Archive for the ‘Spiritual’ Category
Wednesday, September 3rd, 2008 |
Nearly 1 in 2 people in the USA live with a chronic illness and about 96% of the illnesses are invisible.* Rest Ministries, Inc., the largest Christian organization that serves the chronically ill, an affiliate of Joni Eareckson Tada’s International Disability Ministry, is encouraging those with illness, as well and family, caregivers, and churches through their annual outreach event, National Invisible Chronic Illness Awareness Week, September 8-14, 2008.
This year the week features 20 workshops with well-known guest speakers who will be presenting and answering questions via Blog Talk Radio, September 8-12.
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Posted in Events, Spiritual | No Comments »
Saturday, August 30th, 2008 |
In July, the Associated Press reported the results of the latest data on the fattest states in the U.S., revealing that most of the heaviest states are located in the South. Last week, the annual report of the nonprofit Trust for America’s Health and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation was released showing that adult obesity rates increased in 37 states, while there were no decreases in any state.
Carole Lewis, national director of First Place 4 Health, a faith-based health program with groups in over 12,000 churches, is not surprised by these results. Instead, she offers a direction in how to solve the problem. “I have seen these same types of reports for years now, and I am always offended by the reasons given for obesity in the South. Habits are hard to change, and if your family always fried everything, it is natural to do the same thing.”
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Posted in Literature, Spiritual | No Comments »
Wednesday, August 20th, 2008 |
For the millions of junior high, high school and college students heading back to school shortly, the idea of returning to the classroom may be met with mixed emotions. While the school experience is built upon educational advancement, attending school is also largely a social experience. Many students find themselves working as hard to “fit in” as they do to improve their grades. These pressures can take a toll on someone already susceptible to emotional and behavioral conditions, or trigger feelings in someone who never struggled before.
Timberline Knolls, one of the nation’s leading and most innovative treatment centers for women and adolescent girls, wants to educate students and parents about potential problems, and let them know assistance is available when necessary.
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Posted in Perceptions, Spiritual | No Comments »
Tuesday, August 5th, 2008 |
For many who struggle with weight and healthful living issues, changing unhealthy habits and eating patterns has often been a defeating battle. Now, there is a way, call it a miracle if you will, that success can finally be in the grasp of everyone who desires to bring all areas of their life—physical, spiritual, emotional, and mental—into a more healthy balance.
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Posted in Literature, Spiritual | No Comments »
Tuesday, August 5th, 2008 |
Remuda Programs for Eating Disorders, the US’s leading eating disorder treatment center, reports that more than 50 percent of its patients have experienced trauma in their lives. The trauma is usually sexual, physical and emotional abuse.
“Forty-nine percent of our patients have experienced childhood sexual abuse,” said Amy Spahr, clinical director at Remuda Programs for Eating Disorders. “This is about 20 percent higher than in the general population. Additionally, in the last five years, 11 percent of adolescent and 20 percent of adult patients were diagnosed with Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).”
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Posted in Abuse, Spiritual | No Comments »
Wednesday, June 18th, 2008 |
Most of us have bickered with our “significant other” over something that’s not our loved one’s fault. The argument was likely triggered by something that happened in our past. The behavior of our parents—particularly our fathers—leaves a lasting imprint on our lives, claims clinical psychologist Kathy Rodriguez, author of “Healing the Father Wound.” In order to grow spiritually, she says, “We must address our emotional woundedness and the imprint our fathers have left upon our lives, for better or for worse.”
Rodriguez asserts that many people are unable to receive God’s love because their earthly fathers have wounded them or have been absent altogether. The results of “fatherlessness” are evident, particularly among the teen population, says Rodriguez: sky-high dropout and teen pregnancy rates, kids killing their peers or themselves in mass school shootings, and kids hurling themselves through cyberspace to escape reality.
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Tuesday, June 3rd, 2008 |
A new website (http://www.shofarcoalition.org) provides background on the issue of physical, sexual, and emotional abuse and neglect of Jewish children. It helps identify, advocate for, respond to, and provide specialized services for children, adolescents, and adults who are suffering from the impact of
child maltreatment. Although the Shofar Coalition is a Baltimore-based group, the information on the website is applicable to any Jewish community.
“Nobody really wants to face the fact that physical, sexual, or emotional abuse could be happening in our families, in our schools, in our synagogues, in our community, and that’s really the biggest issue — helping people understand that putting it on a shelf and ignoring it doesn’t make it go away,” said Esther Giller, president and director of the nonprofit Sidran Traumatic Stress Institute of Baltimore.
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Posted in Abuse, Jew, Spiritual | No Comments »
Monday, June 2nd, 2008 |
The Marriage and Family Therapy graduate degree program at Hope International University was recently granted candidacy status by the Commission on Accreditation for Marriage and Family Therapy Education (COAMFTE). COAMFTE is a specialized accrediting body that accredits post-graduate, master’s degree, and doctoral degree clinical training programs in the United States and Canada. The United States Department of Education (USDE) and the Council for Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA) recognizes COAMFTE as the national accrediting body for marriage and family therapy programs.
In July, Dr. Laura Steele, Chair of the Department of Psychology and Counseling at Hope International University, submitted a self-study to COAMFTE, and on December 3 and 4, 2007, a team from COAMFTE visited the campus to evaluate Hope’s program. While the COAMFTE evaluators were on
campus, they met with faculty, staff, and students to assess the counseling and therapy programs.
The parent organization of COAMFTE is the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy (AAMFT). AAMFT is a national organization that facilitates research, theory development and education, as well as develops standards for graduate education and training, clinical supervision,
professional ethics and the clinical practice of marriage and family therapy. They are the national leader in the field of marriage and family therapy.
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Posted in Spiritual | No Comments »