Columns
By Tim Jon I wish I’d had time to make the complete circuit around that lake with the little wooded point and the geysers, happily spraying their morning mist for all to enjoy – but I cut my walk short, and I believe that – except for a sleepy bittern snoozing in a side channel…
By Michael Oberschneider, Psy.D. Do you often mindlessly scroll through your Facebook page when visiting with friends or family? How about checking Instagram at the dinner table? Is watching YouTube, while in the company of others, common practice for you? Does TikTok captivate your attention when you’re socializing? If you answered “yes” to any…
By Tim Jon It’s the same place, yet it’s a completely different place; it’s a bit of the forest primeval, and still, it’s a new beginning for swaths of new trees. Really. “So – has Tim Jon finally, completely lost it?” Well, I won’t answer that question, but I will stand behind my first sentence.…
By Michael Oberschneider, Psy.D. COVID-19 may be ending, or at the very least its control over us all as a pandemic may be coming to an end. But what does getting back to life as normal (or some version of it) look like for our children? Research has shown that the protracted changes, adjustments,…
By Samuel Moore-Sobel It’s time for me to bid you farewell, my dear reader. After nearly eleven years of writing, this will be my last column. I wrote my first column in November 2011. At the time, I was in high school, and I had submitted a story to my school newspaper about the upcoming…
By Tim Jon “What is it, exactly? … I mean, it must be something concrete – something to be weighed, measured, described, somehow quantified… or perhaps, qualified, to satisfy this nagging interest?” Well, I was going over this very question – this complicated, yet simple, inquiry as to just why in the heck I push…
By Michael Oberschneider, Psy.D. Get vaccinated. Wear a mask. Wash your hands. Avoid crowds. Practice social distancing. These have been, and continue to be, the main directives from the experts when it comes to COVID-19 prevention. For the past two years now, news and media outlets have blanketed us with precautionary messaging 24-7. What’s missing…
By Tim Jon Mostly, I remember the diffuse quality of the sunlight coming in at strange, surprising angles; the early morning and quick changes in elevation can do that to you: am I going up or down, or are we ‘on the level’ here? Yet another not-for-the-faint-of-heart country roads in Loudoun County; you’d think by…
By Samuel Moore-Sobel “Our transition from college to adulthood is filled with challenges, disappointments, and a lot of uncertainty,” Cate LeSourd writes in her new book, Coming of Age. LeSourd writes about her own experience but also includes the stories of others. “Over the course of several years, I sent out two questionnaires to over…
By Michael Oberschneider, Psy.D. Dr. Mike, Our 16-year-old teenage son has a ton of problems. We’ve tried counseling, medications, hospitalizations, etc., but he’s only gotten worse. His main problems now are pot smoking, explosive and volatile anger, school truancy and gaming addiction, and he’s been diagnosed with ADHD, Oppositional Defiant Disorder, depression, and anxiety…