What’s the Difference Between Mental, Emotional and Behavioral Health?

Depending on the professional with whom you speak, mental health can sometimes be referred to as emotional health or behavioral health. To me, they’re all the same. It’s hard to differentiate our cognitions (mental) from our emotions and our reactions (behaviors) because they are all interconnected and influence one another. What is happening in our environment impacts the way we think about ourselves and our surroundings, influences how we feel both physically and emotionally, and therefore causes us to react in our behavior.  While emotions can oftentimes be recognized through non-verbal communication, we cannot read one another’s minds, and yet, the behaviors of children are oftentimes what gets the grownup’s attention.  Challenging behaviors are usually why parents call us for support. Learn More...

Creating a Summer Schedule for Your Family

As the school-year ends, many families embrace a slower schedule, or lack thereof. Taking a break from the busy school schedule is well-deserved, but if you’re like my family, some structure and routine to the day can keep things interesting when day in and day out at home can seem boring after a while.

A summer schedule can also help set some boundaries around use of technology, which research shows is correlated to poor academic performance and higher mental and emotional health symptoms. And at least at my house, the more screen time there is, the more outbursts we have, which tells me their brains need less of it!  If you want to include technology time in your summer schedule, you could designate a limited amount somewhere throughout the day. Learn More...

What’s the difference Between a Psychotherapist, Psychiatrist, and Psychologist?

At Creative Family Counseling, we receive a lot of inquiries for support across a wide spectrum.  Since our specialty is working with children, teens, and families, many parents call us to seek out counseling and other services for their young child or teenager. At both the initial phone call and during appointments with our clinical team members, many clients pose questions about the services we offer and don’t offer, largely because there is confusion about the different kind of mental health providers: psychotherapist, psychologist, and psychiatrists.  And we get it! All those different (yet similar sounding) providers of mental health care can be hard to keep straight. Let me provide some clarity for you! Learn More...