What happens to you when you keep advocating for your child and the spaces around them resist?

In this episode, Amy and family therapist Denise reflect on the emotional experience many parents carry quietly. The feeling of being seen as too demanding. The effort of staying composed so you will be taken seriously. The slow shift from noticing resistance around you to questioning yourself.

This conversation explores what it can be like to advocate in schools, healthcare settings, family systems, or professional spaces, and how easily parents can begin to shrink alongside their children.

This is not an episode about strategies or solutions. It is an invitation to pause and notice what advocacy is asking of you, and to gently name that parents need care, tenderness, and support too.

You matter in this story as much as your child does.

There are times when children begin to make themselves smaller. They apologise for taking up space, soften their needs, or quieten parts of themselves that once felt free. Often this is not a problem to fix, but a response to what feels safe around them.

In this episode, Amy Smythe and family therapist Denise Bevan gently expore what it can mean when being "too much" starts to feel unsafe. They reflect on the difference between adaptability and self erasure, and how children learn to shape themselves in response to their environments and relationships.

This conversation invites a compassionate lens on belonging, context, and nervous system safety. It offers reassurance that noticing these moments with care can help children feel held, seen, and safer to be themselves again.

When your child feels like a failure, even your most loving words can start to feel as though they are not landing. You may find yoursefl repeating reassurance, trying to soften the harshness, and quietly wondering why nothing you say seems to help.

In this conversation, Amy Smythe and family therapist Denise Bevan explore what is happening beneath the surace when children speak about themselves with criticism or shame. We look at why some children experience kind or positive words as untrue or uncomfortable, while harsh self-talk can feel more honest or protective.

We reflect on how children gradually learn that thoughts are not the same as face, and why this awareness can come and go, especially during times of stress, pressure or change. The episode also explores the word yet and why it can create hope for some children but feel overwhelming or dismissive for others.

This is not an episode about fixing your child or convincing them to think differently. It is about slowing down, attuning to what your child may be protecting, and notcing what creates space rather than pressure. If your child's view of themselves feels persistent and painful, seeking support from a trusted professional can be a helpful next step. What is offered here are gentle reflections, not solutions.

When a child can only see what they've done wrong, reassurance often isn't enough.

In this episode, Amy Smythe and family therapist Denise Bevan, gently explore why children can become stuck in self-critical stories, and what it can mean for a grownup to hold the good stories a child can't yet see.

This compassionate conversation reflects on why reassurance so often fails in these moments, and how witnessing rather than convincing can help children feel safer when big feelings and self-doubt take over.

When things wobble in our relationships, whether with children, partners, or ourselves, it can feel unsettling and confusing. Moments of disconnection can arrive suddenly, leaving us unsure how to find our way back.

In this gentle conversation, Amy Smythe and family therapist Denise Bevan explore the process of rupture and repair. They reflect on why wobbles are a natural part of being human, how children experience these moments differently from adults, and what helps us return to connection when things feel too big.

This episode offers a compassionate understanding of how repair builds emotional safety and trust. It invites a calmer, kinder way of being with conflict and overwhelm, reminding us that small moments of repair can carry great healing.

If you have ever wondered how to reconnect after a difficult moment, or how to support a child when emotions run high, this conversation offers reassurance that you are not alone, and that connection can be found again.

When feelings grow too overwhelming for words, children do not need perfect explanations. They need us.

In this gentle and grounding conversation, Amy Smythe and Denise Bevan explore what happens when emotions become too big to explain, and why a calm, steady presence can be the safety children are searching for.

With compassion and insight, they reflect on how co-regulation, emotional safety, and nonverbal connection help children move through intense moments. They also consider why staying alongside, rather than rushing to fix or explain, allows both children and grownups to find their way through.

This episode offers reassurance that when words fall short, your presence is doing far more than you might realise, along with a kinder, wiser understanding of what it truly means to support a child through emotional overwhelm.

Big feelings often show up in our bodies before we have words for them, especially for children. Tight tummies, restless legs, or a sudden urge to move can all be signs that anxiety or overwhelm is present.

In this episode, Amy Smythe and family therapist Denise Bevan gently explore how learning to listen to the body can help us understand what is really going on beneath big feelings. Together, they share simple, compassionate ways to pause, notice, and respond, both for ourselves and for the children we care for.

This conversation offers a reassuring reminder that body awareness can help children feel more understood and less alone, and includes a playful invitation to try the body detective game at home.

Stepping into uncomfortable spaces can stir fear, worry, and a strong urge to fix things quickly, especially when children are involved.

In this opening episode, Amy Smythe and family therapist Denise Bevan explore what it can feel like when anxiety rises and nothing feels easy, and what might shift when we meet those feelings with curiosity instead of urgency.

With warmth and honesty, they wonder together about courage, fear, and the delicate balance between wanting to protect and needing to grow, for ourselves and the children we care for.

This conversation invites a kinder way of being with big feelings, offering reassurance that discomfort doesn't always need fixing. Someitmes, it needs witnessing. And you don't have to navigate these moments alone.