Welcome back to Become a Calm Mama. I'm your host. I'm Darlyn Childress,
Speaker:and I am a life and parenting coach. I'm also an
Speaker:adoptive mother, and I recently shared
Speaker:my whole backstory about my journey with infertility and
Speaker:becoming an adoptive mom a couple of weeks ago. So if you haven't listened to
Speaker:that podcast episode, I encourage you to go back just so you can kind of
Speaker:understand a little bit about where I'm coming from as an adoptive
Speaker:parent and why this guest is so important to me.
Speaker:Because today I am talking with Jeanette
Speaker:Yoff, who was our family's therapist and who
Speaker:really I look at as someone who saved
Speaker:my family's life and who taught me how
Speaker:to become the parent I am today and really introduced me to
Speaker:an entirely new framework of parenting and. And
Speaker:relating to my kids and understanding that my children were
Speaker:struggling with emotional regulation, and I needed to give
Speaker:them those tools and those skills to
Speaker:manage their big feelings in healthy ways. Jeanette
Speaker:is a licensed marriage and family therapist.
Speaker:She's an adoptee, and she focuses on
Speaker:kids who have experienced trauma, attachment disruption,
Speaker:been in the foster care system or. Or were adopted.
Speaker:And I met her when Lincoln was 4, almost 5.
Speaker:And I really think she was like an angel or a miracle in my life
Speaker:and came right at the right time when I was so desperate
Speaker:to figure out how to stop being a rageful mom, how to show
Speaker:up as the mom I wanted to be without using pain or
Speaker:shame or threats or manipulation or
Speaker:any of those things in my parenting. So I really hope you enjoy this
Speaker:episode. It is long because we not only talk about how we
Speaker:met and our backstory, but also Jeanette wrote a book that
Speaker:is 160 different
Speaker:interventions or therapeutic exercises that
Speaker:anybody can do with kids to help kids process their
Speaker:big feelings. The book is called the
Speaker:Traumatized and At Risk Youth Toolbox.
Speaker:I swear by this book there are so many really
Speaker:important and useful and practical and fun
Speaker:exercises that anybody can do with their kids. So we teach
Speaker:you, in this episode a bunch of these exercises. We talk
Speaker:about the stress bag. We talk about the Shame witch. We talk about
Speaker:Body Up Moves, which is ways for kids to ground themselves.
Speaker:We do so many different tools and techniques and.
Speaker:And so I want you to hang in, listen to us, get to reconnect with
Speaker:each other, hear a little bit about Jeanette's story, and then
Speaker:we dive into the book so you can get it on Amazon. I think it's
Speaker:around $30. I promise you, it is worth every
Speaker:penny. Again, it's called the Traumatized and At Risk Youth
Speaker:Toolbox by Jeanette Yoff. I think of
Speaker:Jeanette as my darlin. Sometimes people who work
Speaker:with me, they are just so grateful that they have me in their life.
Speaker:And they say, oh, you saved my family, and without you, I don't know where
Speaker:we would be. And I appreciate those compliments,
Speaker:but I also understand what they mean because that's how I feel about
Speaker:Jeanette. She really did impact my family. We
Speaker:did a lot of therapy with her. Both boys saw her
Speaker:individually and as a family.
Speaker:Kevin was in these sessions, I was in these sessions. And I really
Speaker:attribute a lot of my work to Jeanette. And so it's just a true
Speaker:delight to have her on the podcast, introduce her
Speaker:to all of you, and also so you can get to know me just a
Speaker:little bit more. So I hope you enjoy this episode, and we're going to
Speaker:jump right in. Hi. How are you?
Speaker:Good. I'm so happy to see you.
Speaker:Hi. My goodness, it has been some time.
Speaker:I know. Welcome to the Become a Calm Mama podcast. Thank
Speaker:you so much for having me. So much
Speaker:to talk about. We do. We do. I'm so happy to
Speaker:introduce you to all of my audience and to catch up
Speaker:and to share all the techniques you've developed.
Speaker:I was telling Kevin, I was like, I'm really excited. I said, oh, I'm going
Speaker:to interview Jeanette today. And he goes, oh. And
Speaker:when I tell everyone why you matter so much to us, they'll understand.
Speaker:But he was like, oh, that's exciting. And then I said, yeah.
Speaker:I said, I'm nervous. Me, too. You're so
Speaker:weird. I'm nervous, too. I'm like, why am I nervous?
Speaker:Well, you're. You don't know my audience yet.
Speaker:Okay. I don't know your audience. No. And they're going to love you. So
Speaker:you're nervous, you know, you're like, I don't know. Am I going to do a
Speaker:good job? That's true. That's true. You already did
Speaker:a good job. Oh, thank you. And I think about your
Speaker:boys, too, a lot because they've informed
Speaker:some of these interventions. Yeah, your boys
Speaker:have inspired some of these interventions. I can
Speaker:only imagine. Yes. Oh, yes. I. I mean, I really
Speaker:thought about all the kids I worked with and what worked.
Speaker:You know, what worked. Well, let me introduce you to
Speaker:the audience and tell a little bit about how we met, and
Speaker:you can chime in. I have these two adopted
Speaker:boys from Russia, and on the podcast, I just,
Speaker:like, last episode, shared about my
Speaker:story. I hadn't really kind of laid out my infertility and adoption
Speaker:story in one narrative. It's not like been a secret, but it
Speaker:hadn't really kind of told everybody. I shared in that episode what was
Speaker:happening to me and like what it meant to have kids who were born in
Speaker:Russian orphanages. And I didn't know about trauma, I didn't know about
Speaker:attachment. Like, I didn't know anything.
Speaker:And I was using traditional parenting methods and they were not working.
Speaker:Obviously. Then I had. I met you at a parenting
Speaker:workshop and you said, I work with kids five
Speaker:and up at that time. And Lincoln was like
Speaker:four and three quarters or something like that. And
Speaker:afterwards I came up to you and I was so nervous because I'm not good
Speaker:at asking for help. And I just came and I said, can you help
Speaker:me? I was like so scared and I was like, he's not 5 yet, but
Speaker:can you help us? I just felt like my heart was like, you
Speaker:are a child therapist. You work with kids from foster and
Speaker:adopt and attachment disruption. And
Speaker:I just was like, I need this woman in my life. And
Speaker:yeah, you said yes. Call me. No problem.
Speaker:I love kids. I just love kids in general. You do.
Speaker:You. You were so kind and sweet. I said, of course. Yeah,
Speaker:like I'm just so passionate. Of course I want to help the next generation of
Speaker:children relieve the mental health challenges that
Speaker:I just were just stuck in my bones
Speaker:and my soul. And I didn't have a therapist that I needed
Speaker:as a child. So I really prided
Speaker:myself on being that therapist that, that I needed as a child and
Speaker:for the kids today that need us to be trauma
Speaker:informed, attachment informed, grief and loss informed,
Speaker:the layers of trauma informed. Yeah.
Speaker:Yes. And I really do attribute everything in
Speaker:our life to you to just. Yes, to teaching me
Speaker:so much. So we did play based attachment therapy together. Your
Speaker:primary focus is on kids from foster care system or
Speaker:fostered up or adopt. And I learned so
Speaker:much. I was in those sessions with you and I just,
Speaker:I was so desperate to parent well and to
Speaker:not fuck up my kid and not be a rageful mom. And
Speaker:yeah, I just can. Did a great job. You did. Because I know
Speaker:I'm a parent myself and I've been in family therapy with.
Speaker:I'm a therapist. Like every family has
Speaker:challenges and it's taking the shame out of that. It's about
Speaker:growing and having a growth mindset. Even parents with
Speaker:biological children, they're their own person and
Speaker:you need to learn how to be attuned to them and read their non
Speaker:verbal cues. And, and be curious and understand what is going
Speaker:on because you're not going to know everything. Even biological parents.
Speaker:No. So it's healthy to go to therapy. Yeah.
Speaker:And just hear another point of view and so
Speaker:that you can be and have that relationship that you want
Speaker:with your child. They feel comfortable
Speaker:coming to you. They're not afraid. They feel safe, seen,
Speaker:heard. And you're able to soothe them because you've learned how to soothe
Speaker:yourself because you know that's part of parenting a child with a
Speaker:trauma history. You have to work harder. Kids pick up on that
Speaker:real quick. We're not okay. They're not going to be okay. This
Speaker:podcast, it is all about really learning how to
Speaker:self regulate in order to show up as the
Speaker:connected, compassionate parents that we want to be.
Speaker:It's just this idea that you taught me early on and that I teach on
Speaker:this podcast every week is that feelings drive behavior. And when our
Speaker:kids don't know what to do with their big feelings, they come out
Speaker:through behavior. And if you have a kid who has any sort of a
Speaker:trauma or attachment disruption, those feelings are going to be more
Speaker:intense and they're going to need more support to help
Speaker:them. In a traditional parenting model, you
Speaker:are only focused on the outside behavior. How do we change
Speaker:this behavior? How do we get our kids to listen? And in
Speaker:this model, it's more about like what's going on
Speaker:inside. Soothing and healing that and giving some room for
Speaker:those feelings to be processed and expressed and pushed through and the
Speaker:nervous system be regulated and then come back online
Speaker:and show up in your best self. And I think all
Speaker:parents who are wanting to not do it
Speaker:traditionally feel really unequipped. Whatever. Bio
Speaker:kid, adopted kid, foster kid. Right. It's like, it's because
Speaker:it's how our brains are wired. We are wired
Speaker:to. For the pleasure principle. We want to feel good
Speaker:all the time. We don't want to feel uncomfortable.
Speaker:So I will tell parents it's getting
Speaker:comfortable with being uncomfortable, the
Speaker:discomfort and being the master of that when things
Speaker:are getting intense. And one of my phrases is
Speaker:what's hysterical? Really big behavior. What's hysterical
Speaker:is historical and it's coming up for a reason. It
Speaker:needs our attention. The leaning into the
Speaker:oh, what's happening for you right now? And. And steering
Speaker:clear of the phrase what's wrong with you. Yeah.
Speaker:No, because that implies there's something wrong with you.
Speaker:And then children will become more critical and
Speaker:self judgmental and they will hide their motives from
Speaker:you because now they feel that you're criticizing their
Speaker:inner world. And they may have done something wrong.
Speaker:And because kids do things wrong all the time, but they
Speaker:need us to be patient, not assuming negative
Speaker:motives. Something I want to teach is the PACE model.
Speaker:Well, before you even do it, I wanted to give you a chance to talk
Speaker:about your story, just how you came to this work, because we're not
Speaker:focused on foster care children in this episode, but it is your
Speaker:heart. And the book that you wrote, Ro is called the
Speaker:Traumatized and At Risk Youth Toolbox. And it is for
Speaker:therapists and professionals working with children who have had
Speaker:trauma. What I love about the book is that there's so many
Speaker:amazing tools, but your heart is in with those
Speaker:foster kids. So tell us why. Yes.
Speaker:Thank you. Like I said, I didn't get what I needed as a
Speaker:child. And so that really has informed my work
Speaker:with children today. And the book is for any child who's been
Speaker:traumatized, any type of trauma, whether it's abuse, neglect,
Speaker:attachment, separation, poverty, homeless,
Speaker:incarceration, witnessing death.
Speaker:So it really is a gamut of all of these different
Speaker:types of adverse childhood experiences that a child
Speaker:goes through. And so for me, when I started,
Speaker:well, I went into therapy when I was 13 years old. Well, that
Speaker:feels lucky, actually. Yeah, I was lucky that
Speaker:my parents could afford therapy and thought to do it.
Speaker:I went into therapy for a very big reason. I had
Speaker:suicidal ideation because.
Speaker:So not only was I adopted and raised in foster care for six
Speaker:and a half years and had three homes. My first home was my birth
Speaker:family. For the first time, 15 months of my life, my mother had mental
Speaker:illness. It was deemed unsafe for me to stay with her.
Speaker:She was at a crisis point in her life. There was
Speaker:some neglect. Then I went into foster care six and a half years.
Speaker:Then I was placed in another home to be adopted at the
Speaker:age of seven and a half. So those frequent moves
Speaker:had a great impact on me and my nervous system and my
Speaker:ability to trust and feel secure in any relationship with any
Speaker:parent. Even when I was adopted, I kept asking my mother, when are you going
Speaker:to give me away? Because that's all that I knew. I mean, I just thought,
Speaker:oh, this is how it works. I just keep going from one family to another,
Speaker:and they end up giving me away again. And even my
Speaker:father told me when they brought me to the
Speaker:courthouse to be adopted, it was like eight. I
Speaker:would not leave the car. I held onto the car
Speaker:for dear life. I didn't know what adoption
Speaker:was. No one explained it to me. That's a big concept for
Speaker:a child. So My father remembers me just holding
Speaker:on. And so a big part of my work is we need
Speaker:to explain things to kids. We're constantly projecting adult
Speaker:characteristics on children. We need to help them understand what's
Speaker:happening for them, inform them. I needed somebody to tell me,
Speaker:we're going to this big building, it's going to hold a courthouse, so they
Speaker:understand the beginning, middle and end of the experience. You will be going
Speaker:home with your family. You're not going to another family.
Speaker:When I was 13, so we had two siblings. I
Speaker:had two siblings and still have two siblings who were adopted.
Speaker:And then we fostered another child and she
Speaker:had visits with her birth mother. And this really
Speaker:became, I really started quite questioning, wait
Speaker:a second, where's my birth mother and why is
Speaker:she not coming back for me? Wow, I must
Speaker:really be unlovable. I must really be
Speaker:deficient in some way. And I would tell myself, and because
Speaker:kids aren't gonna talk to you about this unless they feel
Speaker:comfortable, so. Or someone asks. Exactly.
Speaker:Yeah. Just because they're not talking about it does
Speaker:not mean they're not actively thinking about it. And you see,
Speaker:I'm emotional. There's still parts of me that still
Speaker:feels such compassion for my pain. I had a
Speaker:lot of pain. And so she was
Speaker:reunified with her birth. Oh, so you watched that
Speaker:happen? Yeah, I was 12 and a half. I then
Speaker:really started questioning my life, my existence.
Speaker:I had depression, I had a lot of anxiety
Speaker:and I didn't know what to do with all this stuff because again, no one
Speaker:was. And this was the 80s, people weren't understanding of trauma
Speaker:really, you know. Oh, she'll get over it. They don't remember.
Speaker:Yeah, things like that. Remember I was only 15 months old.
Speaker:Different babies, bodies. Remember
Speaker:the, the feeling of separation. And so
Speaker:when that happened, I really got down on myself
Speaker:and my self esteem got worse. I felt terrible.
Speaker:I had a lot of shame. And so I went into therapy. I. I
Speaker:wrote a suicide note to my best friend and
Speaker:I said, tonight I'm gonna do it. And I actually had codeine,
Speaker:which was a medication. And I'm telling you, even doctors make mistakes.
Speaker:The doctor said to me, if you take too many of these,
Speaker:you could die. Oh, thanks for making that
Speaker:prominent. I'm so glad. I have a plan now. Thanks. Yeah, so then I
Speaker:was like coding and so
Speaker:I said I was going to take the whole bottle. She told her mother, thank
Speaker:God. My mother, thank God. And the
Speaker:psychiatrist at the time actually was angry with me. I remember him.
Speaker:Why would you do this? You have Such a good life. I mean, again, here's
Speaker:a psychiatrist who was not informed. He made me feel worse
Speaker:about myself that I would even do this to other people.
Speaker:Not curious about why I'm acting out in this way
Speaker:in such a good way. Because I need attention. That's
Speaker:why it's hysterical. Hello. Hello.
Speaker:Don't shame me and blame me for this behavior. Of course
Speaker:you feel this way. Of course you want this part of
Speaker:you. And. Yeah, so going into therapy really changed my life and
Speaker:helped me really make sense of what. What happened to me. And have compassion.
Speaker:That's the biggest piece for me. Once I started having
Speaker:compassion for what I'd been through, I could start feeling
Speaker:a sense of relief. And that's what mental health is. And
Speaker:somebody heard me and. And I could cry and
Speaker:cry because my adoptive mom,
Speaker:I would cry a lot and that was my behavior. And she
Speaker:would tell me, stop. Fear. Feeling sorry for yourself.
Speaker:She got the feeling, right? Yeah. And this is where
Speaker:I tell parents, when you have the feeling, right? Go, oh,
Speaker:wait, what am I feeling? When my child's having a feeling, oh, she's
Speaker:feeling sorry for myself. Let me name it to tame it.
Speaker:I'm wondering if you're feeling sorry for yourself. And
Speaker:what I really needed my mom to say to me, I'm so
Speaker:sorry, honey, you're feeling so sorry for yourself. You have
Speaker:a lot to feel sorry for. Yes. Just validating
Speaker:is so valuable. Just saying. We say a lot. That
Speaker:makes sense. That's our favorite phrase. That makes sense. Of course.
Speaker:Even if, like, if. Even if I was thinking these things, I would feel the
Speaker:way you're feeling. We can validate, even if the circumstance
Speaker:doesn't justify it, can validate that the thought that they
Speaker:have about their circumstance is
Speaker:causing that feeling. And then that's also valid then.
Speaker:So it's like we don't have to just, oh, well, you don't. You're not entitled
Speaker:because you're so grateful. You know, you should have a good life. Or we
Speaker:think to ourselves, they should not be feeling this way. There's no reason.
Speaker:You had a reason. And that wasn't being validated.
Speaker:And sometimes we don't even have a reason. We just feel
Speaker:the way we feel because we're thinking the way we're thinking. Which is. Your
Speaker:thought was an error of misunderstanding
Speaker:loss. Like, how come you're. How come you weren't with your
Speaker:birth mother? And she gets to be with her birth.
Speaker:Yeah. And it wasn't because you're naughty or bad or something's wrong with you
Speaker:circumstantial. And, you know, the way the system works. There's all these
Speaker:reasons that you don't have information. So you make this
Speaker:belief and that causes all this pain. Couldn't turn off
Speaker:the faucet of that. It just kept
Speaker:pouring out. And the more I didn't understand it and the more
Speaker:my mom judged it, I would turn. I would
Speaker:work really hard because we. We don't want to
Speaker:disappoint our parents. We do not. We're
Speaker:kids are doing the best they can, and that's being an
Speaker:attachment. Important. Parent your kid,
Speaker:even if it's not, you know, desirable
Speaker:behavior. Right. It's uncomfortable behavior.
Speaker:Right. It's saying, okay, this is what's
Speaker:happening. Let me dive in a little bit. It's not
Speaker:going to turn it. Like the thermostat. You're not going to turn the thermostat
Speaker:up. You're actually going to turn the thermostat down. When you
Speaker:just lean in a little bit and be curious and.
Speaker:And listen and. Because kids just need a lot of listening.
Speaker:I do too. I always say they don't have a best friend, they don't have
Speaker:a husband, they don't have a wife, they don't have a partner. They don't have.
Speaker:I have all those people, and I still have all these feelings, but they're
Speaker:little. They don't have. They don't have that in their life. You're. That
Speaker:if. If it's a privilege to be that for them.
Speaker:Actually, Yeah. I mean, listen, I'm a therapist
Speaker:and. And. And I still. My son was in the car one
Speaker:day and he was having some really big feelings, and I went, okay,
Speaker:I'm just gonna sit here. I'm just going to
Speaker:sit in the discomfort. Like I tell all my families, I'm
Speaker:going to be uncomfortable. And I was really uncomfortable. I didn't have the
Speaker:words. I just said, I'm here for you. I hear
Speaker:you. I get it. This is really hard. And we're
Speaker:very much on. We're going to get through this so that he doesn't feel
Speaker:othered alone. It's not about you. This is about us.
Speaker:And I'm here with you. I'm your mother. I'm going to do the best that
Speaker:I can. We're going to figure this out together. And this
Speaker:is really, really hard. And that. That's enough. That's
Speaker:therapeutic in and of itself. And then he was like, okay, bye, mom.
Speaker:Like, okay. Yeah. We often think that we need to have some
Speaker:kind of plan for the feelings and one of the questions
Speaker:that I ask myself a lot is, what
Speaker:does one do with sadness? It's this question that I. It's like
Speaker:a giant question that I ask kind of frequently. It's
Speaker:so hard to have a big emotion and then not to
Speaker:know what to do about it and how to process
Speaker:it or feel it and wait for it to pass is pretty much
Speaker:the answer. Because the feelings are
Speaker:clouds, and they're like the weather, and it comes and goes, and you can just
Speaker:wait. And, you know, in Michigan, they say that if you
Speaker:don't like the weather, wait an hour because it changes really frequently.
Speaker:It's kind of like a feeling like you don't have to bypass it. You can
Speaker:sit in it. And especially if it's witnessed and
Speaker:seen, then the. The nervous system, the body, the brain kind of shifts
Speaker:on its own. Yeah. So sometimes just sitting,
Speaker:being present, being that witness. Right. Because grief is
Speaker:nonlinear, and it will come out at. At
Speaker:random times. And it could be just a little
Speaker:tinge of something. It could even be a commercial that they just saw
Speaker:that reminds them of their loss. And, like, I
Speaker:talk a lot about genetic mirroring. If they don't have that genetic mirroring,
Speaker:it reminds them of their loss. Like, I would go to my friend's house and
Speaker:see their parents and go, she looks just like her mom.
Speaker:Who do I look like? I don't have that
Speaker:mirroring. And that just going to my friend's house and seeing that
Speaker:triggered my loss. And I would have anxiety because I would then start
Speaker:thinking about that, and then I'd have to turn it off and
Speaker:push it down and repress it. Which actually, when we
Speaker:repress stress, it compounds itself, and that's what
Speaker:creates anxiety. And
Speaker:compressing internalized anger becomes
Speaker:suicidal ideation. So we want to have conversations
Speaker:with kids. We want to externalize it. We want to bring
Speaker:it out and go, tell me what's going on right now. You're having a lot
Speaker:of big feelings and just sit and wait. And you're
Speaker:a genius at externalizing. I think that's like, this book is
Speaker:160 Techniques. That's right. And some are there
Speaker:for therapeutic environments, for sure. But really so
Speaker:much of it is just taking what's inside and putting outside in some sort of
Speaker:metaphor or some sort of way you can see or experience or
Speaker:manipulate or touch. And that's what you
Speaker:did with my boys in our sessions. And
Speaker:I was always dumbfounded. Like, your creativity, your
Speaker:playfulness, just the stuff we did
Speaker:in there is so cuckoo. It just was, like, so
Speaker:Cuckoo. But we followed your. Your children's
Speaker:leads. Like I said, we need to follow their lead. And
Speaker:there's a sweet spot of being direct. Yeah. And pointing out,
Speaker:like, of course you feel sad about that. Right.
Speaker:Of course it's okay to have sadness and then validating that and creating a
Speaker:sad bag or an anger bag or. Or of course you have stress. Stress
Speaker:is a part of life. Let's create a stress bag because everybody needs
Speaker:one and normalizing it and even you
Speaker:having your own feeling. Snow globe. Right. Parents
Speaker:to the modeling. And I think I taught you the hand model of
Speaker:the brain, like you modeling that to your children. Your children
Speaker:learn what they live and they'll. They'll imitate you.
Speaker:Yeah. I've shared it on here that the fist model with the, you know,
Speaker:amygdala in the middle and, you know, losing your top, blowing your top with the
Speaker:not having access to thinking and just, you know, that. And I remember my
Speaker:son during the pandemic. He was 13, and he had his
Speaker:little hand model in front of me, and his fingers,
Speaker:his four fingers were tipped up a little bit. And he's like, how do you
Speaker:imagine I am when I'm like this, like, just, like, about to
Speaker:pop up his hand? You know, and it was just. I couldn't
Speaker:believe, you know, just teaching him and teaching both of them that the way
Speaker:that their brain works and their stress and what it means when we
Speaker:start to lose that regulation and
Speaker:awareness and all the games and tools and
Speaker:things that we've taught them, then they've actually been able
Speaker:to emotionally coach me sometimes. That's right. Yeah,
Speaker:exactly. Mom, you need time for you. For your breathing. Snow
Speaker:globe. Yes. Yes. Mom, you need to go take a time out. And
Speaker:it's like, oh, and even my son. And I'll go, oh, you're right.
Speaker:And we need to take responsibility for sure. And give
Speaker:them. We want them to witness us taking responsibility.
Speaker:That's learning in and of itself. And I remember
Speaker:applying, taking responsibility when I've flipped my
Speaker:lid and I said one day to my son, I said, what? Mommy just flipped
Speaker:her lid? And she yelled. And I. I can
Speaker:see how that scared you. And I'm really
Speaker:sorry about that. And I'm going to work on that.
Speaker:Will you accept my apology? And my son went, no.
Speaker:And I sat there and I went, I'm just going to wait. And then literally
Speaker:two minutes later, he goes, I accept your apology. And then
Speaker:for real, a week later, he had flipped his lid, and
Speaker:he came to me and said, mom, I'm really sorry that I
Speaker:yelled. I'm going to work on that. And I just went, oh my
Speaker:gosh, this works. It works, it works, it
Speaker:works. And what a gift to our families. Like,
Speaker:while we're raising kids for sure. But what a huge gift to them. Like, my
Speaker:mission is similar to yours in, like, I want to heal the next
Speaker:generation in advance. This is my thought that if you.
Speaker:Yeah. If you have the tools in childhood, if we don't create
Speaker:trauma or we actually heal it in real time. Right.
Speaker:Ruptures and, and pain and those kinds of things that happen are
Speaker:inevitable. Like you talked about all those losses. And if you
Speaker:have someone witnessing and processing and giving you space and then giving you
Speaker:tools because that stuff will come up again, then maybe we don't have to
Speaker:get to our 20s and sabotage a bunch
Speaker:and then have to go into repair. And it's
Speaker:like, what would it look like if we had a whole generation of kids who
Speaker:came out of their childhood not unscathed, but well equipped?
Speaker:Yeah. Yeah. Bruce Perry talks about this. That there
Speaker:are. Stress is a normative part of
Speaker:life. We stress. We will always have stress. Yeah. And we need to
Speaker:accept that. It's when it becomes in this three types of
Speaker:stress, positive stress, tolerable stress, and
Speaker:toxic stress stress. And that's where we vacillate between the
Speaker:tolerable stress and toxic stress that we want to mitigate
Speaker:so that people aren't having major diagnoses and
Speaker:flipping their lids and not able to function. Yeah.
Speaker:Tell us about pace. And then we're going to get everyone listening.
Speaker:Get, get ready with your pens because we're gonna give a
Speaker:bunch of tools and it's like really like practical
Speaker:strategies. But tell us about PACE because I have had forgotten and I haven't taught
Speaker:it on here. And it's so wonderful. It's a great acronym. So it
Speaker:is. Daniel Hughes created it. He's the father of attachment theory
Speaker:other than Bolby. He's inspired by John Bolby, but he's
Speaker:really done so much research and written multiple books on the
Speaker:subject. And so PACE is an
Speaker:acronym to pace. So he teaches it. Pace
Speaker:your child. I teach it Pace yourself first. Because
Speaker:we want to work on our own regulation first, then you pace your child.
Speaker:So P stands for P3 be patient,
Speaker:present and playful. And this is whenever you see any
Speaker:behavior. Any behavior. So, and you don't have to go in this
Speaker:order. P, A, C, E. But it's. It's an acronym that's easy to
Speaker:remember. Next time you see behavior, you're like, okay, pace, what am I going to
Speaker:do? P, A, C or E or C and E. So A
Speaker:is always convey non verbally, I
Speaker:accept you. I love you. And you may not accept
Speaker:that they just threw their cell phone right. And crossed the
Speaker:way and hit it on the wall. Or you don't accept that they threw something
Speaker:and broke something special in your home or said cuss words
Speaker:at you. You don't accept that. Right. There's limits to
Speaker:undesirable behavior. But we're always conveying,
Speaker:I love you. And that's how you would talk to them. I love it. I
Speaker:love you. I don't love it when you kick the dog. Okay, so
Speaker:you're putting the emphasis on the behavior, not the
Speaker:child. Separating out the two. When you do that, things
Speaker:will shift right away. Right away. So you're always
Speaker:conveying unconditionally, I love you. You just don't love their
Speaker:behavior. So separate that out. C is
Speaker:be curious. Always be curious. So what's happening? I see you're
Speaker:noticing you're a little stressed out today. What's going on? And you can hear in
Speaker:my tone, when you're curious, it actually opens
Speaker:up the executive functioning of the brain of the other person.
Speaker:They feel safe because your tone is safe. We're not aware
Speaker:of our tone. If our tone is judgmental or
Speaker:criticizing, it's not going to feel safe. And it's actually not going to be in
Speaker:your best interest because they're going to hide their motives,
Speaker:hide their thoughts and feelings from you because they feel criticized.
Speaker:I'll have parents go, okay, ask a question like you would. Okay,
Speaker:what's going on with you? There's a tone there. Now shift
Speaker:it to being curious. What's going on there,
Speaker:honey? And it's a shift and it's a practice.
Speaker:What's happening right now, honey? Because it's what you're not saying.
Speaker:I'm safe. We can talk about this. I'm
Speaker:regulated. We can do this together. I'm with you.
Speaker:I'm not going to judge you. I'm not going to criticize you see the difference?
Speaker:Yes. For sure. Is so crucial. This is all Dan
Speaker:Hughes's work. And then E is have empathy.
Speaker:Pace yourself. Go, you know what? I'm going to be playful with myself because this
Speaker:is hard. It is hard, right? I was quick with the giggle,
Speaker:as are you. And I think it has made parenting a lot more
Speaker:pleasant for me because I don't tend to take things
Speaker:that seriously, like, almost to a fault. And that's a reflection
Speaker:of you and the work you've done on yourself. Yes, because I
Speaker:wasn't, I was, wasn't always this way because I felt
Speaker:hyper vigilant. Because I, I've talked to the podcast about my own trauma
Speaker:and I.9 is my ace score. It's insane.
Speaker:So I had to figure out a way to
Speaker:be in the world that wasn't so on guard.
Speaker:Mostly because I was raising a kid who was on guard.
Speaker:Yes. Yes. And so we were just like
Speaker:ninja arms up, ready to fight each other and it wasn't
Speaker:gonna work. I had to disarm. That's right. And
Speaker:playfulness actually releases dopamine feel
Speaker:good hormone. So it actually will help you stay regulated. You're
Speaker:also reading your child's non verbal cues. So if they're like looking at you
Speaker:like why are you laughing at me? You're gonna stop. Stop being playful. Yeah,
Speaker:true. And the non verbal cues, and this is Dan
Speaker:Siegel's work, the seven non verbal cues always pay
Speaker:attention to your child's facial expressions. Their.
Speaker:The way they're looking at you, their tone of voice,
Speaker:their gestures, their posture
Speaker:and their timing and intensity of responding to you. Because
Speaker:that will help, you know, the dance of attachment. Sometimes we
Speaker:have to move real slow here. When things are getting activated,
Speaker:it's you slowing down and being aware of your non
Speaker:verbal cues. It's. It's like, it's slow mo a lot
Speaker:as intense emotions. It's slow mo time.
Speaker:Well, it's your. That's the goal. One of the things we say
Speaker:all the time on here is misbehavior is not an emergency because
Speaker:the brain will trick you to think that you have to respond. We go fix
Speaker:it, change it, stop and sell it. It's an intensity and it. And when you
Speaker:get regulated, it's almost like you are slowing down time. Like
Speaker:you're in the Matrix. Like you're those bullets. You're like, woo. It doesn't matter.
Speaker:Yeah. Yes. I love that you're in the Matrix completely.
Speaker:That's what it should feel like. So pace is pace
Speaker:yourself first. Go. Wow. So once you recognize. I'm starting to
Speaker:get reactive here. This is triggering my stuff. Okay, what
Speaker:do I want to do with me first? Let's be curious. It's hard.
Speaker:This is hard for you and you're doing it. Be
Speaker:accepting of yourself. You're doing the best that you can. Have empathy.
Speaker:Then pace your child and go, okay, I'm gonna be. I'm
Speaker:gonna convey I love you. I don't love it that you just threw
Speaker:your Cell phone and now it's broken. And be aware of your tone.
Speaker:I mean it's a, it's mastering this. Yeah, it is mastering it. It's definitely.
Speaker:I think looking at your child's crestfallen face can be
Speaker:great as a tool to be like, I'm not maybe showing up the
Speaker:way that I think I am. Like I'm more aggressive than I want to be.
Speaker:I'm more. You're aware of the tone of voice. Wow. I'm pushing
Speaker:them away with my tone. I need to take it back. The
Speaker:thermostat enough. I think about acceptance a lot with,
Speaker:in this pace because we all,
Speaker:we all love our kids and I think that our kids
Speaker:know that. And I remember Lincoln. One of the main things that made
Speaker:me get help was I was putting him to bed. He was four. And I
Speaker:said, honey, another hard day, just the two of us.
Speaker:He's like my best friend now. It's so funny. But we were
Speaker:just, I just could not know what to do with him. ADHD 4 year
Speaker:old boy trauma. I mean, just so much going on. Right. And
Speaker:I said, honey, I'm so sorry. You know I love you
Speaker:at bedtime. And he said, I know you love me. I just don't
Speaker:think you like me very much. I remember that. That's the
Speaker:non verbal communication he wasn't picking up from you.
Speaker:I could imagine you were probably stressed out. He saw it in your nonverbal and.
Speaker:Also really not liking his behavior but not able to separate
Speaker:and getting frustrated. Yeah. And I also had, I had
Speaker:conflated his behavior with him. I was so stuck in fear
Speaker:and so afraid. I was like, he is going to be a,
Speaker:a psychopathic killer. Like I convinced myself
Speaker:because he was like somewhat naughty. I mean I was also in an
Speaker:extreme trauma response myself. That's why we needed
Speaker:help. That's why we came to you. I needed someone
Speaker:to say your child is not your behavior in
Speaker:order for me to start to separate myself,
Speaker:separate my thoughts about him. Yeah, I hear you. Because
Speaker:parents take their children's behavior personally. Yes.
Speaker:It's a reflection of me. It's because of me. Yes, that's
Speaker:right. And one of my phrases is it's not a rejection of you,
Speaker:their anger, it's a reflection of what they're going
Speaker:through. Separate that out, piece that out and that actually
Speaker:that phrase. Because I felt. So I had a secondary rejection.
Speaker:Right. I'm initially with my birth family and so I had to keep telling
Speaker:myself this is not a rejection of you. This is a reflection
Speaker:of his unresolved trauma, grief, and loss of losing you
Speaker:and your brother and your mother. So beautiful. It's
Speaker:something that we can all really take to the bank,
Speaker:right? Like really learning how to take all the behavior that we experience from
Speaker:others. And so especially, I mean, I coach a lot of people,
Speaker:teens and boy, do parents feel like everything is a
Speaker:rejection. Take very personally their behavior. That's why I wanted to share
Speaker:my shame witch technique. So we talked about paste. So I
Speaker:do want to say this book parents can use too,
Speaker:because there's a lot of handouts. You can print things out
Speaker:very easy. You don't have to be a therapist to do these
Speaker:interventions. Do it on yourself first. Pace yourself
Speaker:first and go, okay, yeah, I can totally do this. I can teach this to
Speaker:my child. And I'm going to model that. I'm going to do this too, too.
Speaker:So with the rejection piece, I do want to point out that our
Speaker:brains and we will perceive anger
Speaker:or criticizing our judgment as a rejection. Our brains just
Speaker:automatically perceive that you don't like me when someone's
Speaker:angry with you. So we want to understand that and accept that.
Speaker:You're saying accept that anger feels like
Speaker:abandonment, especially for kids who've experienced trauma, because they take
Speaker:a lot of things personally. So kids in general
Speaker:do. And then kids with trauma especially do. Yes. They
Speaker:have so much shame. So the shame witch technique
Speaker:also came from Daniel Hughes.
Speaker:In one of his books, he was talking about shame, and I really sat with
Speaker:it, and I had so much shame as a kid, and I
Speaker:needed somebody to separate out me from my
Speaker:shame. And so I said, what if I had, like, a sandwich?
Speaker:Because I'm trying to think of. I, I. The way I create is I just
Speaker:sit with myself and I go, how do I explain this to
Speaker:a kid concretely? I'm always thinking in that way.
Speaker:Because also when we're dealing with trauma and flipping our lids, our brain
Speaker:doesn't have rational concepts. It. So we want
Speaker:create something complex into something concrete,
Speaker:which is what I strive to do. And I go, what
Speaker:metaphor could I use separating out?
Speaker:And I'll just sit there and go, what's something you separate out? This is how
Speaker:I create, Okay, a sandwich. So then I said, I'm
Speaker:going to create something called the shame witch. So the bread on
Speaker:the bottom. So this is. You're teaching this not only to your child,
Speaker:but again, doing it to yourself. The bread on the
Speaker:bottom is, you're a good person. You're pulling out all the good stuff. You're a
Speaker:good person. You're doing the best that you can. I love in the book you
Speaker:wrote that the. It's your best friend inner voice. Yes,
Speaker:yes, that. That the bread is the voice that is
Speaker:so loving, so kind, so encouraging. And what
Speaker:does your best friend say about you? Right. Because
Speaker:a lot of the work that we're understanding in trauma is building that
Speaker:self compassion. So what would your best friend say to you?
Speaker:Yeah, Situation. So I thought, oh, let's bridge
Speaker:that too, to get people to start
Speaker:having compassion. When you make a mistake, you're
Speaker:not the mistake. The mistake is the mistake. And we're gonna
Speaker:have objectivity and we're gonna learn about that.
Speaker:And your self esteem can still be intact.
Speaker:You can still feel good about yourself. Because a lot of the kids I worked
Speaker:with, they would make a mistake. I'm stupid, I'm stupid, I'm stupid. There's
Speaker:something wrong with me. They would go all the way to that place.
Speaker:Negative talk. So the bread on the bottom is your.
Speaker:Your best friend in her voice. You're a good person. You're doing the
Speaker:best that you can. It's okay to make mistakes. Then whatever your favorite
Speaker:sandwich is, turkey, lettuce, pickled tomato, you're going to put all the emphasis
Speaker:on all the things you're doing wrong or the mistakes you're making,
Speaker:and you're going to separate that out and that turkey.
Speaker:That math problem is what I'm going to work on. That math
Speaker:problem makes me feel stupid. But it's the math problem that's hard.
Speaker:That's really hard. And I'm figuring that out. And then the
Speaker:bread on top is, you're doing the best that you can. So
Speaker:we're sandwiching the shame of not being able to
Speaker:accomplish something, do something with objectivity,
Speaker:with compassion, with a growth
Speaker:mindset. You haven't learned it yet. You're still.
Speaker:I'm still learning things. There's a lot I haven't learned yet.
Speaker:I'm still figuring things out. Same. Okay, so the shame,
Speaker:which I use on myself a lot, I go, you're doing the
Speaker:best you can. This is what you're going to figure out. You're going to figure
Speaker:out this problem. Don't put it on yourself. So
Speaker:the middle, the pieces of the sandwich are like the
Speaker:circumstance or the situation or the
Speaker:challenge or. Or some of those negative thoughts you
Speaker:have about yourself. That's right. All the negative
Speaker:inner voice all have an inner critic. We all do. And it's
Speaker:piecing that out. And really, when you do these
Speaker:interventions, the intensity, frequency and duration
Speaker:of those Symptoms will lessen. You're going to find,
Speaker:wow, I just did the shame, which I actually feel really good.
Speaker:I actually feel good about myself that I'm actually making mistakes. And I
Speaker:can still feel good because. There are things that we aren't good at.
Speaker:There are things that we make mistakes. And
Speaker:shame. Right. Like Brene Brown is like, that's when you think that you
Speaker:are a mistake. And guilt is like, I made a mistake. You know, kind of
Speaker:separating that. And I think it's the same. It's all of that
Speaker:combined, like, I'm not the hard thing. I'm not my
Speaker:negative thoughts. That's not actually who I am. And I did a
Speaker:big series on internal family systems a couple months ago and
Speaker:we have learned a lot about self led energy and self energy and like your
Speaker:core self. So anyone who listens regularly will
Speaker:kind of like, okay, the bread parts are like your core, like
Speaker:yourself. Your parts that. Your part. Free. Free
Speaker:part. Right? Yeah. You're applying those shameless to yourself. Like,
Speaker:if there's something you've done as a parent that you feel ashamed about,
Speaker:piece it out for yourself. So, okay, you're gonna figure that out. You're
Speaker:learning. So then I had this kid, every time he
Speaker:would do homework, he'd go, I'm stupid, I'm stupid, I'm stupid. I'm just terrible.
Speaker:And the parent would come to me and say, I keep telling him he's not
Speaker:stupid. And so I said, okay,
Speaker:that's. Let's take a step back, let's look at that.
Speaker:Because when we try to turn off behavior, if I
Speaker:tell you, and this is mindfulness, if I tell you right now,
Speaker:don't think about a white bear. Go.
Speaker:Don't think about a white. Don't do this, don't do that, don't.
Speaker:What are you doing? It's making it bigger. And when I learned that
Speaker:concept, I was like, wait a second. We actually have to
Speaker:acknowledge that part to lessen the
Speaker:intensity of that part. So this little boy, I said, told
Speaker:the parent, next time he says I'm stupid, you validate. I see
Speaker:there's a part of you that believes you're stupid that's so
Speaker:hard that leaning into the discomfort because he didn't want his kid
Speaker:to feel stupid, but he feels stupid, it's what is. That's what the
Speaker:child is communicating. So parents do this all the time. They are
Speaker:kind of almost argue like the child's thoughts thought, trying to like
Speaker:dislodge it and with the best intention, but it's
Speaker:ineffective. And it's like acknowledging the thought,
Speaker:acknowledging. The feeling, and that white bear concept.
Speaker:If. Just really take that in because it will help you
Speaker:go, oh, I can't turn this off. And that's trauma putting on the
Speaker:trauma lens. It's not that they won't behave. They can't
Speaker:behave because they're three, four. And we're always,
Speaker:again, projecting adult characteristics on kids. They should
Speaker:behave. They can't behave like other kids their age. They're
Speaker:still learning. We're all learning the shame, which then
Speaker:apply it to your child. So when you see your child, I see you.
Speaker:You're. You're doing the best that you can. This is really hard. And you're
Speaker:doing it. And the math. So take the negative. Whatever
Speaker:they're saying and the math is stupid. Help them
Speaker:bridge it and put it on whatever that negative critical
Speaker:voice is. Put it on the. The behavior, the action
Speaker:that they took or the poor choice that they made. That's the
Speaker:problem, you know, going and thinking you
Speaker:can just steal a pack of gum. That's not okay.
Speaker:You're okay. But stealing is not okay. And there's one more little
Speaker:concept is storytelling. And in that moment when you're doing the shame, which you
Speaker:go, you know what? I want to tell you a little story. When I was
Speaker:little, this happened. And I learned too. Like, you know what?
Speaker:I thought that you could steal things and get away with it, but we can't,
Speaker:because you can add a negative consequence for that. And it's just. And
Speaker:that's discipline. You're just teaching. But we're not blaming and
Speaker:we're not shaming. I think that's a good metaphor in our heads to
Speaker:remember. Just like, am I. Am I shame witching? Right?
Speaker:I mean, really. Right. It's like, can I dislodge some of these
Speaker:negative thoughts? Because. Because there are. Kids do have negative thoughts and they do have
Speaker:negative behaviors. They have all of that. And if we
Speaker:come alongside and we don't have the parts of the bread
Speaker:that say, you're not your behavior, you are this,
Speaker:you are good, you are kind, you are loving, you are lovable,
Speaker:all those things, then they're not going to know. They can't
Speaker:separate it because that's a very abstract concept, actually.
Speaker:Metacognition. It's very difficult to separate yourself from your behavior. And so we.
Speaker:But we can teach kids how to do that, right? In this very concrete way.
Speaker:So I'll even have cut out circles of buns, cut
Speaker:out some lettuce, pickled tomato, turkey. And we Write on it.
Speaker:What are some things you can say to yourself next time when you're feeling really
Speaker:down on yourself? What's your best friend and her voice can say to you so
Speaker:that they have it? And that's again the externalizing. They have something
Speaker:outside of themselves they can look at. It's a visual
Speaker:reminder of their mental health. Right. And I'm creating
Speaker:toolboxes, toolkits for kids. Now I just get a little pop up
Speaker:box and every intervention we do in therapy goes in their mental health
Speaker:toolbox. They have it at home because kids can't hold it
Speaker:all in their heads. There's so much going on up there. They
Speaker:have the visual. Oh, I got my sad back. I got my anger bag. I
Speaker:got my dress bag. It's right there. Yeah, let's talk about the bags
Speaker:because I love it. I, I have like a calm down basket that I teach.
Speaker:Right. Or like a calm basket. I used to call it a feelings basket.
Speaker:You're very creative too. Yes. But a lot of them like to ideas
Speaker:from you. You know, things that I've that put in it. But
Speaker:it is like this concept of going to something and working through an
Speaker:emotion or manipulating or showing or
Speaker:you're moving your body and so talk about the stress bag, the anger bad, the
Speaker:sack bad. And these are all like things that you've trademarked. Like this
Speaker:is a core part of your work that's so valuable.
Speaker:Yeah. Share it with us. Really helped me understand mental health
Speaker:and how to help children shrink the big
Speaker:feelings and have the word is containment
Speaker:feeling. There's no structure to feelings. You know when you, ah,
Speaker:it just, you vomit. Right. It's just really big and there's, there's no
Speaker:limit to it. So what the stress bag does is it
Speaker:has a place and a space and a limit to it. It all
Speaker:goes here. And so we definitely want,
Speaker:whether it's a stress bag, anger bag or sad bag to be visual in the
Speaker:child's room. Okay. Really? It says the stress bag on
Speaker:it. So the stress bag, it's your modeling. So you
Speaker:have a bag with handles, index cards because we're going to
Speaker:have stress busters that we write down and a variety
Speaker:of stress relief tools. And you know, that could be a stress
Speaker:ball bubble wrap I like to use because I, I'll explain
Speaker:to kids. Like think about all the cells in your body. Well,
Speaker:cortisol is a stress cell. Right. And when we're twisting
Speaker:the bubble wrap, I want you to think of all the stress that you're holding
Speaker:in your body and popping it one by one. And I'll have kids name it
Speaker:to tame it. Like, tell me something you're stressed about. And then release
Speaker:math and like my brother and
Speaker:mom's work trip, whatever. Yes, right. You're. You're helping
Speaker:them name entertainment. You're giving voice to it. You're giving
Speaker:the releasing to it. And, and with kids who have trauma, you're
Speaker:discharging trauma. And it's really important because
Speaker:trauma gets stored in the body. So play doh,
Speaker:bubbles, drawing paper. Um, I've even
Speaker:been adding a stress tube. You know those poster
Speaker:tubes so they can. Another form of containment. They
Speaker:can yell in the tube, I'm stressed about this. And it
Speaker:gets stuck in the tube and then they can put the end on. Oh, that's
Speaker:so cute. Yeah. Right, right. Just little ways trap the
Speaker:stress. Right. It's like,
Speaker:because we want it out of us comfortable.
Speaker:So that's the stress bag. And basically you're having all of
Speaker:these items out. If you have a child who's resistant, I tell
Speaker:parents, have your own stress bag too and go, you know what? Mom needs one
Speaker:too. So we're both gonna do it and let's have fun
Speaker:making it. Let's choose and have all the items out and you each get to
Speaker:choose. Okay. And then you practice together.
Speaker:And then you find a place in their room that you're going to, to put
Speaker:it so they know where it is. And then a few times a week,
Speaker:not. Not when they're stressed. You can use it when they're
Speaker:stressed if they're able to. But we know that there's stress inside
Speaker:our body, so we're going to practice releasing our stress. That's
Speaker:a good point. Yeah. I do recommend that, like, you have to
Speaker:practice with this stuff, like, you know, when you're not activated. Because
Speaker:the idea is like, okay, I, that's why I was found breathing was
Speaker:hard for me to say, okay, breathe, deep breaths.
Speaker:Because I felt like my kids didn't really need to inhale. I mean, I know
Speaker:it's helpful, but they almost need to like exhale.
Speaker:So jump or bounce or you know, push things out
Speaker:and in the moment and it's. But then if we
Speaker:practice breathing at other times and just noticing how good
Speaker:that felt in our body and our nervous system. Yeah, that's
Speaker:how. When we're stressed and we flipped our lid, we're not receptive
Speaker:to learning. No, for sure. You need to have like something you're.
Speaker:You have your go tos. That's right. So the stress
Speaker:bag You're. You're showing them that there are tools. We know there's
Speaker:stress in there. We all have it. And we're practicing
Speaker:because as we release the stress when we're not stressed, it's actually
Speaker:lessening the stress because now we're giving voice to. To it because
Speaker:we know this is something we could be anticipating. We're stressed about
Speaker:something that happened in the past that still needs to be processed.
Speaker:So it's processing the past and the future in
Speaker:the present. Yeah. The anger bag. The same thing. If you have a child
Speaker:who has a lot of anger, anger is the easiest emotion to have. It is.
Speaker:It protects us from feeling grief, sadness, shame. Then you're going to
Speaker:start with an anger bag and go, wow, we have a lot of anger in
Speaker:our family. And that's okay because anger is a part of life. Right. Normalizing it,
Speaker:helping them understand that this is okay. And we're gonna make
Speaker:an anger bag today and have fun with this. And see the
Speaker:playfulness. You're even pacing while you're doing this.
Speaker:Yeah, Right. And you're showing them and modeling. You know, mom
Speaker:has anger sometimes. So I'm gonna make myself an anger bag too. So here's
Speaker:all the items we get to choose. Make it fun. Then we'll each take an
Speaker:item out of our bag and talk about, I feel mad
Speaker:when. And this is. I. I want to put it out in the play.
Speaker:D'oh. Yes. And so with the Stress Buster
Speaker:cards, they can write on there what they can do with their. Yeah, let's share
Speaker:a couple of those. Because they're. I mean, this is what I'm saying. Like, when
Speaker:I was like, I want to highlight a few strategies from the book. And I
Speaker:kept going. Page 12, page 48, page 71, page 20, page
Speaker:270. I mean, there's so much, right? So much good stuff. Yeah. Dress, bag.
Speaker:And you'll see, like, because not everything's going to work for everybody, and
Speaker:we want a variety, so we get to choose our preferences.
Speaker:So, like, in the stress bag, Stress buster, stretch my body
Speaker:like a cat. Stretching is good for relieving stress.
Speaker:Fall on my bed backward five times. Kids like
Speaker:stuff like that. Pretend I'm a statue in a museum.
Speaker:Stand on my tippy toes. Walk around. Smile really big in
Speaker:the mirror. Take five big, deep belly breaths.
Speaker:Tighten my body and release it. Go up to someone in my house and
Speaker:make a funny face. And then I have a
Speaker:section on body up moves. Because
Speaker:a lot of stress gets trapped in the body. And that's another intervention.
Speaker:That you could actually. You could actually print this out.
Speaker:Cut it out. And these are 12 cards that could be
Speaker:put in the stress bag. Yeah. Let's just teach. Teach a few.
Speaker:I've actually, since reading your book, been recommending this a lot in my private practice.
Speaker:But like, five, four, three, two, one. Technique. And someone
Speaker:mentioned it a couple weeks ago on the podcast, another guest. And then we
Speaker:didn't really teach it, so I want to just make sure we teach it.
Speaker:Yeah. It's a technique that helps kids get out of dissociation. If you
Speaker:see them kind of spacing out, it gets them in touch with their senses
Speaker:or anxiety, I think, too. Like, you get really, like, almost like a panic.
Speaker:Or you're outside your body. Yep. Their brain gets hijacked, and you kind
Speaker:of see them zoning out, and they're not connected
Speaker:and they're kind of levitating. And you're like, whoa, I just lost him. Okay, we're
Speaker:going to do the 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. Name five things you can see
Speaker:and make it fun. Five things you can see right now. Oh,
Speaker:I see a red dot. I see a painting. I see a bird.
Speaker:Four things you can touch. What are four things you can touch right now?
Speaker:Three things you can hear. And stay patient, and it's
Speaker:actually going to help them wind down as you do this.
Speaker:And two things you can smell and one thing
Speaker:you can taste. And that's so simple. And it gets tricky when
Speaker:you get to taste. People are like, what? You could just say just. Just the
Speaker:moisture in your mouth. Like, it doesn't. I
Speaker:don't taste anything. Okay, well, that's something.
Speaker:Exactly. You know, don't. We don't have to make it so complicated
Speaker:that I don't smell anything. Well, that's your first smell. The first smell is nothing.
Speaker:Can you smell another thing? Because they don't. They're just. Just to be silly.
Speaker:That's right. And grounding also. Can
Speaker:you. So you imagine your belly button is connected by a
Speaker:cord to the middle of this planet, and it's a cord
Speaker:that cannot be broken. And it could be made of titanium,
Speaker:copper, whatever you imagine could even be an umbilical
Speaker:cord. Like, that's your connection, and it's so strong and so
Speaker:powerful. I want you to feel like a suction cup. And what you start
Speaker:feeling is this gravitational pull, and you feel your feet
Speaker:more grounded in the earth. And then if you ask someone to give you
Speaker:a little push, you actually feel this
Speaker:inner strength, and I call it the inner strength cord in your
Speaker:body. And I'LL teach this to kids, teens and adults. Like,
Speaker:whenever you're experiencing something that feels out of control and your
Speaker:limbs feel like they're swaying, ground yourself like roots in a
Speaker:tree. Do the grounding cord. You don't
Speaker:have to do anything, but first work on your own regulation. And then
Speaker:you're going to keep your lid on. You're going to be more able to
Speaker:stay attuned and problem solve. Because when you flip your lid,
Speaker:no more thinking, your IQ actually lowers.
Speaker:It does. And if you get angry, your IQ loops too. So
Speaker:you're gonna mess up. You're not gonna stay at tune. It's not even.
Speaker:You may say the wrong thing, but if your tone is right,
Speaker:you're therapeutic. You make up. Honey, I know we're having.
Speaker:I don't know, but it's your tone.
Speaker:Yeah. Soothing and comforting. So. Grounding.
Speaker:Affirmation. So I really like tapping in.
Speaker:Yeah. Tapping in. And it's a butterfly hug. You both put your
Speaker:hands up. You cross your arms. You put your hands on your
Speaker:palms on your shoulders. And bilateral stimulation
Speaker:is bilaterally tapping in alternating shoulders
Speaker:with a nice steady tone of tapping. This actually
Speaker:integrates the brain and the body, and it actually calms the
Speaker:nervous system. Just tapping. It feels so good. I've been doing it all
Speaker:week, and I was thinking about those times a day,
Speaker:like, say before they get in the car, you
Speaker:just stand at the door and you go, okay, we gotta tap in
Speaker:before you can get in. And doing that, just these, like
Speaker:before school or like before homework time,
Speaker:maybe even before bedtime. Bringing some of these into
Speaker:your regular practice so that you can anticipate those moments when
Speaker:your kids are gonna dysregulate. Pre Regulate. Something I've been talking
Speaker:about a lot lately. This word I made up. Pre
Speaker:regulate, everybody. So that when you then go into the
Speaker:environment, the nervous system is already kind of at a
Speaker:baseline. I hear the title of your new book,
Speaker:Pre Regulate. And so it makes me, and
Speaker:I'm share with you, what we did with Sawyer. I don't know if
Speaker:you remember. I taught you. You and him
Speaker:tapping in because he was having, if I may say,
Speaker:some nightmares. Yeah. And I remember it
Speaker:clearly. The bad guy, Wonder Woman.
Speaker:And I said, this is a perfect opportunity to help
Speaker:Sawyer feel a sense of security, stability,
Speaker:and feel protected in his body by
Speaker:internalizing the bilateral stimulation. A protective
Speaker:face, figure outside of himself who's hyper,
Speaker:vigilant, who's watching out for danger so that he can
Speaker:rest and sleep. Yeah. Yeah. And we did. We. We
Speaker:helped him tap In a protective figure. And
Speaker:I remember he created sharks around his bed.
Speaker:Oh, that's right. He did. Yeah. And, oh, yeah. I
Speaker:remember with some kids, I'm like, wow, I see this really.
Speaker:It just sticks with me. Wow, this really works. This is an intervention
Speaker:that I'm gonna use. Yeah. Because yeah, if you're, like,
Speaker:surrounded by sharks, you're. That aren't attacking you. You're pretty
Speaker:protected. They're your BFFs. Yeah. They're gonna, like, make
Speaker:sure you have. Yeah. He was definitely also a stuffed animal
Speaker:guy. Like a whole army of them around him.
Speaker:Yes. That gave him a sense of security, a
Speaker:source of relief. Yep. He could calm his nervous system,
Speaker:system and sleep. Tapping in affirmations, too.
Speaker:So there is in the book, tapping in your
Speaker:loving figure, protective figure, tapping in
Speaker:affirmations, I am strong. I like
Speaker:you messages too. Like, you can do this. Because I
Speaker:feel like it kind of down downloads even deeper. Well, it's
Speaker:actually. If you think about ifs, it's self energy talking to you,
Speaker:talking to that part. So there is something about. I do a lot of, like,
Speaker:darlin, like, I like. I talk.
Speaker:I don't know who's saying my name, you know, but it's my
Speaker:deeper self who's telling. Coaching me. So. Yeah, we all have
Speaker:kind of these different parts of us that can talk to
Speaker:each other. Yeah. And don't be afraid of that. And don't think it's
Speaker:psychobabble. It's part of your mental.
Speaker:Oh, yeah. It matters. Yeah. You can
Speaker:do this. So. And I love it. Teaching our kids that.
Speaker:That affirmations are huge. And then, like, heart
Speaker:opener. I think that's really fun. Can you share that one? Yes.
Speaker:Stand in the sunlight because sun is really important
Speaker:vitamin D. It impacts depression or mood states.
Speaker:So standing in the sun, put your hands over your heart,
Speaker:take a few deep breaths in. Pour in the warm.
Speaker:Imagine pouring in the warm, bright light into your
Speaker:heart and to the rest of your body, it's a visualization.
Speaker:Like, imagine the streams of the sunlight going into your
Speaker:heart, into your body, and giving you a sense of comfort.
Speaker:Working on regulating the body and the nervous system.
Speaker:And, you know, you may try this with your child and go, okay, that actually
Speaker:worked because she's doing it again. Mom, I want to do the heart
Speaker:open. Okay, let's do it right. And if your child says that
Speaker:you want to be there and you want to respond, even though you have
Speaker:10 other things to do, go, you know what? This is mental health, and I
Speaker:need to do it. It's in my best interest and it's in her best interest
Speaker:and I'm going to do this with her. I was thinking about all like
Speaker:listeners that are like about to go into winter. They're like, what are you talking
Speaker:about? The sun? And I was just thinking, so sometimes we
Speaker:can just imagine the sun. We can imagine pretend this, the lamp
Speaker:above you. Is that I think
Speaker:creativity. Not everybody thinks this way. But
Speaker:if you kind of have the concept of what can I
Speaker:bring into my child's body that will
Speaker:feel soothing? Soothing, yes, exactly. It's
Speaker:like when your babies, when you have babies and you sway them and you shush
Speaker:them and you, you know, rock them. There's an intuitiveness to
Speaker:that when you hold a baby, but as they get older,
Speaker:you're like, I don't know what the baby version of this soothing is.
Speaker:And that's what these are. Yes. And you can
Speaker:use pace on any age. Don't limit it to younger kids.
Speaker:Pace with your teenagers too. Yeah, yeah. As being
Speaker:present, you know, the, the P's, patient present, playful.
Speaker:Going into that acceptance, being curious and then having the
Speaker:empathy. I wanted to say about curiosity and the
Speaker:tone. So I hear parents like, why are you acting like this?
Speaker:It's one of my favorite things. And I, I say let's make it not
Speaker:rhetorical. Like let's actually try
Speaker:to answer it, you know, and once you kind of go, why
Speaker:are you acting like this? You end up in a different tone if
Speaker:you, if you just get teeny bit curious
Speaker:because you already are. You're like, what the hell's going on? You could be like,
Speaker:what is going on? You know, just look, look for the
Speaker:answer. Right. Why can feel critical
Speaker:to children? Because, yes, they often don't know why. They don't
Speaker:know that's why they're acting out. Correct.
Speaker:They don't know why. No. They need us to help them
Speaker:understand themselves, their external to their
Speaker:internal. Like, I want them to be integrated within themselves.
Speaker:So when I. My model is calm, connect, limit set. Correct.
Speaker:And whenever I think about connection, the assumption is
Speaker:that I'm connecting to my kid. That's
Speaker:wonderful, but really, I don't think of it that way.
Speaker:I really think empathy, compassion is how can
Speaker:I help my child make sense of themselves
Speaker:so that they can then have built just a massive
Speaker:amount awareness of why they act the way they act and
Speaker:what to do about it. That's right. That's right. That's why I teach
Speaker:psycho education to children young. 7, 6. Fan
Speaker:the flames. The five Fs of how we protect
Speaker:ourselves when we're stressed out or overwhelmed. Fight, flight,
Speaker:freeze, fawn and flop. And I have
Speaker:a nice image in the book with animals helping
Speaker:kids understand how animals fight flight, freeze, fawn and flop. And that's the
Speaker:hand model of the brain. We all have an animal part. Yes. It's. So
Speaker:once kids get it, they go, oh, I'm acting out for my
Speaker:animal part right now and I need to take a break. Yeah, I
Speaker:need to go to my stress bag. Go to my anger bag. I
Speaker:need to do one of my body up moves like it's funny. Because
Speaker:I want kids to go to therapy if they need to,
Speaker:for sure. And I also think
Speaker:there's not enough trained professionals to
Speaker:do this much social emotional education for kids. And we can't
Speaker:keep putting in the classroom either. And so where are kids
Speaker:going to get it in the home? So
Speaker:getting spending $30 or however much this book is, is
Speaker:like one session with either of us. You know,
Speaker:it's gonna cost so much more than that. And, and don't. Like
Speaker:you said, do it on yourself first try. Try them out.
Speaker:Just see how they feel. Exactly. It's fun,
Speaker:actually. You're gonna go, wow, well, I needed this as a kid.
Speaker:Now you're going to give it to yourself. And that's the gift. And once you
Speaker:can do that for yourself, you're going to feel better and you're going to do
Speaker:better. Yeah, you are. Yeah, you are.
Speaker:So I just, I. I've said this to you already, but I
Speaker:cannot believe this. This book is written and it exists in the
Speaker:world with all these very. If you guys could see the way
Speaker:it's written. It's so simple. Each one is like one or two pages. Pages.
Speaker:The most basic information you need. You don't understand all of
Speaker:why or have a whole therapeutic background.
Speaker:It's just stuff to help parents. That's
Speaker:right. And. And care and caregivers and professionals
Speaker:get this stuff externalized. That's why I wrote. I mean.
Speaker:Yeah, no, it's amazing. 160. And I think
Speaker:of several of them are more than one in
Speaker:one. Yeah, it's. There's, you know, like in the
Speaker:stress bag, there's 10 ideas and so. Yeah,
Speaker:it's just the most incredible toolbox for sure.
Speaker:And I'm so glad to share, to have everyone meet
Speaker:you, because I have talked about Jeanette for a
Speaker:long time on the podcast and to anyone who knows anything about me and
Speaker:our story, and I'm just grateful
Speaker:that you, that you did the work that you did. And that you're here and
Speaker:I got to know you. You're very inspiring and having a
Speaker:calm mama podcast. You're helping. I know you're helping and
Speaker:impacting so many mothers today, and they so need you.
Speaker:Thank you for doing what you're doing. Yeah. Oh,
Speaker:well, we're the best. We're. We're making
Speaker:a difference. We are. We're making a difference. So thank you. You're
Speaker:welcome. Thank.
Speaker:You.