236 E. Foothill Blvd., Suite C | Arcadia, CA 91006
(626) 755-4059 | sabigail@protonmail.com

S. Abigail McCarrel, LCSW, DCSW

  • Home
  • About
    • Meet Abby
    • Services
    • Client Forms
    • Credentials:
    • Rates & Insurance
  • Specialties
    • Family Therapy for Gifted Children
    • Counseling for Gifted Students’ Parents
    • In-Home Family Therapy:
    • Family Therapy: When Bad Stuff Happens
    • Post-Adoption Family Therapy
    • Online Therapy for Parents and Families
  • Contact Abby
  • Family Therapy Blog
  • Media

How to Help Your Child Overcome Attachment Issues from Adoption

April 5, 2021 by BBYMCCRRL75216 Leave a Comment

Overcoming attachment issues from adoption can be challenging. Adopting a child can be one of the most rewarding experiences in life. Opening your home and heart to a child in need often leads to a bond that enriches both the parent and the child’s life. But sometimes the road to “happily ever after” is paved with potholes. Sometimes adoptive children suffer from attachment issues, which means they have an difficulty bonding with others. This can even happen in homes where the adoptive ...read more

Filed Under: Children Tagged With: #adopted child insecurities, #adopting a child, #adoption and attachment, #adoption and attachment parenting, #attachment parenting, #attachment parenting older adopted children, #bonding in adoption, #building attachment with adopted child, #family therapy and adoption, #family therapy for adoption, #infant adoption attachment, #parenting adopted children, #post-adoption therapy, #trauma and adoption, Adoption

4 Ways to Support Your LGBTQIA+ Child When They’re Facing a School Bully

March 26, 2021 by BBYMCCRRL75216 Leave a Comment

Dark hallway at school with LGBTQIA+ youth walking alone and a victim of bullying

LGBTQIA+ children and bullying. It’s easy for adults to forget what adolescence was like. The frustrations of figuring out the sometimes-foreign world around us combined with the cocktail of raging hormones that set our emotions off at the drop of a hat. Man, being a kid was hard! What can make an already-hard situation even harder for a young person is being “different” in some way. For young people who identify as LGBTQIA+, school bullying can be devastating. Rumors, gossip, name-calling, or ...read more

Filed Under: LGBTQ Tagged With: Bullying, Family therapy for LGBTQIA+ bullying, how to prevent LGBTQIA+ bullying at school, LGBTQIA+, LGBTQIA+ bullying, LGBTQIA+ Children, LGBTQIA+ cyberbullying, LGBTQIA+ Family, LGBTQIA+ Parenting, LGBTQOA+ Community, school bullying, sensitive child, sensitive children, the effects of LGBTQIA+ bullying

How Family Therapy Can Help During This Lingering Covid Crisis

March 12, 2021 by BBYMCCRRL75216 Leave a Comment

Mixed race family sits around the breakfast table together during Covid-19 to destress.

It has been almost a year since the world changed with the Covid-19 virus. After months and months of being locked down, many families are experiencing burnout from being forced to be home together so much. Family therapy during covid may be the answer. While the vaccines are being rolled out, we are still getting mixed reports and messages from the media as to when life might return to normal. Some schools have opened, but many have not. Parents are still scrambling to figure out how to make ...read more

Filed Under: Family Therapy, Parenting, Telehealth Tagged With: advantages of family therapy, Family, Family Conflicts, Family Connection, Family Counseling, Family Therapist, Family Therapy, Family therapy and ADHD, family therapy for gifted, family therapy for giftedness, family therapy sessions, gifted family therapist, gifted parenting, online family therapy, online therapy

Parenting the Highly Sensitive Child

February 26, 2021 by BBYMCCRRL75216 2 Comments

Small, highly sensitive child holding a parent's hand as viewed from behind

Parenting the highly sensitive child can be tricky. If your child is sensitive to the emotions of others, worrisome and easily overwhelmed by changes or new people and environments, you may have a highly sensitive child. Parenting can be demanding, and parenting a highly sensitive child can present additional challenges. However, with a few simple strategies, you can better manage everyday problems and create a more peaceful home for the both of you. Change Your Viewpoint: First, it’s ...read more

Filed Under: Parenting Tagged With: #Parenting, 2e, family guidance, family therapy for gifted, mindful parenting, mindfulness, online family therapy, online therapy, parenting a sensitive child, parenting gifted children, sensitive child, sensitive parenting, sensory, sensory sensitivity

Teaching Kids Mindfulness: The Benefits and Easiest Ways to Do It!

February 19, 2021 by BBYMCCRRL75216 Leave a Comment

Teaching Kids Mindfulness: Two boys making funny faces as they hold their breaths in a mindfulness activity in family therapy

“Pay attention!” Teaching kids mindfulness has many benefits. It’s a phrase that is uttered dozens of times a week (if not more) in households where children between the ages of two and 18 reside. How is it that when they WANT to, oh say when they are playing video games or watching cartoons, kids can have a tremendous attention span. But at any other time, getting them to be present is harder than getting them to close the refrigerator door! While getting kids to pay attention can seem ...read more

Filed Under: Children Tagged With: #Parenting, Deep breathing, Family, Family Conflicts, Family Counseling, family therapy for gifted, gifted, grounding, meditation, mindful awareness, mindful parenting, mindfulness, online family therapy, parents, stress of parenting

How to Talk to Your Young Child About the LGBTQIA+ Community

February 12, 2021 by BBYMCCRRL75216 Leave a Comment

LGBTQIA+ Rainbow flag being waived proudly at a march helping parents know how to talk to their young children about LGBTQIA+ questions.

How to talk to your young child about the LGBTQIA+ community is a timely and essential question. As a parent or caregiver, it can be difficult to know the right thing to say when kids question what we deem to be adult topics. Broaching topics of sexuality can be awkward for both parents and kids alike. Yet, it is a necessary conversation to have. When it comes to talking about homosexuality and transgender individuals, children should be given age-appropriate information. This will help them ...read more

Filed Under: Adolescents/Teens, Children, LGBTQ Tagged With: #Parenting, Abigail, advantages of family therapy, Counseling for family problems, Family Counseling, family therapy sessions, gifted parenting, LGBTQIA+, LGBTQIA+ Children, LGBTQIA+ Family, LGBTQIA+ Parenting, LGBTQOA+ Community, online family therapy, online therapy, stress of parenting

How to Bring Up Resilient Children

January 29, 2021 by BBYMCCRRL75216 Leave a Comment

Young Black Girl looks with inquisitivity and wide eyes as she builds resilience and coping skills from family therapy

How can parents bring up resilient children? Have you heard the phrase “helicopter parent?” It describes a mother or father that ‘hovers’ around their child 24/7, overseeing their life to keep them from every potential danger, pitfall and mishap. It looks good on paper, but this kind of parenting forgets one important fact of reality: life happens. Adversity happens to all of us. Those children who engage with adversity in their formative years learn how to handle it well and come up with ...read more

Filed Under: Adolescents/Teens, Children, Parenting, Resilience, Trauma / PTSD Tagged With: #Parenting, 2e, bring up resilient children, building resilience, Family Counseling, Family Therapist, Family Therapy, family therapy for gifted, family therapy for giftedness, family therapy sessions, gifted parenting, online family therapy, resilience, resilience in families, stress of parenting

How Learning Disabilities Affect a Child’s Mental Health

January 15, 2021 by BBYMCCRRL75216 Leave a Comment

Young child with learning disabilities finger paints as a way to manage mental health issues.

For many children and teens, learning disabilities are a frustrating part of life. Learning disabilities not only bring a sense of shame and isolation, but they can also lead to mental health issues in some children. What Are Learning Disabilities? According to the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), a learning disability is any disorder of the fundamental psychological processes involved in understanding or using language. These can ultimately result in difficulties thinking, ...read more

Filed Under: Adolescents/Teens, Children, School & Academics Tagged With: #Parenting, 2e, Family Connection, Family Counseling, Family Therapist, Family Therapy, family therapy sessions, gifted and talented, gifted family therapy, gifted parenting, gifted students, giftedness, learning disabilities, therapy for learning disabilities, twice-exceptional

What is Positive Parenting?

January 6, 2021 by BBYMCCRRL75216 Leave a Comment

Parents of two small children walk holding hands as they practice positive parenting, connecting and bonding.

“Because I said so!!” How many times did your parents say this phrase to you? How often were you spanked as a child? How much yelling was there in your house growing up? It’s safe to say that parenting styles have changed over the years. While spanking may have been deemed okay years ago, most parents agree now that hitting a child is not okay, for any reason. Shame and yelling are also, thankfully, out of fashion. Many of today’s parents are trying to use positive parenting techniques ...read more

Filed Under: Parenting Tagged With: #Parent-Child Bond, #Parenting, 2e, ADHD, advantages of family therapy, Family Conflicts, Family Counseling, Family Therapist, Family Therapy, Family therapy and ADHD, family therapy for gifted, family therapy for giftedness, online family therapy, positive parenting, relationships

The Benefits of Online Therapy

December 15, 2020 by BBYMCCRRL75216 Leave a Comment

Parents on a video screen participating in online parent therapy for challenging, complex and often gifted students.

There are many benefits of online therapy. The COVID-19 pandemic has changed our lives in innumerable ways. But, as stressful as this lockdown has been for most of us, we have learned much about ourselves as individuals and as a nation. Another silver lining that has emerged from this crisis is a new awareness and embracing of treatment tools that have been available for some time. Telehealth (or telemedicine) and online therapy have been around for decades but are now experiencing a surge in ...read more

Filed Under: General, Telehealth Tagged With: advantages of family therapy, CA, California, Family Counseling, Glendora, LaVerne, Monrovia, online counseling, online family therapy, online help for families, online therapy, online therapy Arcadia, Pasadena

  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • …
  • 5
  • Next Page »

S. Abigail McCarrel, LCSW, DCSW



Phone: (626) 755-4059
sabigail@protonmail.com
Contact Abby

S. Abigail McCarrel, LCSW, DCSW

Phone: (626) 755-4059 sabigail@protonmail.com

Address
236 E. Foothill Blvd., Ste, C
Arcadia, CA19006

The way we talk to our children becomes their inner voice

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • Pinterest

Get Started

Click on the button below to schedule a free 20 minute phone consultation with S. Abigail McCarrel, LCSW, DCSW.

Contact Abby

Privacy Policy
A Website by Brighter Vision