Podcast Episodes

Of course parents should pay attention to their family’s health. But when does your worry about illness in a global pandemic become too much? How does your health anxiety impact your family? How do we educate our kids on the ways anxiety can create physical symptoms so that they know when their worry is the cause of the tummy ache?

Parents and students are focusing on college admissions earlier and earlier, hoping to get a head start on what has become an increasingly competitive race through high school. They say they want their kids to be “happy” and “successful” in college, but if parents are obsessed with getting in, are they developing the right skills to help them thrive once there? Anxiety Expert and therapist Lynn Lyons shares her perspective after treating teens for decades through this process and well after.

As we find ourselves struggling to process such horrific news, how do we help our children understand it? Once again we must deal with our own big emotions and theirs during a time of great uncertainty. Lynn offers some guidance from little kids to teens as we love them through it and our own anxiety.

It's time for a new Flusterclux In Session episode where anxiety expert Lynn Lyons shares a consultation with a listener. Lynn talks to mom of three, Erica, whose youngest son has developed OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder). Lynn gives Erica tools not just for her nine-year-old son but for the whole family to be united in managing this very common disorder.

In the second of a two-part episode, we complete a list of four common traps in which parents get stuck. While we can face many unique challenges to parenting if we are divorced, single by choice, raising kids with special needs or facing chronic illnesses, it's helpful to understand when a custom approach to anxiety is needed.

It’s so easy to step into the parenting traps that feed anxiety and worry. We’ve all done them, so you’re in good company. In this episode we look at the patterns of inconsistency, trying to control outcomes because of our own worry. And we unpack the important distinction between emotional availability and emotional enmeshment.

Do you know anyone who has a tendency to faint? Anxiety expert Lynn Lyons talks about her own experience with vasovagal syncope, a condition shared by her father, siblings, and son. Learn how she manages it, and how she helped her son. And enjoy the many laughs about our family’s most embarrassing fainting moments.

It's time for a new Flusterclux In Session episode where anxiety expert Lynn Lyons offers a listener consultation. Hear from Mom Becky who is worried about her anxious 16 year old daughter. Becky is thinking ahead and wondering how to prepare her kind, sensitive daughter to take the next steps toward college. Social anxiety and a traumatic event have teamed up to shut this teenager down from seeking social connection. Lynn guides this mom out of her own worry and reframes her daughter’s strengths to get them both moving forward.

Rage. As we all grieve for a pre-pandemic world, we feel a lot of rage with our sadness. Anxiety expert and therapist Lynn Lyons talks about why we collectively feel anger and brings it home to our family and children. How do you help your children through outbursts? How do you raise kids who don't have outbursts as an adult? How do you manage your own rage?

Burnout. It's certainly a word we're hearing frequently, particularly in those who work in healthcare and education. But because burnout is often specific to the role of caring for others, there's a reason why parents feel burnout, too. We unpack burnout, what helps and what makes it worse.

When anxious kids can't see that they are anxious or refuse therapy, anxiety expert Lynn Lyons talks about options parents have in helping their kids. We also discuss a listener question where a daughter denies she's anxious or has OCD tendencies.

In this quick check-in for the New Year, anxiety expert Lynn Lyons reminds parents that silliness is just about the healthiest energy in a house, and that the power of play is very, very real.

On this busy Christmas Eve, we offer a very short episode, but a very powerful piece of advice for the holiday season. Don't visit the relatives without hearing this first. Anxiety expert Lynn Lyons shares the best advice she ever received from her mentor on taking things personally.

One listener's teen is trapped by the details of her many worries, and her mom is trying to address each one with rational information and reassuring promises. Hear me offer mom Tori an alternative to letting her daughter's worry rule the family. It’s hard for parents to step out of the content of worry, but it’s also the key to success.

What happens when anxiety around sleep becomes a nightly ritual? In this Flusterclux In Session episode a parent is becoming all too aware of how her worry about sleep shapes bedtime for her son…and it is probably showing up elsewhere. Listen to Lynn coach a mom on how to make a few key adjustments to the worry routine at bedtime and beyond.

We're so excited to deliver the first of our family session episodes. You'll hear anxiety expert Lynn Lyons offer a listener a 45-minute consultation on the way anxiety is presenting in a family. Be a fly on the wall learning how other families' struggles are comfortingly familiar. In this first Flusterclux in Session, Lynn talks to Eleanor, who wants to discuss two very different parenting styles. Hear how Lynn unpacks this family dynamic and her solutions.

Anxiety and depression are both internalizing disorders, and identifying our own internal patterns is good to understand so that we can proactively reach externally and connect with others. In honor of the holidays and giving thanks, we discuss the difference between limiting gratitude to an internal habit or leveraging the power of gratitude externally And this episode gets a little silly.

As parents, we want our kids to learn how to ask for help. We want them to ask directly and to the right people, but how do we help them build those skills? We'll help in this episode.

What is emotional management and why is it the key to a family's mental health? How can you model it for your kids, and how can you teach them the skills they need to show up at life's difficult moments? Anxiety expert Lynn Lyons discuss the traits that most anxious parents have in common and how they impact anxious kids. She walks you through those parenting conversations that promote skills that can "immunize" our children against developing anxiety disorders.

There are known strategies that can prevent anxiety disorders from developing. In this two-part episode, anxiety expert Lynn Lyons share her skill-based approach to raising emotionally literate children with the tools needed to manage worry. Prevention starts with our parenting. How can we reduce the impact of anxiety in our families?

In response to last week's episode where anxiety expert Lynn Lyons shares the mistakes we make around helping our kids and students with anxiety and trauma, this episode celebrates the progress we've made since the 2013 publication of her book Anxious Kids, Anxious Parents. Lynn talks about the effective ways some schools and parents are promoting connection and anxiety management. We share examples that are skill-building and preventative for all of us to try.

Anxiety expert Lynn Lyons discusses ways high schools and colleges support student mental health despite the research indicating they have opposite results, from safe rooms to trigger warnings. We can do better to support students and our kids with anxiety and trauma, but we must avoid quick fixes.

Ted Lasso, the critically acclaimed show starring Jason Sudeikis on Apple TV, serves as a springboard in this podcast episode to discuss the emotional lives of fathers and sons. We encourage parents to watch Ted Lasso with their tweens and teens and the many lessons the show teaches on mental health, connection, and injury.

Join Lynn and Robin as they respond to a listener question that will resonate with many. When parents struggle with anxiety, it is difficult to watch their children repeat similar patterns. Lynn describes how to disrupt family patterns and how we can move through the blame and shame.