Welcome to Our Blog!

This blog is written by the clinicians at Jonah Green and Associates, a mental health practice based in Kensington, MD that provides quality services for children, teens, families, and adults. It is intended as a resource for families who are seeking to expand their knowledge about mental health and mental health services, and also as a resource for families who are seeking quality mental health services, especially in the mid-Atlantic region. Please feel free to post questions and comments on any of the entries as well as on any topics or articles from our companion web site www.childandfamilymentalhealth.com.

May 29, 2019

Three Small Steps for Dealing with Anxiety and Depression

Calling upon and accessing cognitive resources when managing feelings of anxiety and depression is hard, to say the least. We often intellectually understand strategies for dealing with these feelings, but utilizing those tools when in a state of emotional strain can feel impossible. When helping clients manage feelings of anxiety and/or depression, I often try to provide pneumonic devices or mental shortcuts in order to simplify the process in order to help remembering, and employ, their strategies. One such shortcut is the mantra, “relax, distract, cope”.

[Read more…]

March 25, 2018

Avoiding Avoidance

Avoidance is a natural response to fear and anxiety. Fear is adaptive and serves as an alarm to move us out of harm’s way. Many stressors, such as running across a busy street or scaling a tall building, should be avoided. Each time we successfully stay safe, our brain rewards us with a flood of relief; we survived, and we like that feeling.

[Read more…]

January 30, 2018

How to Identify Test Anxiety and Help Your Child Cope

Your child is sitting down to take an exam. His teacher or professor walks by, drops the test on his desk, and he immediately starts to panic. His palms are sweaty, and he cannot seem to remember any of the content he studied. His heart is beating quickly, and he’s starting to feel light-headed. He cannot seem to figure out why this always happens when he sits down to take a test. Does this sound like a familiar scenario for your child? If the answer is yes, the cause might be test anxiety.