360 Potential birthing and beyond

30/06/2025

When kids act out, push back, or fall apart, it’s not defiance. It’s a signal.
A signal that something feels too big, too hard, or too overwhelming.

Instead of jumping straight to consequences, try this:
💬 “That was a big reaction — are you okay?”
💬 “Looks like something’s feeling tricky right now.”

This doesn’t mean we excuse the behaviour.
It means we meet the need behind it — and guide them from there.
Because connection is what builds cooperation. 💛

📘 Find more tools like this in my book Guidance from The Therapist Parent — available at www.thetherapistparent.com or via the link in bio.

04/04/2025

When it comes to healing trauma, psychology isn’t unimportant, however, when we work with a body-up approach, we can reset the overactive triggers in our threat detection systems.

When the body is calm and we’ve quieted its protective reflexes, we can make more space to talk.

Traumatic events, as well as the stresses of our day-to-day lives, have a powerful physiological impact. Our bodies can get stuck in protective, survival gestures; we speed up to survive, we fight or we flee, we collapse, disappear or dissociate.

When these old parts of our nervous system are stuck in these survival gestures, we don’t think clearly, emote clearly, or remember clearly.

We all have an 'inner guard dog', and when our guard dog is activated it either barks all the time or cowers in the shed. It’s very hard to talk to this inner guard dog – it likes to run, jump, fight or shut down. Having a long conversation with your guard dog won’t do much good!

However, you can train your inner guard dog, stroke your guard dog, and nourish your guard dog, so that instead of barking or cowering in the shed, it can play with the kids and only bark in the middle of the night if it needs too.

When we’re in ‘guard dog’ mode, we get stuck in the quick, primitive reflexes that are underneath our cognitive abilities – we can’t think clearly.

When this happens, we need to help our physiology shift out of its stuck, protective reflexes first.

This is an amazing thing to offer to people in trauma.

Instead of talking about the trauma, the essential thing is helping our bodies to feel free in the present moment and find safety in the present moment.

It's why I love teaching TRE (Trauman and Tension Releasing Exercises). For many people, not having to talk about their trauma, being relatively anonymous in a group setting and doing something that’s purely about finding agency and strength in your body is key to working with trauma in a positive and generative way.

Find out more at trecollege.com

05/03/2025

31/07/2024

Being so busy and having so many pressures, without the support we need, can create a downward spiral. If we are stressed and overwhelmed we can't be empathetic and patient parents. This can then cause us to feel guilty and down we go. Taking care of ourselves helps us to be the best parent that we can be. On top of this we will be teaching our kids the importance of self-care and gives them coping strategies for life.

More information in my book

Guidance from The Therapist Parent

Available on my website www.thetherapistparent.com and Amazon

28/11/2023

Love this 💜

🌻

20/03/2023

04/03/2023

Parents who say “would you like a hug?” instead of “stop crying” are creating a society of adults who know how to support others, and themselves.

They’re also my favourite kind of people. I see all of you out there at the playground, the grocery store, the playgroup, the school… I see so much compassion and love and I rarely hear “stop crying” anymore. I still here a lot of bribing and forced sharing and “manners” but I don’t here a lot of children being scolded for crying anymore and that’s really exciting!! What a difference that will make!

Learn more about building and maintaining a secure attachment with your child in my latest book 👇
⁣⁣
Finding Your Calm: A Responsive Parents Guide to Self-Regulation and Co-Regulation⁣⁣

Link in bio or on the Website: responsiveparentinginspirations.com⁣⁣

04/03/2023

✨✨

25/02/2023

THIS. 🙌 Emotional regulation and executive function are connected in more ways than one. Development of social emotional skills includes an awareness of self and self-monitoring skills, among other areas. The regulation of those emotions is critical for executive functioning cognitive tasks. When we regulate behavior, the frontal lobe is at work with it’s impulse control, initiation, self-monitoring, and other cognitive skills. Furthermore, emotional skill development includes the ability to self-regulate. These skills mature and develop throughout childhood and into adulthood.

https://www.theottoolbox.com/emotional-regulation-and-executive-function/

Thanks, Doodledwellness

24/02/2023

Love this ❤️

When professionals use words like "connection", the word seems to take on a deeper meaning and people seem to be confused. The word is thrown around as if it is a universal term of parenting that should be understood. The truth is connection is really quite simple, it is that feeling that you have with those special people in your life where you feel you are safe to be you and they love you not matter what. Connection is made up of those moments when you laugh so hard together that it feels like nobody else is around. When you can be upset and know that you won't be rejected. It is when you feel heard, understood and valued. No wonder it is so important.

More information on my blog:
https://www.thetherapistparent.com/post/what-is-connection-and-why-is-it-important

Link in bio

05/02/2023

Good morning and have a happy February with some tips on SelfCare ❤️❤️❤️