Navigating Digital Addiction: Insights from Mary Catherine Liscinski

Keith Haney: 00:00:59

My guest today is Mary Katherine Linsenski. She's a licensed professional counselor and certified life coach. She has been a counselor for 13 years.

In: 2022

In her spare time, she loves to read and, and be outside. And when she can read outside, it's the best of both worlds. Welcome, Mary, to the podcast. Well, Mary, welcome to the podcast. How are you doing today?

Mary Catherine Liscinski: 00:01:36

I'm doing great, Pastor Keith. I'm doing great. How are you?

Keith Haney: 00:01:39

I'm phenomenal. It's great here. My about to get ready for our fair, so my kids getting ready for the to present the 4H Fair. So we're excited.

Mary Catherine Liscinski: 00:01:47

That's always fun to go to and see all of their projects and animals. All that's awesome, right?

Keith Haney: 00:01:52

And if. And if he wins, last week he got to show at the Iowa State Fair, which is big deal.

Mary Catherine Liscinski: 00:01:58

That is a big deal. That's great. I hope that happens again.

Keith Haney: 00:02:02

Yeah, we're looking forward to it. So I love to ask my guest this question. What's the best piece of advice you ever received?

Mary Catherine Liscinski: 00:02:10

Well, let's see. This is a. Not necessarily a direct piece of advice, but something that has really stuck with me since I was very little.

It comes from my grandmother, and she would always say, you know, take time to stop and smell the roses. Which I know is not an original quote from her, but she attached to that somehow, and it impacted me as a child.

When I was with her, we would go slow. You know, she was elderly, of course, even when I was very young. And so it stuck with me then.

But now it has kind of come back up in my life as I have gotten into this field, how important it is to just take life slow sometimes and notice the details and appreciate the beauty of God's creation.

Keith Haney: 00:02:52

Yeah, that is so critical because we can. We can go through our entire life and it just goes by so fast.

We don't remember anything because we never took the time to just stop and really appreciate the things that are around us. Living in the moment.

Mary Catherine Liscinski: 00:03:06

Yes. Yes, for sure.

Keith Haney: 00:03:09

So I'm curious, too. And think about your life and your journey. Who are some people that served as a mentor or inspiration for you along the way?

Mary Catherine Liscinski: 00:03:18

Well, I thought about that, and I think there are, you know, several people come to mind. One of the recent ones is a lady at my church. Her name is Penny. And my church did something really neat. They designed A mentorship program.

But I loved the way they did it. They, you know, had people sign up who wanted to be mentors and people who wanted to be mentored.

And then they said, okay, what you're going to do is you're going to meet once a month for. For three months. Okay. So that was such a low commitment that hardly anyone could say no. Right.

So many mentorship programs that are wonderful, are very in depth. You meet once a week for six months, and that's a big time commitment. And if people can do that, I think that is fabulous.

But I think that when you need to just kind of hook people in the. Once a month for three months.

And then Penny and I continued once a month for over a year, they said, you know, you can do whatever you want to after that. And so she had a great impact on my life.

She was someone who was recent, but I think about my mother and my grandmother and how they have impacted my life so deeply in my work now as well, but obviously in my personal life as well. They have been great mentors for me.

Keith Haney: 00:04:32

I love that. That's so cool. We had that idea when I was a pastor in Michigan. The problem was it was executed. Talk about execution. It wasn't executed properly.

So they just kind of threw us out there and presented it to us at the conference, and they paired us up without ever talking to us or even getting our permission. The person who was my mentor didn't ever call me, and we never had a connection. And it was like I was. Like I was looking forward to. Because he was a.

He was a seasoned pastor. I'm like, I'd love to have a seasoned pastor kind of walk alongside and help me not make the mistakes I'm gonna make.

Mary Catherine Liscinski: 00:05:10

Right.

Keith Haney: 00:05:10

At least bit of my. So what I'm gonna make probably.

Mary Catherine Liscinski: 00:05:13

Right? Right. Yeah. I think, you know, when. When churches can start mentorship programs, I think it's great. Or any.

Any organization starts a mentorship program. It could be about anything.

Keith Haney: 00:05:24

Yeah, exactly.

Mary Catherine Liscinski: 00:05:24

Wonderful.

Keith Haney: 00:05:26

So tell us about your background. Where did you become a certified life coach, especially specializing in digital addiction?

Mary Catherine Liscinski: 00:05:34

Well, my story starts before that. I first, actually 14 years ago, became a licensed professional counselor, so. So a mental health counselor. So I've been doing that for a long time.

And then what got me started in this was I wanted to pivot my practice to work more with families as a whole instead of working with individual adults or individual teenagers.

And I would do a little bit of family work in there, but I wanted to do more direct family therapy and As I got into that, you know, planning that and learning more about that, I just realized more and more how battles over screen use were just a huge problem with families. So I thought, well, if I can focus on this specifically, maybe that could really help families in a big way.

And so I got certified to treat digital addiction and I also became a certified life coach. And that way I can coach parents across the country.

Keith Haney: 00:06:28

All right, that's. And it's. What have you noticed about that field in terms of the. I noticed a lot of people talked about.

We have a pastor here in our area in Iowa who does stuff about screens for families and talk about how dangerous screens can be. What do you notice as you started working in this field as trends that are kind of. You've uncovered?

Mary Catherine Liscinski: 00:06:51

Well, you know, I think that some good things are happening and that more and more people are waking up to the fact that this is a big problem. It's not just kind of sucking away our time.

It's actually causing big problems in families, it's causing problems at school, it's causing physical health problems, mental health problems. And so that awareness of the problem is growing. That's great.

I think my next big hurdle, or our next big hurdle is that screen time and even have young children having screen time has become such a norm so fast that now it's like, well, what do you do? How do you combat something that's already so ingrained as a norm, especially for younger people, that it's very difficult.

You know, when the iPhone came out, that was a status symbol for so many to say, I have an iPhone. And then, oh, for your 10 year old to have an iPhone, it was like, whoa, right? And so that piece of it, you know, that was a little bit of it.

And then you just go to the addictive properties and once people started, it feels like you can't stop. And so people, you know, not knowing that, we kind of got sucked in.

Keith Haney: 00:07:59

So you wrote a book about it. Tell us about that. Tell us the name of it and tell us kind of the format and what you hope to achieve through your book.

Mary Catherine Liscinski: 00:08:07

Well, my book is actually still in the works. It is in the editing process and so I hope to have it out sometime this year.

But it is in the editing process and actually even the name has not been finalized. But it's going to be something about screen time solutions or solutions to screen time. And I talk about overuse and addiction.

And so what's going to be different about my book as opposed to other books that are out there? Because There are a few other books out there already is that. My book really focuses on the solution part.

I got frustrated early on in my certification and in the books that I read that they, you know, very much detailed all of the problems that too much screen time is causing, that screen addiction is causing.

And then the treatment or the solutions would be an afterthought at the very end, like just the very last chapter or their very last, you know, 20 minutes of the training. And it was like, whoa, you know, something needs to be done here. Someone needs to investigate this more.

As far as, you know, what do we do other than just tell people, oh, stop using your screens too much, you know. Right. Because I mean, that that's out there, that's a no brainer. But it's hard because of the addictive properties. Right.

And so when I realized that after all of my, you know, certifications and I just read a lot of books, I said, well, what do we do to reverse some of this damage that screens are causing? And so I researched more and more and have pieced together what I see are the solutions to too much screen time. And so my book is about.

Half of it is about the problems. So the first half is depressing and just awful, terrible, and then the second half is about the solutions.

Keith Haney: 00:09:50

So I just, my book is also just coming out like in this next week or so.

And I was curious, as you think about the research you did, what was some of the most interesting observations you got from the research you did in studying for this book, preparing this book?

Mary Catherine Liscinski: 00:10:07

Well, I think of two things.

Number one, when I first started reading books, I assumed that they were written by psychiatrists and counselors, kind of people in my field seeing the negative effects on people's mental health from too much screen time. But, you know, one of the first books I got, I started reading it and I was like, wait a minute.

And I discovered that the author was an occupational therapist.

So she, you know, had spent decades working in schools and is saying, hey, very recently with this new generation coming up, we're seeing problems as occupational therapists that we have not seen before. So to me that was shocking. And I've seen other types of health professionals who are alarmed about this. So it's not just the mental health aspect.

I think people are familiar with, you know, too much screen time is causing depression and anxiety and all of this family conflict, but they're not really focusing on, hey, this is a whole person, you know, deal with it negatively affecting child development as well. So that was very surprising.

, between the years: 2007

And that, that. That is an emergency, right? That. That is an emergency. And we need to be looking at that. I'll share one more thing that I found.

survey, excuse ME, Survey of: 1400

And the number one cause listed by far above all the others was social media.

So here we have, you know, a large, you know, sample of people like me saying, hey, we're seeing these kids who are hurting, and we're identifying the problem as social media. So those were some of the surprising things that I found.

Keith Haney: 00:12:26

I wanted to kind of help us define the term digital addiction, because we hear that term, but I don't think we really kind of grasp, you know, what that term really unpacks. So kind of unpack that a little bit for us.

Mary Catherine Liscinski: 00:12:39

Well, I will give you some symptoms, but I'll also tell you that gaming disorders, I focus on social media and video games. Okay. And so there is.

Gaming disorder is already listed in the ICD 11, which is the manual that primary care doctors use to diagnose all of the things that they can. And so I don't think people realize it's an actual diagnosis.

And in the diagnostic manual that I use, it's not in there yet, but it is like in the current edition, it's in the back section to be moved forward next time. So I fully expect next time there to be a gaming disorder diagnosis and a social media disorder diagnosis as well. So there's that.

But I would say, you know, if you're looking for symptoms that would be withdrawal from other people, okay, you want to go to your room and be by yourself on your screen, Right.

Anger, especially when you try to get that child or teenager off their device if they have some giant meltdown that represents way too strong of an attachment to that device. Right. These younger people, they're going to be missing communication skills.

They're not going to be having the eye contact that they need to be having just because they're not practiced with human beings. Right. Another One, this is one of the saddest, I think, is that they're just not as happy as they used to be.

You just see that zombie face, especially among younger people. And that is not normal. Okay? We don't need to just say, oh, that's the new generation coming up, whatever. That's not okay.

You know, younger people, they're supposed to be the most vibrant and full of life and, you know, carefree, right?

That's like, you know, those of us who are older, we look back and say, man, that was the best time of my life as a child and as a teenager and so much happiness and joy. But you just see them just that zombie face and you're like, don't just, don't just chalk that up to a new generation being different.

That's a warning sign of something's wrong, right? People will have fewer interest.

And this would be for adults as well, once they get sucked into that screen that, you know, the addictive properties, get that dopamine going in your brain, that's, you know, it feels good, it makes you happy, all of those kinds of things, it gives you pleasure. And then the other things that you used to enjoy don't give you such a high dopamine spike and so you're not interested in them anymore.

So fewer interests. How about this one? You're exhausted, but you can't sleep, right? We know how you know too much screen time.

You stay up until midnight, 2am, 4am on that screen, so you're losing sleep hours, but you're also losing sleep quality. So exhausted, but even when you go to bed, you still can't sleep. That's another sign also just a lack of motivation that goes back to the dopamine.

So when, especially with video gaming, you have a dopamine spike and then it will actually plateau and stay at that high level.

And then when you stop gaming, it goes back down and then that can lead to dopamine depletion, which then, you know, causes a whole host of problems, including the low motivation that they just, you know, don't have the get up and go that they need to be interested and to do things that they normally would do. Also just being stressed or depressed with no other specific apparent reason that can be pointed to. Again, it goes back to the too much screen time.

So those are some of the things that I am seeing and other professionals are seeing as far as symptoms.

Keith Haney: 00:16:18

So we talk about the screen. Is it also the content? What, what about the content that's contributing to this? Because we think about well, if they're.

If they're watching healthy stuff or if they're watching good stuff, it may be different. Is it also the content that they're being kind of fed on screen as well?

Mary Catherine Liscinski: 00:16:35

Well, sure, that has to be a part of it. I think that's, you know, there's two parts. There's, you know, the time and the actual screen itself, and then there's the content.

So when you talk about content, you know, for video games, that is desensitizing people to violence. Right. And that is just not okay. It's, you know, very clear. I heard someone. I had a conversation with someone the other day.

He is a doctor, and he's also a former military person. I forget which branch of the military he was in.

But anyway, he told me that not only does the military use video games to help desensitize their soldiers, which I had heard that before from other. From other sources.

They actually went to a game designer at a university in Michigan and said, would you design a game for us to help desensitize our new soldiers to killing? And so this game designer designed a game for the military, and they took it and used it.

But then he was like, okay, hey, let's market this to the public. And that is Call of Duty.

Keith Haney: 00:17:42

Oh, my.

Mary Catherine Liscinski: 00:17:44

Yeah. So it's like, here we have something designed for the military that our young kids are using, and that's not okay.

So there's that type of content that's, you know, not good.

But then also, you have, you know, when you let your child and teenager have access to the Internet, they're talking to people around the world with all different worldviews. I've, you know, worked with a family before, and their teenagers were talking to strangers over video games.

And their teenagers just did a 180 from what the parents had instilled in them and their Christian values, and they just did a 180. And the parents were like, we had no idea that this could happen. And they were. They were like older teenagers. They weren't 12, 13.

They were older teenagers when this happened.

And so I express it this way that, you know, it's easy to say as a parent that, oh, I would not never let my child go spend the night at a stranger's house. Right. If you don't know the people, you're not going over there to spend the night.

But when your child or teenager has access to the Internet in their bedrooms, that's like a virtual sleepover.

Keith Haney: 00:18:55

Yeah.

Mary Catherine Liscinski: 00:18:55

You have no idea who they're talking to, what kind of situation they're in, what kind of pressure they're feeling. We have, you know, a rise in sextortion that is just really, you know, teenagers are not prepared for that.

You know, adults would not be prepared for it either, but especially teenagers and children have no idea what to do in that situation. And then that, you know, we have teenagers, you know, with self harm and suicide over sextortion and all of these kinds of things.

So the content and you know, you're just letting your child talk to strangers is not okay.

Keith Haney: 00:19:32

Yeah.

So, so I love the fact that we've talked a lot about some of the challenges you talk about in some key strategies you recommend to begin reversing the damage cosmetics. So talk about some of the things you highlight in your upcoming book about how we can deal with some of this.

Mary Catherine Liscinski: 00:19:49

Yeah. So, you know, the first step is to say, okay, you have to get away from the screen.

But that's, you know, not the whole thing because people who just give that advice, it' like, well, that's part one. Right. So then, then what do you do?

Because especially, you know, for adults or younger people, they spend so many hours on a screen, then it's like, okay, what do you replace that time with? Right. And so one of the keys is to go outside more, get outside in nature.

The environment in nature generally, barring a hurricane or a tornado, is very calming. And so that, you know, it being calming on our nervous system.

You know, I go back to thinking about, you know, God created us in a garden and we were there. And only in the last, I would say 200 years have we started spending the majority of our time inside.

And that has greatly increased, of course, over the last 50 years and even more so now with screens. But you know, being outside, it's very calming and good for the nervous system. Also it gives us a chance to experience awe. Okay.

Just to look at creation. And you know, that experience of awe is also very good for us. And just looking at the things that God created.

I think sometimes when people think about awe, they think about the Grand Canyon or Niagara Falls, you know, visiting those places. But I think that we need to develop a sense of awe when we see a flower or a butterfly or a shiny rock.

And that goes me, takes me back to thinking about my grandmother who said, you know, slow down and smell the roses. Right. Those were ordinary everyday life things to slow down and to be present.

I want to back up here a little bit, talking about how nature can calm the nervous system. One of the very negative things that screens do is that screens put your brain into the fight or flight mode.

And a lot of people don't realize that, but especially with gaming, people are having fun doing that. They feel excitement, they're enjoying it on the outside, but on the inside their body is interpreting it as stress and real danger.

And so then the body is producing cortisol, the stress hormone, and getting all of those hormones going. And then we're kind of sitting in that for hours and hours, which is not good.

I think that we've done very well in the health field explaining how chronic stress is leading to chronic diseases and all of these health problems. So now if we say, okay, screens are putting us in that chronic stress mode, we don't need that.

And so again, going outside helps to get your body out of that fight or flight mode and into a calm and relaxed mode. And so nature, being outside in nature is one of the keys. Also, face to face interactions with people.

I mentioned, you know, the lack of communication skills. Well, you know, how you practice that, how you originally learn it is by talking and by hearing other people talk.

And so it's not just the words, it's the body language, the facial expressions, the tone of voice, you know, all of which is lost over a screen.

And so face to face conversations with friends and family and is another key that that's how we learn how to communicate, but it's also how we pass down stories and values. Right. And that I think is unfortunately being lost a lot in this new generation. There, you know, morals and values aren't there like they used to be.

And that's, you know, we're seeing that with, you know, random acts of violence by teenagers. And it's like, wait a minute, did they not get taught that this is not okay? Right. We're just seeing, I think, a rise in those kinds of incidents.

And so saying, you know, morals and values have to be taught and then, you know, then the person can adopt them. And you know, teaching people empathy, right?

How to just try to imagine what it's like to walk in another person's shoes is so important in how we learn how to treat people with respect and kindness. And so again, interacting with people is how we do that. There isn't, there isn't really another way.

Also, I mentioned a little bit earlier about sleep, you know, making sure you get enough sleep. And so screens, you know, obviously the, the content kind of hooks us into just wanting to stay up later and later and later.

But I think, you know, one definite boundary would be don't have screens in the bedroom, right? That is just, they don't need to be there. The bedroom is for sleeping.

You know, some younger people use the bedroom for studying, which they might need a screen for, but that again, needs to be taken when they're not using it for studying. Because, and you know, same for adults as well, we don't need screens in our bedrooms. We need to sleep.

Because when everybody knows, however old you are or however young you are, if you don't get a good night's sleep the next day, you're grumpy.

And so saying, you know, it's, you know, the content is exciting and will keep us up and we want that endless scroll, but also the blue light that comes from screenshots. That blue light going into your eyes and into your brain tells your body that it's daytime.

So at midnight, your body will be producing daytime hormones, which it doesn't need to do.

And that's why even after you shut your screen off, your body can't fall asleep because it's full of daytime hormones instead of being full of nighttime hormones. Our hormones. You know, people talk about, oh, we need the correct hormone levels and all of this, make sure you're not low in this or that.

And that's true. But we also need hormones to turn on and off at the appropriate time of day.

And so if you are using a screen a lot at night, you're telling your body it's daytime and mixing it all up. And so making, you know, taking the steps to make sure you get enough sleep is critical for work, for school, for relationships, all of those.

So making sure sleep is doing well. Physical movement, another key, we are way too sedentary.

I, you know, I sit and talk for a living, so I have to make sure that I get up and move around and walk and do physical exercise. So exercise and physical movement is, you know, necessary for any age.

But I think a lot of people don't realize that for really young children, physical movement is essential for their development in other ways as well.

The, you know, when a child moves around and plays and jumps and hops and skips, that is developing their vestibular system, which is basically your inner ear and your balance, but that also controls your level of arousal. Okay. So if you don't have a well developed vestibular system, you can't really control your level of arousal.

So you might have a kid who's just really kind of wild and rowdy all the time. But that may be partially because their vestibular system isn't developed properly.

Or they may be too, you know, low as far as their level of arousal too. And so there's that and, you know, just the brain development that needs to happen. I'll show you something here. This is a drawing.

Make sure it's on the screen here.

Keith Haney: 00:27:15

Yep.

Mary Catherine Liscinski: 00:27:15

Of a cross section of a brain.

And so what I was talking about earlier with video games especially, but also social media, activating our fight or flight, that is in this part of the brain. This is your limbic system. This is where emotions are housed. So anger, anxiety, fear, all of those things light up this area of the brain. Okay?

Now this area of your brain, which is your prefrontal cortex and it's right behind your forehead right here.

This is the area of the brain that is responsible for higher level thinking, decision making, problem solving, but also things like, you know, self control and communication. So this is a very important part of your brain. This part of your brain is not fully developed until age 26.

Keith Haney: 00:28:01

Wow.

Mary Catherine Liscinski: 00:28:03

So, I mean, it's there and it's slowly developing, but it's not all the way done until age 26.

Which tells me that our environment, what we expose our brains to or not, helps to literally shape how the brain develops and what you want also, you know, with different parts of the brain controlling different functions, you want the parts of the brain to be also connected to, connected to each other. You want a well integrated brain. Okay.

And so if we don't have movement, if we don't have that face to face communication, all of those things, your brain isn't going to grow. The neurons, the brain cells that connect these different parts, which again, is going to affect their development.

You know, I mentioned the, the occupational therapy therapist, they're seeing delays in reading and writing skills and they are attributing that to the brain is less developed because these kids are just sitting and staring at a screen all day instead of moving and talking, all of those things. And so physical movement is another key.

Like we've mentioned before, you know, being in the present moment, being mindful is, you know, we need to be in the present moment, be able to handle that.

So many people today, when they actually try that and kind of practice it, some people actually start to get anxious when they sit there and just try to be quiet and still. And so if that happens to you, I can think that's another warning sign that you need to slow down, get away from too much stimulation.

We are used to, you know, stimulation and all of these notification dings and it's just all the time new things Coming up. That we feel anxious when we're still in quiet, but we need that still and quiet for our brain to rest and to be able to process.

Our brains need to process things.

And that's, you know, that's another reason why we can't sleep at night is because if we're not taking the time to slow down and process during the day, our brains will process at night. We crawl in the bed, and the brain's like, okay, we don't have to pay attention to our external environment.

So now we can pay attention to our internal environment and do all this processing. So you lay there and you're sleepy, but your brain is wide awake, and it's just running with all of these random thoughts, Right? It just runs.

It's like your brain just turns on. So when we take the time to be still and process during the daytime, then our brains can rest at night. So that's another.

Another key about sleep is you need to process during the day or before you go to bed, and then you lay down and your brain can be quiet.

Keith Haney: 00:30:42

That makes so much sense.

Mary Catherine Liscinski: 00:30:44

Yeah, yeah. So. And then. Oh, go ahead.

Keith Haney: 00:30:47

No, I'm just curious. As I.

As I hear you talk about this, I'm sure in your research, you kind of have a percentage of how many young people you think are impacted by this digital addiction.

Mary Catherine Liscinski: 00:31:00

Well, you know, I don't focus on that as much as you would think. I would think that there are many, many, many who would qualify as being addicted. I think, you know, one of the. A couple more things about addiction.

I would say, you know, if you're doing something which we would call a behavioral addiction, there are, you know, substance addictions, and then there are behavioral addictions. And so screen time would be a behavioral addiction.

If you are engaged in something and you stop it, and you're having trouble stopping it, or you have any kind of symptoms that come up, those are withdrawal symptoms, and that's a signal that, hey, I'm too attached to this thing. And then also, you know, when this thing, whatever it is, is causing problems in other areas of your life, that means it's too much. Right.

And so there's addiction. But then also, I think that almost all of us would fall under the category of overuse. Right, right.

And so even overuse is going to have a lot of these same negative effects. It might be to a little bit of a lesser degree, but it's still negative.

And so I actually don't focus as much on those types of things as you would think. But I would Just say we all need to greatly reduce, as is my focus.

Keith Haney: 00:32:15

So I agree with that the most.

Mary Catherine Liscinski: 00:32:17

So you don't, you know, and some people, you know, we don't want to call it addiction. We don't want to admit we're addicted. But, okay, okay, you don't have to. We overuse or let's. Let's start there and help ourselves.

Keith Haney: 00:32:29

Right. So as you think about, you know, where do you see this going for you in the future in terms of how do you expand the work you've already started?

Mary Catherine Liscinski: 00:32:37

Yeah, well, I'm looking forward to my book coming out, hopefully sometime this year. I think that will create some great opportunities for me. And I just, you know, I want to help families.

I want to see them become more peaceful and see, you know, just all of this arguing and conflict going down. I want to see family relationships to grow. And I think that, you know, parents are in a lot of pain these days.

They've, you know, many great parents have tried to reduce screen time in their homes and have unfortunately given up because just those. Those big fights happen, and they're like, okay, for the sake of peace, let my child have this device, you know, or, you know, whatever.

And so, like, I understand wanting peace, but let's get peace in the right way.

And I think that that's where I can come in as a coach and say, let me help you from the front end to prepare for this and to get you ready and let me kind of be the bad guy, right?

Because if I'm coming in and saying, okay, let me kind of give you some instructions, it's the instructions from the coach and not from the parent, because, you know, it's hard to be the bad guy as the parent, but if somebody else can be the bad guy, and then the parent is just kind of implementing what the bad guy says, that can help the relationship between the parents and the children to survive this rocky space, so to speak. And so, you know, I just want to see families and relationships thrive.

Keith Haney: 00:34:04

So, as a coach, if you have a child that's dealing with this kind of an issue, what would be a good starting point, you think, to begin having this conversation?

Mary Catherine Liscinski: 00:34:14

Well, another piece that I think parents are missing is that we need to talk about how screen time affects the brain, and we need to talk about brain health and explain some of these things.

You can explain this, you know, on a very basic level to teenagers and even to children and say, you know, if you want to have a sharp brain, which I think most young people do, they want that brain to be sharp, to be able to get ahead and to do the things in life that they want to do, then, okay, here are the things that are healthier for the brain, and here are the things that are not so healthy.

So if we can take that approach and get them excited about brain health and their own desires for their life, that is a much more positive approach than the approach of, hey, we're gonna take away your screens and take away all your fun. Right? And so I think that starting. There is a better way to start than just saying, oh, you know, taking away the screen.

Keith Haney: 00:35:09

Right? No, that's good. I love to ask my guests this question. This is my favorite question. What do you want your legacy to be?

Mary Catherine Liscinski: 00:35:17

I think I just have to go back to seeing families thrive and watching relationships grow.

I think that, you know, parent child relationships are a key to passing down good morals, good values, you know, Christian faith, and just having not only a wonderful individual that you've raised, but that turns into a wonderful society for us to be in.

And I think, you know, I just look around and see so many relationships suffering that if I can be a part of keeping relationships and keeping families together and helping people to again, have a healthy brain.

Because if you don't have a healthy brain, you're going to struggle, you're not going to have the skills that you need for whatever it is you want to do in life. And so I want, you know, people to have seen that, hey, you know, she impacted so many families for good.

Keith Haney: 00:36:08

That's great. So a new thing I'm gonna do, season six is we have a surprise question. So pick a number between one and four.

Mary Catherine Liscinski: 00:36:14

For your surprise question, I'm gonna pick number three.

Keith Haney: 00:36:18

All right, so your surprise question is. Oh, I like this. What do you consider your greatest achievement?

Mary Catherine Liscinski: 00:36:28

Well, the book isn't done yet, so I can't necessarily say that. Let's see. You know, I think here it is. You know, I started my own business.

You know, when I became a counselor, I obviously worked for other people, businesses, agencies, things like that. And then almost eight years ago now, I started my own practice. And so I'm self employed as a counselor and a coach. And that was huge for me.

It was what I really wanted to do, and I'm able to do it. And so I'm very blessed in that way, but I'm very proud that I'm able to do this.

Keith Haney: 00:37:06

That's great. As we wrap up this great conversation, what do you want to leave with our audience? As a key takeaway from Our conversation.

Mary Catherine Liscinski: 00:37:16

Well, I think in a lot of these conversations, we talk about, you know, depressing, disturbing things, about how screens damage us, all of these things. I just want to leave people with hope.

I know some people are very discouraged about this whole scenario in their individual lives and in our, you know, society as a whole. But I say, you know, there's hope. I think that we can turn things around and create a healthy relationship with screens.

I think that I want people to be able to talk about it, not just talk about the problems, but say, how can we kind of, you know, band together?

Can we get two or three families together to say we're going to get together face to face and do activities and go to the park and just it has to start small, but it has to start somewhere. And just to say, you know, there's hope. I want to be a hope giver in my counseling practice and my coaching practice to say, don't give up.

It's okay to try again. It's okay to try a third time.

Keith Haney: 00:38:12

So where can people find you and where can they find it when your book is out to connect with that eventually?

Mary Catherine Liscinski: 00:38:19

So people can find me at my website, which is LifeWalk Coaching.com.

-: 7132

And so I think that would be the easiest way for people to find it. So something about solutions to screen time or screen time solutions. But I will definitely have it on my website. The link to the Amazon, it will.

It will be on Amazon, but I will link to it on my website.

Keith Haney: 00:39:05

Well, Mary, thanks so much for taking the time and tackling this really important topic and not just tackling it, but giving people solutions. We can always identify the problems, but it's good to have some practical tips and steps we can take to kind of address that issue.

We kind of thank you for helping parents have some tools and resources to help their kids be more healthy and have a healthier brain as we begin to move our generation forward.

Mary Catherine Liscinski: 00:39:30

Thank you so much for having me on, Pastor Keith. This has been great. I've loved speaking with you and sharing with your listeners. This has been great.

Keith Haney: 00:39:37

Well, thank you. Blessings.

Mary Catherine Liscinski: 00:39:39

Blessings to you.