A few photos from our recent, very successful team building event at the Brighton Equestrian Club. Thank you to our friends at the BEC for providing such a fantastic venue. And, of course, thank you to the horses for helping to make our day special!
Don't Judge Your Judgement: How to Practice Mindfulness During a Global Pandemic
By: Nicole Wozniak, Psy.D., LP.
What do you get when you add one part global pandemic, one part virtual schooling, and one part uncertainty about the future? The answer is the perfect recipe for anxiety. At some point this year, you...
Top Ten Stress Management Tips For Teachers
By: Dr. Nicole Wozniak, PsyD.
It used to be that every year, August to June, people knew what to expect. In August, parents took their children shopping for new school supplies, while teachers began organizing classrooms and lesson...
5 Tips to Beat the Holiday and Post-Holiday Blues
By Emily Brzak, MA, TLLP.
1. Think of the new year as a blank slate. This is an excellent time to begin a new hobby or establish a new goal to steadily work towards. Mine? Train my 12-week old puppy Lola to chew on objects that are not expensive...
Cultivating Mindfulness during Covid-19
By: Ellen Barrett-Becker, Ph.D.
Covid-19 has created unprecedented stress for all of us. Balancing new work and school demands during the pandemic has been uniquely challenging. Luckily, mindfulness-based techniques can help you find your center and calm in the storm of stress and anxiety.
Making Meaning Out of a Crisis: What COVID-19 Has Taught Me.. Part One.
By: Jaclyn Rink, MSCP, LLP.
The last few weeks have been a whirlwind for our world. There has been so much movement. We panicked a bit.. (ok, maybe a lot), we stocked up on Kraft Mac N’ Cheese, shut-down our schools, brought our work...
What is Telemental Health and How Does it Work?
By Beverly M. Griffor, MA, JD, MS, MBA, TLLP
This is a time of changing rules and unsettled norms. Parents are trying to teach their children, all while working from home or coping with layoffs. Children are missing their friends and the ease of...
Overwhelmed by Your Teenager? Welcome the Club: Top Tips for Parents with Struggling Teens
By Jaclyn Rink, MS
It took me many weeks of merely thinking about this blog post before I actually sat down to write it. Simply, because it felt overwhelming. What in the world would I write about trying to compose a blog post for parents who are...
Now Offering DBT Skills Training for Teen Anxiety, Depression & Anger.
Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) is an empirically supported treatment that aims to teach skills and strategies that help to regulate emotions and improve relationships. There are four main categories of skills: Mindfulness, Distress...
A is for August and, apparently, ADHD!
This article in the New York Times is very interesting to read if your child was born in August and you have worries or questions about ADHD. It discusses the link between August births and ADHD – a new study that raises questions about...
How To Help A Child With An Anxiety Disorder.
We thought this was an excellent article to share – a recent report from the Child Mind Institute in New York. Anxiety disorders are the most common health problems in children, and they often go untreated while children suffer. Kids with...
How Horses Help Humans Heal with McCaskill Family Services and the Brighton Equestrian Club.
It’s been an exciting couple of years at McCaskill Family Services! We have been helping people in Plymouth and surrounding areas since Drs. Pam and John McCaskill started the practice way back in 1997. It has been an incredible journey and...
Assistive Technology: Are You Missing Something?
By Emily Kavanagh, M.S.
Limited Licensed Psychologist
Director, McCaskill Family Services Assistive Technology Center
Assistive Technology (AT) refers to: “Any item, any piece of equipment or any system that helps an individual bypass,...
C-BIT: An Alternative Treatment for Tics
By Dr. Amanda Klingensmith, Ph.D.
Many families have a hard time finding resources for their children with tics.
With medications, some patients experience awful side effects, and some find that medications do not affect tic frequency or...
Habits: Making Changes that Last a Lifetime.
By Dr. Fred Upton, Ph.D.
I am a person who always wants to have more data.
I love step-trackers, heart rate monitors, spread sheets and functional analyses of behavior. If I can graph a behavior, I feel like I can control it. This is not...
Let's Care about Self-Care
By Truc Nguyen
Taking care of yourself first and making your mental and physical well-being a priority sounds easy enough, right?
However, as easy as it sounds, it can also sound kind of selfish at times. Well, I’m here to help...
Why Am I Talking to Myself? The Skill You Need to Learn to Fight Anxiety and Depression
By Jaclyn Rink
MSCP, Limited Licensed Psychologist
People tend to think they need help from a mental health professional the moment they catch themselves having conversations in their own head.
A little bit of friendly banter with...
Thoughts from Hannah Burgol, Front Office Secretary, McCaskill Family Services
By Hannah Burgol
Ever since I was young I knew I wanted to work in a setting that was helping people in some way.
Throughout my childhood leading into adulthood, the healthcare field was where I felt I belonged given the time I had spent in...