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Join the Guidance Center Team
With the continuing challenges brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic, more children and teens than ever before are experiencing heightened levels of anxiety, depression and other mental health issues. North Shore Child & Family Guidance Center, which has been...
Teens Are Advocating for Mental Health Days Off School
By Christina Caron, New York Times, August 23, 2021 The decline in the mental health of children and adolescents has led to new laws allowing kids to attend to their own self-care. By the time Ben Ballman reached his junior year in high school he was busier — and more...
What Simone Biles Has Taught Us
Published originally in Anton Media, Parenting Plus column, August 20 2021, By Kathy Rivera After working in the mental health field for more than two decades, it should have come as no shock to me when I read some of the negative responses to Simone Biles’...
The Ultimate Loss: A Family’s Story Of Addiction In The Age Of Killer Drugs
Last month, family and friends of Jason Witler, a 2011 graduate of Syosset High School, gathered at the high school baseball field to celebrate the life of a young man who died this past April from an accidental overdose of a drug laced with fentanyl. The event, the...
Ask the Guidance Center Experts
Helping Kids Manage Stress. Published in Blank Slate Media. In this monthly column, therapists from North Shore Child & Family Guidance Center answer your questions on issues related to parenting, mental health and children’s well-being. To submit a question,...
This Is Our Chance to Pull Teenagers Out of the Smartphone Trap
By Jonathan Haidt and Jean M. Twenge. Published in the New York Times, July 31, 2021. As students return to school in the coming weeks, there will be close attention to their mental health. Many problems will be attributed to the Covid pandemic, but in fact we need to...
Providing a Safe Space for LGBTQ+ Teens, Originally published in Anton Media Newspapers Parenting Plus column, July 21, 2021
By Elissa Smilowitz Recently, I spoke with a mother who was navigating an issue that has become increasingly common for many families here on Long Island and across the nation. Her 12-year-old daughter told her that she thinks she may be a lesbian, but that she’s...
10 Things to Say to a Suicidal Person, by Dr. Stacey Freedenthal, published on speakingofsuicide.com
Many people desperately want to know what to say – and what not to say – to someone who is thinking of suicide. The article 10 Things Not to Say to a Suicidal Person is SpeakingOfSuicide.com’s most popular post. Almost a half-million people have viewed it in the last...