Parents often ask me how to deal with a child who is hitting their siblings (or being physically aggressive towards their siblings or other children). Most of the time, parents intuitively know that it is not helpful to make a child feel ashamed for their natural human impulse to hit, punch, kick, or bite...YET it can be infuriating and ultimately very concerning to experience violence between your children. And SO these situations most often end in more yelling, confusion, and disconnection between all members of the family.

I work often with children who have been diagnosed with ADHD. Their parents usually arrive overwhelmed, feeling like they don’t know how to help their child calm down. With these families, we work to help both parents and kids build more tools to understand what is happening in their bodies, learn to connect to themselves when they feel activated, and use tools to come back to center. Support your child in calming their nervous system with this audio recording of a butterfly body scan.