Parents often come to me feeling they have exhausted every avenue and are looking for practical steps to help their child’s anxiety. The parents often present as being very anxious themselves.When parents ask me ‘so, what should we do?’ I begin by looking at what has been their approach so far. It’s important, in the…

One of the most prevalent issues I encounter in the therapeutic setting is that of teenage anxiety. It can take the shape of many forms, from social anxiety to school refusal to general feelings of not wanting to go outside to a complete paralysis due to excessive worrying or ritualistic behaviours. Living with a child that is…

It is important that everyone in the family has a chance to express their feelings about what is happening in the house, writes Richard Hogan TEENAGE mental health has received a lot of media attention recently. There has been debate about how best to promote our children’s mental health and what strategies parents should utilise. And this has been…

I still remember, vividly, the last conversation I had with a childhood friend of mine. I was out one Saturday night in Cork and happened to bump into him, writes Richard Hogan. He was slightly younger than me and I had always felt a little protective of him. He was a sensitive, beautiful soul. We had…

Oscar Wilde said ‘to win back my youth, there is nothing I wouldn’t do — except take exercise, get up early, or be a useful member of the community’, writes Richard Hogan. While at first glance this seems like a flippant comment, I think Wilde is touching on something we all experience as parents of teenagers. They…

Parents and front-line services dread the binge boozing of October 31, but we are all culpable in subtly encouraging the young to partake, says psychotherapist  Richard Hogan HALLOWEEN is about scary costumes, but it has become a night of dread of a different sort for parents and front-line services. October 31 has become one of those…

NOTHING has invaded our personal worlds with such muted insidiousness than that of our technological devices. One of the most striking features of our society today is the fact that nearly everyone seems to be plugged out of life and plugged into some sort of device as they go about their daily commute to work…

The recent proliferation of internet-enabled technology has dramatically changed the way adolescents encounter and consume sexually explicit material. Such material, traditionally only sourced through magazines, videos or at the end of a personal computer which was attached to a telephone line, is now, in today’s world easier than ever to access. The ubiquity of the internet and…

We are now several weeks into the new school term, and for most children the initial negative reaction that ‘back to school’ brings in its wake has dissipated and the family has settled into the new rhythm of school life. However, there are a growing number of children for whom the notion of going back to…