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BCS, 34 sycamore Road, Little Silver, NJ (2026)

10/13/2026

Nature Communications — one of the world's most prestigious scientific journals — published a landmark first-of-its-kind study last Friday, on World Mental Health Day, from researchers at Tulane University's School of Public Health.

And the findings put a precise, devastating number on the cost of loneliness for the very first time.

Researchers analysed data from 277,489 adults between the ages of 40 and 69 — none of whom had depression, anxiety, diabetes, heart disease or cancer at the start of the study. They then tracked how many years of healthy life each person lived free from those conditions — and compared the outcomes of people who experienced loneliness and social isolation against those who did not.

Men experiencing both loneliness and social isolation lived approximately 5.8 fewer years free from depression and anxiety. Women experiencing both lived approximately 3.7 fewer years.

And then the finding that changes the entire conversation.

Healthier habits — better diet, regular exercise, sufficient sleep, not smoking — measurably reduced the health costs of social isolation. But loneliness was different. A healthier lifestyle did not significantly reduce the additional health risks linked to feeling lonely.

Lead researcher Dr. Lu Qi of Tulane University explains why. Loneliness and social isolation are not the same thing. Social isolation is structural — the actual number of relationships and social contacts you have. Loneliness is the felt experience of disconnection — the gap between the connection you have and the connection you need. You can be surrounded by people and be profoundly lonely. And no amount of exercise or nutrition will close that gap.

Because loneliness is not a lifestyle problem. It is a relational one. And it requires a relational solution.

The loneliness that costs nearly six years of mental health is the kind that exists in the gap between the surface of a person's social life and the depth of what they actually need. The person who is never without company and never truly known. The person whose relationships do not have space for honesty, vulnerability or the full complexity of who they actually are. It is invisible from the outside. And it is, today's research confirms, one of the most costly things a human being can carry.

The most powerful solution available for the loneliness that runs deep is the experience of being genuinely known by another human being — safely, consistently and without judgment. The research now tells us that is not just emotionally important. It is measurably, literally life-extending.

We just published a brand new blog post about today's landmark Tulane University study — what it found and what it means for you.

Read it now 👉 leafpsych.com/blog

LEAF by Dr. Dana Spada Psychotherapy Boutique private therapy for adults, teens, couples and families across Monmouth County, NJ. In-person sessions in Colts Neck, Little Silver, Hazlet & Sea Girt — plus virtual sessions available.

Call: 732-947-4777 [email protected] 🗓️ Book a session

10/09/2026

Tomorrow is World Mental Health Day 2026. The theme this year — chosen by the World Federation for Mental Health — is "Lived Experiences Heard: Real Voices, Real Change." It asks something specific and uncomfortable of every mental health professional and every health system. Not just to talk about mental health. But to actually listen — to what people living with mental health conditions say about the care they are and are not receiving.

Today — the final day of Mental Illness Awareness Week — a study published in Psychological Medicine by researchers at UC San Diego offers a finding that speaks directly to that call.

Researchers analysed data from nearly 6,800 Americans aged 12 and older who had experienced a major depressive episode in the past year. About 7% had used psilocybin during the same period. And here is what they found.

Those people were not abandoning conventional care. They were attending therapy at the same rate. Taking antidepressants at the same rate. Engaging with the mental health system at exactly the same rate as those who had not turned to psychedelics.

But 52% of them felt their mental health needs were not being met — compared with 34% of those who had not used psilocybin.

Lead researcher Avery Eun of UC San Diego was direct. "These results indicate that people who turn to psilocybin are desperate for help and willing to try alternative treatments. Rather than assuming a patient is retreating from care, providers can use this as a way to start a conversation about whether the patient feels their needs are being met by conventional care and what can be done to help if not."

This is not a story about psychedelics. It is a story about what people with depression are telling us they need — and are not finding. They need to be genuinely understood. Not assessed and discharged. Not handed a coping toolkit. But understood — by a real person who knows their history, holds their story across time and addresses the full picture of what they are carrying. The relationships that have shaped them. The losses that have not been properly grieved. The stories about themselves that were written in pain and have never been revised.

Continuing to seek help when the help you have received has not been enough is one of the most courageous things a person with a mental health condition can do. And that courage deserves to be met with something real.

Tomorrow is World Mental Health Day. And at LEAF the theme of lived experiences heard is not a slogan. It is what we do every single day — with every person who comes through our door or joins a session from home.

If you have tried to get help and felt that what you received did not reach you — you are not alone. And you have not yet tried everything.

We just published a brand new blog post about today's study and what it means on the eve of World Mental Health Day.

Read it now 👉 leafpsych.com/blog

LEAF by Dr. Dana Spada Psychotherapy Boutique private therapy for adults, teens, couples and families across Monmouth County, NJ. In-person sessions in Colts Neck, Little Silver, Hazlet & Sea Girt — plus virtual sessions available.

Call: 732-947-4777 [email protected] 🗓️ Book a session

09/28/2026

Dr. John C. Markowitz — Columbia University psychiatrist and one of the world's most distinguished authorities on psychotherapy — published a landmark commentary today in The Journal of Clinical Psychiatry. It was delivered as the American Psychiatric Association's Adolf Meyer Lecture in San Francisco — the most prestigious lecture in American psychiatry.

His argument is urgent, evidence-based and deeply important for every person who seeks mental health support.

Psychotherapy — the skilled, human, relational work of helping someone understand and change their inner world — is being quietly abandoned by psychiatry. In the mid-1990s, 39% of psychiatric visits included psychotherapy. By the most recent data, fewer than 34% of psychiatrists provide it at all. It is shrinking in training, neglected in research and declining in practice — replaced by brief medication checks, digital platforms and AI chatbots.

Dr. Markowitz names the consequences clearly. Medication treats the internal, neurobiological dimension of depression and anxiety. Therapy treats the relational, environmental and narrative dimension — the life circumstances, the relationship patterns, the stories we tell about ourselves, the meaning we make of what has happened to us. The patient being offered only medication is being offered half a treatment.

He makes a bold clinical argument — that the definition of treatment-resistant depression should require that a real trial of evidence-based psychotherapy has been attempted first. Because apparent medication resistance may not be neurobiological at all. It may be that the patient is in a toxic relationship, navigating unprocessed grief, or carrying trauma that no prescription was ever going to reach.

And he describes what therapy does that nothing else can. It helps you know yourself. It helps you understand that you are not your diagnosis. It gives you a coherent, genuine understanding of your own inner life — where your patterns came from, what is driving your suffering, what is possible. It promotes real autonomy and real mastery over your life. And the research is unambiguous — for depression, anxiety, trauma and many of the most common conditions people seek help for, psychotherapy is not just comparable to medication. For many conditions it is the treatment of choice.

Real therapy. With a real, skilled, present human being. Is worth fighting for. As Dr. Markowitz argues today — and as we believe deeply at LEAF.

We just published a brand new blog post about today's landmark commentary — what it says, why it matters and what it means for you.

Read it now 👉 leafpsych.com/blog

LEAF by Dr. Dana Spada Psychotherapy Boutique private therapy for adults, teens, couples and families across Monmouth County, NJ. In-person sessions in Colts Neck, Little Silver, Hazlet & Sea Girt — plus virtual sessions available.

Call: 732-947-4777 [email protected] 🗓️ Book a session

09/22/2026

The American Psychological Association released its 2026 Work in America survey today — the most authoritative annual report on the state of the American workforce's mental health, based on a Harris Poll survey of more than 2,000 working U.S. adults.

The findings are the most urgent the report has ever produced.

Nearly half of all American workers — 48% — feel tense or stressed during their workday on a typical day. 37% say their work environment has a negative impact on their mental health — up from 32% just one year ago. 32% are worried they will lose their job within the next few weeks or months — up from 26% last year. And the number of workers who describe their workplace as healthy has fallen from 85% in 2025 to 80% in 2026.

But here is what the APA most wants every worker to know. Not all workers are experiencing this the same way. And the difference is not industry, seniority, salary or job type. It is something the researchers call psychological capital — a combination of hope, efficacy, resilience and optimism.

Workers with high psychological capital are dramatically less likely to feel stressed — 38% compared with 55% of workers with low psychological capital. Only 24% say work harms their mental health compared with 47%. 95% describe their workplace as healthy compared with just 63%. And only 19% plan to leave their job in the next year — compared with 51% of those with low psychological capital.

The same workplace. The same economic uncertainty. The same AI disruption — with 64% of workers now believing AI will significantly change their job within five years, up from 52% just last year. Experienced completely differently depending on the psychological resources a worker brings to it.

And here is the most important finding of all. Psychological capital is not fixed. It is not a personality trait you either have or you don't. APA CEO Dr. Arthur C. Evans Jr. is direct — "Research shows that it's not fixed and can be strengthened through intentional efforts." Hope, efficacy, resilience and optimism can all be built — through experience, through relationship, through the kind of genuine psychological support that therapy provides.

You are not weak. You are not failing. You are responding normally to an abnormal level of sustained pressure. And you don't have to carry it alone.

We just published a brand new blog post about today's APA Work in America survey — what it found and what it means for your mental health.

Read it now 👉 leafpsych.com/blog

LEAF by Dr. Dana Spada Psychotherapy Boutique private therapy for adults, teens, couples and families across Monmouth County, NJ. In-person sessions in Colts Neck, Little Silver, Hazlet & Sea Girt — plus virtual sessions available.

Call: 732-947-4777 [email protected] 🗓️ Book a session

09/17/2026

The Washington Post covered a landmark new study this week — published in Personality and Individual Differences by Dr. Bassam Khoury, director of the McGill Mindfulness Research Lab — that puts into precise scientific language something that therapists have always known.

Caring deeply for everyone else while being harsh and neglectful toward yourself does not make you a better person. It makes you unwell.

The researchers surveyed more than 1,200 people on every dimension of compassion — for other people, for animals and for themselves. They identified six distinct compassion profiles and mapped each one against stress, anxiety, depression, emotional regulation and overall wellbeing.

The profile with the worst psychological outcomes was not the people who cared about nothing and nobody. It was the people who showed high compassion for others and low compassion for themselves. Caregivers. Parents. Educators. Health professionals. Activists. The people whose entire identity is built around showing up for everyone else.

The profile with the best outcomes — the highest wellbeing and the best psychological functioning — was high compassion across the board. For others and for yourself. Not caring less about others. Not pulling back. But extending the same warmth, patience and genuine concern to yourself that you give so freely to everyone else.

Dr. Khoury is direct. "Many people, especially caregivers, educators, health professionals, parents and activists, may be very caring toward others while being harsh or neglectful toward themselves. Our findings suggest that this imbalance may be linked to poorer mental health. Self-compassion is not selfish or self-indulgent — it is a foundation for sustainable care for others."

The study also followed up with participants three months later and found that compassion profiles were remarkably stable over time. Self-compassion does not develop on its own simply because you have learned about it. It requires active, supported, sustained practice — the kind that therapy is specifically designed to provide.

Here is what we want every caregiver, parent and high-achiever reading this to hear. The inner critic that pushes you to do more, give more and be more is not what makes you effective. It is what eventually breaks you. Chronic self-criticism is associated with elevated stress hormones, higher rates of anxiety and depression and impaired emotional regulation — the very things that effective care requires.

You would never speak to someone you love the way you speak to yourself. The research now tells us that closing that gap is not selfishness. It is the most important thing you can do for your mental health.

We just published a brand new blog post about self-compassion — backed by this week's landmark McGill University study.

Read it now 👉 leafpsych.com/blog

LEAF by Dr. Dana Spada Psychotherapy Boutique private therapy for adults, teens, couples and families across Monmouth County, NJ. In-person sessions in Colts Neck, Little Silver, Hazlet & Sea Girt — plus virtual sessions available.

Call: 732-947-4777 [email protected] 🗓️ Book a session

09/10/2026

It is the first full week of school across New Jersey.

And in homes across Monmouth County, some version of this scene is playing out right now. Monday — a stomachache. Tuesday — tears. Wednesday — a child who will not get out of bed, whose distress feels wildly out of proportion to what is being asked of them.

For most children, the first days back involve some adjustment. A little anxiety, a little reluctance. That is normal. And it usually passes within a week or two.

But for a significant and growing number of children and teenagers, what is happening right now is something different. Something that will not pass on its own. It is called school avoidance — and Dr. Afifa Adiba, board-certified child and adolescent psychiatrist at Kaiser Permanente, published a major clinical guide this week that every parent of an anxious child needs to read.

School avoidance is when a child experiences intense emotional distress related to attending school — leading to missed days, resistance, or ongoing suffering that the school day never quite resolves. The physical symptoms are real. The distress is genuine. The child is not manipulating or making excuses. Their nervous system is producing a genuine fear response.

Dr. Adiba is direct about what she is seeing in her practice — "I am seeing this more often than ever." The COVID years disrupted the exact developmental window when social and emotional skills get built. Social anxiety is now one of the most common drivers. Academic pressure, learning gaps, screen time and attention shifts are all contributing.

The warning signs look different at different ages. In younger children — stomachaches, headaches and clinginess on school mornings. In middle schoolers — fear of embarrassment, declining confidence and increasing sensitivity to peer opinions. In high schoolers — panic attacks, slipping grades, withdrawal and statements of "it's too much."

The clinical guidance from UnityPoint Health's team this week is clear — brief adjustment is normal in the first weeks of school, but persistent shifts in behaviour or mood warrant attention. If your child has not attended consistently for a couple of weeks or is regularly calling to be picked up — reach out for help now. Not after half a term. Now.

And the response that actually works? Not firm insistence without acknowledgment. Not yielding without expectation. But both at once — validating the feeling and holding the limit. Warm and clear at the same time. It is genuinely hard to do. And it is exactly what therapy can help parents build.

If something feels wrong this first week of school — trust that instinct. The earlier the support, the simpler the path forward.

We just published a brand new blog post about school avoidance — what it is, why it is rising and what parents can do right now.

Read it now 👉 leafpsych.com/blog

LEAF by Dr. Dana Spada Psychotherapy Boutique private therapy for children, teens, adults, couples and families across Monmouth County, NJ. In-person sessions in Colts Neck, Little Silver, Hazlet & Sea Girt — plus virtual sessions available.

Call: 732-947-4777 [email protected] 🗓️ Book a session

08/17/2026

A landmark study published today in JAMA Pediatrics — one of the world's most authoritative medical journals — contains a finding that every parent of a teenager needs to see.

1 in 5 American adolescents aged 12 to 21 are now turning to AI chatbots when they feel stressed, angry or upset. That is nearly 42 million young Americans — up from 1 in 8 just two years ago. And almost two thirds of them have never told a single adult they are doing it.

It is not hard to understand why. Teenagers are experiencing record levels of anxiety and depression. The mental health system is expensive and stigmatised. Waiting lists are long. And the phone is available instantly — infinitely patient, non-judgmental, never going to tell their parents or their school.

But here is what today's research — alongside the Wall Street Journal's major three-part series on AI therapy launched today — is making urgent.

AI chatbots cannot handle a mental health crisis. Researcher Tijana Djordjevic, who has studied how AI systems respond to users with self-harm, anxiety and eating disorders, is direct — "The models really don't do a good job of recognising situations that would warrant human intervention." There are documented cases involving young people's deaths where a teenager discussed suicidal thoughts with a chatbot and received a response that failed to redirect them to human help.

And there is a deeper risk. Teenagers are not just using chatbots to look up information. They are forming extended, emotionally intimate conversations — sharing fears, disclosing experiences, processing feelings — in relationships that feel real but are not. The temporary relief is real. But there is no one on the other side. No human being who will remember tomorrow what your teenager shared tonight. No one who will notice, three sessions from now, that something has shifted.

The risk is that the emotional satisfaction of AI conversation reduces the felt urgency of seeking real human connection — the very connection the research tells us is the most powerful ingredient in adolescent mental health.

Your teenager may already be having their most honest emotional conversations with an AI. That gap — between what they will share with an algorithm and what they feel safe sharing with a person — is not a technology problem. It is a relational one. And it is exactly what therapy is for.

We just published a brand new blog post about today's JAMA Pediatrics study — what it found and what it means for your family.

Read it now 👉 leafpsych.com/blog

If you or your child are in crisis, call or text 988.

LEAF by Dr. Dana Spada Psychotherapy Boutique private therapy for children, teens, adults, couples and families across Monmouth County, NJ. In-person sessions in Colts Neck, Little Silver, Hazlet & Sea Girt — plus virtual sessions available.

Call: 732-947-4777 [email protected] 🗓️ Book a session

If you or someone you know is in crisis, call or text 988.

08/14/2026

Three significant new studies published this week — in Child Abuse & Neglect and Frontiers in Psychology — have added something important and genuinely hopeful to the research on adverse childhood experiences.

We know that difficult childhood experiences leave marks. On the nervous system, on the developing brain, on the patterns of thought, emotion and relationship that we carry into adulthood. The science on this is robust and well established.

But this week's studies add something the ACEs literature has not always emphasised loudly enough.

Positive childhood experiences can erase those marks. Not reduce them. Not partially offset them. In a study of 700 adolescents, at high levels of positive childhood experience — the link between childhood adversity and poor mental health disappeared entirely.

A second study — tracking 7,158 adolescents — found that the most powerful pathway between childhood adversity and depression and anxiety was not trauma symptoms or perceived stress. It was self-hate. The internal verdict about what the difficult things that happened meant about who you are. That pathway accounted for 39.15% of the total association between ACEs and depression and anxiety.

And a third study — following 2,249 parent-adolescent pairs — found that the transmission of adversity across generations runs through parenting style. Specifically through rejection and warmth. Parents who experienced more ACEs reported higher parenting stress and their children reported more parental rejection. But parental warmth was linked to lower rates of anxiety and depression in children — independent of the parent's own history.

Which means this. You are not condemned to repeat what was done to you. A parent who carries their own difficult history but who brings genuine warmth to their parenting can interrupt the transmission of that adversity to the next generation. The story can change. It does not have to pass down.

And the self-hate that developed in response to difficult experiences — the inner critic, the pervasive sense of being fundamentally flawed — is not who you are. It is a pathway that formed in response to experience. And it can be met, understood and transformed by a different kind of experience. One built on compassion, attunement and genuine care.

This is exactly what therapy is for.

We just published a brand new blog post about childhood adversity and the genuinely hopeful new research — published this week.

Read it now 👉 leafpsych.com/blog

LEAF by Dr. Dana Spada Psychotherapy Boutique private therapy for adults, teens, couples and families across Monmouth County, NJ. In-person sessions in Colts Neck, Little Silver, Hazlet & Sea Girt — plus virtual sessions available.

Call: 732-947-4777 [email protected] 🗓️ Book a session

08/06/2026

UC Davis Health published a major new study this week in Psychological Medicine — one of the world's leading psychiatric journals — and the finding is both surprising and immediately actionable for every parent of a teenager.

When it comes to helping young people aged 10 to 13 succeed at school, maintain healthy friendships and navigate daily life — especially when they are already struggling with anxiety or depression — sleep matters more than screen time, exercise or diet. More than all of them.

Here is what the data showed. Sleep quality was the strongest lifestyle factor linking mental health symptoms to lower academic grades — accounting for 36.3% of the association between anxiety and poor grades, and 18.5% of the association between depression and poor grades. Screen time was the second strongest factor at roughly 5 to 6%. Exercise and diet had smaller effects still.

And crucially — sleep was also the strongest factor linking mental health symptoms to social problems. Difficulty maintaining friendships. Difficulty navigating peer relationships. A teenager who is chronically under-slept is not just a teenager who struggles to concentrate in class. They are a teenager whose emotional regulation, social cognition and capacity to sustain friendships is significantly diminished.

"Sleep is something parents and families can address," said Dr. Tara Niendam, the study's senior author and professor of psychiatry at UC Davis. "While it won't solve every mental health challenge, healthy sleep routines are a practical way to support a child's emotional well-being and day-to-day functioning."

With school weeks away here is what the research supports right now. Start shifting sleep schedules gradually — 15 to 20 minutes earlier every two to three days. Create a genuine wind-down window before bed. Get phones out of the bedroom entirely. And protect sleep duration above everything else — the American Academy of Sleep Medicine recommends 8 to 10 hours for teenagers.

And if the sleep problems run deeper — if they are driven by anxiety, rumination or a nervous system that simply cannot let go at night — that is worth taking seriously before the school year begins.

We just published a brand new blog post about teen sleep and mental health — backed by this week's UC Davis study in Psychological Medicine.

Read it now 👉 leafpsych.com/blog

LEAF by Dr. Dana Spada Psychotherapy Boutique private therapy for children, teens, adults, couples and families across Monmouth County, NJ. In-person sessions in Colts Neck, Little Silver, Hazlet & Sea Girt — plus virtual sessions available.

Call: 732-947-4777 [email protected] 🗓️ Book a session

08/05/2026

Psychiatric Times published a major clinical piece today by Dr. Prerna Gait — a psychiatry resident at St. Catherine of Siena Hospital in Smithtown, New York — asking one of the most quietly important questions in mental health.

We know exercise helps with depression and anxiety. The BMJ published a landmark 2024 meta-analysis confirming it. JAMA Psychiatry confirmed it. The recommendation appears in every clinical guideline. And yet — for so many people living with depression and anxiety — it simply does not happen. Or it starts and stops. Or it becomes yet another thing they are failing at. And then they feel worse about themselves for not doing it.

Dr. Gait's piece asks why. And her answer deserves to be heard.

Depression makes exercise harder in exactly the ways that would make it most helpful. Low motivation. Fatigue. Anhedonia — the loss of pleasure in things that once felt rewarding, including movement. The voice that says it won't make a difference anyway. These are not personality failures. They are the symptoms of depression actively working against the treatment.

For people with anxiety the problem is different but equally real. The physical sensations of exercise — elevated heart rate, faster breathing, a flush of physical arousal — overlap significantly with the sensations of a panic attack. For a nervous system that is already hypervigilant, the body's response to exercise can feel threatening. This is not irrationality. It is threat misappraisal. And it is not a willpower problem.

The other part of the problem? The way we prescribe exercise. Telling someone to "just get moving" — without structure, specificity or follow-up — is like telling someone with high blood pressure to "just eat better." The research shows that a specific, individualised, feasibility-focused approach — starting genuinely small, choosing movement you can actually tolerate, prioritising regularity over intensity — produces dramatically better outcomes than a general recommendation ever will.

And here is what the research also confirms. Exercise is not superior to therapy or medication for depression and anxiety. It adds meaningful benefit alongside proper treatment. The two work best together.

You are not failing at exercise. You are navigating a condition that makes it genuinely hard. And the answer is not to push harder — it is to get the right support.

We just published a brand new blog post about exercise, depression and anxiety — backed by today's Psychiatric Times clinical piece and landmark BMJ and JAMA Psychiatry research.

Read it now 👉 leafpsych.com/blog

LEAF by Dr. Dana Spada Psychotherapy Boutique private therapy for adults, teens, couples and families across Monmouth County, NJ. In-person sessions in Colts Neck, Little Silver, Hazlet & Sea Girt — plus virtual sessions available.

Call: 732-947-4777 [email protected] 🗓️ Book a session

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