online family therapy Archives | S. Abigail McCarrel, LCSW, DCSW

How Family Therapy Can Help During This Lingering Covid Crisis

March 12, 2021 by BBYMCCRRL75216 Leave a Comment

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

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

“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

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

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

What is Positive Parenting?

January 6, 2021 by BBYMCCRRL75216 Leave a Comment

“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

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

Could Your Family Benefit from Family Counseling?

December 3, 2020 by BBYMCCRRL75216 2 Comments

Does your family love and support one another unconditionally? Do you have fun together? Do you find talking with your spouse and children is easy and effective? If you had to really pause and think about your answers to these questions, there’s a chance your family may not be as cohesive as you once thought or hoped. And that’s okay, not every family acts like something out of a 1950s television sitcom. Most have their own fair share of problems. If you’ve never considered working with a ...read more

Filed Under: General, Parenting Tagged With: #Parenting, 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, gifted family therapist, gifted family therapy, gifted parenting, In-Home Family Therapy, online family therapy

The Mental Health Impact of COVID-19 on Families

November 4, 2020 by BBYMCCRRL75216 Leave a Comment

The mental health impact of Covid-19 on families is building. If you asked any of us a year ago what would life be like in 2020, it’s doubtful anyone would have guessed we’d be going through a global pandemic, replete with lockdowns and self-quarantining. At the beginning of the year, some families might have thought of being forced to stay home from work and school would be a fun little vacation. But as the weeks and months have passed, we’ve all learned this has been anything but fun. But ...read more

Filed Under: Family Therapy, General Tagged With: #Parenting, advantages of family therapy, Anxiety, Covid parenting stress, Covid-19, Covid-19 help, Covid-19 mental health help, Family Conflicts, Family Counseling, Family problems near me, Family Therapist, gifted students, online family therapy, stress, stress of parenting

4 Exercises to Help Teach Young Children Mindfulness

September 21, 2020 by BBYMCCRRL75216 Leave a Comment

Let me help you teach young children mindfulness. Mindfulness is the practice of being aware of your body and feelings in the present moment. If you're silent for a moment, you will notice the subtle smell of your freshly washed clothing, the sound of your breathing, and watch a small leaf blow past your window. Mindfulness is an incredibly calming, relaxing practice that can help adults in numerous ways, and it may surprise you that it can help children, too. Studies have shown that children ...read more

Filed Under: Children Tagged With: Family, Family Conflicts, Family Counseling, Family Therapist, Family Therapy, family therapy sessions, gifted and talented, gifted family therapy, gifted students, mindful parenting, mindfulness, online family therapy, online therapy, parenting gifted children, young children