The wrong therapist can wreak havoc on a children’s OCD. That is why it is so important for parents to understand what are evidenced-based approaches specifically for OCD. It is also key to have the skills to decipher a qualified therapist from a non-qualified therapist.  When Eve started having intrusive thoughts, she privately went to google to figure out what was going on. Fortunately for Eve she stumbled upon the right sites that helped her understand her thoughts were OCD. Many families...

It can be hard to help kids navigate anxiety and OCD. Sometimes adding some creative ways to help validate, normalize and build skills to handle anxiety or OCD can be gold! One of my favorite ways to do that is through storytelling. Storytelling is a powerful tool. It can help kids understand how anxiety and OCD work. It can help talk about anxiety or OCD without discussing it directly. It can be a creative outlet to process emotions around anxiety and OCD. It can even be used to problem...

Raising a child with Emetophobia, the fear of throw up, can be an isolating experience. It brings with it all sorts of fears. What if they can’t overcome their struggles? What if they can’t go to school? What if they stop eating entirely? It is important that parents don’t feel alone on this journey. That is why I was so thrilled when Lauren, a parent in my AT Parenting Community, reached out and asked to be on my podcast. She was so excited about seeing her daughter’s progress that she...

Your child is paralyzed with fear. They are nauseous. They are faint. They are immobilized. It is hard to watch as a parent. For many of us it can trigger our own panicky response.  When our kids are spiraling out of control it can be so easy for us to spiral with them. It often takes a concerted effort to remain calm and be the anchor our child so desperately needs. In this week’s AT Parenting Survival Podcast I’ll explore some techniques to reduce your own anxiety while your child is...

Acceptance and Commitment Therapy has been a helpful therapy modality for many people with anxiety and OCD. Often parents wonder how this therapy can be adapted to help children. I invited Dr. Tamar Black to the AT Parenting Survival Podcast to explain what Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) is and how it can help our kids with anxiety and OCD. Check out Dr. Black’s books, The ACT Workbook for Kids and ACT for Treating Children: The Essential Guide for Acceptance and Commitment Therapy...

One of the hardest parts about social anxiety is the feeling you are the only one with these struggles. It actually feeds into the disorder quite well. It is a story that many of us with social anxiety tell ourselves. No one struggles like you do. No one thinks the way you do. No one would understand. When I had Lori and her colleagues, Katie and Mallory, from The Childhood Collective on my podcast, I was surprised when Lori said she had social anxiety. I wanted to hear more and asked her if...

Self-esteem and self-confidence can play a big role in our child’s journey with anxiety and OCD. When our anxious kids struggle they can feel overwhelmed with emotions of shame and isolation. They might beat themselves up for being different or for having difficulties.  Self-esteem can also play an integral role in how our kids approach anxiety or OCD. Do they have an I can’t attitude or do they feel confident that they can use skills to overcome anxiety and OCD? Self-esteem work is always a...

As parents we are often in the line of fire when it comes to our child’s overwhelm. When dealing with anxiety or OCD we can feel like we are our child’s punching bag. The truth is, physiologically our kids are often looking for a push-pull conversation. It is easier to see you as enemy #1 rather than facing anxiety and OCD head on. In this week’s AT Parenting Survival Podcast I talk about how to “put the rope down” and remove yourself from this push-pull pattern. 🎉 My new book, Crushing OCD...

We all lose it at one time or another. Parents are human. You are human. We inevitably will lose our cool and say or do things that we regret. But those parenting moments hold untapped clues to what is overwhelming us. Those moments hold wisdom, if we are able to move past the shame to see the insight underneath. In this week’s AT Parenting Survival Podcast we’ll explore how to handle those moments and what they might be revealing if we look deep. 🎉 My new book, Crushing OCD Workbook for Kids...

As parents we are often desperate to provide our children with tools to help their OCD. We might scour the internet trying to find an OCD specialist; not an easy feat. Or if we are lucky enough to have found an OCD specialist, we might want to know what we can do at home to fill in the gaps. I often get asked, what does that look like? How can I help my child build their OCD skills at home to make sure we are getting ahead of this beast? When kids learn and practice new skills on a daily...

There is a strong relationship between social anxiety and bullying. Research has shown that a clinically significant amount of people with social anxiety have experienced bullying. Often children have a genetic predisposition to anxiety, but environmental stressors, like bullying, blossom that genetic seed. In this week’s episode of the AT Parenting Survival Podcast I talk about the relationship between social anxiety and bullying, how it impacts our kids and what we can do about it. Want...

It is common for some kids to worry about growing up. There are many unknowns that can feel overwhelming. But for some kids this fear is all consuming. For these kids their worries about growing up turn into a daily effort to prevent the inevitable from happening. In this week’s AT Parenting Survival Podcast I explore the many anxiety and OCD themes that center around the fear of growing up. I’ll also talk about concrete ways to help kids overcome these struggles. Click here to listen: 🎉...

There are many creative ways to help anxious kids. One way is through storytelling. Children can immerse themselves into stories and learn along the way. Stories can help normalize the experience of having anxiety and develop problem-solving skills in a more non-directive way. In this week’s AT Parenting Survival Podcast I talk to Dr. Amy Neeren about how to use storytelling with anxious kids and about her chapter book series, Nellie in Knots. Click here to check out her book series Nellie in...

It can feel like there is nothing you can do if your child refuses to work on anxiety or OCD. But in reality, that is far from true. We are one piece of the puzzle when it comes to our child’s anxiety or OCD, but it is still an important piece. In this week’s AT Parenting Survival podcast I talk about our role and what areas we can work on regardless of our child’s buy in or collaboration. 🌸 Join us in the AT Parenting Community! Doors are open only until Thursday, January 25th. You can sign...

Raising a child with anxiety or OCD can be a very lonely experience. It can make us feel removed from our friends and family. It can even put a wedge between partners. The more isolated you feel on this journey, the harder it is to help your child. Why? Because your level of support is directly tied to your child’s long term progress. In this week’s AT Parenting Survival Podcast we talk about the struggles of feeling alone and isolated and some actionable steps to get that additional...

Dealing with our child’s anxiety or OCD is taxing enough, but sometimes there is another layer of stress. Often our child’s struggles can trigger something deep within us. A childhood wound, a flashback, a remnant of something that has remained dormant within us. When these old wounds are triggered we might have an exaggerated response to our child’s struggles or behaviors. Our past and present might get blurred and anger or fear can bubble up to the surface. In this week’s AT Parenting...

Raising a child with Anxiety and OCD is hard enough, but when you and your partner are not on the same page, it can be even harder. It is common for one partner in the relationship to view their child’s anxiety or OCD differently. Couples can argue over a ton of things including how to handle their child’s struggles and if and when they should get professional help. In this week’s AT Parenting Survival Podcast I’ll explore these common struggles and talk about concrete ways to bridge the gap...

It is easy to lose yourself while trying to parent a child with anxiety or OCD. In fact, it can be hard not to. We might have ongoing thoughts about how to help our child. We might be consumed with worry about our child’s future.  We might have dropped activities, friends and hobbies we once found joy in. Our relationships might have taken a permanent backseat. Our health and mental well being might have fallen completely off our to-do list. In this week’s AT Parenting Survival Podcast I...

When our child has anxiety or OCD, we are often providing some accommodations that inadvertently grow the problem. As we learn about anxiety and OCD, we also learn about the importance of pulling back those accommodations. This is not a black and white process. It takes time, it takes judgment and it takes discernment in the moment. In this week’s AT Parenting Survival Podcast I talk about accommodations, how they grow anxiety and OCD and how to systematically pull back accommodations over...

OCD loves to hang out with other issues. There are many comorbid conditions that go with OCD. Misophonia and Misokinesia are two of them.  Does your child feel rage over certain sounds, including mouth and nose sounds? Does your child get overwhelmed by certain motions, like a foot tapping or knee bouncing?  Those are common struggles people with Misophonia and Misokinesia experience. In this week’s AT Parenting Survival Podcast I talk about the interconnected relationship between Misophonia,...

Inadvertently many of us make our child’s social anxiety worse. It can seem, on the surface, that social anxiety is an obvious issue with an obvious solution. But social anxiety is much more complicated than most people think. In this week’s AT Parenting Survival Podcast I outline common mistakes we make that unintentionally make our child or teen’s social anxiety worse. I’ll also outline positive approaches and steps to take to empower your child and reduce their social anxiety. 🌸 Join me...

Emily and Lindsay both struggled with OCD as kids. Even though they were sisters, OCD showed up in very different ways for each of them.  It wasn’t until Emily was in college that she realized that her anxiety was really OCD in disguise. Lindsay was able to support her sister and get her connected to the help she needed.  When the sisters found themselves back at home during COVID, a desire to help themselves quickly turned into an idea to help others as well. Emily wanted something to anchor...

There are a few OCD themes that can look very different than the rest. Just right OCD and Disgust OCD themes are two of them. Parents and therapists might struggle to find the “core fear” around these themes. That is because disgust and just right themes have to do with a fear of overwhelm around a feeling. In this week’s AT Parenting Survival Podcast I talk about how disgust OCD themes can show up and some alternative views being shared about how to treat disgust OCD differently than other...

Most of us want to raise healthy, resilient, empowered adults, but how do we get there? Our kids don’t magically turn independent and empowered once they pass the threshold of adulthood. The magic is in finding the sweet spot between rescuing and empowering our kids on  a daily basis. Even if we hit that sweet spot half the time, we’ll be building those skills to help our kids feel empowered. In this week’s AT Parenting Survival Podcast I explore the continuum of rescuing to tough love...