What Parents Need to Know When Taking Your Child to Play Therapy
Deciding to take yourself to therapy can be a vulnerable and scary step for anyone and is filled with lots of unknowns. Bringing your child to therapy can feel just as vulnerable and scary for both you and your child. Here are some things you can expect when you decide to bring your child to therapy for the first time.
Tips to Get Your Child Back-To-School Ready
As summer break draws to an end, the excitement of a new school year can sometimes be accompanied by feelings of anxiety for children. School anxiety and school refusal are common issues children face this time of year. Such behavior may become a routine problem in a small percentage of students. Some children with school refusal may have an earlier history of separation anxiety, social anxiety, or depression.
The Power of Listening Part I Babies: Listening to Pre-verbal Children
Caregivers are key in children’s development. One of the things you notice the minute you start studying infants and those who care for them is the interactions or exchanges between the two. A typical baby is born with pretty good hearing and pretty poor eyesight. Yet that underdeveloped eyesight’s one spot of focus is about 8 inches away from the baby’s own face; usually about the place a mother or father’s face will be when the baby is held. Nature sets us up to focus on the people who will keep us alive and teach us about the world.
How Self-Awareness Can Help You as a Parent
What you go through in childhood impacts how you show up as an adult today. Experiences that hang out in our brains and bodies without being fully processed become unresolved issues. Sometimes a state of avoidance and/or dissociation can be preferred; it might feel safer to ignore past experiences or maybe you have a hard time recalling that experience altogether. The tricky thing about trauma, is that even though it seems like you've disconnected from hurtful experiences, the pain is still there and may trigger unexpected or unwanted emotional responses.
Worry Monster Part 2: Trust your Child will Survive Being Scared
After reading Worry Monster Part 1 you better understand that your child has an extra sensitive alarm system that is triggering fight or flight unnecessarily. Now that you understand the underlying mechanisms, it is time to jump into what we can do that will actually help address this underlying system that is wreaking havoc.
How to Help Your Child Become More Empathetic
Lesli Mortensen, AMFT, writes about how to teach kids empathy.
Worry Monster Part 1: Understanding Your Child’s Fears and Anxieties
Amy Lambert, LCSW, writes about how parents can better understand their child’s worries.
My kid is lying! What now?
Olivia Nash, CSW, writes about what to do when your child lies.