Podcast Episodes

In this consultation with a listener's family, Lynn talks to a mom, dad, and their high school junior who would enjoy staying in his room most of the summer. Lynn helps identify the skill most teens need to strengthen — the s...

When we remember that anxiety demands certainty and is a creator of doubt, it makes sense that decision-making can become a problem. What if I make the wrong choice? How do I decide between two good options? How will I know I...

In Part 2 of our discussion on loneliness, we focus on adults. Making friends in adulthood feels risky. If you are at all anxious or introverted, vulnerability and rejection hardly seem worth it. But connection is possible on...

Loneliness is a deep longing for connection that you can’t find and is more prevalent in young people than old. In this first of a two-part discussion, we address the painful and prevalent disconnection in our children and wh...

School avoidance is not new but parents and schools report more frequent and intense struggles. Did the pandemic make it worse? Are there risk factors that parents need to pay attention to? This week: what can parents do when...

Launch date: 4-7-23

In this episode we answer listener questions from three different families with five year olds about handling big emotions and fears. Rigidity, disappointment, tantrums, new schools…issues that most parents of all kids will e...

Don’t we all want to raise problem-solvers? Today we are recasting one of our most popular episodes in which we break down specific steps that parents can put into practice. We must give our kids the practice of creating solu...

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, autonomy, and boundaries. If your goal is to be “best friends” with y...

We want our teens to be able to talk openly about their struggles, but in this listener question, a mom struggles with her daughter’s ability to manage a peer’s demand for accommodation. When anxiety becomes identity, what’s ...

In this episode Lynn answers listener questions for families dealing with OCD patterns in their kids, including when and if to start medication in addition to therapy, how to handle compulsive apologizing, and the key to appl...

When things don’t go the way we plan or hope, powerful feelings show up. Disappointment is common, and the smaller you are, the bigger it feels. How do we help our children learn to manage this emotion as they mature? In this...

The recent ABC-TV show The Parent Test has sparked much discussion, so Robin and Lynn (skeptically) decided to dive in. In each episode, parents with different “styles” of parenting are given challenges to complete with their...

We asked our podcast listeners to share embarrassing stories and, boy, did they deliver. Humiliating moments happen to everyone, but as you’ll notice with the stories we share, often feel so much more devastating to tweens an...

Does you child freak out when it’s time for a shot? Or a blood draw? A strep test? And what about more extensive treatments? We’ve been getting many questions about how to approach this common and powerful fear. In this episo...

Worries that show up at night seem to hold special power. They are discussed, analyzed, and often treated as a “going to sleep issue” instead of anxiety that happens to show up at bedtime. It’s understandable. Problems at bed...

This is a juicy episode— and a really important one for all concerned about the mental health trends with our teens. After over thirty years in the mental health field, Lynn addresses very directly her concerns about the mess...

Worry is a part of parenting and can help us plan ahead and problem solve. But when it becomes more constant, you may get stuck in a pattern of rehearsing for catastrophic patterns that aren't happening. In this episode, we b...

We previously detailed the parenting phrases we hate (and why you should considering dropping them.) In this week’s episode, we head in the other direction: the parenting phrases we love, how they help with emotional manageme...

Habits can be good and bad, hard to start and even more challenging to break. Our brains like them and they often serve a purpose to self-soothe. To begin the new year, we dive into habits: how to break the bad ones and devel...

For some families, holidays bring out their toughest dynamics. How do divorced parents manage a blended holiday putting their kids first? What if you have a house of angry teenagers with one of them recently in crisis? Is it ...

Many listeners have asked for an episode that talks directly to teens. Here it is. With many high schoolers dealing with unhealthy stress, and worn out college students returning home for break, Lynn offers some concrete advi...

Your child won’t give away any old clothes, even though they are 3 sizes too small. Your daughter saves gum wrappers and broken crayons and stashes them under her bed. Are they hoarders? Or collectors? Is it OCD? In this epis...

The term High Functioning Anxiety has been showing up, used to describe those that feel anxious but perform at a high level. Criteria are given, symptoms are listed. Is this a new category of anxiety and does this label offer...