Childhood and Adolescent Mental Health in Pandemic Times with Melissa Swartz, LPC, Trauma Therapist

We don’t know a parent who hasn’t expressed concerns about their children’s mental health over the past year.The amount of unpredictability, fear, change, and interruption to daily life and stress they have experienced in their homes has affected them all in some way. Join us as we learn from Melissa Swartz, LPC, Trauma Therapist. Melissa has extensive training in neuroscience, evolutionary biology, stress science, nutrition, and acupuncture. She graciously shares her expertise as we bring to her questions from our listeners and ourselves around mental health for adolescents and teens during the Covid-19 global pandemic. We talk about how Covid has affected our children. We touch on recognizing signs and symptoms for younger children and teens and knowing when our children and teens may need help and how to approach them and access it with them. Melissa provides meaningful education and resources around identity issues and development, social and educational re-acclimation stress, and secondary mental health concerns such as eating disorders, cutting, and other dangerous behaviors.She shares thoughtful resources on coping, improving sleep and general health, and wholistic and targeted interventions to support therapy interventions. Melissa also answers questions adult and teen listeners shared. This may be the most impactful podcast episode we’ve shared to date. As the need for mental healthcare for children and teens grows, we hope this conversation will empower you to better care for yourself and your family.