My daughter was absorbing information about the news from friends, teachers, and social media. It usually wasn’t accurate news, and, sometimes, she was confused by what she heard, like when you play a game of telephone and the information gets altered as it goes down the line. So at a certain point it became clear to me that I need to be setting aside time to talk openly with her about current events. Here’s what I’ve learned over the years, both as a parent and in my therapy practice:

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As a psychotherapist, I’ve been counseling parents who are burned out by the pandemic — juggling work, parenting, partnering, and homeschooling — without any end in sight. Our daily lives have become a blur of these roles, which shift minute to minute on repeat, making it hard to eke out any time or space to tend to our own needs.

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As a psychotherapist and mom, I’m always on the lookout for concrete and effective ways to help kids soothe their anxieties — especially now, in pandemic times, when so much feels uncertain. Here are some of my favorite anxiety-busting activities for kids and teens alike that are quick and accessible for anyone to try.

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Mindfulness is a word we hear thrown around a lot, and its definition is actually pretty simple: mindfulness is intentionally paying attention to your moment-to-moment experience. Exercises often involve focusing our attention on one anchor, which could be breath, sound, or sensations. Mindfulness can be used as an on-the-spot tool, which is what makes it so accessible, even to kids, and can help support resilience, improve focus, reduce anxiety, and regulate challenging emotions while cultivating positive ones.

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It just so happens that I was raising my young daughter when I began grad school for clinical psychology. As I was learning how to work with clients, I realized that the same tools that I was developing as a psychotherapist — learning to take another’s perspective, helping people to recognize and understand their own feelings — applied to parenting, too. And what all those tools boil down to: empathy, the ability to step into another’s shoes, to feel their feelings and see the world from their perspective.

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Remember that though we may be practicing distancing, that you are not alone.  We are all going through this challenge together, and we can offer self-compassion and kindness to ourselves as well as compassion to others (It can be easy to lose patience or get frustrated with our family in our tight quarters for extended periods of time!) Below, I will offer some strategies to help us cultivate compassion for ourselves and others.

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Do you suffer from anxiety or panic attacks? One tool that is effective to use on your own is “resource tapping” in which you bring to mind a beautiful place that creates calm, such as the beach or somewhere in nature, or being with someone you love. Read more here...

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