Davis-Smith Mental Health

Seasonal depression in teens often sneaks in right around the time the clocks fall back. Has your teen started sleeping until noon, skipping practice and disappearing into their room? It can look a lot like a kid who’s just tired, grumpy or “over it.”

Here in the Chicago suburbs, it’s dark before dinner for months at a time. Some teens shrug that off, while others f...

Have you ever needed grounding techniques for anxiety in the middle of a totally normal day, like when your heart starts racing in the school pickup line or right before a meeting? Grounding skills are small, simple tools that help your brain come back to right here and right now when worry starts to pull you somewhere else.

They don’t take special equipment, and no...

Have you noticed signs of anxiety in children that don’t look like worry at all? Maybe it’s the stomachache that shows up every school morning, the bedtime that drags on with “one more question,” or the meltdown over a sock that feels wrong.

Kids between 5 and 12 often don’t have the words to say “I’m anxious.” Instead, their worry comes out through their bodies, th...

If you’re searching for help with teen anger issues, you’ve probably heard a door slam or two lately. Maybe your teen snaps over the smallest thing, and you’re left standing in the kitchen wondering what just happened.

Here’s the good news: anger is a feeling, not a character flaw. It’s usually a signal that something underneath needs attention, and there’s a lot yo...

If you’ve started looking into EMDR for teens, there’s a good chance something is still bothering your teen long after you’d expect it to fade. Maybe it’s a memory they don’t want to talk about, or a worry that seems way bigger than the moment in front of them.

You might be wondering what EMDR even is and how you’d bring it up without getting an eye roll. Those are ...