Hi! I'm Megghan Thompson, LCPC-RPT-S!
I help parents who are worried about managing their child’s explosive and out of control emotions to develop an individualized system to manage their kid’s explosive feelings when they don’t fit the examples in typical parenting books.
I know you are a parent of a Highly Sensitive Child and are ready to stop scouring the internet for new strategies, throw out those traditional parenting books that don’t match your kid, and develop an individualized system to manage your kid’s explosive feelings.
You're Lost
When you don’t pass out from sheer exhaustion, you are lying awake at night worrying that if you don’t help your kiddo get it together, they will end up hurting themselves or someone else when they’re older. They already say things they regret when they’re angry or overwhelmed, and this terrifies you. You’ve researched the highly sensitive child personality trait. You’ve read mommy blogs by parents of HSC’s, but you feel like you’re throwing paint at a wall trying random strategies, when you really want to be painting by numbers.
You’re Exhausted
You are tired of feeling like a hostage in your own home, but you struggle to take back control in a way that doesn’t lead your child to feel the intense sense of shame they show you every time they talk about their explosions. The typical parenting book (if you have the time and energy to get through one of them) talks about consistency and talking out the feelings with the child, but often highly sensitive children need flexibility to feel validated, and STRUGGLE to name their feelings and trust their gut! This leaves parents feeling FRUSTRATED with their kid who says they “just don’t know why” they acted this way, or what was behind their angry feeling. Parents often feel lost when this strategy works one day, but not the next (even when they’ve been using it for a week!)
It All Seems Like Too Much!
The books for kids with explosive emotions are long, and the strategies are complicated. Bottom line, books don't talk back, so when you have to figure out how to make it work for your family’s needs, there's no troubleshooting or accountability to refine your consistency.
In my work as a child and parenting expert for over a decade, I used to request that my clients read parenting books while I worked more closely with their children. We would schedule meetings every 4-6 weeks, and I got frustrated when parents told me they couldn’t make it through the books, so I recommended podcasts. They told me they weren’t able to listen to all of them... this of course wasn't because they weren't dedicated parents. It was because my strategy was WRONG.
THIS TIME, INSTEAD OF GETTING FRUSTRATED, I LISTENED BETTER.
Parents of highly sensitive children need quick, simple steps and much more support than a book or a podcast can provide in order to make lasting change in their families. I started to give them support alongside their child so they could see the work in action. I simplified my process, and sped up the pace for quicker results.
By the end of the third week of my 8-week program you will have implemented specific strategies that can head off the meltdowns BEFORE THEY BEGIN. You will learn the exact phrases to say to your child that can decrease the feeling that you are walking on eggshells. When a child is in therapy, it can take over a year for parents to make the mindset shift for this level of preparation.
The highly sensitive children I worked with in my private mental health practice business considered me a part of their family, and so did their parents... but the truth is, I'm not raising your kids, you are.
So, always refining and improving my process, I asked myself a very heart-wrenching question: is working with kids the most efficient way to solve this problem? The answer? No.
I was willing to stop one of my favorite parts of my career to do the most effective work: eliminate daily meltdowns and self-depricating thoughts for sensitive kids. That's our mission.
The fastest way to do that?
Leverage your relationship with your child.
This is what took so long-- building a relationship with a sensitive kid takes time. For some, months. And quite frankly, no one was put on this earth to be miserable... so why wait MONTHS for your kid to trust someone?
Instead, we work smarter, not harder: STRENGTHEN what we already know is a loving, caring relationship.
It's simple: the faster you understand your kid, the faster your kid changes their behavior. For good.
Because the truth of the matter is, if you don't understand what drives your child to to communicate their emotions BEFORE they meltdown, you will never break this cycle.
This is why having loving conversations AFTER the meltdowns will never work to fix this problem.
You need to know how to set limits in the middle of a meltdown, and of course prior, to prevent them and shorten them before your child learns how to stop them altogether.
And that's why our process works so well.
Because we don't teach parents to ride meltdowns out until their child builds the insight for internal motivation.
Emotional maturity required for a child to stop and think before they act doesn't fully develop until the adolescent brain ages to 25. You and I both know you don't want a 24 year old living in your basement.
To raise a healthy, HIGH FUNCTIONING 25 year old, you need to know exactly when to hold your child accountable in the middle of an outburst (without force/yelling/threats) and help them stop the cycle altogether.
Imagine being able to go through the grocery store without an outburst, or take on that challenge at work without fearing your career will be jeopardized for leaving early to tend to your child’s meltdown at school. Consider lying in bed dreaming of the schools you will visit when your child is college-aged, rather than fearing hospital bills for inpatient treatment.
If you are ready to stop feeling like seaweed rippling in the gulf of your child’s emotions, ready to improve your relationship with your child, and learn to roll with the punches of parenting a kid who doesn’t fit the parenting books, APPLY BELOW to learn more about your next steps in gaining more peace at home.
Ok... so you see that I get you, but who the heck am I to tell you what to do?
I've been a child mental health therapist for nearly 15 years. (You can learn more about the difference between coaching and therapy by clicking here.) As a Registered Play Therapist-Supervisor (RPT-S), I've worked with Highly Sensitive Children and Teens throughout my career, and exclusively treated HSCs and HS teens in my group mental health practice in Maryland, where my team of clinicians offered the only evidence-based treatment proven to support sensitive teens who have developed suicidal thoughts or other life threatening behaviors in the region.
I've supervised therapists and taught children, teens, parents, teachers and therapists on the concept of Sensory Processing Sensitivity (The Highly Sensitive personality trait) for many years. As I've honed my specialty, I know exactly what works and what doesn't work for parents at home. I've worked in school systems supporting sensitive children and teens in obtaining IEPs/504 Plans, and have trained teachers on the needs of HSCs. I knew this support was needed globally, so I expanded my reach to help parents of HSCs around the world live in peaceful, happy homes.
I know exactly how you struggle because my family struggled too. My younger sister is an HSC and none of us knew it until I received specialized training in my career several years ago.
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