Blog
Are You a Pufferfish?
What might you have in common with a Pufferfish? Probably more than you think! Pufferfish are known for their response to a threat… they quickly transform from a cute, small, and slow swimmer into a much larger, spiky, fierce, and even toxic force to be reckoned with....
Health Lessons from the Pandemic
As many thing re-open, new cases of Covid slow down, and people start getting vaccines, it’s feels like we are trending in a healthier direction. It’s important not to let our guard down too quickly, however, and to stay focused on healthy behaviors and choices. ...
How We Keep Moving Forward
Here we are, in the typical February mid-winter cold-weather gloom, except things are far from typical in many ways. The pandemic continues and the political climate is still turbulent, to say the least. Even as therapists, with a wide range of mental health...
Is Now The Time to Recommit to Healing?
Have you ever spent hours shoveling snow, only to wake up the next day and see a fresh, new layer covering your driveway? Or written a marvelous paper and forgotten to save your work? How about when your plate of freshly baked cookies goes missing and your dog has a...
Can 2021 Be A Fresh Start?
Here we are, in the final days of 2020. This year has been trying and anything but normal, and it’s safe to say most of us are ready to leave it behind. But the reality is, the pandemic won’t magically end as the clock strikes midnight. So what can we do to have the...
Let’s Stop Pretending to be Okay
I know we’re all tired of hearing the term “COVID-19”, but here we are still dealing with the way the world changed because of it. The bad news slowed down some, but the good news isn’t coming fast enough. More than ever in most of our lifetimes, we are faced with the...
Maneuvering the Covid School Year
This school year is a little different. What will this school year be like? This is something a lot of parents have been considering for the past few weeks. At this point, school is under way for most. Choices have been made, technology for virtual schooling is...
Aha Moments in Mental Health
Have you ever had an Aha moment? One in which you gained a long-awaited insight or figured out the answer to a question that had been long evading you? Just like other medical practitioners, mental health therapists sometimes get stumped in figuring out how exactly to...
Common Symptoms of ADHD
Is ADHD real? Is it over-diagnosed? Is it mis-diagnosed? Can an adult be diagnosed with ADHD? Or is ADHD only diagnosed in kids? Do kids grow out of it? How do I get an accurate diagnosis? Why should I care about any of this? Symptoms Here are some common symptoms of...
Addressing Drug and Alcohol Use with a Teenager
Two parents have asked similar questions about teenage drug and alcohol use, and I’ll address them both in this Q&A 1. My 15 year old son just started in high school this year. He has always been a good student, but this year his grades have dropped and he is...
What “Should” Moms do on Mother’s Day?
Sleep in Have breakfast in bed Go back to sleep Wake up around noon, to the sounds of laundry being done and dinner being made Hang out Have leftovers for lunch Take a nap Wake up and go for a nice long walk Read Read some more while you wait for dinner Eat dinner...
Internet-Induced Trauma after Boston Marathon Shootings
Hello Dr. Nagpal, Last week, after the Boston Marathon bombings, I became complete engrossed with the “who done it” aspect of the story. I followed along on Reddit.com’s “FindBostonBombers” forum, where users posted picture after picture of the scene, looking for...
Home for the Holidays … and Beyond
It’s been nice having our 18-year old back home for the holidays. I am also acutely aware that the pain of parting is in my near future. Christmas is traditionally the time in the United States when many young adults travel home for the holidays -- whether it be from...
Is There a Santa Claus?
“Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus,” goes the famous line in the Sun editorial of 1897, written by Francis P. Church, who goes on to give an answer that is brilliant in its simplicity. And all in a days work, the story goes. Now I wish that I could...
How to Help after a School Shooting
December 14, 2012 There are no words to quite describe the tragedy that took place at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Connecticut today. A tragedy that brought the president of the United States to tears, and to state, “our hearts are broken today.” In the aftermath...
The pursuit of happiness
There is a lot of hype about happiness out there. From books proposing how to find true happiness like The Happiness Hypothesis and The Happiness Project, to one simply called Happiness. Any moment now I am expecting to find one called “One Minute Happiness” written...
Meditation and mental health
Meditation. Many ideas and opinions exist about this ancient, mind altering, self-healing practice. It is often dismissed as that “new age stuff,” or “that mystical stuff from the East (that you read about in Eat Pray Love).” In common parlance it may also be known...
What is ‘therapy’?
As I sit in a hospital room with my dad, having traveled several thousand miles to get here so that I can be here with him through his surgical journey, I find myself having a lot of time to think. Strangely, one of the things I find myself thinking about is therapy....
The elephant and the rider
Most of us can relate to the idea that our brain has two independent systems – the emotional one and the rational one. If you have ever overslept, overworked, eaten too much, skipped your exercise (or not started your exercise program at all), become angry and said...
Getting to know the elephant
In the last post the Elephant was a metophor used to describe our emotional side, or our feelings, that can motivate yet so easily overwhelm us. Focusing is an elegant way to befriend the elephant - to learn about it, and moreover, to use it for our benefit. This post...
How to deal with the stress of school
The film Race to Nowhere was screened at our very own Saline High School last night (October 13th). As a parent and as a psychologist who practices in Saline I felt this was a very significant event in the Saline Community. The film talks about the experiences of...
Student stress
Student stress is real and Saline Area School has been taking new initiatives to attend to it. A second community screening of Race to Nowhere was held in Saline on Thursday December 1st. What do a Saline High School Climate Assessment, a Saline High School leadership...
The gift of counseling
If you have become aware of the need to seek outside help for yourself or a family member, you may be intimidated by the seemingly high cost of seeking personal counseling. In these times of economic stress, when all but our most immediate needs can be put on the back...
How to help children following divorce
Still Waters Counseling is committed to assisting families grow and transform themselves into more nurturing and functional units. We recognize that families have an especially difficult time during times of transition, such as a divorce. Children and adults are both...