Emotional regulation and understanding the teen brain are currently in the classroom! If you want to understand your teen and have the exact scripts that you need to get the most out of their emotional and mental health - go and watch the videos and start walking through the scripts. WARNING: you may bring too much calm to the home! Post the wins when you're ready 🔥

I was chatting to a mum on Friday who homeschools her kids and I asked her why this is. She replied, "because I want to teach my kids life skills that would've helped me at school". I know one of the most common challenges with the modern school system is a lack of opportunity and freedom in learning skills, particularly life skills. So I ask, what is one thing you wish you learned at school when you were growing up?

Hey Purposeful Parents, if you're teen is feeling the pressure of the world on their shoulders right now and are caught in the anxiety, depression, shutdown cycle. Here's a video that will help break down some of the strategies that I use to manage anxiety in our teens. It will also help you to prime the right time to have those difficult conversations that may be upsetting and overwhelming for your teen. Check it out and let me know what you think!

The first time your kid fires back at you, is generally a surprising experience. When you show them love and support, and it's pushed to one side. It doesn't feel good. It creates an abnormal situation. So what do we do....? We lose our cool. Many of us become angry, annoyed, irritated... That's when we need to bring calm to the situation. When a new situation arises (which is basically everyday in a kid's life), we expect them to remain calm and in control. But can we expect ourselves to take every situation in our stride without battering an eye-lid... ...absolutely not. The antidote = self-compassion Accept the situation, accept that we are allowed to feel (angry, annoyed, irritated) and learn for next time. Keep at it team

Two months ago, a parent came to me about his 14-year-old daughter. She was refusing school, depressed, hiding in her room, and had walked out on every psychologist within one session. I knew taking her on meant putting my ego aside. There was a real chance I wouldn’t “get through.” But there was one thing she did connect with, she was an athlete. And that became our doorway. I use a technique I've created called parallel communication: talking about difficult emotions through the things teens already enjoy, rather than the things they avoid. So instead of forcing conversations about school or mental health, we talked about emotions through her world, sport, challenges, effort, frustration, and the things she liked doing. Over six weeks, I made sure not to cross the line into “fixing” her. No pressure. No forcing hard conversations. Just helping her feel emotions in a space that felt safe. Very quickly I learned that she wasn’t avoiding help, she was avoiding the discomfort of feeling. But when we explored emotions through performance, everything changed. She realised emotions aren’t dangerous. Awareness = control. Control = power. Today she said something her parents never expected: “I’ve actually enjoyed understanding emotions. I want to keep learning.” Her parents were shocked... in the best way. And honestly, it was a huge moment for her. She proved to herself that emotions don’t have to be scary. And I kept my pride intact 😅 Many teens aren’t resisting help, they’re resisting emotional discomfort. That’s why the way we communicate matters more than what we say. This week, I’ll create a few simple scripts to help you use parallel communication at home so you can connect with your teen in a way that actually works.