🌟Weekly Inspiration🌟

When you work with youth and their families, Spring is often a challenging time. As the world is blooming and sunlight shines longer each day...our youth are often brooding, stressed, and more overwhelmed. It's the time of the year with school burnout, AP tests, college acceptance, and rejections. It's also the time of year that days get longer and we inch closer to summer—and when depressive symptoms don't lift, our most fragile people can feel the most hopeless. Unfortunately, springtime is the season of the most suicide attempts nationwide. Sending love to those who may have been affected by suicide.

As adults, we know that challenges come and go…that this is the rhythm of life ❤️.  Hard times come and then they pass and eventually we feel better again. Young children, adolescents, and young adults often don’t have enough lived experience to understand this concept. When they get a poor grade on a test, a boyfriend breaks up with them, or a friend fights with them—it feels like the end of the world! Adolescents, especially, feel things intensely (the highs are higher and the lows are lower). It can be helpful and hopeful to share the “Hold On Pain Ends” message. This message is posted in the waiting room in my office and it sets the tone for the therapy space. As a therapist, I can’t make the Pain go away, but I can sit with someone while the pain slowly passes. Uncomfortable emotions and experiences are like clouds—they will continue to keep floating past and one won’t get “stuck” in discomfort forever. It can be helpful to directly communicate and role model this concept for your child.

Ask yourself:
 

What brings me hope? How have I kept going through challenging periods in my life?
Have I ever communicated about life’s challenges and what sustained me through them to my children? Do they think I’m perfect and have never been brokenhearted, disappointed, fearful, or lost?
Am I seeing my children clearly? Identifying and getting true help if needed? Letting go and lightening up if they are doing just fine?
How can I bring comfort to those I love since I can’t fix their problems? What could demonstrate my love in a way that is welcome to them?

Be well⭐