Today's an interesting topic --------- I'm going to talk about self-heckling and the broken self esteem that comes as a result of it. Self-heckling is that constant voice inside our head, that says things like... "of course, you couldn't do that", "someone else would do it better than you" "you're a failure" This leaves us or our children and us feeling less than, like we don't matter or that everyone is better than us so why bother trying. If this is an area that you or your child struggle with...
Nov 09, 2022•14 min
Today I want to talk about sleep as it is certainly a big issue for not only kids in general but more specifically gladiator kids and even us as parents. This can be especially true right after a high anxiety holiday like Halloween and or the upcoming time change that happens at the beginning of November. Sleep patterns get thrown off or completely tossed out the window. The good news is that if you or your kids are having trouble sleeping there are strategies you can use to not only help yourse...
Nov 02, 2022•17 min
For most kids Halloween and the time leading up to it can be really fun and they love it. But for a lot of very sensitive children the feelings and reactions can be quite the opposite and extremely anxiety provoking. Everywhere they look they are seeing scary images on every lawn, and on every commercial on television, there's images of witches, ghouls and ghosts. If this is something you are facing this Halloween season, then join me for this week's episode to talk about what we can do as paren...
Oct 26, 2022•8 min
The teen dating scene, has become extremely complicated both for them and us as parents. In fact by the time you listen to this, the scene may have even morphed and changed a little bit again. Social media of course has played a huge part in really complicating things for sure because teens have been given the ability to talk to a number of different people all at the same time. The novelty of these situations and conversations send out reward chemicals like, oxytocin and serotonin into the brai...
Oct 12, 2022•14 min
Childhood is a time where kids are trying to figure out how to be heard, how to make an impact, when to back off, and when to step forward. They do this by making a lot of mistakes, bumping up against things and learning sometimes the hard, experiential way, what does and doesn't work. Today I want to talk about socially aggressive behavior and bullying, how to help your children if they are victims of this behaviour and also how to help your children manage their emotions if they are the aggres...
Oct 05, 2022•12 min
Your kids have been at school all day and then they've probably had after school programs, so by the time they sit down to do their homework at night, they are fried, they are tired, and they don't want to do it. The odd child already has their homework done and is bringing it to you to sign off on but that's very rare.Most kids procrastinate, drag their heels and refuse to do it. Some kids in fact, many kids would rather have a complete meltdown. They would rather scream, yell and get in to a b...
Sep 28, 2022•12 min
Anxiety and worrying get a bad rap. We are taught to think of them as a bad thing and something we have to fight against. This is why it is vital that we help our kids understand the important role anxiety plays in our lives. For instance if we didn't have anxiety, then we wouldn't look twice when we cross the street and that could end very badly for us. The reality is a healthy amount of anxiety helps us make good choices and so it is our job to help our kids understand the importance of this c...
Sep 21, 2022•16 min
Sometimes your kid will say things like, I keep thinking of this, or every time I hold a glass, I think about smashing it and they get worried about what they see as troublesome thoughts better known as intrusive thoughts. So today I want to talk about these weird thoughts that come up for all of us at one point or another in different ways, what they are and how we should handle them. The truth is they happen to all of us and they are connected to impulse control. ...so what happens now? Join m...
Sep 14, 2022•10 min
Today I have a really unique episode planned with my daughter Zoe. Just in time for the return to school, schedules and keeping everyone on track we are doing a deep dive into the CALM technique. We're going to roleplay and act out some ridiculous things that can happen in our homes and show what the before and after using the CALM technique looks like. If you haven't already listened to my early episodes where I talk about this CALM technique I would go back and listen to episode one and two, j...
Sep 07, 2022•30 min
Kids and teenagers exist in time, which means they're almost never outside of time. When you're in time you care about what's happening in front of you and the part of the brain that actually thinks about where you are relative to time is just either not there or not yet developed. This means when our kids are eating their cereal, playing on their iPad or with their Lego in the morning thinking they have a few minutes left, and we are trying to factor in morning traffic frustrated with why they ...
Aug 31, 2022•20 min
Irrelevant behaviors is something that can be common all the way through childhood and even to into the teenage years. Irrelevant behaviors are the hooting, screaming, shrieking, singing silly songs, doing crazy dances sort of behaviors that really there's no purpose for. They are more like a discharge of energy as if the battery's overcharged and needs a way to get that extra energy out. Often they show themselves during a transitional phase like getting out of the car, or moving from the day's...
Aug 24, 2022•17 min
For some kids their anxiety and nerves pick up two or three weeks before school even starts. They really start to get anxious about going back to school. They wonder who is my teacher going to be? Who's going to be my class? Am I going to be able to do the work? Am I going to be able to do what a grade six or a grade five does. For high school kids, it's a huge transition, going from middle school to high school and all the adjustments that come with such a back to school move. So overall it's a...
Aug 17, 2022•15 min
Parenting is probably the hardest job we will ever do. Between trying to work, run a household, deal with finances, handle homework, get everyone to bed and be the frontal lobes for the entire house, it can be utterly exhausting. Having said that, even when we are run off our feet, frustrated and worn out we still have to be aware and accountable of how we are speaking to our kids. Not only is this important for our relationship with them now but it also helps to set the stage for their adult li...
Aug 10, 2022•10 min
When it comes to money children are very literal. So if we say something like; "We can't do that because we don't have enough money" they think, oh my goodness we don't have enough money. This line of thinking starts them on a money path of scarcity. A belief that there is never enough to go around. It is a belief that carries on into adulthood and quickly becomes a story that we have to try and correct later on down the road. Money can be challenging and triggering for many of us and the belief...
Aug 03, 2022•12 min
When it comes to living in a household with members of your family there are always what I like to call the "Must Do's and Can Do's" of life. These include all the things that a family does both together and or separately. The can do's include chosen activities and commitments. Is it something I really want to do? Whereas the must do's are the things that we all take part in as a set rule of each day, week or month. They aren't all terrible things as the name suggests such as household chores th...
Jul 27, 2022•8 min
Sometimes we worry so much about our children, about how they're doing personally and socially that we come at them from this place of fear for the level of pain they may be in. What we don't realize is that our fear based approach is often activating the very things that concern us and end up taking them into that space where they were previously doing okay. So how do we as parents regulate our approach to checking in, keep it supportive, be the helpful guide and not so interview for pain? Join...
Jul 20, 2022•11 min
I feel like summer is the best time to be a connected parent because it's the time where you are less busy. Usually, there's more vacations, or at least some of the major things that kids are doing during the year have slowed down or stopped and there’s time to connect and regroup. Overall it's a time to really slow down, enjoy life and each other. For this reason I like to make summer all about mirroring and connections and in today’s episode I want to do a quick kind of review and recap of the...
Jul 13, 2022•14 min
So this is actually probably the biggest childhood transition that there is. It's a really interesting transition because once kids get to high school, it's something that's very present in their mind. Moving onto the next stage is talked about a lot with parents and teachers. Talks around what marks are needed to get into college and what requirements need to be fulfilled. There's this big thing that's sort of built up and talked about for years and as it gets closer and closer, the anxiety aro...
Jun 29, 2022•20 min
Picture this; you're playing a board game, everything's going fine when all of a sudden your child pulls the wrong card or their sibling does well in the game and the tides turn. Your once happy, family fun night has now become loud, angry, and out of control. You hear; "This game is cheap, I hate this game!" and then sometimes things go even further; the board gets flipped and they stomp away really mad and upset. Losing is a pretty intense feeling and for some kids their feelings are bigger th...
Jun 22, 2022•10 min
There is often a lot of talk about moms and what moms struggle with but there's not as much information out there to support dads. For this reason today on the podcast I am talking to my husband Barrett about his 15 years experience with "Connected Parenting". He shares some of the concerns and questions that dads are coming to us with and how we help them figure out solutions to their struggles. So Dads listen in ... (or even if you are a Mom) join us today both in listening in and then the con...
Jun 15, 2022•23 min
Today I want to talk about what to do when our child's best friend moves, or goes to another school. Or worse yet, when there is a friendship breakup. This is a really hard situation to process because as parents we want to step in and keep our children from feeling heartbreak. But one of the things to remember is all of these things that happen, specifically when it comes to changes and transitions with friendships are really important for our child because it is how they're practicing to be ad...
Jun 08, 2022•12 min
What's really happening when kids don't want to get into bed at bedtime? Are they just being difficult; intent on ruining our night, time and time again? The truth is that for many kids, especially gladiator kids, bedtime is usually a time where they lie in bed and think about all the things they did that day that weren't so great. All the things they said that might have hurt your feelings or where they were mean to mom or grandma. Or someone else was mean to them and they overreacted. The worl...
Jun 01, 2022•17 min
Today I want to talk about connecting with your kids even if you are busy parents. This is a topic that comes up a lot; you have a very busy job, a huge project you're working on, or maybe you travel a lot for work, whatever it is parents often feel a lot of guilt and worry around whether or not they are connecting enough to their kids. I would suggest that the amount of time spent does not matter as much as the quality of time being spent. Of course spending more time with your kids is good but...
May 24, 2022•15 min
I hear this so often from parents that I work with regarding their kids; often gladiator and ADHD kids who fixate on something that they just have to have. They will beg and badger until the adult is completely worn down, exhausted and gives in. Over time, the rewarding of that pattern is actually laying down neural pathways in the brain that cause that brain to know “Oh, I have to escalate, I have to start at this level in order to get my way.” Then the next time they just start at a higher and...
May 16, 2022•19 min
Today I am joined again by Natalie and we are talking about the continuum between love and fear. Human beings really only have two emotions, love and fear. Although we don't always know in our bodies when it's fear because at some point, they blend together and it can get really confusing. Many parents think they are parenting from a place of love but when they dig through the layers, they're actually parenting from a level of fear. Join Natalie and I today as we discuss what it means to parent ...
May 09, 2022•32 min
As a child and family therapist, I'm becoming increasingly concerned with children's irritability. They're almost living in addictive behavior with a; "Get out of my way I need this" mentality where they are sacrificing, playing outside, being creative, or working on homework so they can get back to their games or onto their favourite social platform. They are getting hysterically upset when the games are taken away or turned off and it's causing a lot of problems in households everywhere. Join ...
May 02, 2022•16 min
If you are the parent of a child that is struggling it can be devastating and traumatic. Join me as to hear my tips for managing hard days.
Apr 25, 2022•24 min
Today, Blake Schofield welcomes me to her show "The Bridge to Fulfillment" where I share powerful insights and real-life examples of challenges that every parent is struggling with.
Apr 19, 2022•50 min
On today’s episode I am joined by my daughter Zoe who does pediatric creative, fun, playful work with children teaching them how to control their emotions so they don’t control them.
Apr 11, 2022•27 min
Today I am on "What The Parent" podcast with PJ and Cara - Listen in to hear me share how to approach prickly teens with love, intention, and most importantly ruthless compassion.
Apr 04, 2022•1 hr 6 min
