Two physicians, married. Two kids with ADHD. A year of unbilled income. Then she looked at her husband and said, "I'm depressed." He said, "So am I."

That's where Dr. Ali Novitsky's stress framework started. Not in a clinic. At her kitchen table, in the middle of a crisis she hadn't seen coming.

She's a neonatologist turned obesity medicine specialist turned life coach, and what she's built since that moment — a one-to-ten stress scale, six individual stress types, four family stress patterns — is the language she now teaches her clients to use on the thing most of us feel but can't name.

I asked her to walk me through the whole framework on the podcast, including the part where she diagnosed me live on air.

What we get into:

• The 1–10 stress scale and how to find your own symptoms in each zone (takes about a week of paying attention)
• The six individual stress types — assertive, control, catastrophizing, impulsivity, validation, isolation — what each one looks like regulated, and what each one looks like under pressure
• Why control-type isn't a flaw, why catastrophizers are the people you actually want on your team, and why isolation types are the leaders nobody sees
• The four family stress patterns and how one person walking into the room can flip the whole dynamic in seconds
• The ARC framework — Awareness, Regulation, Communication, Connection — and why you don't need your whole family on board to start
• How to teach kids this language without putting them through a quiz they can't take yet

Mentioned on the show:

• Family Stress Type Quiz (free, 3 min) — thefitkidmethod.com
• Individual stress type quiz
• Ali's pilot Family Reset program, starts June 22!
• Ali on Instagram @alinovitskymd
• Ali's website alinovitskymd.com

Please note that some of these links my be affiliate links, which means I may get a commission at no extra cost to you.

Follow along on Instagram → @wealthymommd

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