Kean University Counseling Program

02/19/2020

SO when your parents said eat your veggies, they were right; well partially. Have a look at recent studies related to Alzheimer's and diet. Enjoy.

Particular antioxidants in fruits and vegetables may lower chances of getting the disease

02/18/2020

Oklahoma is doing something about the data that has their kids' ACE scores #1 in the nation. This reinforces what we have known, that caring teachers can buffer trauma.

FEB 18, 2020 - Thousands of educators gathered in the Cox Convention Center on Monday and eagerly stared at a model of a brain. With 86 billion neurons firing, the brain is a “miracle of complexity,” Dr. Bruce Perry said as he showed the image on a screen. The impact of childhood trauma is simil...

02/13/2020

From NBCC, important progress on states banning conversion therapy. You should be pleased to note New Jersey is among them.

Conversion therapy, the controversial set of unproven and often harmful treatments that purport to “cure” same-sex attraction, is a practice that counselors and many other medical professionals have fought to ban for decades. Conversion therapy is already banned in 19 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico. Many municipalities and counties across the country have also banned the practice within their city or county limits. As state legislative sessions get underway for 2020, many more states are considering bills to outlaw conversion therapy.

Most recently, on Jan. 21, Utah Gov. Gary Herbert (R) signed an executive order outlawing conversion therapy for minors in the state. The legislatures in Missouri and Oklahoma are currently considering banning the practice for minors in their states. The Virginia Board of Counseling has also released a statement declaring that practicing conversion therapy is punishable by disciplinary action from the board. This trend is likely to continue as public opinion polling shows Americans are overwhelmingly opposed to the practice.

NBCC supports all bans on conversion therapy in all its forms. Conversion therapy directly contradicts every moral and ethical standard that mental health counselors are held to, including the NBCC Code of Ethics and the ACA Code of Ethics. Not only is the practice wholly based on unproven claims, it has been shown in multiple scientific studies to cause great mental and emotional harm to those who undergo it.

Conversion

02/10/2020

02/10/2020

In the early 2010s, scientists pivoted away from believing that the brain and body function as church and state entities, and began to embrace an entirely new brain-body paradigm that tells us that the brain is also governed by the immune system.
This ground-breaking science couldn’t come a moment too soon. As we look back over the past decade, one thing is disturbingly apparent: We are increasingly a people in despair. For many, when despair becomes depression, or untenable anxiety, the standard answers — antidepressants with a dose of therapy — are not enough to assuage suffering.
The past decade has been a golden era in brain research, one in which scientists have offered extraordinary hope for today’s mental health crisis by rewriting our basic understanding of how disorders of the human brain develop, and how we might help prevent or ameliorate them. And they all come down to one tiny, elusive cell, called microglia, which turn out to be game-changers for mental health.
Our body and brain are constantly chatting in a bidirectional conversation about whether we are safe, or not safe. When our brain gets the message we aren’t safe, this brain immune inflammatory response — led by microglia — can lead to depression, anxiety, and memory loss. In unhealthy or toxic environments, microglia can become the brain’s untimely assassins.
New brain research advances the understanding of trauma, stress and the immune system. First it was gray hair, then disrupting the microbiome and creating inflammation, now this. A fantastic brief read.New brain research advances the understanding of trauma, stress and the immune system. First it was gray hair, then disrupting the microbiome and creating inflammation, now this. A fantastic brief read.

More than a decade ago, I was diagnosed with several autoimmune diseases, one after another, including Guillain-Barré syndrome , which left me paralyzed twice while raising two young children. All told I spent six years in and out of bed and hospitals, learning, between crises, to use a cane or wal...

01/25/2020

https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2014/05/to-remember-a-lecture-better-take-notes-by-hand/361478/

Students do worse on quizzes when they use keyboards in class.

01/03/2020

Here is where those pea skills come in handy, and there is evidence they work!

In moments of acute stress, it can be incredibly difficult to breath easy. That’s because when the “fight or flight” response is activated, the sympathetic nervous system activates rapid breathing. There are steps one can take to prevent this from happening — and they all come back down to b...

11/15/2019

More evidence that ACEs need intervention

According to a new study, chronic adversity in childhood and adulthood could lead to a dampened physiological response to acute stress and exaggerated threat perception.

11/09/2019

We owe you some updates. Here is an interesting read.

Neuroimaging can be used to assess a person's risk of suicidal behavior. Those with mood disorders, a history of suicidal thoughts, and those with a history of su***de attempts have less connectivity in the cognitive control network. They also have reduced connectivity between the cognitive control....

10/16/2019

https://www.imaginenj.org/news-and-events/2019/09/16/educational-conference-on-su***de/

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10/08/2019

This study further explains why, despite a difficult start, some children overcome these experiences. The findings suggest that we find ways to insure these buffering effects are in very child's life. School and teachers head the list, so we have work to do!

New study finds positive childhood experiences are crucial for adult health.