Have you read the book yet?

“Permission to Feel” was a delight to read because it’s just what I’ve been teaching my clients, what saved my family years ago, what saved me.

It’s so fun to read research that shows what I found to be true in our home.

In the moments when I thought discipline and punishment was needed and relationships were on the rocks, I learned that what was needed was permission to feel an emotion.

And often MANY emotions!

When my teen was having a meltdown, yelling in anger, refusing to comply,

I found that what they needed was SPACE to FEEL the BIG emotions.

A safe place to feel their emotions and work through their dysregulated state

And help to learn how to regulate their emotions without being punished for feeling the BIG emotion.

So, when you or your kids are feeling BIG emotions, pause and ask yourself how you can provide the safe place for them to FEEL.

Feeling anxious or angry today?

What does it feel like?

Do you know these emotions intimately?

Know what they feel like in your body?

Can you describe the physical sensations easily?

When you feel the first sign do you panic or anger do you shove it down or hurry to do something to avoid feeling it?

Or, do you invite it in like a friend, a welcome guest, like the wise messenger that it is?

Do you ask it what it has to tell or teach you?

These two emotions are the most helpful emotions, but the most feared.

Click the link below to watch a 2 min video for an example of how to feel emotions and how to communicate about it. This is the introduction to a 25 min class I taught for a Parenting Summit.