One of the biggest questions I get from parents is, “Why does my child’s anxiety or OCD show up more for me?” It can be a source of contention when one parent sees all the struggles and the other parent sees nothing.It can cause people to finger point and waste unnecessary energy playing the blame g

Our parenting style directly impacts how we approach our child’s anxiety or OCD. How do you feel about setting boundaries? What emotions do you feel when your child is in distress? How do you feel when you pull back your accommodations around anxiety or OCD?Our parenting style plays a role in these

The wrong therapist can wreak havoc on a children’s OCD. That is why it is so important for parents to understand what are evidenced-based approaches specifically for OCD. It is also key to have the skills to decipher a qualified therapist from a non-qualified therapist. When Eve started having intr

It can be hard to help kids navigate anxiety and OCD. Sometimes adding some creative ways to help validate, normalize and build skills to handle anxiety or OCD can be gold! One of my favorite ways to do that is through storytelling.Storytelling is a powerful tool. It can help kids understand how anx

Raising a child with Emetophobia, the fear of throw up, can be an isolating experience. It brings with it all sorts of fears. What if they can’t overcome their struggles? What if they can’t go to school? What if they stop eating entirely?It is important that parents don’t feel alone on this journey.

Your child is paralyzed with fear. They are nauseous. They are faint. They are immobilized. It is hard to watch as a parent. For many of us it can trigger our own panicky response. When our kids are spiraling out of control it can be so easy for us to spiral with them. It often takes a concerted eff

Acceptance and Commitment Therapy has been a helpful therapy modality for many people with anxiety and OCD. Often parents wonder how this therapy can be adapted to help children.I invited Dr. Tamar Black to the AT Parenting Survival Podcast to explain what Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) is

One of the hardest parts about social anxiety is the feeling you are the only one with these struggles. It actually feeds into the disorder quite well. It is a story that many of us with social anxiety tell ourselves.No one struggles like you do.No one thinks the way you do.No one would understand.W

Self-esteem and self-confidence can play a big role in our child’s journey with anxiety and OCD. When our anxious kids struggle they can feel overwhelmed with emotions of shame and isolation. They might beat themselves up for being different or for having difficulties. Self-esteem can also play an i

As parents we are often in the line of fire when it comes to our child’s overwhelm. When dealing with anxiety or OCD we can feel like we are our child’s punching bag. The truth is, physiologically our kids are often looking for a push-pull conversation. It is easier to see you as enemy #1 rather tha

We all lose it at one time or another. Parents are human. You are human. We inevitably will lose our cool and say or do things that we regret. But those parenting moments hold untapped clues to what is overwhelming us. Those moments hold wisdom, if we are able to move past the shame to see the insig

As parents we are often desperate to provide our children with tools to help their OCD. We might scour the internet trying to find an OCD specialist; not an easy feat. Or if we are lucky enough to have found an OCD specialist, we might want to know what we can do at home to fill in the gaps.I often

There is a strong relationship between social anxiety and bullying. Research has shown that a clinically significant amount of people with social anxiety have experienced bullying. Often children have a genetic predisposition to anxiety, but environmental stressors, like bullying, blossom that genet

It is common for some kids to worry about growing up. There are many unknowns that can feel overwhelming. But for some kids this fear is all consuming. For these kids their worries about growing up turn into a daily effort to prevent the inevitable from happening.In this week’s AT Parenting Survival

There are many creative ways to help anxious kids. One way is through storytelling. Children can immerse themselves into stories and learn along the way. Stories can help normalize the experience of having anxiety and develop problem-solving skills in a more non-directive way.In this week’s AT Paren

It can feel like there is nothing you can do if your child refuses to work on anxiety or OCD. But in reality, that is far from true. We are one piece of the puzzle when it comes to our child’s anxiety or OCD, but it is still an important piece.In this week’s AT Parenting Survival podcast I talk abou

Raising a child with anxiety or OCD can be a very lonely experience. It can make us feel removed from our friends and family. It can even put a wedge between partners. The more isolated you feel on this journey, the harder it is to help your child. Why? Because your level of support is directly tied

Dealing with our child’s anxiety or OCD is taxing enough, but sometimes there is another layer of stress. Often our child’s struggles can trigger something deep within us. A childhood wound, a flashback, a remnant of something that has remained dormant within us.When these old wounds are triggered w

Raising a child with Anxiety and OCD is hard enough, but when you and your partner are not on the same page, it can be even harder.It is common for one partner in the relationship to view their child’s anxiety or OCD differently. Couples can argue over a ton of things including how to handle their c

It is easy to lose yourself while trying to parent a child with anxiety or OCD. In fact, it can be hard not to. We might have ongoing thoughts about how to help our child. We might be consumed with worry about our child’s future. We might have dropped activities, friends and hobbies we once found jo

When our child has anxiety or OCD, we are often providing some accommodations that inadvertently grow the problem. As we learn about anxiety and OCD, we also learn about the importance of pulling back those accommodations. This is not a black and white process. It takes time, it takes judgment and i

OCD loves to hang out with other issues. There are many comorbid conditions that go with OCD. Misophonia and Misokinesia are two of them. Does your child feel rage over certain sounds, including mouth and nose sounds? Does your child get overwhelmed by certain motions, like a foot tapping or knee bo

Inadvertently many of us make our child’s social anxiety worse. It can seem, on the surface, that social anxiety is an obvious issue with an obvious solution. But social anxiety is much more complicated than most people think.In this week’s AT Parenting Survival Podcast I outline common mistakes we

Emily and Lindsay both struggled with OCD as kids. Even though they were sisters, OCD showed up in very different ways for each of them. It wasn’t until Emily was in college that she realized that her anxiety was really OCD in disguise. Lindsay was able to support her sister and get her connected to