she isn’t advocating any specific spiritual orientation, discusses the fact that research says that spirituality generally benefits people physically and mentally.

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Study on What Pornography Users Pay Attention to Provides Evidence for Addiction 

If you counsel clients who struggle with temptations to pornography this article will probably be of interest to you. It does suggest that responding to the temptation to watch pornography on a regular basis meets the criteria for an addiction. It also includes a link to subscribe to a newsletter giving further information on understanding and treating it.

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Genetic Analysis Across 14 Psychiatric Disorders Suggests the Degree to Which Different Disorders Are Driven by Shared Biological Processes

This new analysis, supported by many of our leading psychiatric researchers, indicates why differential diagnosis is sometimes complex when trying to make a diagnosis. While this is a new finding, for those of you who will be working in the field in coming years, expect this finding will produce new insights about understanding mental disorders and treatments.

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Your AI Girlfriend Has a Body and Memory Now. Meet Emily, CES's Most Intimate Robot

In this next iteration of AI Girlfriends, Lovesence, a computer company, has now created an AI girlfriend, Emily, who has a full-size silicone body, can talk and interact with users, remember and adapt to their preferences, and remember previous interactions. Users can connect with Emily via Bluetooth.

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I hope you enjoyed some of the interesting counseling articles that appeared this week.

Henry Virkler

Attachment: Best Keyboard Hacks for Windows Laptops