PSP 316: How to Parent While Struggling with Chronic Pain

PSP 316: How to Parent While Struggling with Chronic Pain

Raising kids with anxiety or OCD is hard enough. But when you add chronic pain to your daily routine it can push you over the edge. Often we backburner our own issues. We tell ourselves that we don’t have time for our struggles. That we don’t have time to address our needs. We push through and do more damage in the end. But the truth is if you don’t take care of yourself, you won’t be able to effectively take care of your child. Helping a child with anxiety or OCD is exhausting and chronic pain will only add to that fatigue. In this week’s AT Parenting Survival Podcast I talk to Dr. Andrea Durand, my go-to expert on all things pain related. She explores our relationship with chronic pain and discusses ways we can address the pain to minimize its impact on our daily lives.

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Helping Kids Handle Anger When You Don’t Accommodate OCD 

Helping Kids Handle Anger When You Don’t Accommodate OCD 

Your child’s OCD doesn’t stay neatly in its lane. It involves everyone around them, especially their family. It will try to get family members involved in their compulsions. It will use family as a tool to grow OCD. Knowledgeable family members get this. That is why family members will often pull back their accommodations and their entanglement in growing the OCD. When family members pull back, it is common for OCD to feel the rage of not being fed. This might overcome your child or teen in that moment. In this week’s Youtube video I talk to kids and teens about how to handle the anger that comes when family members won’t accommodate their OCD and how to see the long term benefit of this type of support.

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PSP 142: How to Develop Gratitude in Our Kids

PSP 142: How to Develop Gratitude in Our Kids

We want to give our kids everything that we never had, but what happens when we are able to do that? How do we foster appreciation and gratitude? How do we help our children develop appreciation for what they have, when they don’t know what it’s like to not have it?

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PSP 111: Want Your Kids to Talk to You? Why Your Reaction Matters.

PSP 111: Want Your Kids to Talk to You? Why Your Reaction Matters.

He just won’t talk to me!” I often hear. Or “I try to ask her questions, but she just gives me one word responses.” So how do you get your kids to talk to you?

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PSP 107: The Ugly Feelings Most of Us Secretly Experience as Parents

PSP 107: The Ugly Feelings Most of Us Secretly Experience as Parents

I am not sure when we, collectively as a society, decided that parents aren’t allowed to have ugly feelings.

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PSP 085 : How to Handle Difficult Behaviors in Kids with Anxiety or OCD

PSP 085 : How to Handle Difficult Behaviors in Kids with Anxiety or OCD

Your child is refusing to move. Your child is thrashing about. Your child has been screaming for over an hour. Welcome to the world of kids with anxiety or OCD. A world where kids have a hard time coping, self-regulating and “rolling with the punches.”

This is my world and I know that for many of you – it is your world too. A world that leaves you wondering how to handle difficult behaviors that pop up all the time.

One of my favorite people to talk to about behavior is Dayna over at Lemon Lime adventures. Her upbeat, empowering perspective often gives me new insight into how to approach my own kids.
This past week I have enjoyed diving into her Calm the Chaos Workshop and have implemented so many of the a-ha moments into my family.

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PSP 079: Helping Kids Who have All or Nothing Thinking

PSP 079: Helping Kids Who have All or Nothing Thinking

Do you have a child with all or nothing thinking? If you do, you know what a rollercoaster ride that can be! I am having the WORST day. Fast forward two hours. I am having the BEST day ever! It is enough to give you whiplash. Seriously.

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PSP 068: Parenting with Anxiety: Learn How to Crush Your Own Anxiety

PSP 068: Parenting with Anxiety: Learn How to Crush Your Own Anxiety

Parenting is a hard enough gig. But when you add your own anxiety to the mix it can be an uphill battle. I spend much of my time talking to you about how to help your kids with anxiety and OCD, but what about you? As parents we often put our needs last. This is unfortunate because parenting will take every ounce of your strength and of your sanity. You will need to be at your best. So how can you do that? By taking care of yourself and your needs – including your own anxiety. Parenting with anxiety can feel like parenting with one arm tied behind your back. 

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PSP 028: Don’t Wait to Help Anxiety in Young Children

PSP 028: Don’t Wait to Help Anxiety in Young Children

Your child clings to you for dear life when anyone even glances her way. Trying something new is a major event. Your shadow is 3 ft tall and calls you mama. People tell you she’ll grow out of it. Your relatives whisper in silent judgment. But your gut instinct is telling you this isn’t your fault. Your gut instinct is telling you this isn’t right. Should you turn a blind eye and hope for the best or should you face this problem head on? What can be done for anxiety in young children? Can young kids even get anxious?

Yes, they can. Anxiety doesn’t have to be about life events. Sometimes it is about genetics. Anxiety is thought to have a strong genetic basis and can be passed along, just like blue eyes and blonde hair.

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Ask the Child Therapist Episode 33: Why Kids Talk Back and How to Make it Stop!

Ask the Child Therapist Episode 33: Why Kids Talk Back and How to Make it Stop!

Your child screams, “I hate you!” She rolls her eyes and tells you, “No!” You feel your composure slipping away as she spits out her final words. In one fell swoop she has made you feel enraged and completely ineffective. You wonder, where did I go wrong? And why on earth does she feel she can talk back to me?

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PSP 021: How to Discipline an Anxious Kid and Not Walk on Eggshells!

PSP 021: How to Discipline an Anxious Kid and Not Walk on Eggshells!

You tell your child to pick up their clothes and they crumble to the ground. “Why are you shouting at me!” They exclaim. Seriously? You just asked them to pick up their clothes. It seems like you can’t even redirect your anxious kid without them imploding. So what are you supposed to do? Not discipline? Walk on eggshells? Is that helpful or hurtful to them long-term? 

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PSP 014: Child Anxiety and Stomach Issues: How Anxious Kids Get Physically Sick

PSP 014: Child Anxiety and Stomach Issues: How Anxious Kids Get Physically Sick

In this episode we talk about how child anxiety can cause stomach issues and other physical ailments.

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PSP 013: Parenting Your Child Through a Panic Attack

PSP 013: Parenting Your Child Through a Panic Attack

Watching your child go through a panic attack can be overwhelming. In this episode we explore ways to help your child through a panic attack.

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Ask the Child Therapist Episode 24: Tired of Your Kids Fighting? Try This.

Ask the Child Therapist Episode 24: Tired of Your Kids Fighting? Try This.

It sounds like World War 3 in the other room. Words are flying. Fists are flying. You hope one of your offspring will survive. The sound of my kids fighting is like nails to the chalkboard. “Make it stop!” I plead to no one in particular. Even if I said it out loud, I doubt any of them would be able to hear me over the blood curdling screams.

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PSP 012: 5 Things Good Parents Do That Actually Hurts Self-Esteem

PSP 012: 5 Things Good Parents Do That Actually Hurts Self-Esteem

In this episode of the AT Parenting Survival Podcast we talk about the many “good” things we do as parents that can actually hurt a child’s self-confidence and self-esteem. Here are five of them and what to do instead!

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