In this week’s episode I talk to child and adolescent psychotherapist, Katie Hurley about her brand new book ‘The Stress-Buster Workbook for Kids’ which I have absolutely loved reading and learning from. Stress and anxiety isn’t something just adults experience, children do too, so the earlier we can educate them on useful coping skills and techniques, the better! In this episode we discuss the following; 

The importance of fresh and engaging ideas to reel in kids

The different types of stress - good stress, toxic stress, mini stress

Our window of tolerance, our emotions always go up and down everyday 

How picturing someone's grandma can help children understand how to be kind

The ‘Take 5’ grounding technique

Mindfulness and multitasking

What is a dream disc? And how does it help kids at night?

The truth behind creative brains having trouble at night time

How to set boundaries

No is a complete sentence

How the pandemic made us lose our boundaries

How Katie rests and recharges

About The Guest: Katie Hurley, LCSW

Katie Hurley, LCSW, is a child and adolescent psychotherapist and the author of five books, including her award winning No More Mean Girls and her latest release, The Stress-Buster Workbook for Kids.

​​Website - www.practicalkatie.com

Twitter - @katiefhurley

Instagram - @katiefhurley 

And remember, don’t forget about yourself, take a few minutes for you and have a little fun!

About The Host - Janine Halloran

Janine Halloran is a Licensed Mental Health Counselor, an author, a speaker, an entrepreneur and a mom. As a Licensed Mental Health Counselor, Janine has been working primarily with children, adolescents, and their families for over 20 years. She is the Founder of 'Coping Skills for Kids', where she creates products and resources to help kids learn to cope with their feelings in safe and healthy ways. Janine also founded 'Encourage Play’ which dedicated to helping kids learn and practice social skills in the most natural way - through play! 

If you're interested in learning more about how to teach kids coping skills, download your free Coping Skills Toolkit:
https://copingskillsforkids.com/newsletter

The Coping Skills Hub has everything you need to teach kids coping skills, learn more at https://copingskillsforkids.com/hub

If you'd like to purchase Janine's products, including the Coping Skills for Kids Workbook, Coping Skills for Teens Workbook, Social Skills for Kids Workbook, Coping Cue Cards, and more, visit https://store.copingskillsforkids.com or https://amazon.com/copingskillsforkids


Connect with Janine on Social Media 
Instagram: @copingskillsforkids 
Facebook: facebook.com/copingskillsforkids and facebook.com/encourageplay
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/JanineHalloranEncouragePlay

In this episode, I discuss some ways you can practice problem solving using creative prompts. As we all know, social skills are key to interacting well with others - skills such as listening, working together, being kind, watching your own personal space versus others personal space and taking turns. They all need to be learned in childhood to have a successful and fulfilling adult life.

I share how to use things around your office or home as a social skills building activity. You can use any items you have lying around, like paper straws, cotton balls, yarn, paper cups, clothes pins, duck tape - all lots of weird and wonderful materials.

The group then goes on to choose what problems to solve. It works great with different ages of kids. If you're doing this as part of a group plan, it's good to debrief at the end, and find out what they think worked and what didn’t, etc. Take a listen to learn how to use these items to practice social skills.

And remember, do not forget about yourself, take a few minutes for you and have a little fun!

—

About The Host - Janine Halloran

Janine Halloran is a Licensed Mental Health Counselor, an author, a speaker, an entrepreneur and a mom. As a Licensed Mental Health Counselor, Janine has been working primarily with children, adolescents, and their families for over 20 years. She is the Founder of 'Coping Skills for Kids', where she creates products and resources to help kids learn to cope with their feelings in safe and healthy ways. Janine also founded 'Encourage Play’ which dedicated to helping kids learn and practice social skills in the most natural way - through play! 

If you're interested in learning more about how to teach kids coping skills, download your free Coping Skills Toolkit:
https://copingskillsforkids.com/newsletter

The Coping Skills Hub has everything you need to teach kids coping skills, learn more at https://copingskillsforkids.com/hub

If you'd like to purchase Janine's products, including the Coping Skills for Kids Workbook, Coping Skills for Teens Workbook, Social Skills for Kids Workbook, Coping Cue Cards, and more, visit https://store.copingskillsforkids.com or https://amazon.com/copingskillsforkids


Connect with Janine on Social Media 
Instagram: @copingskillsforkids 
Facebook: facebook.com/copingskillsforkids and facebook.com/encourageplay
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/JanineHalloranEncouragePlay

In this week’s episode I talk to educator, parent and founder of FeelLinks; Marcelle Waldman. FeelLinks is a hands-on resource for kids that has plush emotion dolls and a journal. We had such a great conversation about how we can support social and emotional learning at home, through listening to what our kids are saying. The topics we cover are:

Benefits of social and emotional learning

How working on your own emotions helps you understand societies emotions

The importance of listening to our emotions

How social and emotional learning doesn’t just take place at school

Listening to your kids and learning from them

How to model identifying your emotions and dealing with them

Making plans when emotions are calm

When emotions are high, realizing why that’s not the teachable moment

How journalling can be beneficial

About The Guest: Marcelle Waldman

Marcelle Waldman lives in the beautiful Pacific Northwest with her husband and two children. She is a certified K-5 elementary educator, which means having the incredible opportunity to teach some of their youngest learners in kindergarten and preschool. She has also served as the preschool director. Marcelle has completed extensive coursework in psychology, child development, youth mental health and she is Youth Mental Health First Aid trained. Being a community educator - she is focused on children, brain development, behaviors, emotions and overall emotional intelligence. Alongside this, she is an avid community volunteer, having served on the school’s PTA board as vice president and president, contributed to many School District committees, currently sit on the Issaquah Schools Foundation programs committee, and volunteers for the Ladybug House, an end of life hospice and palliative care program. Marcelle’s company FeelLinks is a hands-on resource for children. It promotes growth in lifelong skills in emotional intelligence; self-awareness, social-awareness, self-management, and relationships skills. 

​​Website - Myfeellinks.com

Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/myfeellinks

Instagram - @myfeellinks 

You can find the FeelLinks Journal and dolls here - https://myfeellinks.com

And remember, don’t forget about yourself, take a few minutes for you and have a little fun!

About The Host - Janine Halloran

Janine Halloran is a Licensed Mental Health Counselor, an author, a speaker, an entrepreneur and a mom. As a Licensed Mental Health Counselor, Janine has been working primarily with children, adolescents, and their families for over 20 years. She is the Founder of 'Coping Skills for Kids', where she creates products and resources to help kids learn to cope with their feelings in safe and healthy ways. Janine also founded 'Encourage Play’ which dedicated to helping kids learn and practice social skills in the most natural way - through play! 

If you're interested in learning more about how to teach kids coping skills, download your free Coping Skills Toolkit:
https://copingskillsforkids.com/newsletter

The Coping Skills Hub has everything you need to teach kids coping skills, learn more at https://copingskillsforkids.com/hub

If you'd like to purchase Janine's products, including the Coping Skills for Kids Workbook, Coping Skills for Teens Workbook, Social Skills for Kids Workbook, Coping Cue Cards, and more, visit https://store.copingskillsforkids.com or https://amazon.com/copingskillsforkids


Connect with Janine on Social Media 
Instagram: @copingskillsforkids 
Facebook: facebook.com/copingskillsforkids and facebook.com/encourageplay
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/JanineHalloranEncouragePlay

A lot of times, anxiety comes from feeling out of control so in today's episode I want to discuss the way I teach kids to understand what they do and don’t have control over in their lives. This is such a great skill to learn for any age to hone in the ability to keep anxiety at bay.

I first learned about this strategy when I was in therapy as a teenager. It was such an eye opener for me to recognize I didn't have control over other people and their actions. And to go through life with that lens, I believe has majorly benefited my life. So take a listen to empower your child.

And remember, do not forget about yourself, take a few minutes for you and have a little fun!

—

About The Host - Janine Halloran

Janine Halloran is a Licensed Mental Health Counselor, an author, a speaker, an entrepreneur and a mom. As a Licensed Mental Health Counselor, Janine has been working primarily with children, adolescents, and their families for over 20 years. She is the Founder of 'Coping Skills for Kids', where she creates products and resources to help kids learn to cope with their feelings in safe and healthy ways. Janine also founded 'Encourage Play’ which dedicated to helping kids learn and practice social skills in the most natural way - through play! 

If you're interested in learning more about how to teach kids coping skills, download your free Coping Skills Toolkit:
https://copingskillsforkids.com/newsletter

The Coping Skills Hub has everything you need to teach kids coping skills, learn more at https://copingskillsforkids.com/hub

If you'd like to purchase Janine's products, including the Coping Skills for Kids Workbook, Coping Skills for Teens Workbook, Social Skills for Kids Workbook, Coping Cue Cards, and more, visit https://store.copingskillsforkids.com or https://amazon.com/copingskillsforkids


Connect with Janine on Social Media 
Instagram: @copingskillsforkids 
Facebook: facebook.com/copingskillsforkids and facebook.com/encourageplay
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/JanineHalloranEncouragePlay

Please note: On this podcast episode, we mention the topic of suicidal ideation, and there are a couple of swears in this episode. I wanted you to be aware of this in case this is hard for you to listen to, or there are younger ears listening. Enjoy the interview!

Music is so amazing! There’s a good chance you’ve experienced music changing your mood from being grumpy to feeling full of life. Listening to music has a range of benefits but on this episode, my guest Sophie Garner shared how creating music can be therapeutic too. In this episode we cover a range of topics such as;

The power of music

How music connects us all

The connection between music and mental health

How singing can improve your health

The creative songwriting journal 

Finding your target audience when writing a book

Different relaxing techniques

About The Guest: Sophie Garner

Sophie Garner changes lives through singing and songwriting. She is an accomplished singer, performer, and an educator.  She's also an author 'The Creative Songwriting Journal' for children ages 7-12, and has published her 2nd book 'If you can't say it sing it!’. Sophie is a natural educator and full of energy, her passions and goals stem from believing in the true, holistic and deep effects of music, and sharing the gift of music, as a therapy and a life skill, to help others learn to comfortably express themselves, allowing her students to grow in confidence and develop socially.

​​Website - www.sophiegarner.com

Facebook - Sophiegarnerauthor

Twitter - Sophiegarner1

About The Host - Janine Halloran

Janine Halloran is a Licensed Mental Health Counselor, an author, a speaker, an entrepreneur and a mom. As a Licensed Mental Health Counselor, Janine has been working primarily with children, adolescents, and their families for over 20 years. She is the Founder of 'Coping Skills for Kids', where she creates products and resources to help kids learn to cope with their feelings in safe and healthy ways. Janine also founded 'Encourage Play’ which dedicated to helping kids learn and practice social skills in the most natural way - through play! 

If you're interested in learning more about how to teach kids coping skills, download your free Coping Skills Toolkit:
https://copingskillsforkids.com/newsletter

The Coping Skills Hub has everything you need to teach kids coping skills, learn more at https://copingskillsforkids.com/hub

If you'd like to purchase Janine's products, including the Coping Skills for Kids Workbook, Coping Skills for Teens Workbook, Social Skills for Kids Workbook, Coping Cue Cards, and more, visit https://store.copingskillsforkids.com or https://amazon.com/copingskillsforkids


Connect with Janine on Social Media 
Instagram: @copingskillsforkids 
Facebook: facebook.com/copingskillsforkids and facebook.com/encourageplay
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/JanineHalloranEncouragePlay

This week’s episode is all about recess and movement. In my opinion, we don’t value the power of movement enough; it’s so vital to help kids focus, work on social skills, be more ready to learn, and manage big emotions. In this episode of the podcast, I talk about two pieces of research that focus on the power of recess:

The LiiNK project where children get 4 periods of recess per day. LiiNK students typically decrease their off-task behaviors by 25-35% in the first year, their reading and math scores go up, plus they were observed smiling and laughing more.

A position paper named ‘A Research-Based Case for Recess’ which looks at the social, academic, and physical effects of having more recess.

Resources Mentioned in the Podcast

A research based case for recess - https://www.playworks.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/US-play-coalition_Research-based-case-for-recess.pdf

LIINK project - https://liinkproject.tcu.edu/about

Marvelous Movement Activity Book and other Movement Coping Style Resources

https://store.copingskillsforkids.com/collections/movement-coping-style

About The Host - Janine Halloran

Janine Halloran is a Licensed Mental Health Counselor, an author, a speaker, an entrepreneur and a mom. As a Licensed Mental Health Counselor, Janine has been working primarily with children, adolescents, and their families for over 20 years. She is the Founder of 'Coping Skills for Kids', where she creates products and resources to help kids learn to cope with their feelings in safe and healthy ways. Janine also founded 'Encourage Play’ which dedicated to helping kids learn and practice social skills in the most natural way - through play! 

If you're interested in learning more about how to teach kids coping skills, download your free Coping Skills Toolkit:
https://copingskillsforkids.com/newsletter

The Coping Skills Hub has everything you need to teach kids coping skills, learn more at https://copingskillsforkids.com/hub

If you'd like to purchase Janine's products, including the Coping Skills for Kids Workbook, Coping Skills for Teens Workbook, Social Skills for Kids Workbook, Coping Cue Cards, and more, visit https://store.copingskillsforkids.com or https://amazon.com/copingskillsforkids


Connect with Janine on Social Media 
Instagram: @copingskillsforkids 
Facebook: facebook.com/copingskillsforkids and facebook.com/encourageplay
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/JanineHalloranEncouragePlay

Have you ever spotted an Instagram post of smiling parents who are having the most perfect life with their child and then felt shame and guilt that you aren’t nearly as perfect as them? Well you’re definitely not alone on that one! Today’s episode is all about us… the parents. I discussed with my guest, Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist and Parent Coach; Nicole Schwarz about what happens around the shame spiral and how we can talk to ourselves in a kinder way to be more content with being an imperfect parent. We always need to remember that real life is messy, it's not great all the time, sometimes we mess up and guess what?… That’s okay!

Take some time for yourself, embrace those imperfections and take a listen to this episode. 

About The Guest - Nicole Schwarz

Nicole Schwarz is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist and Parent Coach with over fifteen years of experience working with families and children in various settings. She is the owner of Imperfect Families, LLC and author of "It Starts With You," coaching parents to use positive, respectful parenting strategies. She lives in St. Louis, Missouri, with her husband and three daughters.

Website & Book - https://imperfectfamilies.com/it-starts-with-you/

Facebook - facebook.com/imperfectfamilies

Instagram - instagram.com/imperfectfamilies

About The Host - Janine Halloran

Janine Halloran is a Licensed Mental Health Counselor, an author, a speaker, an entrepreneur and a mom. As a Licensed Mental Health Counselor, Janine has been working primarily with children, adolescents, and their families for over 20 years. She is the Founder of 'Coping Skills for Kids', where she creates products and resources to help kids learn to cope with their feelings in safe and healthy ways. Janine also founded 'Encourage Play’ which dedicated to helping kids learn and practice social skills in the most natural way - through play! 

If you're interested in learning more about how to teach kids coping skills, download your free Coping Skills Toolkit:
https://copingskillsforkids.com/newsletter

The Coping Skills Hub has everything you need to teach kids coping skills, learn more at https://copingskillsforkids.com/hub

If you'd like to purchase Janine's products, including the Coping Skills for Kids Workbook, Coping Skills for Teens Workbook, Social Skills for Kids Workbook, Coping Cue Cards, and more, visit https://store.copingskillsforkids.com or https://amazon.com/copingskillsforkids


Connect with Janine on Social Media 
Instagram: @copingskillsforkids 
Facebook: facebook.com/copingskillsforkids and facebook.com/encourageplay
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/JanineHalloranEncouragePlay

In this episode I talk to JoAnn Crohn, former elementary school teacher and podcast host of No Guilt Mom. She is the author of Me and My Friendships, to help kids learn more about themselves and build friendships with other kids. We cover a lot of topics in the episode, including:

What even is ‘too’ emotional?

The social differences between middle and elementary school

Finding ‘your’ people

Finding yourself and not molding into a different person with different friends

What are the key characteristics of a good friend?

Using an outside source to help your kids learn, rather than doing it directly

How making assumptions about your kids can be damaging

About The Guest - JoAnn Crohn

JoAnn Crohn, M. Ed is a parenting educator who helps moms feel confident in everything from raising empowered, self-sufficient kids to dropping the anxiety and guilt out of modern parenthood. She’s an accomplished writer, author, podcast host of the No Guilt Mom podcast, and speaker, appearing in national media and founder of the parenting site, NoGuiltMom.com. Her specialty is talking to both parents and kids - with her self-paced digital courses for kids and parents in handling big emotions, creating a morning routine and conquering the homework drama. JoAnn is a former elementary school teacher with a Master's degree in Curriculum and Instruction as well as a National Board Certified Teacher in Middle Childhood Education. 

JoAnn’s free Happy Parent Checklist - https://www.noguiltmom.com/hpc

Instagram: @noguiltmom

Facebook: facebook.com/noguiltmom

Website: www.noguiltmom.com

About The Host - Janine Halloran

Janine Halloran is a Licensed Mental Health Counselor, an author, a speaker, an entrepreneur and a mom. As a Licensed Mental Health Counselor, Janine has been working primarily with children, adolescents, and their families for over 20 years. She is the Founder of 'Coping Skills for Kids', where she creates products and resources to help kids learn to cope with their feelings in safe and healthy ways. Janine also founded 'Encourage Play’ which dedicated to helping kids learn and practice social skills in the most natural way - through play! 

If you're interested in learning more about how to teach kids coping skills, download your free Coping Skills Toolkit:
https://copingskillsforkids.com/newsletter

The Coping Skills Hub has everything you need to teach kids coping skills, learn more at https://copingskillsforkids.com/hub

If you'd like to purchase Janine's products, including the Coping Skills for Kids Workbook, Coping Skills for Teens Workbook, Social Skills for Kids Workbook, Coping Cue Cards, and more, visit https://store.copingskillsforkids.com or https://amazon.com/copingskillsforkids


Connect with Janine on Social Media 
Instagram: @copingskillsforkids 
Facebook: facebook.com/copingskillsforkids and facebook.com/encourageplay
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/JanineHalloranEncouragePlay

Have you ever thought about your body when feeling a strong emotion? Where do you feel it? Is it in your chest or tingling down the back of your legs? Some people can reach adulthood before even realizing this, even though we feel emotions throughout our lives.

This episode of the podcast is about just that - where do we feel emotions and why is it important? All feelings are okay, but it's good to recognize them to intervene sooner by using coping skills so emotions don’t get out of control. Self awareness is key! This episode will explore one of my favorite techniques - using body outlines to mark where kids feel emotions.

About The Host - Janine Halloran

Janine Halloran is a Licensed Mental Health Counselor, an author, a speaker, an entrepreneur and a mom. As a Licensed Mental Health Counselor, Janine has been working primarily with children, adolescents, and their families for over 20 years. She is the Founder of 'Coping Skills for Kids', where she creates products and resources to help kids learn to cope with their feelings in safe and healthy ways. Janine also founded 'Encourage Play’ which dedicated to helping kids learn and practice social skills in the most natural way - through play! 

If you're interested in learning more about how to teach kids coping skills, download your free Coping Skills Toolkit:
https://copingskillsforkids.com/newsletter

The Coping Skills Hub has everything you need to teach kids coping skills, learn more at https://copingskillsforkids.com/hub

If you'd like to purchase Janine's products, including the Coping Skills for Kids Workbook, Coping Skills for Teens Workbook, Social Skills for Kids Workbook, Coping Cue Cards, and more, visit https://store.copingskillsforkids.com or https://amazon.com/copingskillsforkids


Connect with Janine on Social Media 
Instagram: @copingskillsforkids 
Facebook: facebook.com/copingskillsforkids and facebook.com/encourageplay
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/JanineHalloranEncouragePlay