My list below includes 7 things to remember, contained in the acronym, “RESPOND”. How you purposely choose to respond to your children amid grief, loss, and other stressful events is incredibly important.

I recently had the privilege of writing a Guest blog for another therapist in San Marcos, Diana Trevino of Trevino Counseling and Wellness.

The blog shares 6 tips on calmly parenting an anxious child, when you also struggle with anxiety.

Adults who come to therapy, often have developed unhelpful ways of coping with their anxiety. Parents who reach out to me about child therapy want their children to learn better ways to cope with anxiety.

Guest Author: Irina Baechle, LCSW and licensed relationship therapist.

When you have children, you can count on a certain amount of anxiety. But worry and fear about the well-being of your children can quickly spiral out of control and impair your everyday life, relationships, and welfare.

The most natural thing when a child is in distress is to help them, to assist them in some way. That help often comes in the form of information, advice, and solutions.  While children may need your information, they first need to feel connected to you.  I don’t know the origin of the idea, but these words have always stuck with me, “Connect before your correct”.  However, it seems for many parents and other adults it’s easier to correct or try to “fix” a child, and then try to connect with them. 

Parenting is hard, so this is definitely not a drive-by-guilting. Sometimes you feel anxious about the things your family, and ultimately your child is going through at school or at home. You wonder if your kid should see a child therapist. One thing I have witnessed over the years is that if a parent can remain relatively calm and take care of themselves, no matter what the issue, their kids cope better.

The thought of making friends with any kind of anxiety can feel a bit like making friends with the neighborhood bully when you were a kid. Anxiety says untrue things to you and can threaten all kinds of harm. If you struggle with anxiety and you suspect it may be impacting how you parent, you may be right.