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Medicare to Cover Obesity Screening and Counseling

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid have announced that Medicare will cover the cost for obesity screening. It is also going to cover the intensive behavioral counseling that will go along with the treatment for obesity. For years, we have all been hearing about how there is an obesity epidemic in the United States (and in several other countries). I think that the fact that Medicare is about to start covering the cost of obesity screening, and the corresponding behavioral counseling, is a clear sign that we truly do have a problem with obesity in America. Medicare is a public … Continue reading →

Expectations of Marriage

The success or failure of a marriage, I’d suggest, does have a lot to do with expectations of the marriage. Many times expectations are unrealistic and romantic. They have a dewy eyed view of marriage. Then when reality hits, it is hard to cope with. The reality is marriage is not all happy times and romance. Sometimes it can be hard. Be prepared for that. Sometimes you may still feel lonely or misunderstood. Don’t expect marriage to fulfill all your needs and expect that person to fulfill all your needs. This is an unrealistic expectation. No –one person can do … Continue reading →

Book Review : For the Love of a Child: The Journey of Adoption

Monica Blume, a social worker and counselor with LDS Family Services, once saw a young woman who had been adopted watch a film entitled “ Adoption and Unwed Parents”. Tears ran down the young woman’s face. “I never knew that my birth mother loved me,” she said. Blume, who has worked with many, many birthmothers, birth fathers, birth grandparents over the years, wrote For the Love of a Child: The Journey of Adoption not only in hopes of being helpful to birthmothers, birth families, and clergy who may be involved in adoption decisions, but in hopes, she says, that she … Continue reading →

Avoiding an Adoption Nightmare

My last blog talked about the nightmare scenario of the Baby Jessica case in the early 1990s in which courts ruled that a 2 ½ year old child would leave the parents who had raised her for 2 ½ years and go to her biological father. This case had many unusual aspects, but the media did not always make clear that the adoption was never completed—the birth father asked for custody as soon as the mother told him about the child, when the baby was under a month old. Steps to take to avoid an adoption nightmare include: • Choose … Continue reading →

Adoption Nightmares

Many Americans remember the “Baby Jessica” case. In 1993, the U.S. Supreme Court let stand a Michigan Supreme Court decision to return a child to her birth father (who was by then married to her birth mother) after two and a half years with adoptive parents who had cared for her since very soon after her birth. The case caused outrage across the country. Media accounts railed against the courts for failing to consider the best interests of the child by taking into account the trauma a move would cause her. The birth parents were portrayed as irresponsible and selfish … Continue reading →

What Do People Expect from Counseling? (2)

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“You should have some counseling to deal with your anxiety.” “Why don’t you see a counselor, you’re going to lose your job if you don’t pull yourself together!” “I think you have a problem with your mother, how about you go see a counselor!” These are typical phrases bandied about to people who are experiencing ongoing emotional difficulties. It’s interesting to ask people what they expect will happen when they attend counseling. Most reply: “Well, I’m got this problem and the therapist is going to fix it.” Wrong! Having counseling is not like going to the doctors and being handed … Continue reading →

The Marriage Blog Week in Review for Jan 20-26

Good morning, if you noticed a curious lack of the marriage blog week in review, I have to plead guilty. I wrote most of it, but yesterday, my daughter had a birthday party and we went out together to attend. It was a roller skating party and for those of you who follow my fitness blog posts, you know that my daughter and I have been roller-skating a great deal frequently, well we enjoyed ourselves roller-skating, but I was whipped after an hour and half on the skates and my legs felt like spaghetti. I’ll talk more about that in … Continue reading →

Marriage Counseling-Part 2- Why Couples Seek Counseling

Ask couples why they seek marriage counseling and you will get a plethora of answers. In fact, with one couple you may get two entirely different answers from each person as to what brings them to therapy. Statistically speaking, the number one issue that brings couples into therapy is communication problems. There is a reason that the book Men are From Mars Women are From Venus, by John Gray, was so popular. People can identify with the fact that men and women are different. We are especially different in our communication patterns. Therapists can help couples to identify their unique … Continue reading →

Mindless Does Matter

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“Contrary popular belief,” says Dr. John Gottman, the professor of psychology who founded the Gottman Institute. “It is the mundane events of everyday life that build love in marriage. Connecting in the countless mindless moments that usually go by unnoticed establishing a positive emotional climate.” Gottman’s research over the last 25 years has lead Gottman to the following conclusions: Only 20% of divorces are caused by an affair Marriages Die with a Whimper So if only 20% of divorces are caused by an affair (which flies in the face of all the muckety muck promoted by soap operas) then the … Continue reading →

Efforts to Help People Understand the Medicare Prescription Drug Plan Are Well Funded

“The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced that State Health Insurance Assistance Programs (SHIPs) will receive $30 million to help people with Medicare until May 15, when the enrollment period for 2006 ends and during the next annual enrollment period beginning in November for drug coverage that will begin in January 2007.” CMS reports that as the May 15th deadline to enroll in the Medicare Prescription Drug plans approach many people who haven’t enrolled are investigating what the coverage might mean for them. CMS Administrator Mark B. McClellan, M.D., Ph.D. said, “This year’s funding continues the enhanced support … Continue reading →