Podcast Episodes

Yelling, or even when kids perceive that we are yelling, is a part of most family communications. In this episode anxiety expert and therapist, Lynn Lyons, LICSW, talks about the things we need to pay attention to if and when we yell. This is the last of our short summer episodes before Season 4!

Is anxiety genetic? Does it run in families? If your parents had anxiety or depression, what does that mean for you and your children? What approaches can we take to disrupt these generational cycles?

One of the easiest mistakes we make when trying to deal without anxiety is to try get rid of the thing that makes us anxious. Anxiety expert Lynn Lyons explains why that isn't the goal but also why talking about anxiety is critical for a family when learning to tame it.

Even though parenting feels like walking a tight rope, it isn't. There's lots of room for your mistakes as long as you stay within the sweet spot of emotional management. Here's how.

What is global language? Do you or your kids have a habit of using it? Why is it such a strong predictor of anxiety and depression? Here's what to do if your kid loves to drop "always" and "never" bombs.

Parents love offering certainty to their kids. It feels very loving and nurturing. But the opposite of anxiety is not certainty. Hear what parents should focus on helping with instead, as soon as their kids can talk. It's the game changer.

There's no time for mom guilt in a busy summer. Or ever.

In this short summer break, we talk about our reactions. Anxiety can make us overreact, so how do we shift?

Anxiety Expert Lynn Lyons offers some summer homework for anxious parents: stop giving your kids too much information. Learn what to do instead and why anxiety drives this habit.

Summer’s here and parents are stressed. Hear Lynn talk about safety chatter, what it is, and why anxious parents do it. Our language matters so much. Lynn shares how to offer safety instructions to kids and teens that are practical and not catastrophic.

At the conclusion of Mental Health Awareness month, we weed through the bad advice that is so prevalent about anxiety that only makes it worse. We discuss the certain skills we must help our kids (and ourselves) develop to manage anxiety, and we talk about the things parents might try that have the desired outcome. This is an updated version of a previously released episode.

In today’s episode Lynn answers two listener questions. First a mom discovers her 15 year old has been thinking of drinking to manage her stress. What are the conversations parents should be having with their teens around stress, substance abuse and peer pressure?And another mom raised by an anxious parent is trying to break the cycle with her daughters. She asks Lynn how to know when the voices inside her head are generational patterns of worry repeating or intuitive warnings. How does anxiety filter the decisions we make and the information we receive?

Obsessive Compulsive Disorder is often missed or just misunderstood. What is OCD and what isn’t? How does it differ from really anxious thoughts? How is it treated? While it can show up at any point in life, some kids commonly show signs around 7 when there’s a family history. Lynn explains the connection with anxiety and how it differs, but most importantly, how to manage it and what signs to look for.

So often the moms assume the role of supporting the family’s health and mental health, but dads have a critical role to play. What is that role? And how do you encourage your partner to step into that role? When a man is unsure of how to talk about emotions with his children, what should he say? What if he doesn’t want to talk about them with anyone? In this episode, we get raw and deep reflecting on the men most dear to us.How do we raise boys that have the permission and the know-how to connect with others? And how do we help them now become the available and emotionally literate dads of tomorrow?

After an atypical year of intense togetherness with our kids, parents may be out of practice being apart from their kids. 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?

The Anxious Parent: Most families have one, some families have two. But what important role does a non-anxious parent play? How do worry and control often dictate parenting dynamics that put stress on a relationship? How can you tell if anxiety is in charge of your household, and what can you do about it?

Emetaphobia, Astraphobia, Autophobia. Some kids became afraid of a variety of things: throwing up, needles, dogs, thunderstorms, the dark. As parents we want to help, we want to make our kids feels safe and comfortable. We want to address the worry. But how we do that often just makes the worry and fear stronger. In this episode I ask Lynn to explain her effective approach of addressing the process of worry and not the content. Because when we try to address the specifics of what our kids worry about, we invite anxiety to move in and take hold.

Do you or your child have Social Anxiety or are we now pathologizing shyness, too? Learn the different between real signs of social anxiety or just a more introverted temperament. What skills do we need to teach our kids to help them connect with others?As we leave our quarantined isolation, some kids might be feeling out of practice being with other kids and teens again. Hear Lynn tell us how to support them.

In honor of May 1st's deadline for many college-bound seniors to make their choice, Lynn shares advice from her perspective over the last few decades of watching her adolescent clients go to college and struggle with anxiety. For parents, how to support academic success for their kids in a healthy way can be a challenge, so Lynn offers advice for parents of kids of all ages.

Panic Attacks. While they are incredibly common, they are often mislabeled and misunderstood. Teenagers, even adults, will casually throw the label around.What’s the difference between those really powerful moments of anxiety and a panic attack?How do you help your family members when they experience them?

Mistakes and Failures can be some of life’s best teachers. When it comes to letting our kids fail, how do we know the difference between letting them fail and letting them drown? What do you do if your teenager hasn’t mastered the skill of asking for help? Or, what do you say when your teen doesn’t even care?

At some point one of your children’s friends will be in crisis. How do you help your teens help their friends? How do you teach them to develop boundaries with those friends? When your child shares that a friend is feeling suicidal or cutting or other self-harming behaviors, what do you do?

Many families are feeling anxious about changes to their school routine, both kids and parents. How do we support our kids and teens and help them manage their worry about going back to school? And when does this worry become more serious and lead to school avoidance and school refusal?