We create more kindness by being kind.
-Katie Hurley
Exploring different coping strategies helps us expand our child’s toolkit of strategies that work. But sometimes, it’s a challenge to get kids to try new skills. In this summer series, Janine tries to make it easier by walking you through six different strategies which she invites you to try with your child. Practice each one a few times to see if it’s a strategy that your child likes, and if they want to add it into their coping skills toolkit.
Using different breathing techniques can be such a useful tool to have ready in our tool kits to use with our children or even ourselves. In this year's summer series, Janine introduces us to a selection of different coping skills which she invites you to practice and see which style works best for you and your child.
In today’s episode, Janine introduces us to a deep breathing technique called ‘Cool the Cocoa’. This is where you breathe in and out pretending to blow and cool down a hot drink of cocoa.
Take a moment to try a new method, listen along and practice if you’d like.
The brain has to learn really specific skills when a child is little, like learning to pack a bag, organize themselves, tidy their room, personal hygiene, learning how to get a task done as well as learning how to finish a task too. These are all such key skills and are often learnt as a child goes through life and education and learning them well will make life easier!
In today’s episode:
Have you ever wondered when is a good time to practice coping skills with your child? This is a really good question to consider and how this may look in your week. The first step is for the adult and child to be emotionally ready and calm and from this point, new skills can be learned.
In this episode Janine speaks about:
Today’s installment of my book series covers the book ‘The Highly Sensitive Child’ by Elaine N. Aron, Ph.D. I read this book over COVID and it totally changed the way I look at kids, how to spot what’s going on with them in order to help them. In this episode, I go over the 4 areas in which high sensitivity presents itself so you can better see if your child is highly sensitive.
The topics I cover in this episode are:
This episode is the second installment of my book recommendation series. This week I want to focus on books dealing with anger since I have seen a lot of kids showing up to school with big emotions like anger lately. It is an emotion we have all felt many times, but we’re not always sure about how to deal with it so perhaps a bit of light reading can help!
The topics I cover in this episode are:
"Literally, it worked!"
Recently, one of my teen clients said about the coping skill I cover in this podcast episode. I'm always thrilled when a coping skill works for a client of mine. She struggles with anxiety, and we've talked about a ton of different coping skills, but this was the first time she ever used that phrasing. To hear more about what this coping skill is, take a listen.
I have always been a reader ever since I was a child but sometimes life gets in the way and I have found I don’t make much time for it so I used a recent vacation to spark my love for pleasurable reading again. After posting about this on Instagram, I was really inspired by one of my comments; to make a list of books to read over the summer and start a podcast series about it!
The topics I cover in this episode are:
Starting a conversation with a child about their own struggles and coping skills can be difficult. The best way around that in my opinion is to show through examples in books and TV. We all know how hard direct feedback and critique can be, yet if it is explained in a lighter way using someone else as an example, it can be much easier to digest and a perfect way to teach children.
The topics I cover in this episode are:
Can I tell you something? I LOVE working with teens. The conversations I have with adolescents can be full of sarcasm, but at the heart of every one of those talks is that they want to be heard. What’s interesting is that a lot of the same strategies I use for younger kids work for teens too (and even adults).