At Center For Family Services, staff are recognized as the most valuable and greatest resource. The top workplace team at Center For Family Services consists of highly experienced experts in a variety of fields. Trusted staff are changemakers and thought leaders and are often the leading voice in how services are designed to best serve those in need. 

The Expert Angle offers an outlet for highly talented staff to share their knowledge with you. This forum is a place where content experts share information on topics that most closely resonate with the work they do. The Expert Angle is a collection of blog entries where our staff can explore the various entities of Center For Family Services’ mission and programs from the point of view of an expert in that role. The blog is a platform to help communities, individuals, and other social service professionals to learn and grow. 

Signs Your Child May be Depressed and Ways to Help

Posted on: | By: Staci Fattore, LCSW
While all children and youth go through different moods and emotional responses to daily challenges, coping skills like exercise, deep breathing, talking with friends and family, and listening to music usually help us feel better. However, when it becomes harder to manage our feelings; when we have difficulty going to work or school; when we do not want to see our friends and feel hopeless, these are all signs and symptoms of depression and may require an appointment with your doctor.  Depression can be experienced by anyone at any time. According to the World Health Organization (WHO),…
Blog Tags: Parent Tips, Childhood Wellness, Depression In Children, Youth Mental Health, mental health, Childhood Depression

What it Means to be a Social Worker

Posted on: | By: Richard Stagliano CEO, Center For Family Services
Social work has been part of my life for over forty years now. Part of what led me to the path of social work was the social unrest of the 1960’s. I found myself wanting to help advance social justice and better the lives of marginalized groups of people. My religious beliefs and family upbringing also motivated me to get involved in the field of psychology and mental health. When it comes down to it, I, like many others, was inspired to become a social worker because I wanted to make a difference, and have meaning in my life. The profession of social work is over 100 years old and has…
Blog Tags: Social Workers, Passion and Career, Helping Profession, Clients in need, Helping Services, Make a difference, Social Work practice, Caring career, Wellbeing and behavior, Advocacy

Handling Compassion Fatigue

Posted on: | By: Sile J. Keane, LCSW Vice President of Behavioral Health Services
Ever feel like you have nothing left to give?  Do you come home from work and feel exhausted? Have you found that you might tend to “snap” at your co-workers or people in your personal life?  Do you find that you procrastinate on things when feeling overwhelmed or unmotivated?  These can be signs of compassion fatigue.  For those who have careers in the helping profession, this is a very common experience Compassion fatigue is the term used to describe the emotional effect of helping others and taking on the emotions of their experiences in life.  We feel their emotional pain which…
Blog Tags: Compassion Fatigue, Careers in Care, Social Worker, Maintain Work Life Balance, Compassion and Social Workers, Fatigue Resources, Resources For Social Workers, Self Care

Dealing with the Winter Blues: Practical Solutions Part IIl

Posted on: | By: Richard Lange, Ph.D., LPC, LCSW
Be Still. Years ago, there was a food fad called a macrobiotic diet. It no longer exists as it is nutritionally unsound. However, one aspect of the diet remains: eating food from the season. If you followed this diet, you then would eat the food of the season:  spring, you would eat strawberries, lettuce, and berries and summer, what is available, moving through fall produce and finally in winter eating more root vegetables, and grains. While this diet is not recommended, there is some value in considering that seasons affect our emotional state.  We feel so blah in the winter because we are…
Blog Tags: Mindfulness, Winter Tips, Seasonal Benefits, Positive Thinking

Dealing with the Winter Blues: Practical Solutions Part II

Posted on: | By: Richard Lange, Ph.D., LPC, LCSW
In my last blog post, I talked about some of the physical things you can do to overcome the "Winter Blues;" get more light, exercise, and hydrate.  This time we will look at some mindset tips that help people get out of their funk. Make plans. Now you are probably wondering what this has to do with the winter blahs, however, it actually makes a lot of sense. If you celebrate the holidays, you are constantly planning: what to make for Thanksgiving, where you will go, or who you will invite. Then, Christmas comes, and you plan what to buy the kids, and where you want to be. You might think…
Blog Tags: Winter Blues, New Year New Goals, Make Plans, Staying Positive, Stay Active

Love and Loss

Posted on: | By: Amy Romaine, MA, ATR-BC, LPC, ACS, ATCS, BC-TMH Clinical Supervisor, Grief and Traumatic Loss Services
Walking into stores during the month of February, we are bombarded with images of flowers, chocolate and hearts in celebration of Valentine’s Day. These images can often be grief triggers, symbolizing love that was lost, love that will never be felt again, relationships that have permanently been altered and can’t be experienced in person. It can stop us in our tracks. How do we move from being frozen and stuck? One way is to use that very same imagery to transform the experience. We can shift these images to take on additional or new meanings, helping us to integrate our grief experiences.…
Blog Tags: Grief and Loss, Loss Support, Grief Support, Imagery, Connection, Grief Experiences, Grief Triggers, Symbolism and Grief

New Year, Now What? – Grief and the New Year

Posted on: | By: Amy Romaine, MA, ATR-BC, LPC, ACS, ATCS, BC-TMH Clinical Supervisor, Grief and Traumatic Loss Services
It’s 2022 and for some, January 1st comes with the stark reminder that this year will begin without their loved one. Again. Or for the first time. While others are reveling in a “fresh start” or “resolutions for the new me”, those who are grieving may be wondering how they are going to make it through another year without those who died. Many find it hard to be optimistic this time of year. Others find great comfort in a concrete marker of passing time or making it through the first year without their loved one. How can we process our current state of grief with the start of the new year? We…
Blog Tags: Grief Support, Managing Loss, Managing Grief, Loss Services, Grief and the New Year, Grief and Needs

Dealing with the Winter Blues: Practical Solutions

Posted on: | By: Richard Lange, Ph.D., LPC, LCSW
Winter doldrums, winter blahs, winter blues. We all get them. The holidays are over; all the rushing about is over, families are gone, the weather is dark and dreary. So, it’s no wonder that people start feeling down around this time of year. And even worse for this year, we are in the middle of a big COVID-19 spike, and everyone’s concerned.  Feeling down is common for most people during this season, however, it can be more than just the blues for some. There is a disorder called Season Affective Disorder which affects about 14% of the population of the United States. I will discuss this…
Blog Tags: Season Affective Disorder, Winter Blues, Benefits of Movement, Stay Active, Winter Depression, Seasonal Benefits

A Community with Pride

Posted on: | By: Riley Keenan Program Director, Coordinated Assessment Kaleidoscope Advocate
9% of LGBTQ youth have experienced homelessness, been kicked out, or run away.1 in 3 LGBTQ youth reported that they had been physically threatened or harmed in their lifetime due to their LGBTQ identity.10% of LGBTQ youth reported undergoing conversion therapy, with 78% reporting it occurred when they were under age 18. Almost half of all LGBTQ+ youth seriously considered attempting suicide in 2020. At the same time, only half of the youth surveyed could access wanted mental health care.Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer/questioning (LGBTQ+) youth need support now in order to live…
Blog Tags: LGBTQ+ youth, South New Jersey LGBTQ+, Safe Environment, Gay, Lesbian, Transgender, Queer, Gay Community, Youth Group New Jersey, LGBTQ+ Community

“Yes…And” – Celebrating Holidays While Grieving

Posted on: | By: Amy Romaine, MA, ATR-BC, LPC, ACS, ATCS, BC-TMH Clinical Supervisor, Grief and Traumatic Loss Services
This time of year can hold many challenges: colder weather, shorter days, less sunlight, increased stress, more responsibilities (home, work, school, financial), planning for holidays, interacting with distant family members. Now add grieving to that list and see how it colors everything else. Grief is like a lens that colors how we see things, how we act, how we feel and how we interact with others. Survivor guilt can make us feel like we don’t deserve to be happy and celebrate. We can feel angry when we don’t feel others are grieving enough. Grieving during the holidays reminds us that,…
Blog Tags: Holidays and Loss, Grieving and the Holidays, Traumatic Loss, Navigate Grief, Survivor Guilt
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