Guest Author - Karen Huber
Don't let the name fool you; GirlShrink.com has some good offerings for just about everyone, even though many of the links go to another site that sells related items. Several links at the top of the home page direct you to advice, newsletter sign up, relationship advice, parenting, health and fitness, mental health, and a section just for men. There is good writing and advice on the site and the hypnosis site, to which some of the articles link, does have some free downloads. I clicked on the Mental Health link at the top of the page and found articles on disorders, medications, studies, and some book reviews. The menu under the Mental Health link was alphabetized, but not all the articles were in alphabetical order. You can volunteer to write for GirlShrink and build your Internet exposure, like BellaOnline. Some of the links on the top menu did not have any articles in them. There was also no preview of the newsletter. This is not a site for children, as some of the articles deal with adult material.
I did like the fact that there were tags on the articles and they showed up under different headings. I found a great article, “Vitamins for Panic Attacks,” by Patricia Patterson under the tags blog,mental health, panic attacks, and relationship dating. It listed several useful supplements and had a few links at the bottom of the article to a vitamin site and a free report site. There was also a good excerpt from Confessions Of Suicide: A Book Excerpt by G.E. Wilson under the tags blog,depression, and generalized anxiety. The tags under the article titles are clickable so you can read related articles. I found another good article when I clicked on the tag Generalized Anxiety, Misdiagnosing Narcissism – Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD) by Sam Vaknin.
Under the Family/Parenting menu, there was a good article, “Parent/Child Power Struggles: Who Needs It?” by Karen Alonge, along with “Raising Bilingual Children: 5 Steps To Parenting Success,' by Christina Bosemark, and “The Difference Between Postpartum Depression & Baby Blues,” which had two good links to related articles at the bottom of the article: Beyond the Blues by Shoshana S. Bennett, Pec Indman and Down Came The Rain by Brooke Shields. There were some self-assessment quizzes under the Entertainment menu: a depression test that lead to another website, a good gambling quiz with the questions right on the GirlShrink site, and an assortment of tests under Fun Stuff, which lead to other websites. The Romance Stuff link had no information in it.
Under the heading Money, there was a wonderful article on dealing with money troubles, which gave professional advice on dealing with creditors. Another article, “4 Steps To Control Your Money,” gave some common-sense advice on developing a budget. My favorite under the Money heading, “After Identity Theft,” gave a list of companies to contact when you have been a victim of fraud. Another favorite of mine, “Get Savvy–Real Estate Terms You Should Know,” gave a list of helpful terms when dealing with a mortgage. The Spiritual menu link had some nice articles explaining Scientology, Kabbalah, and a celebrate-yourself yourself article with a Hopi prayer. There was a well-written, interesting article by Sam Vaknin under the Sex menu, entitled, “Sex or Gender.” As an aside, Sam Vaknin writes about interesting subjects and really does his research. There were other provocative articles under this menu link written about touchy subjects, which will offend some and help others out.
Overall, GirlShrink has potential to be a growing site; it just needs more writers and fewer links to outside sites. A preview of the free newsletter would also be nice. It touched on a variety of subjects and is pretty easy to navigate. Lisa Angelettie, MSW runs the site and writes well and professionally. There are many of her articles throughout the site. In the lower, right hand corner of the pages with links to Ask Girlshrink questions, a search box with popular searches, and the latest articles. These are very helpful for people who come to the site with certain questions in mind and want to find them quickly. GirlShrink also has an affiliate program for those who want to help Lisa sell ebooks and audio courses, one of which is her course “Relationship 911.” Membership in the site is free. It is certainly a site worth checking out.
