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By Stephen Gray Wallace, featured in Psychology Today. The news about declining COVID-19 rates around the country may foreshadow a return to more “normal” rhythms and patterns of behavior. Among the casualties of online learning and socializing may have been traditional family dinners. An October 2021 article, “More Parents Are Rejecting Nightly Family Dinners – And Experts…

By Stephen Gray Wallace, featured in Psychology Today. Throughout September’s National Suicide Prevention Month, NAMI (National Alliance on Mental Illness) rolled out “Together for Mental Health.” According to NAMI, this awareness initiative: Encourages people to bring their voices together to advocate for better mental health care, including a crisis response system. NAMI wants any person experiencing suicidal thoughts or…

The new school year is starting kind of, well, where the last one left off. Maybe worse. Nevertheless, amid the stunning emergence of the new, and more contagious, strain of COVID-19 (Delta) lurks an unrelenting optimism of life returning to normal. Though Dr. Anthony Fauci now warns that likely won’t happen until Spring 2022. Here…

Amid warnings of a new, and potentially more contagious, strain of COVID-19 (Delta Plus) lurks an unrelenting optimism of life returning to normal. Nonetheless, reentry may be anxiety-provoking, perhaps especially for children and teens. It’s one more hit in a decades-long spiral of youth mental health. Loneliness, anxiety, and depression have been well-cataloged among pandemic-era…

A January 2021 article in The Wall Street Journal, “Despite Covid-19 Risks, Summer Camps Are Filling Up Quickly,” points to the fact that organized camping is making a comeback! And not a moment too soon. According to the American Camp Association (ACA), “Camps build skills necessary to prepare campers to assume roles as successful adults. Parents, campers, and camp staff…

American Camp Association research associate, Victoria Povilaitis sits down with Stephen Gray Wallace who wears many hats as a school psychologist, adolescent & family counselor, ACA contributor, director of the Center for Adolescent Research & Education (CARE), former national chairman and CEO of Students Against Destructive Decisions (SADD), and much more!  The two unpack research coming from CARE and Total Brain on youth…

News last week that seven Bowling Green State University students pleaded not guilty to charges stemming from the alcohol-related hazing death of sophomore Stone Foltz at a Pi Kappa Alpha event will hopefully refocus America on the issue of underage drinking and begs the question, “Why is this still happening?” (Wilkinson, 2021). There are biological antecedents (adolescent…

Stephen Gray Wallace, MS Ed, and Chrissie Kahan, MS Ed Across the land, schools and summer camps have embraced a movement to better understand trauma and how it affects a child’s ability to learn and self-regulate their behavior. As that knowledge becomes available to counselors and instructors, camps have a greater ability to move from…

Rarely, it seems, does a day go by when we do not bear witness to the tragedies of boys – and men – behaving badly. From the famous (think Bill Cosby, Harvey Weinstein and many more) to the infamous, such as Brock Turner and Owen Labrie, they collectively beg the question: how are we raising…

  With rolling spring breaks coming to a rest and kids rounding the turn into the final stretch of another (somewhat irregular) school year, summer planning is increasingly on their, and their parents’, minds. For a lucky bunch, a return to the well-known routines and relationships of summer camp will retake their position at the…