Anri-Louise-OT

03/02/2026

Regulation isn’t something children learn on their own.

It’s something their nervous system borrows from ours first.

When a child is overwhelmed, their brain isn’t ready for lessons, logic, or consequences.

It’s looking for safety.
That safety is built through repeated experiences of:
• being met, not managed
• being soothed, not shamed
• having someone stay close until the storm passes

Over time, those moments become internal skills.
What starts as co-regulation becomes self-regulation.

If your child still needs you in their big moments, it doesn’t mean you’re doing too much.

It means their brain is still learning.

Save this for the hard days.

And if you want to understand the why behind this more deeply, my book Guidance from The Therapist Parent explores the nervous system side of behaviour — link in bio.

03/02/2026

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14/01/2026

Let the bad day set the bar

How you manage bad days can interrupt the dysregulation spiral. Plan based on what will work on the bad days, and then add from there. The bad day sets the bar.

11/10/2025

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Credit to

10/10/2025

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10/10/2025

Ever tried reasoning with your child mid-meltdown—and got nowhere?

Here’s why:
When a child is dysregulated, it’s like there’s a traffic jam in their brain. Emotions have blocked the road, and nothing—not rewards, not consequences, not even your calmest logic—can get through.

What they need first isn’t correction.
It’s connection.

Help them clear the jam by offering co-regulation: a steady presence, deep breaths, or even just sitting quietly together. Once their “road” is clear again, then you can talk, teach, and guide.

Save this as a reminder: Calm first, teach later.

Want more?
You’ll find deeper insights and practical tools in my book Guidance from The Therapist Parent, available on my website www.thetherapistparent.com and Amazon.

10/10/2025

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10/10/2025

Just a gentle reminder:
When we’re too available to help, children miss valuable opportunities to grow.

They don’t learn to help themselves, to ask for help when it’s truly needed, to develop persistence—or to give others the chance to step in and help.

Even in a toddler room, these moments unfold naturally. Our role is to stay warm, present, and available—but also just busy enough and observant enough to recognize when to pause, step back, and let learning happen through another route.

That’s the art of balance: being there, without being in the way.

10/10/2025

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Childhood doesn’t need a schedule.

Let’s give kids the gift of unstructured time—to wander, wonder, and create their own adventures. That’s where imagination and curiosity truly thrive.

06/10/2025

02/10/2025

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A sensory pro-tip NO ONE talks about is the idea of conserving your tolerance.

The concept is simple, the more you have in the bank NOW,
the more you’ll be able to spend LATER.

The morning of my TEDx talk, I came down for breakfast wearing headphones, a hoodie, and a weighted vest.

Why?
Because the less taxing stimuli you take in, the more you’ll have left to use on costly situations in the future.

I don’t HAVE to “just deal” with loud conversations and clanking dishes at hotel breakfast.

I can block all that out NOW, so that I can better deal with the bright lights and noisy crowds at the venue LATER.

It’s not a perfect formula, but it’s how I’ve learned to manage high stress situations at a professional level.

It works for me, maybe it’ll work for you?