Flusterclux With Lynn Lyons: For Parents Who Worry

Podcast Episodes

March 15, 2024

How to Help Your Child with Friendships and Likability

It’s a fact: some kids need more social coaching than others. And if your child (or you!) struggle with anxiety, practicing social skills is both more challenging and more vital. How do we enhance our kids’ ability to make go...

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March 8, 2024

Owning Your Own Grouchiness in Relationships and Shifting to Kinder C…

Lynn often says that the hardest people to work with in her practice are the ones that don’t own their own stuff. In this episode, we talk about owning patterns in your marriage. Both Robin and Lynn work with their husbands a...

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March 1, 2024

How and Why to Curb Your Kid's Global Language (And Maybe Your Own!)

A global cognitive style, to use the fancy terminology, means that your perceptions of the world or yourself are broad and overly general: “All dogs are mean” or “I never get anything right.” Because this pattern is a solid p...

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Feb. 23, 2024

Best Of: Raising Kids Who Are Really Ready for College Isn't What You…

As college acceptance letters arrive, it 's timely to revisit this popular episode from Season 4! Parents and students are focusing on college admissions earlier and earlier, hoping to get a head start on what has become an i...

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Feb. 16, 2024

6 Traps To Avoid In Your Plan To Help Your Anxious Child

Adults often wonder why the “plan” they have in place for their anxious child doesn’t work. In this episode, Lynn explains why this happens (your goals and hopes aren’t enough) and what to do instead (it’s all about the skill...

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Feb. 9, 2024

Anxiety Can Become The Cult Leader of Your Family. What If You're The…

Lynn often refers to anxiety as a cult leader: powerful, demanding compliance, and full of rigid rules. What happens when one family member wants out? Or when a long generational pattern of worry resists any change? In this e...

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Feb. 2, 2024

How Anxiety Shows Up in Your Kid's Sports & Activities

Lately listeners have been asking about performance anxiety, particularly when it shows up in sports. Should we push our child to compete? What if they love to practice but don’t perform during games? The truth is that very f...

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Jan. 22, 2024

911 Marriages: Tips From Divorce Prevention Expert Michele Weiner Dav…

What happens when children are the absolute focus of a family? Marriages suffer, says Michele Weiner-Davis, a renowned relationship expert who pulls couples back from the brink. We asked Michele to bust some couple myths and ...

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Jan. 19, 2024

Break Up With Your Dating Anxiety

Dating and doubt go together like peanut butter and jelly. Anxiety and worry love to invade, looking for certainty in every text, post, and conversation. And what about parenting teens through this stage? Teens are (developme...

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Jan. 12, 2024

Overcoming Barriers To Therapy: What You Can Do Yourself Regarding Af…

Seeking therapy for you or your child can feel like a big step for many reasons. Combined with busy schedules and long waiting lists, and affordability getting help can be unobtainable. In this episode, we talk about how to o...

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Jan. 5, 2024

The Problem With Labels And Why to Avoid Them With Our Kids, Ourselve…

Categories and labels are appealing because they help us make sense of a complex world. And there are definitely times when a label can help. But labels can also be limiting. When we label our kids—and when teens label themse...

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Dec. 29, 2023

Best Of: Parenting Phrases We Love to Use All The Time

In this recast of a popular episode, we talk about the parenting phrases we love, how they help with emotional management, and why you need to have a few of these in your back pocket, ready to use when needed. These help for ...

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Dec. 22, 2023

Best Of: Connection, Not Enmeshment, Is The Goal. How Do You Know The…

In this recast of a popular Season 5 episode, we discuss how positive connection is the goal... but is there such a thing as too connected? Yup, and it’s called enmeshment. In this episode, Lynn and Robin talk privacy, autono...

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Dec. 19, 2023

Do You Walk On Eggshells Around Your Kids To Avoid Upsetting Them?

Are you afraid of your anxious child’s outbursts? Are you allowing those big tantrums to rule the house and dictate your parenting? Sparked by a listener question, this episode dives into a common problem: how do we change th...

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Dec. 15, 2023

How to Make More Fun For Your Family (Even When You Are Tapped Out)

Two (really) stressed gals show up for this episode to talk about injecting fun and playfulness into holiday events. Robin and Lynn share lots of ideas wrapped up in a little encouragement, and by the end, they both feel bett...

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Dec. 12, 2023

Mastering The Skill of Disappointing People

Not disappointing others seems like a good thing, right? But when make it your global goal, you will decrease your credibility and increase your own feelings of resentment. In this mini episode we talk about the benefits of k...

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Dec. 8, 2023

Depression's Treatment And Prevention: A Series of Mic Drops with Dr…

In this not-to-be missed episode, Lynn and Robin talk to the expert Lynn values most, Dr. Michael Yapko. Dr. Yapko is one of the world’s foremost experts on depression, how it moves through families, and what parents need to ...

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Dec. 1, 2023

When Your Kids Feel Overwhelmed, How Hard Do You Push?

Many parents struggle with the question of how to help a child who feels overwhelmed in an unfamiliar situation, by loud noises, or the start of a new activity. When do we gently push them forward, when do we let them avoid, ...

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Nov. 28, 2023

Helping Your Kids With The Skill Of Winning And Losing

Families will often avoid game night or other family competitions if a child has difficulty losing. Or they require the game to be “fixed” so the bad loser doesn’t lose. Games (and winning and losing) offer great opportunitie...

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Nov. 24, 2023

Best Of: What to Say To People Who Don't "Get" Anxiety

In this recast of a popular episode from last year, we tackle the statements our friends and families use when they're staying stuck in their anxiety patterns. If you hear them or use them, listen up. We have responses ready ...

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Nov. 17, 2023

Preparing for Difficult Relatives: A Holiday Survival Plan

Although the holidays can be special, the patterns that show up in people are predictable, even if it is Thanksgiving or Christmas. Critical parent? Passive aggressive sibling? Catastrophic you? In this episode, we talk about...

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Nov. 14, 2023

Handling Difficult News Headlines With Your Kids

Anxiety is about “what if,” but with the reality of violence and war, we are now living with “what is.” As parents, How do we process the ongoing news and graphic images of terror in our world? How do we help our children and...

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Nov. 10, 2023

Keeping Your Cool During the College Application Process: A Talk With…

Robin is up to her eyeballs in the college application process, so we pulled in two great people to help her and you: a school counselor on the front lines, and Jill Shulman, college admissions coach, author and sane person w...

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Nov. 3, 2023

Will My Child Grow Out Of This? Selective Mutism And Other Anxiety Be…

Knowing when you need professional help and when to let your child “grow out of it” is a tricky question…sometimes. In this episode, Lynn and Robin talk about when to allow some time and space (imaginary nephews) and when to ...

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