Raised Resilient: Help Your Highly Sensitive Child

Watch my video → How to End Your Child's Meltdowns in 8 Weeks or Less If your sensitive child melts down the second something feels too hard, their brain is sending you a message: they don't know how to handle frustration yet.  As a Harvard-educated clinical psychologist, parenting coach, and mom of three sensitive kids, I've spent the last 15 years helping families end the meltdowns that come fr...

Watch my video → How to End Your Child's Meltdowns in 8 Weeks or Less If you hand a sensitive child a phone too early, their brain gets wired to chase a dopamine hit that normal life can't match. Screen-time meltdowns with sensitive kids aren't a behavior problem; they're a nervous system reaction. Screens act like an off switch for the vestibular system, which plays a huge role in emotional proce...

Watch my video → How to End Your Child's Meltdowns in 8 Weeks or Less Have you ever felt like you have tried everything to end your child's meltdowns, but nothing worked? They're parents of four, and their highly sensitive eight-year-old son's big feelings had started running the whole household. They'd tried behavior charts, positive reinforcement, consequences, and yelling back louder. Nothing h...

Watch my video → How to End Your Child's Meltdowns in 8 Weeks or Less If validating your child's feelings sends them deeper into a meltdown, you're not doing it wrong… you're missing the part nobody talks about. I'm a clinical psychologist, parenting coach, and mom of three emotionally intense kids, and this is one of the most common patterns I see with sensitive kids and well-meaning parents. Mos...

Watch my video → How to End Your Child's Meltdowns in 8 Weeks or Less When your child acts out, the instinct is to shut the behavior down. That instinct needs to be ignored. I'm a clinical psychologist, parenting coach, and mom of three sensitive, emotionally intense kids. After a decade in this work, I still get humbled by the same reframe I teach every parent I coach. Dr. Ross Greene said it bes...

Watch my video → How to End Your Child's Meltdowns in 8 Weeks or Less When your kid's meltdowns start straining your marriage, the fight with your partner usually isn't really about the kid. This episode is for the parent who's stuck in the meltdown cycle with a sensitive, emotionally intense child and feels like they and their partner aren't on the same team anymore. Here's the pattern I see cons...

Watch my video → How to End Your Child's Meltdowns in 8 Weeks or Less How do you stay calm with your child when you can feel your own anger rising?   My guest, Nathalie, is a working mom raising a young child within a long-distance blended family, often parenting on her own while managing a demanding career. She shares how things shifted from occasional tantrums into longer, more intense melt...

Watch my video → How to End Your Child's Meltdowns in 8 Weeks or Less Have you ever wondered: “Will my kid outgrow these meltdowns?” It is the question almost every parent of a sensitive, emotionally intense child asks, and the honest answer might be hard to hear. Kids do sometimes outgrow the outward meltdowns. The hitting, kicking, and screaming can quiet down with age. What does not go away is...

Watch my video → How to End Your Child's Meltdowns in 8 Weeks or Less I didn’t expect my own child to be the one who challenged me the most. I could stay calm with teenagers screaming at me in residential treatment, but I found myself completely thrown off by my own toddler in a lunch line at a Great Harvest Bread Company. That moment forced me to see something I had been missing, even after years...

Holiday gatherings can be joyful — and for highly sensitive kids, they can also be a lot. The noise, the people, the excitement, the expectations. This re-released episode revisits a topic so many families struggle with: holiday meltdowns that seem to pop up right before (or during) events. In this episode, we talk through how to support your sensitive child around holiday outings — from gentle pr...

The holiday season is here again — and while it’s full of magic and meaning, it can also feel like a lot, especially when you're the one quietly coordinating all the joy. Gifts, gatherings, school events, traditions… the mental load piles up fast. So this week, we’re re-releasing one of our most-loved holiday episodes — all about three simple, doable ways to lighten that invisible load. These stra...

The holidays feel magical for kids, with nonstop activities, treats, and excitement. But all that joy can also stir up tantrums, meltdowns, impulse-control struggles, and plenty of big feelings for sensitive little ones. So this week, we’re re-releasing an episode that so many parents found grounding and helpful the first time around. You’ll get practical, doable strategies to support your child t...

Have you ever spent a whole day pouring into your sensitive child, only for them to fall apart the moment you walk through the door? It stings — and it’s easy to think, “Why does this feel so ungrateful?” In this episode, I’m unpacking what’s really behind those big emotions, and why they’re not actually about gratitude at all. We’ll look at why sensitive kids often melt down after something posit...

Big changes are tough for sensitive kids — even the exciting ones. And without meaning to, we sometimes make those transitions harder by over-preparing, over-explaining, or hyping things up in hopes it will make them easier. Whether it’s a move, a new sibling, or a big end-of-year transition, sensitive kids feel every ripple. And sometimes, the more we prep or talk about what's coming, the bigger...

If mornings with your sensitive child feel like an emotional rollercoaster — one wrong move and everything spirals — you’re definitely not alone. Maybe they wake up already grumpy, refuse to get dressed, or melt down over something tiny. You start the day exhausted before it even begins. In this episode, we’ll talk about why mornings go off the rails so often with sensitive kids — and why your bes...

If your child has ever completely melted down over something tiny — like the wrong cup, the favorite shirt that’s in the wash, or in my case this week… hair clips — this episode is going to feel very familiar. Because it’s never really about the thing, even though it really feels like it in the moment. I’m sharing a real morning from my own house — one that reminded me how quickly I can slip into...

We all dream of the day our kids can handle their big feelings with ease—when their emotions don’t rule the day, and they can take life’s bumps in stride. But how do kids actually get there? In this episode, we’re diving into what helps children truly build emotional regulation skills—and spoiler alert—it’s probably not what you think. There’s a missing piece in the way most of us imagine emotiona...

This week’s episode features Lesley, a mom whose parenting journey took some unexpected (and beautiful) turns. When she first joined the program, she was a single mom navigating intense meltdowns with her 5-year-old daughter—big emotions, hurtful words, and all the overwhelm that came with them. Just days after deciding to join, life surprised her with an engagement—and suddenly, she was preparing...

Have you ever tried to explain something perfectly clearly to your child—only to be met with tears, frustration, or a complete meltdown? It feels like the more sense we try to make, the less sense it actually makes to them. That’s because when kids are emotionally activated, logic goes right out the window. Their brains simply can’t take in reasoning in those heated moments, no matter how convinci...

This week, I’m sharing one of those small-but-big parenting moments: my 4-year-old daughter learning to ride her two-wheel bike. It was both ordinary and magical, watching her step into something brand new with so much determination. I’d spent time preparing her for what it feels like to learn something new—the ups, the wobbles, and even the possibility of frustration. When the moment finally came...

We’ve all heard the advice: “Just stay calm when your child is melting down.” But if you’ve ever tried it, you know it’s not that simple—and there’s a reason for that. In this episode, we’re unpacking why staying calm can feel so hard in the moment, what’s really going on inside us when our kids are overwhelmed, and what makes a difference in finding our way back. It’s not about perfection—it’s ab...

What do you do when your child’s meltdowns get so big they disrupt everyday life—even cutting a family vacation short? That’s where Emily found herself as a mom of a highly sensitive child. Between the constant meltdowns and the stress of preparing for kindergarten, she was stretched thin and exhausted. In this honest conversation, Emily shares what life was like in that season—balancing two kids,...

Ever find yourself wondering if your highly sensitive child will ever “grow out” of the meltdowns? You’re not alone. A fellow mom asked this exact question after feeling stuck in the cycle of escalating emotions, hitting, and endless late-night worries about the future. It’s the question that so many parents quietly carry: Will things ever get easier? In this episode, we’ll unpack what’s really go...

Starting middle school is a big milestone, and for a highly sensitive child, it can feel overwhelming. In this episode, I share how my oldest son’s recent transition went surprisingly smoothly—and the preparation that made all the difference. I’ll walk through what we did ahead of time to help him feel ready and confident, and why that kind of preparation is so powerful for sensitive kids facing b...

The back-to-school transition can feel like a mountain for sensitive kids—new routines, new faces, and new expectations all at once. And it doesn’t have to be a big milestone year for them to feel the weight of it; even returning to the same school can stir up nerves and overwhelm. What feels exciting to some can feel completely daunting to them. In this episode, we’ll explore why this shift is su...