We are just over three weeks from the start of the new school year for children who reside in the school district where my office is located.    What is your family experiencing as you prepare to send your children back to school?  Are you anticipating any struggles this year?

You may have read some of my most recent posts (links below) addressing tips for helping children head back to school with less stress, but I also wanted to share tips from my colleagues.   I reached out to therapists across the country inviting them to contribute a post to be included in my list of links and was happy with the response I received.  I hope you will find this list to be as helpful as I think it is.   There is a little something for everyone contained in this list. Continue reading Back to School: Helpful Links from Therapists Across the Country →

We all experience emotions.   If you reflect back on your interactions with your child today, you can likely identify many feelings that you and your child experienced .  Talking to our children about emotions from a young age is so important.   Being able to identify, share and cope with their feelings are essential skills for our children to be successful in their relationships, at school and eventually in the workplace.

The earlier we can help our children feel comfortable with their emotions the better!  I always say it is never too early to start talking about feelings with a child, but it is also never too late.     Children tend to feel their emotions very intensely and our reactions to them can really impact their perceptions of emotions and how they cope as they move into adulthood.

When I am invited to speak to groups of parents, this is by far the most requested topic because like me, many of you recognize the value of teaching our children about their feelings at an early age.

However, many of you may not live near the Eagan, Minnesota area, so the opportunity to connect with me in person about this topic may not be an option.   I have compiled many of my thoughts about children and emotions into a variety of posts on this blog.   Below you will find a list of everything I have written so far on this subject.

The beginning of the school year can bring a variety of emotions for both children and parents. In my therapy office, I have the opportunity to hear about a lot of different thoughts and emotions that families experience at this time of year. Some of the ones that immediately come to mind are excitement, relief, anxiety, dread, uncertainty, sadness and more. Even for the child (and parent) who is excited about the return to school, this transition can cause stress. As a general rule, any change is accompanied by some level of stress. This is true even when it is a change that is desired.

In this post, I will walk through some tips to help you and your child successfully process and manage any stress that may emerge during the transition back to school. Continue reading Children & Stressors: Beginning of the School Year →

September marks a significant milestone for my family, we are sending our first child off to kindergarten.  This is definitely a time of mixed feelings at my house.  Many of you are experiencing the same transition this fall, so I thought I would put together some tips to help all of us (children and the parents) adjust as successfully as possible.   I can honestly say that I am using these same steps as much as possible to help my family prepare for the fall.

Continue reading Preparing to Send Your Child to Kindergarten →

We all experience stress at times, including children.    The dictionary definition of stress is a state of mental or emotional strain or tension resulting from adverse or very demanding circumstances. As adults, we can struggle to recognize the stress that children experience and the effects that  stress has on their well-being  because it may look different than how we experience stress.  We may minimize the stress that children experience because we don’t realize how aware they are of what is going on around them.   On the other hand, we may consider their stressors not to be a “big deal.”

It’s been just over a year since I started writing the blog series addressing common stressors that children face.     At this moment there are seven posts in the series, but I am always adding more posts to the series.   I thought it would be helpful to have a complete list of all of the posts compiled in one place to make it easier to access and share them. Continue reading Stressors & Children: The Full Series →