Category: LEARN

Creative Arts Therapy Feature: Poetry Therapy

Do you enjoy the arts? Have you ever wanted to see how getting creative can help you mentally? This feature is just one in a series of entries exploring the different types of creative arts therapy. You can learn more about other outlets here!

Sometimes it can be hard to discuss how you are feeling out loud. There can be a sense of pressure to try to find the exact words to fully describe how you’re feeling and the worry your words won’t come out how you want them to, leading the other person to misunderstand how you are feeling. One way to express your emotions without having to talk about them is to write about them in a poem. Continue reading Creative Arts Therapy Feature: Poetry Therapy

Embracing Failure

“If you’re not failing, it probably means you’re not taking enough risks.”

Those are the words of Peter Forkner, director of the counseling center at Bentley University in Waltham, Massachusetts, at a recent event in which Bentley, staff, faculty, and alumni recount their stories of failure and lessons learned from them. Bentley University is one of many US colleges making the move to ease students’ anxieties around failure and teaching them to cope with it. Continue reading Embracing Failure

Existential Depression

The SOVA Project is happy to feature this blog post written by one in our team of fantastic SOVA Ambassadors—these are young people who help create meaningful blog posts from adolescents’ perspectives.

Since I’ve been young, I felt that my depression was different than normal. And of course, there is no normal, yet my reasons for depression are quite different. I’d like to call it philosophical depression, although through my research, I’ve learned that what I feel is called existential depression. Continue reading Existential Depression

Loneliness in Adolescents

When was the last time you felt lonely? What about left out?

A national study published this year showed that 39% of high school seniors said they often feel lonely in 2017, an increase from 26% in 2012. 38% of high school seniors also reported often feeling left out in 2017 compared to 30% in 2012. According to a national study from the health insurer Cigna in 2018, young adults between the ages of 19 to 23 are the loneliest. Continue reading Loneliness in Adolescents

Superstition: Is It the Way?

The SOVA Project is happy to feature this blog post written by one in our team of fantastic SOVA Ambassadors—these are young people who help create meaningful blog posts from adolescents’ perspectives.

As Stevie Wonder once sang, “Superstition ain’t the way…”or is it? Most are to some extent superstitious, whether it be knocking on wood, reading your daily horoscope, or friggatriskaidekaphobia (the fear of Friday the 13th). While superstition is not often taken extremely seriously, it has negative and positive effects on us. Continue reading Superstition: Is It the Way?

Creative Arts Therapy Feature: Dance/Movement Therapy

Do you enjoy the arts? Have you ever wanted to see how getting creative can help you mentally? This feature is just one in a series of entries exploring the different types of creative arts therapy. You can learn more about other outlets here!

Created in the 1940s by Marian Chace, dance/movement therapy (DMT) is a psychotherapeutic intervention using movement and dance to support intellectual, emotional and motor functions of the body. In a session, the therapist responds to movements, assesses body language and nonverbal behaviors and emotional expressions to develop interventions to address the specific needs of the client. DMT was founded on 4 core premises:

  • Movement is a language
  • Mind, body, and spirit are interconnected
  • Movement is functional, developmental, communicative and expressive
  • Movement is an assessment tool and primary mode of intervention

Continue reading Creative Arts Therapy Feature: Dance/Movement Therapy

When a Toxic Relationship Comes to an End

The SOVA Project is happy to feature this blog post written by one in our team of fantastic SOVA Ambassadors—these are young people who help create meaningful blog posts from adolescents’ perspectives.

This week, a toxic relationship that I was in came to an end. The toxic part of this relationship has been going on for a little over a year and even though I always knew it was going to end in flames, I still felt surprised when it happened. Continue reading When a Toxic Relationship Comes to an End

How Siblings Can Affect Mental Health

No two sibling relationships are the same. Some may not see theirs very often, while others see them all the time and share the same room. Some only have one, while others have enough to count on both hands. There are some who may hate a sibling, while others see a sibling as their best friend (and honestly, a lot of us feel both of these feelings towards one at the same time). Continue reading How Siblings Can Affect Mental Health

Can Going to a Different School Impact Your Child’s Mental Health?

What is the first thing that parents consider in a good school for their kids? SAT scores? AP classes? The percentage of graduates that get into good colleges?

Actually, it’s safety. This includes school fights, bullying, and other forms of violence, but also the school culture around things like racial diversity and mental health. There is no one school environment that can fit all kids, but a more negative school environment can cause lifelong consequences to children’s mental health.  Continue reading Can Going to a Different School Impact Your Child’s Mental Health?