Article Summaries
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 ...
Teens and Prescription Drugs
05 June 2013
By: Darcy McConnell, M.Ed.
Recent national studies and published reports indicate that alarming numbers of young people ages 12-17 are intentionally abusing prescription drugs such as pain relievers, tranquilizers, stimulants and sedatives, to get high. The National Survey on Drug Abuse and Health conducted by the Substance Abuse an...
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...
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, ...
The Unthinkable
31 May 2013
By Jackie White Shaw, MED, LPC, LMFT
For most of us, the idea of the sexual abuse of a child is "unthinkable". Although it is very painful to hear that a child may have been abused in this way, it is almost impossible to know that reality unless we acknowledge its existence and work to understand as much as we can of the problem. Th...
Support Your Kids Through Thick & Thin
01 October 2012
By Darcy McConnell, M.Ed., LADC, LPC
The month of October has been a busy month at EFC. School started in August and some were off to college while others were another year closer to high school graduation. Everyone seemed to settle in fine; some were attending football games while others were living on their own for the first time....
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...
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...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 ...
What Do You Call "Success"?
31 May 2013
By Jackie Shaw, Executive Director
Edmond Family Counseling, Inc. is celebrating 35 years of service to our community this month. Thousands of people from every type of background, every socioeconomic level, every age and circumstance have walked through our doors during those 35 years. Our agency has offered respect, support, inf...
Please Draw a Picture of a House, A Tree and a Person
31 May 2013
By: Jackie Shaw, Executive Director
In the movies a “shrink” presents his patient with a series of “Ink Blots” on 8x11 cards and asks, “Tell me what you see”. This is known as a Rorschach test. At first glance this may not seem much different from looking at clouds and describing the shapes and ...
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 ...Deadlines & Skinny Jeans
03 June 2013
By Quinton Ellis, M.S., LPC
In my experience, deadlines are like the world’s worst ninjas. It’s not as though they just pop up in front of me, all black, silent, and awesome. No, it’s more like this particular ninja was following me all weekend, meticulously shadowing my every move. I know this because I tripped ov...
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...
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...
Idontcaratitis
03 June 2013
By Quinton Ellis, M.S., LPC
I keep hearing “I don’t care” from the kids. It’s usually followed by some variant of exhalation ranging from the anachronistic “harrumph” to the recently ascendant “Napoleon Dynamite”. Both responses are meant to convey frustration. Why, they wonder, do I c...
Putting Off is Easy
03 June 2013
By Quinton Ellis, M.S., LPC
Putting off an easy thing makes it hard. Putting off a hard thing makes it impossible. ~George Claude Lorimer
I can’t say that I’m familiar with this George Claude character, but I see evidence of the wisdom of his insight on a daily basis. In fact, I’m staring at it right...
The Day After
03 June 2013
By Quinton Ellis, M.S., LPC
The day after Bedlam I went to 7-11 and picked up a newspaper. Mainly I was after the sports section, because really, who wouldn’t want to relive that glorious night? As I was rummaging through the various sections, my eyes fell upon the cover of Parade magazine. The photograph depicted a pretty yo...
Love My Job
03 June 2013
By Quinton Ellis M.S., L.P.C.
I don’t know if everyone knows this already, but talk therapy with young people has a side-effect just as frightening as those from any pill. On occasion, a young person in therapy will experience the desire to become a therapist him or herself. Yeah, I know…creepy. Of course, it’s pe...
