Article Summaries
Teen Reality Gap
05 June 2013
By Darcy McConnell, M.Ed., LADC, LPC
A recently released publication from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) reveals that teen drug and alcohol abuse has hit an all-time high nationwide. Oklahoma specific statistics indicate that over 34,000 Oklahoma teens abused drugs in the past month (informati...
Monitoring the Future
05 June 2013
By Darcy McConnell, M.Ed.
The latest “Monitoring the Future” survey of teenage substance abuse indicates that marijuana abuse is on the rise after two decades of consistent decline. On average about 15% of eighth through 12th grade students have abused one or more illegal drugs in the past month. Fortunately, cigarette ...
Summer Parenting Tip
05 June 2013
By Darcy McConnell, M.Ed.
Schools been out for about a month and the amount of free time teens have is scary and anxiety provoking to most parents. Even more startling is that fact that statistics show that drug and alcohol abuse, along with law violations by adolescents, increase during the summer months. For some teens summer mea...
Three Words of Wisdom
04 June 2013
By John Goetz
It is part of culture to pass down the knowledge we have gathered to future generations. We do so through stories, metaphors, books, song and a countless host of other methods. It is an attempt to help our children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren learn from our experiences. With the help of some clever marke...
Super Size Me
04 June 2013
By John Goetz, M.Ed. L.P.C.
This weekend I did something I previously stated I would not do. I watched the documentary "Super Size Me", the story of a guy who eats nothing but what is offered on the menu at McDonalds for 30 days. Now, I have been known to watch my share of documentaries...
Anger and a Desire to Change
04 June 2013
By John Goetz, M.Ed. L.P.C.
Irritated, annoyed, ticked, hot, enraged and frustrated . . . these are but a few of the words we use to describe anger. Webster's states that anger is a feeling of displeasure and usually of antagonism. According to the America Psychological Association, anger is an emotional state that varies in intensi...
Tevye asked Golde Do You Love Me?
04 June 2013
By John Goetz, M.Ed. L.P.C.
In the Musical Fiddler on the Roof, Tevye asked Golde do you love me? After 25 years in a stable/successful marriage which was arranged by his parents and his wife's parents he considers that love may be a central part of marriage. Their parents told them that they would learn to love one another and now ...
Building Fences a Family Project
04 June 2013
By John Goetz, M.Ed. L.P.C.
As Alice Cooper stated so eloquently, School's out for summer. Teenagers across our state are busy not making plans beyond sleeping late and staying up late. To be fair, many teens will be engaged in summer jobs, church work camps, mission trips, sports, and a wide variety of positive activities. The real...
Double Standards
04 June 2013
Boys will be Boys
Girls will be Girls
By John Goetz, M.Ed. L.P.C.
Individual differences are greater than gender differences. To be perfectly clear I will say it again, Individual differences are greater than gender differences. With that being said up front I wish to touch on the fact that boys and girls are diff...
"Dating Drama" from a Dads seat in the House
04 June 2013
By John Goetz, M.Ed. L.P.C.
"He is a stupid jerk or a confused wimp". The words a 16 year old girl uses to describe a 16 year old male caught in the snare of dating drama. A situation which is obvious to the detached spectators sitting in the stands watching these scenes play out but completely oblivious to the unfortunate souls pla...
The Five Truths of Life
04 June 2013
By John Goetz, M.Ed. L.P.C.
A few weeks ago, back in October, my youngest daughter shared a bit of wisdom she heard at Workcamp with our Church. The presenter was Father Geoff Rose and he shared “The Five Truths of Life” from Father Richard Rohr. I would like to touch base on the 5th truth, “you are going to die&r...
Food Allergies
04 June 2013
By John Goetz, M.Ed. L.P.C.
Food is essential to life and, because of this, is at the center of our conversations and activities. In America we enjoy an abundant supply and mind numbing choices of what to eat. We also enjoy a mind numbing number of diet ideas. One which has gained a great deal of attention in the media is “fo...
Panic, Don't Panic
04 June 2013
By John Goetz, M.Ed. L.P.C.
No, I am not writing about the economy. I am referring to an anxiety based disorder called “panic attacks”. Characteristics of a panic attack include a sudden feeling of intense fear or anxiety that may be characterized by shortness of breath or hyper ventilating, heart pounding in the chest, ...
Satire
03 June 2013
By: Quinton Ellis, M.S.
Let's take a moment, here the end of another school year, with Memorial Day just passing and an interminably long summer beyond that, to put ourselves in the minds of too many of our children. Are they thinking about how they can't wait to get started on that "character building" summer job? Are they looking ...
The Odyssey Years
03 June 2013
By: Quinton Ellis, Masters of Science
I am pleased to report to all of you that our social scientists have been hard at work developing a name for the cloud that I and many others some ten years ago sprinted headlong into, clumsily navigated through, and emerged exhaustedly from only just recently. Their hard work has yielded the term "th...Varsity Blues
03 June 2013
By: Quinton Ellis, M.S.
One of my favorite conversations to engage in with my clients is the one that begins after I express my relief regarding that client s discontentedness with his or her teenage existence. Well of course you hate your life, why shouldn t you? I m liable to remark. Let s face it, as adults, how many of us look b...
What Matters Most
03 June 2013
By: Quinton Ellis, M.S.
Some months ago EFC, in conjunction with Edmond s Character Council and our municipal juvenile courts, developed a community service alternative for teenagers dubbed the What Matters Most program. The purpose of the program would be to explore the concept of personal character and its relationship with the mo...
Youth is Wasted on the Young
03 June 2013
By: Quinton Ellis, M.S., LPC
“Youth is wasted on the young”. I enjoy asking teenagers to interpret this axiomatic quotation. Most don’t know what to make of it, which, one assumes, is confirmation of the quote’s wisdom. If I assign an adult the same task, I will always get an answer as to how young people screw so ...And How Does That Make You Think?
03 June 2013
By: Quinton Ellis, M.S., LPC
“I know right?”Have you heard this fairly recent addition to our American lexicon? I can’t be the only one who’s noticed. It’s been around for a couple of years. It is apparently used by a listener to convey to the speaker with great enthusiasm that he or she has he...
"He's Got a Lot of Potential"
03 June 2013
By: Quinton Ellis, M.S., LPC
I remember hearing that frequently when I was in elementary school and for some time after that. My parents, my teachers- they were all apparently very excited about all that I was capable of achieving- in the future. I remember finding it all incredibly satisfying as well as comforting at the time. Whateve...
