What Do Healthy Friendships Look Like? with McKenzie Palmer

NFCC's Guide Through the Seasons of Mental Wellness

Friendships are highly valued in society and research has found that in youth, the human brain’s learning is almost solely done through social connection and face to face interaction, from infancy through early childhood.

Developing peer relationships can be both fun and difficult, yet ultimately rewarding for all. They challenge us to be vulnerable, face painful rejection, and teach us the importance of discerning what we value, in order to choose healthy, successful peers.

Many grapple with the idea of leaning on another person yet, it’s important that we learn it’s possible to experience trusting relationships early on.

Having solid peer support systems feeds our feelings of self-worth and self-efficacy, and allows us to move through the world with a sense of safety. Many of us however, have real struggles with developing these long-term connections.

Here to discuss why friendship is so important to overall wellness, how to take risks and choose healthy friendships, and how to help our children learn to do the same, is licensed professional counselor, McKenzie Palmer.

About our Guest

McKenzie Palmer graduated from Louisiana State University with a bachelor’s of science in Psychology. Later, she obtained her master’s degree in professional counseling from the University of Houston. McKenzie primarily works with children and adolescents, ages 3-18, by using a collaborative approach and lots of play! McKenzie enjoys working with families to aid them in recognizing their own strengths as well as identifying areas of growth to promote positive change. McKenzie’s counseling experience includes helping clients with ADHD, anxiety, depression, divorce, parenting challenges and adoption-related concerns, among other specialties. She incorporates play therapy, art therapy and age-appropriate cognitive behavioral therapy throughout sessions to engage clients and best guide them to success.

Additional Resources:

Understanding Attachment

Positive Peer Relationships

The Value of Social Support

A special thanks to our team:

Tracy Lehman, Host & Executive Producer

Jacel Dickson, Producer and Editor

Theme music written and performed by Jim Roman

Audio engineering courtesy of our podmasters at 3 Wire Creative

Administrators: Mary Elizabeth Hand and Heather Timmis

Thanks for listening!

To learn more about what we do at Nick Finnegan Counseling Center, visit our website at:

https://finnegancounseling.org/