Complicated Kids

28:07

What is SPACE Treatment with Lauren Siegel

Complicated Kids ·

2026/10/06

When anxiety starts shaping the whole family's routines, helping the child may need to begin with supporting the parents. Dr. Lauren Siegel joins me to talk about SPACE, which stands for Supportive Parenting for Anxious Childhood Emotions. It is a little different from many treatments for childhood anxiety because although the child is still the focus, the parents are the ones going to therapy and making changes. Rather than beginning with "What skills does my child need?" SPACE asks parents to look

en

27:23

Kids Need People Who Don't Give Up On Them with Jorie...

Complicated Kids ·

2026/09/29

For some kids, the most powerful support is not one more program. It is an adult who keeps showing up. Jorie Das is the Executive Director of Friends of the Children Los Angeles, an organization doing something that immediately got my attention: pairing children who have experienced significant adversity with paid, professional mentors who make a 12-plus-year commitment to them. These are not volunteers dropping in for a semester or a program that disappears when the funding cycle ends. Friends

en

33:10

Radical Acceptance of Children's Own Wisdom with Jenn...

Complicated Kids ·

2026/09/22

If we spend childhood teaching a kid that adults know their body, needs, and limits better than they do, it is a pretty big leap to expect self-trust to magically appear in adulthood. Jenn Glacel is back on the podcast, and this time we are talking about what she calls radical acceptance of children's inner knowing or wisdom. Before anybody starts rolling their eyes, this is not an argument that a four-year-old has all the information necessary to run the household. Jenn makes an important

en

25:56

Partner Relationships and Complicated Kids with Caron...

Complicated Kids ·

2026/09/15

When your child needs so much from you, your relationship with your partner can quietly become one more thing that gets put on the back burner. There is always something more urgent. A school issue. An appointment. A meltdown. A sibling who also needs something. A decision that has to be made. Caron Starobin's argument in this episode is that the relationship between the adults is not separate from all of that. It is part of how the family gets through it. Caron is a clinical social worker and

en

28:21

Trust Yourself with Allyn Miller

Complicated Kids ·

2026/09/08

You cannot teach your child to trust you while constantly second-guessing yourself. There is no shortage of parenting information out there. Books, podcasts, influencers, experts, schools, research, and your neighbor's cousin all have thoughts about what you should be doing with your child. And sometimes all that information makes parenting harder. In this episode, I talk with fellow parent coach Allyn Miller about something underneath all those strategies: self-trust. Allyn's premise is simple and

en

37:08

When Talk Therapy Isn't Enough with Dr. Julie Lopez

Complicated Kids ·

2026/09/01

Understanding the problem is not always the same as changing the pattern. In this episode, I'm joined by Dr. Julie Lopez, founder of Viva, for a conversation about trauma, implicit memory, brain-based therapies, and why talk is not always the language the nervous system understands. Julie starts with a story from early memory research that shows something fascinating and, honestly, a little unsettling. A person may not consciously remember an event, but their system can still remember enough to

en

35:57

The Neurodivergent Learner with Dr. Emily King

Complicated Kids ·

2026/08/25

Your child should not have to become a different kind of learner just to prove that they can learn. Dr. Emily King is back on the podcast, this time to celebrate the release of her first book, The Neurodivergent Learner. Emily is a child psychologist, former school psychologist, and parent of two neurodivergent kids, so she has spent a lot of time on pretty much every side of the school-family-provider table. At the heart of the book is an idea I love: your child's path is the right path

en

32:45

How to IEP with Vicki Christensen

Complicated Kids ·

2026/08/18

You are not just invited to the IEP meeting. You are part of the team. In this episode, I'm joined by Vicki Christensen, founder of Blue Glasses Advocacy, special education advocate, and parent of two children with IEP experience, for a conversation about helping parents understand their role in the IEP process. Vicki shares that her own advocacy work began after sitting in an IEP meeting for her son Luke, surrounded by professionals, services, goals, assessments, and more information than any

en

27:58

Birth is Complicated Too with Emily Roper

Complicated Kids ·

2026/08/11

Birth is part of the story. It is not the whole story. In this episode, Emily Roper is back to talk about birth, early development, and what those first experiences may have to do with the complicated kids we are parenting later. And before we go anywhere else, we say this clearly: this is not an episode about looking back and deciding you should have done everything differently. No thank you. We have enough parent guilt already. This is about awareness. It is about connecting dots. It is about

en

26:05

College Prep without the Pressure with Marcia Miller

Complicated Kids ·

2026/08/04

The best college preparation may not look like college preparation at all. By the time a student gets to college, we expect them to manage syllabi, deadlines, different professors, long-term assignments, and a schedule with far less adult oversight. But the executive function skills needed to do all of that do not suddenly appear when the dorm-room key lands in their hand. In this episode, I talk with Marcia Miller, an executive function coach who spent 14 years working with high school students,

en

31:55

S2C with Spelling to Communicate Founder Elizabeth...

Complicated Kids ·

2026/07/28

Not speaking is not the same thing as not having something to say. In this episode, I'm joined by Elizabeth Vosseller, founder of Spelling to Communicate and Executive Director of I-ASC, the International Association for Spelling as Communication. And we are talking about communication. Not the easy kind. Not the "say what you mean with your mouth and everyone understands what is happening" kind. We are talking about what happens when a person has thoughts, language, ideas, preferences, humor,

en

30:03

Early Development and Why Reflex Integration Matters...

Complicated Kids ·

2026/07/21

Some kids are not unfocused. They just have not found the thing that gives their focus somewhere to go. In this episode, I'm joined by Scott Proposki, a photographer, author, business coach, and founder of the Camera Focus Method™. Scott is a former National Geographic and White House photographer, which is the kind of sentence that makes you immediately want to know more. But what I was most interested in for this conversation was not just what Scott has done. It was how his brain got him there

en

26:08

From C Minuses to the White House with Scott Proposki

Complicated Kids ·

2026/07/14

Some kids are not unfocused. They just have not found the thing that gives their focus somewhere to go. In this episode, I'm joined by Scott Proposki, a photographer, author, business coach, and founder of the Camera Focus Method™. Scott is a former National Geographic and White House photographer, which is the kind of sentence that makes you immediately want to know more. But what I was most interested in for this conversation was not just what Scott has done. It was how his brain got him there

en

34:29

Internal Family Systems with Jacqi Trombley

Complicated Kids ·

2026/07/07

You can understand why your child is struggling and still be completely triggered by it. In this episode, I'm joined by Jacqi Trombley, a licensed clinical social worker, trauma specialist, and Level 2 trained IFS therapist, for a conversation about Internal Family Systems. Internal Family Systems, or IFS, is a therapy model that helps us understand the different parts inside us. Not in a "there is something wrong with you" way. More in a "of course you have more than one reaction happening at the

en

30:54

Screens Are Not the Enemy with Leslie Tyler

Complicated Kids ·

2026/06/30

Screens are not going anywhere, which means our kids need more than rules. They need guidance. I'll be honest. This is one of those topics where people tend to have feelings. Big ones. And fair enough. Screens can be a mess. They can also be useful, regulating, connecting, necessary, and sometimes genuinely helpful, especially for neurodivergent kids. So I was glad to have this conversation with Leslie Tyler from Pinwheel because we got to stay in the nuance. Leslie is Head of Parent Education at

en

32:05

Brain Mapping with Andrew Hill

Complicated Kids ·

2026/06/23

Brain mapping is not about making a complicated brain average. It is about understanding what the brain is doing. In this episode, I'm joined by Dr. Andrew Hill, a cognitive neuroscientist, brain mapping expert, founder of Peak Brain Institute, and author of Gifted & Tortured. And yes, we go right into the brain. Andrew talks about brain mapping, quantitative EEG, neurofeedback, and how certain patterns of brain activity can help us think differently about what we see on the outside: attention,

en

26:57

The ABCs of Big Emotions with Elizabeth Sautter

Complicated Kids ·

2026/06/16

You do not have to be afraid of big emotions, but you do need a way to meet them. In this episode, I talk with Elizabeth Sautter about what actually helps in those moments when a child's feelings get big. Elizabeth walks us through her ABCs of big emotions framework: first assess and get curious, then balance the brain, and then move toward connection and collaboration. We talk about why behavior is data, why the first move is not fixing or teaching, and why the adult's ability to pause matters so

en

25:45

You Can Teach Your Kid to Read at Home with Faye...

Complicated Kids ·

2026/06/09

If a child is struggling to learn to read, waiting rarely makes that easier. In this episode, I talk with Faye Bankler Casell about what parents need to know when early reading is not coming together the way it should. Faye explains why reading instruction in schools can feel like a lottery system, why so many children are still being missed until third or fourth grade, and why first grade is such an important window for intervention. We talk about the science of reading, early identification, and

en

22:42

Parenting ND Teens In Crisis with Katie K May

Complicated Kids ·

2026/06/02

When a teen is in crisis, the behavior is not the whole message. In this conversation, I talk with Katie May about what she calls "fire feelers," kids and teens who are biologically sensitive, highly reactive, and slow to return to baseline once emotions get big. Katie explains how these kids often grow up hearing some version of "you're fine" when they are very much not fine, and how that repeated mismatch can teach them to distrust their own internal experience. We talk about why self-destructive

en

15:55

155 Episodes In: What Still Matters Most

Complicated Kids ·

2026/05/26

The shoes, backpacks, grades, and meltdowns are not the whole story. They never were. This one gave me a reason to pause and reflect. I originally thought I would do something special for episode 150, and then life happened. So here we are at episode 155, and honestly, the double fives feel like a good enough reason to pause and look back. There is no guest today. It's just me reflecting on what I hope has been underneath this podcast all along. One of the biggest threads is this: children are whole

en

All Episodes

Similar Podcasts

Plugged In Entertainment Reviews

Focus on the Family

Entrepreneur Parents - Pretty & Punk Podcast | Family Success, Business Tactics, Relationship Goals

Ildiko Ferenczi and Dan Caldwell

Who Smarted? - Educational Podcast for Kids

Atomic Audio

Storytime for Kids

Storytime for Kids

Pebbles - A Daily Devotional For Kids

Raising Rock