Friendship Circle’s UMatter Program Featured on WDIV Local 4 Broadcast

WDIV’s Local 4 news recently featured Friendship Circle’s UMatter program on their broadcast, as they visited Walled Lake Central High School for a week long campaign to address depression, suicide and mental health with teenagers. Link to story from Click On Detroit: https://www.clickondetroit.com/news/program-aims-to-help-metro-detroit-students-with-feelings-of-depression-stress Video from WDIV Local 4 below:   More information about UMatter is READ MORE »

Andrew Kukes Foundation Featured on West Bloomfield Civic Center TV’s “Parenting on the Go”

Sheena Monnin, host of West Bloomfield Civic Center TV’s “Parenting on the Go”, sat down with AKFSA Executive Director Lori Blumenstein-Bott to talk about social anxiety and the tools and therapy available to treat it. Link to article from CivicCenterTV.com: http://civiccentertv.com/parenting-on-the-go-social-anxiety/ Video of interview with Lori below:  

Andrew Kukes Foundation Support to Help Expand Friendship Circle Teen Mental Health Program

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Kristin Sokul, [email protected], 248.626.0006 WEST BLOOMFIELD, Mich. (August 14, 2017) – The Andrew Kukes Foundation for Social Anxiety (AKFSA) and Friendship Circle announced they will partner to expand Friendship Circle’s UMatter program, focused on teen mental health. AKFSA will co-sponsor the program, providing a $250,000 grant in a five-year commitment. The READ MORE »

The Importance of Recognizing and Treating Social Anxiety

Andrew Kukes Foundation for Social Anxiety Co-Founder Jeff Kukes shares his son Andy’s story to discusses the importance of treating social anxiety and Dr. Jill Ehrenreich-May explains the link between social anxiety and depression with WPLG Miami in April 2015 in support of AKFSA grantee Anxiety and Depression Association of America’s community event “Anxious Children READ MORE »

The Today Show: A Thank You from AKFSA

Enjoying a slower morning than usual, I was able to catch the Today Show’s special report on anxiety in teens. The feature focused on a group of teens at a treatment center. These brave individuals came from behind the curtain to talk openly about their pain. The message of the piece rang very clear; anxiety READ MORE »

Lifestyle Matters: Insights for Supporting Individuals with Social Anxiety

THE MAIN POINT: The goal of this piece is get you thinking about how lifestyle factors interact with mental health and well-being, which is important for you and for the people you care about struggling with social anxiety disorder. This research review will help you better understand ways that people can increase control over their READ MORE »

New study seeks participants to learn effective treatments of social anxiety

The goal of a new online study conducted by a researcher at Case Western Reserve University is to learn more about various aspects of anxiety in children (emotion regulation, relationships, etc) in order to improve therapies for child anxiety. Research not only helps us to improve therapies but also helps to raise public awareness of READ MORE »

Expert Tips: Reduce Travel-Related Anxiety

Whether you’re visiting a new city, a new country, or even a familiar place, travel can be extremely stressful. You may feel nervous about what’s going to happen, how you’ll feel about it, and how you’ll react. Below are several tips to help you prevent, manage, and work your way through travel-related anxiety: 1. Calm READ MORE »

The Wall Street Journal: Exposure Therapy & Teen Anxiety

Introduction for article: A Better Way to Treat Anxiety Youth struggling with social anxiety disorder may have a new treatment option aimed at reducing anxiety and fear quickly through a combination of exposure therapy and parental coaching. Wall Street Journal contributor Laura Lando reports on advances in the field of childhood anxiety disorder treatment in READ MORE »

Addressing how anxiety in the family can lead to increased anxiety in children

Review of “The interplay between expressed parental anxiety & infant behavioral inhibition predicts infant avoidance in a social referencing paradigm.” THE MAIN POINT: In a recent study, Aktar, Majdandžić, de Vente, and Bögels (2013) examined how anxiety in infants may be predicted by anxious communication/behavior in parents. The authors of this study found that after READ MORE »