Beyond the Sessions is answering YOUR parenting questions! In this episode, Dr. Emily Upshur and I talk about...

- How to prepare young children for a big move without overwhelming them.

- Why moving can feel surprisingly emotional and disorienting for kids, even when the change is positive.

- Simple ways to help children understand what's changing, what's staying the same, and what they can expect in their new home.

- Why visual supports, transitional objects, and goodbye rituals can help kids feel more grounded during major transitions.

- How to help children stay connected to important relationships after moving away from friends, teachers, and familiar places.

- Why making new friends can feel especially stressful for some kids, and how parents can help them feel more confident socially.

- Practical ways parents can create emotional continuity, safety, and connection before, during, and after a move.

This episode will help you better understand how children experience major transitions and give you thoughtful, practical ways to support your child emotionally through a move.

REFERENCES AND RELATED RESOURCES:

👉 Want extra support in your parenting journey? Upshur Bren Psychology Group offers therapy and coaching to give parents the tools to feel more grounded and confident as they navigate parenthood and learn how to most effectively support their child. Visit upshurbren.com to explore our services and schedule a free 30-minute consultation call to find the support that's right for your family.

CHECK OUT ADDITIONAL PODCAST EPISODES YOU MAY LIKE:

🎧 Listen to my podcast episode about using design and organization to support your child's nervous system with Rachel Melvald

🎧 Listen to my podcast episode about the neuroscience of raising emotionally resilient kids with Dr. Kristen Lindquist

🎧 Listen to my podcast episode about helping our children form strong friendship bonds with Dr. Eileen Kennedy-Moore

WE WANT TO HEAR FROM YOU:

Go to https://drsarahbren.com/question to send us a question or a topic you want to hear us answer on Securely Attached - Beyond the Sessions!

Dr. Tracy Dennis-Tiwary, clinical psychologist, researcher, and author of Future Tense: Why Anxiety Is Good for You (Even Though It Feels Bad), joins me to talk about why anxiety is one of the most misunderstood emotions in parenting.

Together we explore:

• The surprising difference between anxiety that helps us grow and anxiety that gets in the way.
• Why anxiety may be helping your child (and you!) more than you realize.
• How to tell when anxiety is healthy and when it's becoming a problem.
• Why some of the most common responses to childhood anxiety can backfire.
• The surprising connection between anxiety, hope, and resilience.
• How parents can become a source of calm without dismissing or fixing their child's feelings.
• The simple shift that can help you stop seeing anxiety as the enemy.
• Dr. Dennis-Tiwary's three-step framework for responding to anxiety in yourself and your child.

This conversation offers a powerful reframe for parents who want to support their children through anxiety without reinforcing fear or avoidance. It is about learning to see anxiety not as an enemy, but as a normal part of being human, and helping our children develop the confidence to face uncertainty, navigate discomfort, and trust their ability to handle life's challenges.

LEARN MORE ABOUT MY GUEST:

🔗https://www.tracydennistiwary.com/

📚Future Tense: Why Anxiety Is Good for You (Even Though It Feels Bad) – A Psychologist's Paradigm Shift for Understanding and Hope

📱@dr.tracyphd

LEARN MORE ABOUT ME:

🔗 Dr. Sarah Bren

🔗 Check out my group practice, Upshur Bren Psychology Group, offering therapy and coaching for individuals, children, parents, and families

📱IG: @drsarahbren

ADDITIONAL REFERENCES AND RESOURCES:

👉 Looking for support for a child struggling with anxiety or OCD? If your child is struggling with anxiety or OCD, Upshur Bren Psychology Group offers SPACE-based parent support through both a virtual group and individualized care. Go to upshurbren.com/space to learn more or book a free 30-minute consultation with our care team, who will listen carefully and help you determine the best support for your family.

🎧 The mattering gap: Why so many parents feel invisible, overwhelmed, and disconnected with Jennifer Wallace

CHECK OUT ADDITIONAL PODCAST EPISODES YOU MAY LIKE:

🎧 Listen to my podcast episode about SPACE (Supportive Parenting for Anxious Childhood Emotions) with Dr. Eli Lebowitz of the Yale Child Study Center

🎧 Listen to my podcast episode about how to find the line between supporting your child and feeding their anxiety

🎧 Listen to my podcast episode about how parents can know when their child's anxiety may require a mental health intervention

Beyond the Sessions is answering YOUR parenting questions! In this episode, Dr. Rebecca Hershberg, Dr. Emily Upshur, and I talk about...

• Why it is completely normal for young children to explore their bodies and engage in self-soothing behaviors.
• How parents can respond to self-touching in a calm, shame-free, developmentally appropriate way.
• The difference between setting healthy boundaries and unintentionally communicating shame around bodies or pleasure.
• Why some children may use self-touching as a form of sensory input, comfort, or emotional regulation, especially at bedtime.
• How to teach children about privacy and body boundaries using neutral, age-appropriate language.
• What to do when self-touching is happening in a shared bedroom or around siblings.
• Ways to help children expand their self-soothing toolbox with other calming sensory and bedtime supports.
• Why parents' own discomfort or cultural messaging around sexuality can sometimes shape how these moments feel.
• How to navigate sibling questions or reactions without making the behavior feel scary or secretive.
• The importance of helping children feel safe, accepted, and connected to their bodies while still maintaining appropriate boundaries.

This episode will help you feel more confident responding to common childhood self-soothing and body exploration behaviors with calm, clarity, and compassion.

REFERENCES AND RELATED RESOURCES:

👉 Want extra support in your parenting journey? Upshur Bren Psychology Group offers therapy and coaching to give parents the tools to feel more grounded and confident as they navigate parenthood and learn how to most effectively support their child. Visit upshurbren.com to explore our services and schedule a free 30-minute consultation call to find the support that's right for your family.

CHECK OUT ADDITIONAL PODCAST EPISODES YOU MAY LIKE:

🎧 Listen to my podcast episode about what to do when your son always has his hands down his pants

🎧 Listen to my podcast episode with how developmentally appropriate expectations, boundaries, body autonomy, and consent with sex therapist Dr. Holly Richmond

🎧 Listen to my podcast episode about how to get your 3-year-old to do things they don't want to do

WE WANT TO HEAR FROM YOU:

Go to https://drsarahbren.com/question to send us a question or a topic you want to hear us answer on Securely Attached - Beyond the Sessions!

Beyond the Sessions is answering YOUR parenting questions! In this episode, Dr. Rebecca Hershberg, Dr. Emily Upshur, and I talk about...

• How to support a sensitive, gentle child in becoming more confident using his voice with peers.
• The difference between helping your child build self-advocacy skills and trying to change their temperament.
• How to teach kids simple, effective boundary-setting tools that actually work in fast-paced peer interactions.
• Why "old soul" kids may naturally learn polite, sophisticated communication, but still need help practicing more direct forms of assertiveness.
• Playful ways to practice boundary-setting and self-advocacy skills at home through games and role play.
• How to know when to step in as a parent and when to allow kids space to navigate social challenges on their own.
• Why it's important to match a child's communication tools to the intensity and energy of the situation they're in.
• The importance of checking whether a child is actually distressed before assuming a social interaction is a major problem.

This episode will help you feel more confident supporting your child's self-advocacy skills while still honoring their unique temperament, sensitivity, and personality.

REFERENCES AND RELATED RESOURCES:

👉 Want extra support in your parenting journey? Upshur Bren Psychology Group offers therapy and coaching to give parents the tools to feel more grounded and confident as they navigate parenthood and learn how to most effectively support their child. Visit upshurbren.com to explore our services and schedule a free 30-minute consultation call to find the support that's right for your family.

CHECK OUT ADDITIONAL PODCAST EPISODES YOU MAY LIKE:

🎧 Listen to my podcast episode about how you can encourage your shy child without making them feel like being shy is bad?

🎧 Listen to my podcast episode about temperament, personality, and parenting with Dr. Koraly Pérez-Edgar

🎧 Listen to my podcast episode about how you can parent your child to not be a people pleaser

WE WANT TO HEAR FROM YOU:

Go to https://drsarahbren.com/question to send us a question or a topic you want to hear us answer on Securely Attached - Beyond the Sessions!

In this deep dive episode, I explore how secure attachment evolves across development and what children are really needing from us emotionally at each stage of childhood and adolescence. Using Erik Erikson's stages of psychosocial development as a framework, we look at the core emotional tasks kids are navigating from infancy through young adulthood, and how our role as parents shifts alongside them.

Together, we explore:

• What secure attachment looks like at different developmental stages.
• How to stay connected to your child as their needs evolve over time.
• Why toddlers push for independence and what they need from us in those moments.
• How play, boredom, and curiosity support emotional development in early childhood
• Why school-age kids become more focused on achievement, perfectionism, and peer comparison.
• How social media can intensify insecurity during key developmental windows.
• Why adolescence can suddenly feel so emotionally intense and unpredictable.
• How to stay a secure base for your teen without escalating power struggles.
• What today's loneliness epidemic can teach us about raising emotionally connected kids.
• Why repair matters more than perfection in secure relationships.
• How understanding your child's developmental task can completely shift the way you respond to behavior.

This episode is ultimately about learning to zoom out. Not to parent each stage perfectly, but to better understand what your child is actually working through underneath the behaviors, emotions, and developmental shifts that can sometimes leave us feeling confused or disconnected. Because when we understand the developmental needs driving our child's behavior, we can respond with more clarity, compassion, and connection.

LEARN MORE ABOUT ME:

🔗 Dr. Sarah Bren

🔗 Check out my group practice, Upshur Bren Psychology Group, offering therapy and coaching for individuals, children, parents, and families

📱IG: @drsarahbren

CHECK OUT ADDITIONAL PODCAST EPISODES YOU MAY LIKE:

🎧 02. Attachment Theory and Fostering Secure Attachment Relationships

🎧 102. Breaking the cycle of insecure attachment: How to support your child's secure attachment even if you didn't grow up with it, with Dr. Miriam Steele

🎧 103. Secure attachment vs. social media: Navigating their effects on body image from early childhood to teen years with Dr. Miriam Steele

🎧 76. Secure attachment is optimal, but insecure attachment may not be as bad as we think: A conversation with attachment researcher Dr. Or Dagan

🎧 139. BTS: Can my kid be securely attached to me if I'm insecurely attached in my adult relationships?

Beyond the Sessions is answering YOUR parenting questions! In this episode, Dr. Emily Upshur and I talk about...

• Whether co-sleeping is actually a problem, or simply a parenting choice that works for some families.
• How to tell the difference between connection-based co-sleeping and anxiety-driven sleep struggles.
• Why independent sleep is a skill that develops over time through practice, not pressure.
• How to support your child's growing independence without making them feel rejected.
• What it can look like when children naturally begin transitioning out of their parents' bed on their own.
• How to approach sleep transitions gently if co-sleeping stops working for your family.
• Why there is no one "right" way to handle sleep arrangements, and how to focus on what works best for your child, your relationship, and your family as a whole.
• The importance of safe co-sleeping practices and understanding how to co-sleep safely with young children.

This episode will help you feel more confident navigating co-sleeping, independent sleep, and nighttime connection in a way that feels aligned with your family's needs, values, and stage of life.

REFERENCES AND RELATED RESOURCES:

👉 Stay up to date on the latest podcast episode, tips and tricks, and parenting resources by joining my newsletter. Go to drsarahbren.com, scroll down to the bottom of the page and click "Join my community" to get weekly emails from me.

🎧 Tune into the original question that this episode is a follow up to: Is letting my anxious child sleep in my bed helping or making their anxiety worse?

🔗American Academy of Pediatrics: Safe Sleep

👉 Want extra support in your parenting journey? Upshur Bren Psychology Group offers therapy and coaching to give parents the tools to feel more grounded and confident as they navigate parenthood and learn how to most effectively support their child. Visit upshurbren.com to explore our services and schedule a free 30-minute consultation call to find the support that's right for your family.

CHECK OUT ADDITIONAL PODCAST EPISODES YOU MAY LIKE:

🎧 Listen to my podcast episode with practical solutions for getting your child to stay in their own bed with Eileen Henry

🎧 Listen to my podcast episode about Why toddler sleep is different than infant sleep and how to use the attachment relationship to help them fall asleep with Eileen Henry

🎧 Listen to my podcast episode about how to modify traditional sleep strategies for neurodiverse brains with Dr. Funke Afolabi-Brown

WE WANT TO HEAR FROM YOU:

Go to https://drsarahbren.com/question to send us a question or a topic you want to hear us answer on Securely Attached - Beyond the Sessions!