Counseling News from the Week of February 13,2026
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
“We delight in the beauty of the butterfly but rarely admit the changes it has gone through to achieve that beauty.”
Maya Angelou
If we lose love and self-respect for each other, this is how we finally die.
Maya Angelou
"No one is useless in this world who lightens the burdens of another."
Charles Dickens, in "Our Mutual Friend"
“The misfortune of the wise is better than the prosperity of the fool.”
Epicurus
“Our priorities are what we do. Everything else is just talk.”
Author unknown
"Science, my lad, is made up of mistakes, but they are mistakes which it is useful to make, because they lead little by little to the truth."
Jules Verne, in "A Journey to the Center of the Earth"
"Adversity, if you allow it to, will fortify you and make you the best you can be."
American beach volleyball star Kerri Walsh Jennings
“Courage is an inner resolution to go forward in spite of obstacles and frightening situations.”
MARTIN LUTHER KING JR.
Fascinating Facts
This section omitted this week to leave room for other articles.
Counseling Articles
How Resentment Silently Destroys Relationships Over Time
Here is a well-written article with lots of good insights that you might want to download and use as a discussion starter with some of your couples where one or both are tempted to hold onto resentments.
Click here to read the full article
Cartels Use Animal Tranquilizer Produced in China to Make Fentanyl More Addictive
For those of you who work in the substance abuse field there is a new drug, Medetomidine, a powerful animal sedative used by veterinarians, that is now being mixed with fentanyl by cartels to make fentanyl more addictive. For more details, see the article.
Click here to read the full article
Mouth cancer: The significant risk of just one drink
Many people believe that one glass of alcohol per day is healthy for you or at least won’t hurt you. The evidence is mounting that any amount of alcohol consumption per day is unhealthy, and a study in the British Medical Journal found that it raises the risk of oral cancer by 60%. When one drink a day is mixed with tobacco use the increased risk is even greater. So for yourself or for clients, total abstinence from these two products is best.
Click here to read the full article
How Alcohol Increases Cancer Risk
While alcohol increases the risk of mouth cancer, this article reminds us that it also increases the risk of throat, liver, and breast cancer. This second article does not really explain how alcohol increases cancer risk, even though the title suggests it does, I think the content does suggest (doesn’t prove or explain how alcohol increases cancer risk), that cancer may be related to lifestyle factors associated with drinking alcohol. I would recommend a different title for the article.
Click here to read the full article
A Generational Test for America’s 250th
A fascinating article, which while not counseling-related, should be of interest to every Christian. The author explains that the truths embodied in the Declaration of Independence likely had their foundation in the preaching of two young preachers, Jonathan Edwards and George Whitefield. This may be part of the reason God has blessed our country so richly, even though we as a nation are far from perfect.
Click here to read the full article
President Trump Declares May 17, 2026, a Day of National Rededication to God
In a move that will encourage believers and outrage others, President Trump has declared May 17th as a day for our country to rededicate our country to be “one nation under God.”
Click here to read the full article
There are several really excellent articles relating to marriage below. If you are a counselor, teacher or parent I encourage you to read them all.
Can Marriage Bridge the Sex Divide?
The author and her husband have been studying relationships for several years, and she points out the fact that many men and women enter marriage poorly prepared because of the models (or absence of models) they received in their families of origin. And recent studies are showing that the percentage of women desiring marriage and children is decreasing. I think this emphasizes the importance of counselors, parents, and teachers providing healthy models of men and women and marriage for children as they grow up.
Click here to read the full article
What Will Artificial Intelligence Do to Birthrates?
Probably most of us have not thought about whether Artificial Intelligence might have an influence on birth rates, but this article tells us of several ways it could lower birth rates and a few ways it could increase birth rates. These are some ideas you could consider as you work with couples.
Click here to read the full article
From Date Nights to Dances, Communities Celebrate Marriage
Starting this past Saturday and continuing through the week of Valentine’s Day, a large number of communities and churches are finding ways to celebrate and encourage marriage. Are your community and church one of them?
Click here to read the full article
The One Role Gen Z Women Still Want Men to Play
This title I think gives a misleading idea about the richness of this article. It is filled with good insights about what men and women identify as most important in choosing a mate. While it is true that women in general still want men who are protective, there are an incredible number of other insights, including areas where expectations have changed and areas where expectations have stayed the same, that are important to understand if you work with young people and couples.
Click here to read the full article
To Make Families Feel Welcome, Join the Step Stool Revolution
This might seem like a puzzling title, but I think the author makes a very good point. Most bathrooms at churches and other public places do not make it easy for young children to wash their hands and so require parents to lift their children to allow them to do so. By providing step stools churches and other public places could inexpensively provide this option for young children.
Click here to read the full article
Odds of Happy Marriage Increase When Spouse is Committed, Protective, Religious and Romantic
This title accurately captures four attitudes which research indicates contribute to a happy marriage.
Click here to read the full article
Why Your Depression Might Be a Lighting Problem
An interesting article. Apparently light exposure each morning is important in helping our bodies set our circadian rhythms for the day. It appears that it’s important each day that we expose ourselves to light early in the day, and for some people, even to enhance this with bright light. And apparently, exposure to some natural sunshine each day can be helpful, and these things can reduce the likelihood of depression in some people.
Click here to read the full article
15 Elite Athletes Living with Bipolar Disorder, Depression, or Anxiety
This compilation of 15 top athletes in various fields by Tonya Hvilivitsky demonstrates that it is possible to have mental health struggles and still be a top achiever in any number of careers, including ones which require a great deal of perseverance and discipline.
Click here to read the full article
These Three Red States Are the Best Hope in Schooling
Since the pandemic American schools have fared very poorly on helping students gain adequate academic skills. Nicholas Kristof describes three Southern states, Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama, which historically have been very poor performing academically, that now have improved their academic scores significantly, even though they spend much less on their schools than many states that have much higher school taxes. Kristof describes some of the rules these states have implemented that seem to be making a difference.
- 1. An insistence on metrics, accountability and mastery of reading by the end of third grade.
- 2. Getting kids to attend school regularly. For instance, in Alabama, after three unexcused absences, the school suggests a meeting with the parents. After five unexcused absences, school district officials summon parents and warn them that they face legal risks if the truancy continues. At seven unexcused absences, the school may refer the parents to the juvenile court.
- 3. In Mississippi, where the four-year high school graduation rate is now 89 percent, the State Department of Education each year must approve a “dropout prevention plan” from each school district. The state education department “office of accountability” publishes lists that shame the 10 school districts with the lowest graduation rates.
- 4. Three important ways to improve literacy are to fix the family, fix addiction, and fix the parents, for as long as the child’s environment is broken, there’s not much else that can be done.
Click here to read the full article
‘Take the vaccine, please,’ Dr. Mehmet Oz says in an appeal as measles cases rise
Dr. Mehmet Oz is appealing to parents to please vaccinate their children for measles as the measles outbreak continues to proliferate in several states (fortunately for us Florida is not one of the hot spots).
Click here to read the full article
Born to Be Good: The Science Behind Children’s Inner Moral Code
I think there are a lot of good insights in this article and I encourage you to read it. It suggests that infants and children have an innate moral code and encourages parents to nurture it. Where I would differ is that I believe it only tells part of the story. It doesn’t tell us that God is the author of that natural moral code, or that we have an Enemy who is attempting, along with the world, to convince us that it’s better to find some way of acting like we believe in the moral code, but actually deviating from that code whenever we believe it would benefit us.
So I think we will be better parents if we tell our children the whole truth about good and evil.
Click here to read the full article
It’s Time for America to Admit That It Has a Marijuana Problem
This is from the New York Times, which is known as a liberal-leaning newspaper and not normally friendly toward conservative opinions on issues. In this instance, I think the Editorial Board has made a very significant and balanced opinion statement and one that requires a lot of courage in our current age, so I’ll summarize its major points. Back in 2014 the Times ran a six-part series where the Editorial Board recommended the repeal of any marijuana laws and advocated for the legalization of recreational marijuana.
The Editorial Board has publicly reversed their position and now recommends that marijuana not be legalized because of its potential for harm to some people. The Board doesn't recommend that we prosecute those who use it occasionally, only that states reconsider their decision to legalize marijuana.
The Board Opinion also concludes with a well-informed review of the research that most claims about the benefits of medical marijuana are not supported by solid research.
Click here to read the full article
Improving Treatment Outcomes for People with OCD
The author has a double doctorate (M.D. and Ph.D.) and has worked with persons with OCD for two decades. She talks about the two most-used treatments for OCD (CBT: Cognitive therapy combined with Exposure and Ritual Prevention) and medication. If you only have an occasional client with OCD I think you’ll find her article worth reading.
Click here to read the full article
Three Research Insights on Resilient Families
A good article from Barna Research on what makes for resilient families.
Click here to read the full article
Deepfake Fraud Explodes as AI Tools Become Widely Accessible
As AI tools become more widely accessible, be prepared for your clients (and possibly yourself and your family members), becoming targets of deepfake fraud.
Click here to read the full article
The Case for Integrative Christian Counseling
I would like to invite you to attend the webinar below that I’ll be teaching. I’ll go over many of the topics I covered in courses in integration during my 40+ years of teaching, and you will have an opportunity to purchase a notebook that includes many of the handouts I developed for those courses which you can read yourself and share with clients whom you think would benefit. (This compilation of handouts is unpublished, so the only place it will be available is at the webinar and through SFACC.)
Saturday, March 21st, 2026
Online Via Zoom 9AM - 12PM
Description
This seminar will address several foundational issues in Christian counseling, including theonomous law, the ways that an understanding of hermeneutics can aid the Christian counselor, the role of values in counseling, determinism and choice in counseling, and how integrative counseling compares and contrasts with biblical or nouthetic counseling.
Learning Objectives
Objective 1: Define theonomous law and why I believe the Bible teaches it.
Objective 2: The ways that hermeneutics (how to properly interpret the Bible) can help Christian counselors.
Objective 3: The Role of Values in Counseling.
Objective 4: Deterministic Theories and Choice in Psychology and Theology and Implications for Counseling.
Objective 5: How Integrative Christian Counseling Compares with Nouthetic (Biblical) Counseling.
Objective 6: How to Counsel the Christian Whose World Has Broken Apart by Sin.
Presenters
Dr. Henry Virkler
Palm Beach Atlantic University
Professor of Counseling (Retired)
Dr. Virkler had 15 years’ experience as a Christian counselor. He taught Christian counseling for 43 years at three universities. He developed and administered three Christian counseling centers. He has written five books and made more than 55 professional articles or professional presentations.
COSTS
$15 for Counseling Students
$15 for affiliate members/pastors
$25 for SFACC Clinical members
$40 for non‑SFACC members
We report to CE-Broker for you!
CE Broker Tracking No. 20-1350806
(CE Broker Provider No.820).
Go to sfacc.net and Live Events to register.
Affiliate membership is free for Pastors, Church Ministry Leaders, Lay Counselors, Marriage Mentors, non‑licensed counselors, and retired counselors.
This workshop has been approved for 3.0 (General) hour of continuing education with the Florida Board of Clinical Social Work, Marriage & Family Therapy, & Mental Health Counseling and the Florida Board of Psychology.
Have a wonderful week, and please consider registering for and joining our webinar on March 21.
Henry Virkler