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, overwhelming or confusing. In this episode of The Worry Wizard Podcast, Amy sits down with Denise, a highly experienced family therapist, to explore the gentle and transformative process of rupture and repair. Together they look at how we find our way back to connection after moments that feels too big.

Wobbles are a normal part of being human. What matters is how we come back together. This conversations offers a compassionate space to understand what happens in those moments and how small, intentional repair can strengthen trust, connection and emotional resilience.

In this episode, Amy and Denise explore

• What rupture and repair really means
• Why wobbles happen even in the strongest relationships
• How children experience rupture differently from adults
• The role of co-regulation in settling big feelings
• How to return to connection after conflict or overwhelm
• Why repair builds emotional resilience and safety
• Everyday ways to rebuild trust when things go wrong

If you have ever wondered how to reconnect after a difficult moment or how to guide a child through overwhelm, this episode offers a calm and gentle way forward.

You are not alone in the wobbles. We find our way back together.

For weekly support, visit www.TheWorryWizard.com/subscribe

If rupture, disconnections, anxiety or big feelings are affecting daily life, reaching out to your GP, counsellor or another trusted professional can be a compassionate next step.

When feelings grow too overwhelming for words, children do not need perfect explanations. They need us. In this gentle and grounding conversation, Amy and Denise 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 unpack how co-regulation, emotional safety, and nonverbal communication help children navigate intense moments, and why staying alongside rather than rushing to fix allows everyone to find their way through.

You will leave with reassurance that when words fall short, your presence is doing far more than you realised, along with a kinder, wiser understanding of what it truly means to support a child through emotional overwhelm.

Amy and Denise explore the quiet wisdom our bodies hold and how often they recognise our feelings before our minds can name them. With warmth and gentle guidance, they share simple ways to pause, listen, and notice what our bodies are trying to tell us. Together they reflect on how this practice can support both us and the children we care for, helping everyone feel a little more understood and a little less alone. You will leave with a playful idea to try this week called the body detective game along with the reminder that paying attention with kindness is often all that is needed.

Amy and Denise explore what it feels like to step into uncomfortable spaces, those moments when worries rise and nothing feels easy. What happens when we meet those feelings with curiosity instead of urgency?

With warmth and honesty, they wonder together about courage, fear, and the space between wanting to protect and needing to grow. For ourselves and the children we care for. Because discomfort doesn't always need fixing; sometimes it needs witnessing.

This conversation offers reflections on being kind to ourselves while holding space for big feelings, and invites you to notice what shifts when you approach uncertainty with a little more gentleness.

You'll leave with a playful invitation to try this week: a gentle way to practice stepping into discomfort together. And the reminder that you and your child do not have to navigate these moments alone.