My Brain Team Book: Mindfulness for Children

My Brain Team: What To Do When Emotions Run High is a therapeutic resource that teaches emotion regulation and mindfulness skills to children ages 6 and up.

My Brain Team: What To Do When Emotions Run High

Liv is a fun and creative 10-year old girl who explains how the brain works through the different imaginary characters in her brain team. We learn how the ‘amygdala feelers’ serve to protect us from danger while the ‘prefrontal cortex thinkers’ help us to calm down, solve problems, and relate to others.

Click the image to view more

How can I help my child with emotional self-regulation?

A pretty common concern I hear from parents is that their child loses control over their emotions and can go from 0 to 100 very quickly. That is, they see that their child becomes overwhelmed, upset, anxious, and/or angry both easily and often over seemingly small things or situations. It is as if their child’s emotions have taken over (or have essentially hijacked their thinking brains) and there is no way to rationally talk to or reason with them. Parents often want to know how to help their child calm down and regulate their emotions.

My clinical approach is to first help parents and children understand what is happening in their brains. When our emotions, such as anger and anxiety, run high and feel overwhelming, we tend to react impulsively (as a way of coping) and without thinking things through. That is, for both children and adults alike, the same “fight-flight-freeze-faint” (4Fs) response is triggered when faced with any possible threat and danger (whether the threat is real or imagined).

Read more

Sam’s Big Secret: Coping with Fear

Many children are suffering from anxiety and fears these days, especially in times of COVID and post-pandemic life. Given our current context, having the resources to guide parents and children navigate these challenges becomes so important. Sam’s Big Secret is an ideal therapeutic resource to help children cope with fear and phobias. It teaches children tools to manage fear that is within their control rather than letting fear control them. For this book, I teamed up again with the very talented Elaheh Bos to write this therapeutic resource which is a not only a children’s story about fear but also explains what fear is and teaches seven different coping tools on how to conquer fear. This collaborative effort is a book I am very proud of as I hope it will help many children (and adults, too) feel empowered to overcome their fear!

Sam's Big Secret: Coping With Fear

Sam’s Big Secret Story Synopsis

Sam's Big Secret book. Thinking
Sam Thinking

Let me tell you a little about Sam’s Big Secret. It is a story about Sam, a brave turtle who has a BIG SECRET. He is afraid and even terrified of water. Whenever Sam approaches a pond or river, his heart pounds quickly, he has trouble breathing, he feels dizzy, and his whole body shakes. Sam thinks that he will faint and that something terrible is going to happen.

Sam running scared. Sam's Big Secret book

He tries to calm himself down by hiding in his shell so that he does not have to face the outside world. And as soon as he feels better, he comes out of his shell and tries to get away as fast as he can.

Read more

Anger Thermometer for Children and Teens

Like any feeling or emotion, the experience of anger is subjective.  What is clear is that anger causes distress and in turn leads to reactions and potentially helpful or hurtful behaviours to manage the distress.  The purpose of an anger thermometer (or any other feeling thermometer) is thus to be able to quantify and measure the subjective experience of distress to help create a common language that can then be examined, processed, and discussed.

Anger Thermometers for young children, school age children, teens and adults
Anger Thermometers for young children, school age children, teens and adults

What is an anger thermometer?

An anger thermometer is essentially a tool that can be used with children, teenagers and adults to explore and learn about this challenging emotion.  Just as one uses a thermometer to measure temperature, the thermometer serves as an indicator of the anger temperature or intensity of the feeling experienced within.

Read more

Libro para ayudar con la ansiedad, fobias y miedos en los niños – El gran secreto de Sam

Estoy súper contenta de anunciar el lanzamiento de la versión en Español de el libro El gran secreto de Sam: Haciéndole frente al miedo (Spanish Edition), un recurso terapéutico para ayudar a los niños a afrontar la ansiedad, los miedos y las fobias.

Nuevamente, unimos fuerzas con la súper talentosa Elaheh Bos y agregamos al equipo la genial traductora Patricia Braña. Juntas trabajamos arduamente para darle vida a este libro en Español que no es solamente una historia para niños acerca del miedo, sino que explica que es el miedo y enseña siete herramientas diferentes para abordarlo y conquistarlo.

El gran secreto de Sam: Haciéndole frente al miedo (Spanish Edition)

Estoy muy orgullosa de este libro que es un esfuerzo conjunto y que espero ayude a muchos niños (y adultos también) a sentirse capaces de afrontar y poder superar las ansiedades y sus miedos!

Read more

ADHD Resources for Parents and Children: Billy Can’t Slow Down!

Do you know a child who is easily distracted, has a short attention span, can’t concentrate for long on one task, and never seems to finish anything he or she starts? Or maybe you know a child who is fidgety, restless, can’t sit still, talks excessively, and is always ‘on the go’? Perhaps you know a child who is inattentive as well as hyperactive and impulsive?

Billy Can't Slow Down: Story & Tools for managing ADHD

As a child psychologist, I have met many children who are struggling in school, at home, and with their peers because of their challenging behaviours, like the ones described above. Parents and teachers alike are sometimes at a loss as to how to help their child or students address these behaviours. Plus, ADHD resources for parents may seem hard to find.

Read more

My Child Has ADHD: Individual Learning Plans and School Interventions (Updated)

ADHDbyDavidCastilloDominic In a previous post I wrote about many of the challenges and issues faced by children and adolescents suffering from Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and the importance of obtaining a proper diagnosis which should include psychological testing and input from teachers, parents, as well as your child’s physician. Assuming that your child has been fully assessed and properly diagnosed, the next step for you, as a parent or caregiver, is to understand what you can do to help your child cope with his ADHD at school and at home. This is where a school intervention plan that is tailored to meet the particular needs of your child becomes important. Just like each child’s symptoms and difficulties are unique to them, there is no “one size fits all” school intervention plan.

Read more

Could My Child Have Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD)?

OCDIn my clinical practice, I have seen a number of children and adolescents who suffer from Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD). Here are different examples of how OCD presented in 3 of my clients:

(1) A 15-year old teenage girl reported that she had an uncomfortable feeling inside telling her something was not okay or not quite right. She had developed all kinds or rituals to get rid of that feeling so that she could continue on with her day. worried_teen_girl_at_homeFor example, she had to flush the toilet handle multiple times and repeatedly turn the faucet sink handles, turn the lights on and off repeatedly, check and re-check her hair iron to make sure it was off, do certain things an even number of times only, and perfectly align and order her clothes in her closet and in her drawers.

Read more

New Resource to Help Your Child Cope with Sadness: When Monkey Lost His Smile

When Monkey Lost His Smile

You may have noticed that I have written fewer posts over the past few months. The reason is I was busy doing a very different kind of writing. I want to tell you about how I came to be the author of my first therapeutic resource book for young children on sadness.

A little over a year and a half ago, I was introduced through a colleague to Elaheh Bos, a very talented children’s author and illustrator. I collaborated with her on A spot of blue, a resource book for children (ages 4 to 8) on anxiety, gave feedback and insights on strategies to help with this emotion, and wrote the foreword. Not too long thereafter, I collaborated with her on a second project, The tiger in my chest, another therapeutic resource book for children (ages 4 to 8) on anger. For this book, I wrote the Anger Management Strategies section and I must admit that I really enjoyed the process of writing, explaining, and essentially teaching young children how to tame their anger.

Well along the way, something happened that I was not expecting. Not only did I discover a passion for writing, but I developed a desire to be the author of my own therapeutic resource book for children.

Read more

What to Do About My Child’s Fears and Phobias?

Fear_courageNot too long ago, a friend asked me for advice about how to help her 9-year old daughter who has developed a fear of death. This young girl expressed repeatedly to her mom that she was afraid her mom and dad were going to die and then what would happen to her. Her fear seemed to stem from her grandfather’s recent minor surgery but it was becoming an issue that was affecting her mood, behaviour, and sleep. My friend was concerned about how to approach this topic with her daughter as well as how to reassure and help her.

It is common for children to develop fears at different ages and the types of fears generally change over time. Importantly, fears are not necessarily bad.

Read more

How to Tell if Your Child or Teen Has an Eating Disorder?

What are Eating Disorders?

Eat_or_diet_signsEating disorders (EDs) in children and adolescents are serious psychological conditions that cause changes in eating habits and can lead to serious or even life threatening health problems.

There are three main types of eating disorders:
1. Anorexia nervosa, a condition in which a child refuses to eat adequate calories out of an intense and irrational fear of becoming fat and subsequently becomes underweight
2. Bulimia nervosa, a condition in which a child eats large quantities of food (binge eating) and then purges the food by vomiting or using laxatives to prevent weight gain
3. Binge eating disorder, a condition in which a child engages in binge eating, but without purging

What are the Signs of an Eating Disorder in Children and Teens?

Eating disorders typically develop during adolescence or early adulthood. However, they can start in childhood too. They are much more common in girls, but do affect boys as well.

Read more