Myths of Parenting: Consistent Discipline
From the Norman Transcript: Myths and facts of raising good citizens Myth: Parents should be consistent in how they discipline their children, lest their children become “confused.” Fact: Parents need to be consistent in what they discipline for, but not in how they discipline. More important than the method is the message and the same [...]
Myths of Parenting: Self Esteem
From the Norman Transcript: Myths and facts of raising good citizens In the late 1960s, the newly emerging parenting experts told parents high self-esteem would lead to better grades, better behavior, and prevent drug and alcohol use. Unfortunately, it just hasn’t turned out that way. In fact, not only has research failed to establish a [...]
Christians, Depression, and Medications
Rob Waller is a U.K. psychiatrist and a committed Christian. And, he’s a blogger (Mind and Soul). Digging around in Rob’s archives, I found two posts I thought I would share to wrap up this week’s series on depression. The drugs don’t work..? At one level, (anti-depressants) definitely work. However, there are times when antidepressants [...]
Do Christians get Depressed?
In a word, yes. Josue Sanchez is an Adventist minister who pastors a Hispanic church in Vancouver. I have become acquainted with Josue through his blog and a few emails. Josue has recently been through a bout of clinical depression. He chronicled much of his struggle online. You can read about it here. It is [...]
Do Young and Old Give Differently?
I’m not questioning the conventional wisdom that senior adults tithe while younger adults do not. Although, maybe I should: I’ve never seen any actual research on the subject and conventional wisdom has a way of turning out to not be so wise when the light is shined on it. Instead, I’m asking about the behavior [...]
How to take SSRI’s
This Op Ed piece, SSRIs – Nightmares by the Dozen, is filled with anecdotal stories about the horror’s of anti-depressant medication. The first problem I see is the nature of stories: for every one horror story of a person committing suicide or homicide, I could tell dozens of stories where people credited anti-depressant medication with [...]
The truth about depression
From the Pocono Record: The truth about depression The isolation from friends and the constant feelings of hopelessness prevail. It is not long before the feelings of being abandoned and worthless become Truth with a capital ‘T’ and God’s promises of never leaving or forsaking you fade into falsehood. Thus, God’s Truth as mentioned in [...]
Christian Counseling
Listed below are several posts I’ve written on the nature of Christian counseling. Mostly so I can have them all in one place; perhaps readers will be interested as well. Know a Good Counselor? Criticism of Christian Counseling Psychological Spelunking On Christian Counseling What is Christian Counseling? Are there different types of Christian counseling? A [...]
The Hard Work of Marriage
The other day I quoted Dr. Scott Haltzman (from his book The Secrets of Happily Married Men: Eight Ways to Win Your Wife’s Heart Forever) who said that men who are successful in marriage have learned to use at home many of the same skills they use on the job. The men who have been [...]
Best Interests of the Child
Therapists are occasionally asked to help divorced parents resolve conflicts about how to raise their child(ren). We are supposed to ask ourselves “What is in the best interests of the child?” It is not a question of what would be fair to one parent or the other. The problem is that “best interests” is really [...]
