By Angelica Shiels Psy.D. I greet you in the waiting room, and ask if you need to let me know anything before I bring your child back to my office; You usually say “no,” and likely wonder what is going … Continue reading
Tag Archives: kids
Handling difficult emotions: A Simple PDF.
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By Angelica Shiels Psy.D A while back, I created a document for some of the teenagers I see in therapy (For therapists: It combines CBT and DBT, addressing some common thinking errors, validation, radical acceptance, and distress tolerance in a SIMPLE FORM. … Continue reading
Just Your Basic Babysitter Interview
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By Angelica Shiels Psy.D. So you want me to pay you to watch my three boys, huh? I see from your references that you come highly recommended, but since you have never watched these boys before, I just have a … Continue reading
The most important part of the kindergarten curriculum
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By Angelica Shiels Psy.D. Last year, around this time, my oldest son started kindergarten. (And this week, he will be starting kindergarten again. Summer birthday. Boy. Lots of desk-work and worksheets. Nuff said?) Last year, I remember hoping that … Continue reading
For adolescents with extreme emotions and behaviors
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I am a BIG fan of Dialectical Behavioral Therapy, and use it In individual therapy and with my teenage girls group. DBT is a type of therapy which basically teaches awareness, tolerating difficult emotions, and social /communication skills. Although it … Continue reading
Family Routines and Rituals = Good for Kids.
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Research has found a correlation between participation in family routines/rituals and positive language, social, emotional, and academic development in kids. While psyhologists can’t say that the “routines” actually cause the positive outcomes (this is correlation, not true experiment), researchers concluded that families with routines tend … Continue reading
How to talk to people so they will listen. (Yes, even your teenager and your husband.)
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By Angelica Shiels Psy.D. Most mental health counselors receive some kind of training in how to communicate in a way that errrr… doesn’t sound off-putting, arrogant, one-sided, and ridiculous. And lo and behold, it is not just the people who … Continue reading
A SKILL that staves off depression in children
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By Angelica Shiels Psy.D. Today’s children are at a higher risk for depression than in any previous generation. Almost one in ten children will experience a major depressive episode by the time they are 14 years old, and almost one in … Continue reading
Let. It. Go.
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By Angelica Shiels Psy.D. We went fishing in the ocean today, and my three boys had their first experience with the concept of “catch and release.” Only they were so insistent on keeping Freddy the fish as a pet, they … Continue reading
Lessons from a fairy tale: Raising the kinds of piggies that will build their houses with bricks
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By Angelica Shiels Psy.D. “I WANT to drink chocolate milk before bed! WHY won’t you LET me?!” My three year old has the persistence and determination to be the next Bill Gates in few decades. Sometimes I tell him “no,” … Continue reading
ON THE YELLOW COUCH 