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 »

GSU Professor Uses Virtual Reality To Sooth Social Anxiety

Georgia Public Broadcasting sat down with Dr. Page L. Anderson of Georgia State University to talk about how virtual reality can help those with social anxiety. Link to article and audio interview can be found here: http://gpbnews.org/post/gsu-professor-uses-virtual-reality-sooth-social-anxiety. You can also listen to the audio interview by clicking here.

How Can You Find The Right Provider to Treat Social Anxiety Disorder?

Originally posted on careforyourmind.org. Lori Blumenstein-Bott, MSW, LMSW Executive Director, The Andrew Kukes Foundation for Social Anxiety Finding a provider to treat social anxiety disorder can be a challenge, especially because so many people—mental health professionals included—do not know how to diagnose or treat it. Ms. Blumentstein-Bott shares tips from the Andrew Kukes Foundation to READ MORE »

Lifestyle Keys to Unlocking Better Mental Health and Well-Being

THE MAIN POINT: The goal of this piece is get you really thinking about ways that you might be able to increase control over your health and mental well-being using therapeutic lifestyle changes (TLCs), including how to better manage your social anxiety and how to promote a healthy lifestyle overall. This piece can be used 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 »

Struggling at work due to anxiety

A review of “Severity of anxiety and work-related outcomes of patients with anxiety disorders.” THE MAIN POINT: Many individuals with anxiety describe struggling at work. Erickson et al. (2009) examined the relationship between anxiety and several different work outcomes, such as work productivity, self-reported impairment, interpersonal problems, and time missed at work, in a sample READ MORE »

It Can Pay to Do Good

A review of “If it makes you happy: Engaging in kind acts increases positive affect in socially anxious individuals.” THE MAIN POINT: In a recent study, Alden and Trew (2013) examined whether doing “kind acts” (good deeds) could enhance positive mood states for those with high social anxiety. Results found that doing these kind acts READ MORE »