Counseling News from the Week of January 23,2026

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

“Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself.”

Leo Tolstoy

"You don't get to choose how you're going to die or when. You can only decide how you're going to live. Now."

Joan Baez

“It has long been an axiom of mine that the little things are infinitely the most important.”

Arthur Conan Doyle, "Adventures of Sherlock Holmes"

“The world is upheld by the veracity of good men: they make the earth wholesome.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson

"I would rather that my spark should burn out in a brilliant blaze than it should be stifled by dry-rot ... The proper function of man is to live, not to exist. I shall not waste my days trying to prolong them. I shall use my time."

Jack London

“All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.”

J. R. R. Tolkien, "The Lord of the Rings"

A well-instructed people alone can be permanently a free people.

James Madison

"The more we know, the more we realize there is to know."

Jennifer Doudna, coinventor of the CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing tool

“The best way to cheer yourself is to try to cheer somebody else up.”

Mark Twain

“Not every love, but only that which has a noble purpose, is noble and worthy of praise.”

Plato

Fascinating Facts

Woman Whispered for Help in Walmart, Employee Saved Her

Although this is not a counseling story it is such an inspiring story about a woman just a couple months ago who was being repeatedly strangled and whose phone had been taken away by her abuser, who confided in one other person in a Walmart. That person contacted the police, and the perpetrator was arrested and the woman safely rescued.

The article contains a list of signs that indicate that a person around you may be being abused. I think it’s a reminder to all of us to be alert to those around us for signs of abuse and then have the courage to contact authorities so those lives can be saved.

Click here to read the full article

Counseling Articles

Marriage Is a School of Love: Becoming the Right Person for Your Spouse

This author makes a good point: marriage isn’t about finding the right person, but in using marriage to help you learn to be a good partner to your spouse, and to find ways to show him or her love throughout your lifetime. It is a school that we continue to learn from all our lives.

Click here to read the full article

Recess Is Becoming Too Safe

This schoolteacher is making the point that healthy childhood play means learning to take some risks and learn from those experiences. But many elementary schools, out of fear of lawsuits, have so many rules about how children may play that they hamper the activities that would allow children to make the best use of their recesses. See what you think.

Click here to read the full article

Going to Church Can Reduce Your Divorce Risk, Especially If You Marry Young

This sociologist reviewed the divorce rates of those who married young (i.e., early 20s), those who married in their 30s, and those who married in their 40s. He found that for all ages when marrying, the divorce rate was lower for those who attended church on a weekly basis. The reduction in divorce rate was greatest for those who married early, but continued to be lower, whatever age the couples married.

Click here to read the full article

Labor of Love: One Woman’s Fight to Give Women More Birth Options

Most women who are pregnant have two options—give birth at home or in a hospital. There is a third option—birthing centers—a middle ground with more freedom for mothers to have choices about their births and be cared for by nurses and other medically-trained persons. However, most states have rules that make it difficult for birthing centers to be approved. States usually require a birthing center to have a transfer agreement with a hospital in case the delivery develops complications, and often surrounding hospitals are unwilling to enter into transfer agreements, often preventing approval of a birthing center.

Click here to read the full article

A Third Way: What We Can Learn from the Amish Approach to Tech

When it comes to modern technology, it seems that some people think there is only a binary choice—either to accept it or become a Luddite. This author suggests a third way but adds a component from the Amish way of life that enriches that third way. His component is one that we may not have considered, but that enriches that approach.

Click here to read the full article

5 Ways to Build Habits for Bipolar Stability Without Willpower

This article by well-known bipolar blogger Tanya Hvilivitsky describes five ways for bipolar patients to build habits for stability.

Click here to read the full article

Unlock the Power of Journaling for Better Bipolar Stability

This writer tells of several people with bipolar disorder who use journaling in various ways to help them manage their bipolar disorder more effectively. The article suggests several ways to use journaling in therapy, ways that therapists could use journaling with clients even if they don’t have bipolar disorder.

Click here to read the full article

It’s Time to Reverse Course on Marijuana Legalization

Here’s a good article compiling the reasons some people believe we should stop legalizing marijuana and perhaps reverse the laws in states where it has already been legalized.

Click here to read the full article

No Robust Evidence to Support Cannabis Products for Chronic Neuropathic Pain

About 6-10% of people experience chronic pain with neuropathic components and standard medications frequently do not effectively treat it. Advertisements on social media often suggest one of the three cannabis formulations will effectively treat such pain. Double-blind studies with all three types of formulations found there was no evidence that any of them substantially reduced pain. Some patients claimed cannabis reduced their pain, but the reductions they reported were not substantial enough to be considered significant. There are medical treatments that can substantially reduce chronic pain, but cannabis does not seem to be one of them.

Click here to read the full article

Birthright citizenship, conversion therapy ban, trans sports: 5 Supreme Court decisions to watch in 2026

Here are five Supreme Court decisions to watch in 2026. The one on conversion therapy is particularly relevant for Christian counselors.

Click here to read the full article

A Happy Marriage Could Protect Against Obesity, Study Suggests

An unexpected result of a happy marriage is that it protects against obesity. The article identifies some of the ways it accomplishes that. I know of several people who say they wished it also protected against overweight, but I guess that’s due to some other factors

Click here to read the full article.

Man With Exploding Head Syndrome Responds to Ketamine

Here is a description of “exploding head syndrome,” a parasomnia which sounds like a horrible illness to have, and how this patient was successfully treated with ketamine.

Click here to read the full article

How Little Exercise Can You Get Away With?

This is from the New York Times, so you can’t read it without a subscription, so I’ll summarize its major points. Many people aren’t motivated to spend 150 minutes per week getting exercise, but the research cited in the article shows that even much shorter periods of time (e.g., 10 minutes per day) doing either strength training (e.g. pushups or lifting weights) or aerobic exercise (e.g. walking or running) can improve cardiovascular health and increase lifespan. So encourage yourself or your clients to get started, even with modest amounts of exercise, for the physical and psychological benefits it can bring.

Click here to read the full article

Neuroscientist suggests a better method for building new habits than resolutions

If you have a client who has a history of making resolutions and then not keeping them, this neuroscientist has a suggestion for how to try a new method for building a new habit that sounds worth trying.

Click here to read the full article

Your Brain on Boredom

“Boredom is not a personal failing or a glitch in your attention. Neuroscientist James Danckert, who has spent years studying bored brains in the lab, calls boredom “a call to action”—your mind’s way of telling you that what you’re doing no longer feels meaningful.”

This neuroscientist also has developed a list of things one can do when one feels bored.

Click here to read the full article

‘Are You Dead?’ App Surges in China as Millions Live Alone

As more and more people live alone, a new safety app named “Are You Dead” is becoming very popular in China. It is quite simple. People identify an emergency contact, check in regularly with the app, and if they do not check in for two consecutive days, it calls their emergency contact.

Click here to read the full article

Sexsomnia Carries Legal Risk and Demands Careful Diagnosis

Sexsomnia is considered a parasomnia (because some people use it in legal proceedings, saying they committed the crime while asleep) that sometimes is invoked as a defense when people are accused of sexual assault. This article discusses the complexities of making such a diagnosis. If you read the article and understand the complexities of this diagnosis you will probably decide not to be an expert witness in any case where sexsomnia is being used as the defense.

Click here to read the full article

What Christian Parents Should Know About Roblox

Roblox is a gaming platform (some call it a “gaming universe”) because of the wide range of experiences it offers. Three attorney generals are bringing 42 lawsuits against Roblox because parents say their children were harmed by adult perpetrators posing as other children when using the game. If you work with parents you may want to warn them to have their children avoid this software program.

Click here to read the full article

No Link Between Acetaminophen in Pregnancy and Autism, a New Study Finds

The Department of Health and Human Services last September said that pregnant women should not use acetaminophen, the major ingredient in Tylenol, based on a Harvard study. This article is from the New York Times so you won’t be able to read it without a subscription, so I’ll summarize its major points. A 2025 Lancet review of 43 studies and a Swedish study of 2.5 million mothers and children found that there is no evidence of a relationship between acetaminophen in pregnancy and the development of neurodevelopmental problems in children born from those mothers. However, the Harvard study accuses the Danish study of being biased, and the Lancet study accuses the Harvard study of being biased. So until this issue is sorted out it is probably wisest for pregnant women to avoid acetaminophen.

Click here to read the full article

This Common Infection Was Thought to Affect Only Women. Now Doctors Know Better.

This is a major medical discovery of which probably every man and woman should be aware. Bacterial vaginosis will affect one in three women sometime in their lifetime. It is a bacterial infection that does not necessarily come from sex (it apparently comes from a variety on changes in the woman’s body, but once it begins it can be transferred back and forth between husband and wife if they have sex without a condom, so it becomes a sexually transmitted infection (an STI). So if a woman is diagnosed as having it both she and her husband should be treated with antibiotics so that it is removed from both of them. Otherwise the untreated husband could reinfect his wife.

Click here to read the full article

FDA Pulls Warning About ‘Potentially Dangerous’ Autism Therapies

The FDA removed a page about therapies claiming to cure autism such as chelation therapies, hyperbaric oxygen therapy, detoxifying clay baths, raw camel milk, MMS (chlorine dioxide) and essential oils for making “improper claims” about being cures for autism. Proponents of the removal say that the warnings were no longer needed. Critics of the removal say that the information is still accurate and that those warnings should remain on the website.

Click here to read the full article

Will ‘Psychiatry’s Bible’ Add a Postpartum Psychosis Diagnosis?

This article is from the New York Times, so I’ll summarize its major points. A small group of women, after birth, experience several symptoms, which sometimes wax and wane, often leading to confusion and misdiagnosis and treatment. Those symptoms may include persistent mania, delusions, hallucinations, thought disorder, disorganized behavior or depression with psychotic features. The symptoms sometimes have been diagnosed as schizophrenia and treated with antipsychotics, which generally is ineffective. Also, schizophrenia usually does not appear suddenly in midlife. The most common theory today is that it is a variant of bipolar disorder which appears after birth in rare circumstances. Treatment with lithium or ECT is usually effective.

There is debate about where the diagnosis should be placed in the DSM-6, but it is clear that it is a rare phenomenon that affects a small group of postpartum women. The syndrome has been recognized in Europe for a few years. If not diagnosed and treated correctly, can result in mothers losing custody of their child.

Click here to read the full article

Nearly 5 Million Accounts Removed Under Australia’s New Social Media Ban

The world has been watching when Australia, after carefully reviewing the literature, concluded that social media exposure is harmful to children and young teens. This is from the New York Times, so I’ll summarize its most important points. Some five million young users have had their social media accounts blocked. Some probably have found ways to get around the blocking. But surprisingly, some parents have also helped their children get around the blocking by sharing their parental log in information and allowing their children to log in as them.

Click here to read the full article

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/15/world/australia/social-media-ban-australia.html

I hope you have enjoyed this compilation of counseling articles!

Henry Virkler