In The News

Accepting reality of pandemic is key to living with it

Lori Elliott, M.S.W., R.S.W. interviews the Mazzas about acceptance and their work with social emotional learning while navigating parenting through the pandemic.


Seattle Times 04/06/2020

Mental health experts race to help children cope with stay-at-home life amid coronavirus closures

Getting all students help, experts say, is particularly important now. Children’s routines are upended, the news is frightening, and boredom leaves room for bad habits, such as substance use. The fallout since COVID-19 surfaced here — sickness, uncertainty and an unprecedented shutdown of public life — amounts to this young generation’s first collective trauma…. Read full article below


Is your family's mental health taking a hit from Covid-19? Take this class

There’s frustration, irritability, coming from just having everybody in one small space all the time, trying to manage parenting and working and partnering,” said Lizz Dexter-Mazza, Jim’s wife. “All of those pieces together are just out of our norm.”

Lizz and Jim are both psychologists. Jim is on the faculty at the University of Washington College of Education, and Lizz is in private practice. They are both experts in DBT, or Dialectical Behavioral Therapy. DBT was developed at the University of Washington by Dr. Marsha Linehan, who is now retired. It focuses on mindfulness, distress tolerance, emotion regulation and problem-solving skills.