Podcast Episodes

Externalizing worry (and other strong emotions) teaches children and parents to take a step back and notice HOW worry and other big feelings operate. Changing the response to worry (instead of changing the environment to meet anxiety’s demands) is a powerful skill. Consistency and practice are key, and Lynn talks about how to explain and use externalizing in your family to promote emotional intelligence and management. These skills are relevant for kids and adults. JOIN US IN ORLANDO FOR OUR FI...

Today we talk about the separation anxiety parents feel around summer camp, because it really is harder on us that it is on them. How can we best prepare our own kids leaving home for somewhere new? How we can manage our worry when our kids are out of our sight? Why is it so important to learn this skill as a parent? Here is the article we mention where Lynn was interviewed in Outside Magazine talking about summer camp and technology. JOIN US IN ORLANDO FOR OUR FIRST FAMILY RETREAT This is our...

Whether you’re a loyal listener or new to the podcast, you’ll want to join us for this seven-part series on Lynn Lyon’s approach to anxiety. Each week during the summer, Lynn and Robin will talk about one of the puzzle pieces that creates an anxiety disrupting strategy for parents and kids. Together, they are the foundation for a family to shift their anxious patterns. Lynn will explain the steps in order, just as she does in her practice, so that families have the clarity, language and confiden...

Friendships and connection sustain us, but that doesn’t mean they’re always smooth or come naturally. In this episode, Lynn and Robin talk about the ways we can help foster the skills of connection, how to support our kids and teens as they navigate friendships, and why Lynn will never go on another girls weekend.

Anxiety loves certainty about where our kids are, but it comes with a price.

What role does anxiety play in your marriage?

The mom wine culture is well-rooted now, and statistics show that women are indeed drinking more, significantly outpacing men. Are women paying a higher price with their emotional and physical health? Is the Mommy Wine culture more than just a way to take the edge off a busy day? What are the warning signs moms need to heed as we navigate a stressful world with our various coping strategies? THE LATEST ANXIETY MANAGEMENT COURSE FOR PARENTS! MANAGING ANXIETY IN CHILDREN: A GUIDE FOR PARENTS Thi...

Anxiety expert Lynn Lyons talks to a listener about her 6 year old with separation anxiety. This family has been working hard on their own and with a therapist to get their daughter comfortable being away from mommy. This is a very common issue and one of the first patterns of anxiety to appear developmentally. Learn how to manage these situations and conversations with your young children and how to talk to their teachers to get everyone on the same team against letting anxiety be in charge.

What if your kid needs things “just so” or a meltdown is imminent. When your child seems to be overwhelmed easily and unable to tolerate many sensations, it is sensory processing disorder or is it anxiety? Even trickier, how does a sensory processing disorder lead to an increase in anxiety disorders in children? Anxiety expert Lynn Lyons discusses how parents can understand the difference between the two, as well as how and at what age to seek treatment and how to combat your child’s rigidity ru...

Patterns of anxiety are often passed down in families. If you are actively working to shift the culture in your family to manage anxiety, where do your parents fit in? While your parents can be supportive and helpful, some like those of this listener do not believe in “this therapy nonsense”. Anxiety expert Lynn Lyons address both the positive and negative ways grandparents get involved and how to talk to them (or when to keep them out if it). Fear of flying? Don’t go on the big family trip this...

When some children make mistakes or get overwhelmed, they jump quickly to self criticism and even self hate: “I’m terrible! I suck! You don’t love me!” What does this mean? Is it a red flag? And how should parents react? In this episode, anxiety expert Lynn discusses the traps to avoid and the family skills to promote when this dramatic pattern takes hold. Referenced in this episode: Past Episode: Helping Kids With Shame & Self-Harm The Latest Anxiety Management Course for Parents! Managing ...

Pop culture, from Mr. Rogers to Disney Pixar movies, has the power of story to teach us all…when it’s used this well.

On this Flusterclux In Session episode, anxiety expert Lynn Lyons talks to a mom who is managing a tricky combination of factors: her own worry, her daughter's worry, and her daughter’s chronic illness. Knowing the difference between what worry demands and how to manage a serious condition (like type 1 diabetes or anaphylaxis-causing allergies) can be hard to discern. But it’s a skill families must learn together when your child's mental and physical health are on the line.

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.