CBT Spotlight: Teaching Kids How Emotions Impact Our Choices
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy focuses on the interactions between our emotions, our thoughts, and our behaviors. These can seem like complex concepts when working with children and teens, but this strategy that I’ll be describing can help even those young minds begin to build their awareness of what is happening inside their brain and how they can help regulate it.
Teaching Kids What Emotional Regulation Is- Dr. Siegel’s Hand-Brain Model & Upstairs/Downstairs Model
Dr. Daniel Siegel, a renowned neuroscientist, developed two models to help explain how our brain engages with our emotions and our Fight-or-Flight Stress Response and how we can engage in regulation strategies to help regain control over our brain’s response. These models not only make it easier for us as adults to understand, but also provide a great way to explain these natural responsesin our brains and bodies to kids.
No Parents, You Don’t Always Have To Play Too- The Power Of Free Play On Your Child’s Brain
This blog is about the research behind free play, or nondirected play, and the positive impacts it has on your child’s brain development. Let it help you find balance between one-on-one attention and autonomy for you and your child.
What’s Feeding Your Kid’s Bad Behaviors?
Are you struggling with a constantly irritable, anxious, lethargic, or depressed mood-set or behaviors in your school age children or teens? Your child’s diet can be affecting their behaviors and mood. Whether you are seeing mild behavioral and mood changes or more moderate to severe ones, addressing what your family is eating can be an major step to improvement.
My 3 Favorite Tools for Helping With Meltdowns
Helping children build an awareness of their big emotions and learn strategies to regulate their big reactions can start at an early age and lead to benefits well into old age- here’s my favorite strategies, step by step, to begin. The tools can be modified for children as young as 3 with parental modeling and can grow with us well into adulthood