![Guidance Center Board President Receives May W. Newburger Award]()
by North Shore Child & Family Guidance Center | Mar 29, 2018 | Press Releases
Nancy Lane among the dynamic women chosen for the annual women’s roll of honor
Roslyn Heights, NY, March 28, 2018 — In celebration of Women’s History Month, the Town of North Hempstead named North Shore Guidance Child & Family Guidance Center’s Board President Nancy Lane to its 25th Annual May W. Newburger Women’s Roll of Honor.
Nancy Lane, President of the Guidance Center’s Board of Directors, in front of the May W. Newburger Honor Roll
“Nancy Lane has been an invaluable asset to North Shore Child & Family Guidance Center for more than 30 years,” says Andrew Malekoff, Executive Director. “She first became involved in one of our parent initiatives in 1985, and was drawn to the Guidance Center’s mission of providing mental health care and substance abuse treatment for all in need in Nassau County, regardless of their ability to pay. In 1986, Nancy joined the Executive Committee of the Board of Directors, and from 1988 through 1992 served as the President of the Board of Directors. Today, she once again is our Board President. Her devotion to our mission and deep knowledge of what we do and of the community we serve make her a dynamic, effective and passionate leader.”
Left to right: Town of North Hempstead Supervisor Judi Bosworth, Guidance Center Board Nancy Lane, Town Clerk Wayne H. Wink Jr. and Town Councilwoman Dina M. De Giorgio
Nancy her husband Dr. Lew Lane have lived in Port Washington, Manhasset and Sands point for 37 years. They have two children: Manhasset residents Alexandra Lane and her husband Randy Cohn, who have a son, Josh; and Drew Lane and his wife Kristen Stokes, who live in Manhattan and have a daughter, Audrey. Nancy volunteered at her children’s school, Buckley Country Day School, for 13 years while her children attended the school. Before becoming a mother, Nancy volunteered at the Port Washington Library. As you can see, Nancy has been a true hero to the town of North Hempstead for nearly four decades.
Guidance Center Board Vice President Jo-Ellen Hazan (left), Board President Nancy Lane (center) and Town of North Hempstead Supervisor Judi Bosworth (right).
Many of the Guidance Center’s previous board and committee members have received this honor over the years, including Susan Isaacs, Lilo Leeds, Joan Saltzman, Amy, Hagedorn, Sondra Pardes, Irene E. Hylton, Jane Schwartz, Heather Schwartz and current board vice president Jo-Ellen Hazan.
About Us:
As the preeminent not-for-profit children’s mental health agency on Long Island, North Shore Child & Family Guidance Center is dedicated to restoring and strengthening the emotional well-being of children (from birth – age 24) and their families. Our highly trained staff of psychiatrists, psychologists, social workers, vocational rehabilitation counselors and other mental health professionals lead the way in diagnosis, treatment, prevention, training, parent education, research and advocacy. The Guidance Center helps children and families address issues such as depression and anxiety; developmental delays; bullying; teen pregnancy; sexual abuse; teen drug and alcohol abuse; and family crises stemming from illness, death, trauma and divorce. For more than 60 years, the Guidance Center has been a place of hope and healing, providing innovative and compassionate treatment to all who enter our doors, regardless of their ability to pay. For more information about the Guidance Center, visit www.northshorechildguidance.org or call (516) 626-1971.
by North Shore Child & Family Guidance Center | Mar 28, 2018 | Blog
The traditional picture of therapy is of a social worker, psychologist or other mental health professional sitting in a chair and taking notes on a pad as the client speaks about his or her challenges. Talk therapy is, indeed, an important tool, but therapy comes in many forms.
One method we use at North Shore Child & Family Guidance Center to encourage our clients to express themselves and help them understand their feelings is through the use of art. At our Marks Family Right From the Start 0-3+ Center (RFTS), art in its many forms is often used with our youngest clients.
“Children sometimes find it scary to express themselves early on in therapy,” explains Dr. Sue Cohen, Director of Early Childhood and Psychological Services at RFTS. “This is especially the case for children with limited vocabularies for various reasons. Children are more comfortable drawing a picture than responding to questions. Through drawing or other art mediums, a child can visually express and record his or her experiences, feelings and imagination.”
In addition to providing a creative way to deal with tough issues that young children might face, art can help reduce stress. “At Right From the Start,” says Dr. Cohen, “we use many forms of creative expression, from traditional painting, markers and crayons to storytelling with thumbprints and expressive positive statements written in chalk on the sidewalk. The walls of the play therapy offices are filled with the artwork of young children who are proud to see their productions displayed week after week.”
Using art is also a great way to get teens to open up. When two of our teen groups were given the opportunity to express themselves through art, they took to the challenge whole-heartedly.
Guidance Center social worker Amanda Martin-Squillace, along with social worker Brooke Hambrecht, chose art as the means to allow two of their teen groups to express themselves in a joint project using the techniques inspired by modern master Jackson Pollack. “I chose Pollack because his style shows that in seeming creative chaos, something beautiful can happen,” says Martin-Squillace. “It’s like in the therapeutic process, where you can have catharsis, just like with art.”
The two groups were given cups of varied colored paints (all donated by Ace Hardware in Rockville Centre), and the social workers demonstrated Pollack’s technique of tossing and dripping paint onto large canvasses. “The kids were hesitant at first,” says Martin-Squillace, “but when they saw Brooke and I throw the paint on the 6-foot by 9-foot canvas, they let loose and really got into it.”
The result—a large mural called “Life’s Layers” —was truly amazing. “It’s a magnificent piece, and the teens were really excited and proud of it,” says Martin-Squillace. “They felt very accomplished when they saw what they had created.”
This project is a great example of how using the arts can have great benefits for those working through mental health challenges such as depression and anxiety. “Therapy isn’t just about talking,” says Martin-Squillace. “It’s also using creative outlets to express and process emotions. We always talk about coping mechanisms with the kids, and a lot of them use technology like television, gaming and social media. This experience gave them a snapshot of other ways to use creative outlets to help self-soothe.”
For a list of art activities for teenagers that encourage spontaneity, original thinking and imagination, visit the website of Expressive Art Workshops or of Simple Practice
by North Shore Child & Family Guidance Center | Mar 28, 2018 | Press Releases
Roslyn Heights, NY, March 27, 2018 — Grab your friends and get ready for a fun afternoon filled with your favorite card (or tile) games, shopping and a fabulous luncheon!
North Shore Child & Family Guidance Center, the preeminent not-for-profit children’s mental health agency on Long Island, is pleased to announce that its Spring Luncheon 2018 will take place on Thursday, April 26, 2018 at Glen Head Country Club from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. The Clubhouse, which includes a beautiful ballroom, cozy living room area and spacious card room, is the perfect venue for a wonderful afternoon.
The keynote speaker is Victor M. Fornari, MD. Dr. Fornari is Director of the Division of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry at The Zucker Hillside Hospital and Cohen’s Children’s Medical Center and Professor of Psychiatry & Pediatrics at the Donald & Barbara Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell. He will be discussing the latest developments in the field of children’s mental health, providing useful information to parents with children of all ages.
The day will open with Mahjong, Canasta and Bridge. Next will be a delicious luncheon buffet and most informative and engaging presentation by Dr. Fornari. Throughout the day, guests will be able to visit unique shopping boutiques from some of Long Island’s trendiest and most charitable small business owners, including Chintz Giraffe, Dale’s Novelty Knits, Dash, Designs That Donate, Meryl Roesch Sunglasses and RFC Fine Jewelry, among others. Items for sale will include apparel, purses, jewelry, accessories and more. There will also be plenty of opportunities to participate in raffles for luxury prizes.
Registration is now open and sponsorships are available by visiting the Guidance Center’s website, www.northshorechildguidance.org or calling 516-626-1971, ext. 309.
About Us:
As the preeminent not-for-profit children’s mental health agency on Long Island, North Shore Child & Family Guidance Center is dedicated to restoring and strengthening the emotional well-being of children (from birth – age 24) and their families. Our highly trained staff of psychiatrists, psychologists, social workers, vocational rehabilitation counselors and other mental health professionals lead the way in diagnosis, treatment, prevention, training, parent education, research and advocacy. The Guidance Center helps children and families address issues such as depression and anxiety; developmental delays; bullying; teen pregnancy; sexual abuse; teen drug and alcohol abuse; and family crises stemming from illness, death, trauma and divorce. For more than 60 years, the Guidance Center has been a place of hope and healing, providing innovative and
compassionate treatment to all who enter our doors, regardless of their ability to pay. For more information about the Guidance Center, visit www.northshorechildguidance.org or call (516) 626-1971.
by North Shore Child & Family Guidance Center | Mar 26, 2018 | In The Media
From Blank Slate Media, March 26, 2018: Students Seeking Sensible Gun Laws Deserve our Support
Activists in Manhattan (Photo provided by Andrew Malekoff)
On March 24 I was proud to stand with the youth leaders of Stoneman Douglas High School and other youth activists across the U.S. As one of them said on a news broadcast, “Every voice matters.”
They demonstrated that by extending their reach to youth survivors beyond Parkland and broadened the frame to include gun violence in all domains.
Think for just a moment about the value-laden authenticity of these social justice youth warriors as compared to what masquerades as leadership in Washington D.C.
Think about Congress’s reliance on the likes of the NRA, Big Pharma and others for campaign financing and, even closer to home, the unending and sordid political corruption trials in municipalities across Long Island.
We have sunk so low in terms of greed, thirst for power and social dysfunction, that it will take our babies to save themselves.
And, some babies they are!
How long before their enemies try to delegitimize their efforts, even beyond characterizing them as inauthentic “crisis actors,” which only serves to reinforce their resolve?
How long before the tabloids attack them and attempt to rip them apart by manufacturing sordid headlines to discredit them?
How long before the NRA public relations corps attempts to marginalize them as ego-tripping puppets of the left and Hollywood elite, rather than the free-thinkers, born of trauma that they are?
How long? Not long. It’s already happening.
Their detractors cannot differentiate between the teens being resourceful in their partnering with adults and being dependent on them.
They don’t need our leadership. They’ve already eclipsed it. But, they will need soldiers of every generation to support them.
And, let us not forget that they have suffered post-traumatic injury and are grieving.
They’ve vowed not to let this go. We cannot lead or co-opt their revolution.
What we can do is follow and support or get out of the way.
Andrew Malekoff
Executive director of the nonprofit children’s mental health agency North Shore Child and Family Guidance Center in Roslyn Heights www.northshorechildguidance.org
by North Shore Child & Family Guidance Center | Mar 20, 2018 | Blog
One week ago, tens of thousands of students across the nation solemnly walked out of their schools, many holding candles and reading the names of the 17 high school students and teachers who died in the massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, on February 14, 2018.
In less than a month’s time, these students have created a nationwide movement. This coming Saturday, March 24, 2018, hundreds of thousands of people of every age will be participating in the March for Our Lives in numerous cities and towns all over the United States.
In a recent story on 60 Minutes, one of the teen survivors of the Parkland attack referred to himself and his peers as the “mass-shooting generation.” They were born after Columbine happened, and these kinds of events have been part of their consciousness for their entire lives. The difference in this case is that the students are taking their grief and outrage and turning it into action.
Emma Gonzalez, one of the survivors-turned-activists from the high school, wrote in Harper’s Bazaar: “We are tired of being ignored. So we are speaking up for those who don’t have anyone listening to them, for those who can’t talk about it just yet, and for those who will never speak again. We are grieving, we are furious, and we are using our words fiercely and desperately because that’s the only thing standing between us and this happening again.”
Judith Herman M.D., author of Trauma and Recovery, says trauma survivors who become activists “recognize a political or religious dimension in their misfortune and discover that they can transform the meaning of their personal tragedy by making it the basis for social action. While there is no way to compensate for an atrocity, there is a way to transcend it, by making it a gift to others. The trauma is redeemed only when it becomes the source of a survivor mission. Social action offers the survivor a source of power that draws upon her own initiative, energy and resourcefulness but that magnifies these qualities far beyond her own capacities.”
Andrew Malekoff, Executive Director of North Shore Child & Family Guidance Center, says that taking action with and on behalf of others can open the door to increasing empathy among children and youth and help them to empower themselves to make a difference.
“Talking about the trauma is rarely if ever enough,” says Malekoff. “Kids need to learn how to make waves, big waves and gentle waves. Making waves is an inherently spiritual act, one that leads young people to think and feel deeply. Making waves is an empowering and hopeful act and an antidote to inertia and apathy.”
Sources:
https://www.harpersbazaar.com/culture/politics/a18715714/protesting-nra-gun-control-true-story/
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/parkland-shooting-what-stoneman-douglas-students-want-you-to-know/
https://www.cnn.com/2018/02/15/opinions/florida-shooting-no-more-opinion-kasky/index.html
https://www.unhookedmedia.com/um-articles/2016/7/25/finding-a-survivor-mission
Photo Credit: Fabrice Florin https://www.flickr.com/photos/fabola/38488882960
