self-care

Coping Skills for Teens Who Are Angry

Has your child hit their teenage years and puberty has started? Have you noticed their emotions are changing? What about their most extreme emotions? Do you find that your teenager can feel really angry at times?

In today’s episode, Janine unpacks some strategies to help you as parents support your teenager and how to develop that connection between yourself as the parent and them. 

Here’s what Janine discusses in today’s episode:

Seven Coping Skills to Use at an Elementary School

A child at Elementary School will be learning and figuring out what emotions are and what’s going on in their bodies when their ‘big feelings’ appear. They’ll be learning to put names to their emotions and trying figuring out why they’re feeling what they are. 

In the moments when they feel upset, overwhelmed and unable to put words to their emotions, there are some straightforward strategies we can have in our toolkit ready to use and support this age group with. 

Here are some some of the strategies discussed in todays episode:

Create a Coping Skills Toolkit to Use On The Go!

It’s wonderful having a home set up where you have a reset or safe space where your kids can use strategies and process their emotions. But what happens when we go out? Having coping strategies ready is just as important. Whether that’s at school, traveling, out with friends, before a medical appointment or at parties knowing what you can do outside of the comfort of your own home is really helpful.

The topics we cover in this episode are:

Mini Moments of Self-Care for Adults

Today’s question is, what can you do in 5 minutes or less that will make you feel happier, healthier or stronger? There are many moments in life when the day to day can feel stressful. Anyone can feel this. Whether you’re a working professional or a parent at home with kids in any stage of life. You may hit those moments and ask how can I take a moment for myself in the midst of the situation you face to give yourself some self care and revitalize yourself in those moments. Today’s episode covers some quick self care strategies to use during the day. These can make a difference to your day to empower and reset your mind as you go about your day. 

The topics I cover in this episode are:

Changing Lives Through Singing and Songwriting - An interview with Sophie Garner

Changing Lives Through Singing and Songwriting - An interview with Sophie Garner

Music is so amazing! There’s a good chance you’ve experienced music changing your mood from being grumpy to feeling full of life. Listening to music has a range of benefits but on this episode, my guest Sophie Garner taught me how creating music can be therapy too. In this episode we cover a range of topics such as;

Imperfect Parenting - An interview with Nicole Schwarz, LMFT and Parent Coach

Imperfect Parenting - An interview with Nicole Schwarz, LMFT and Parent Coach

Have you ever spotted an Instagram post of smiling parents who are having the most perfect life with their child and then felt shame and guilt that you aren’t nearly as perfect as them? Well you’re definitely not alone on that one! Today’s episode is all about us… the parents. I discussed with my guest, Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist and Parent Coach; Nicole Schwarz about what happens around the shame spiral and how we can talk to ourselves in a kinder way to be more content with being an imperfect parent. We always need to remember that real life is messy, it's not great all the time, sometimes we mess up and guess what?… That’s okay!

Take some time for yourself, embrace those imperfections and take a listen to this episode.

Three Tips to Help You Recharge and Refill Your Cup

Three Tips to Help You Recharge and Refill Your Cup

As we all know, the pandemic has been incredibly draining on all of us therefore many of us have experienced major burn-out. This episode is all about recharging, refilling our cups and doing activities for ourselves so we can continue to raise our kids and be helpers to others who are also going through this. As they say on planes, you need to put on your own oxygen mask before your child’s i.e we need to make sure we’re looking after ourselves before we can help others.


How do you recharge? For some it’s reading a book, for others it’s playing some really loud music to sing and dance around the kitchen to. Be sure to leave a review telling me how you recharge.


In this episode I discuss 3 tips you can use to refill your cup…


Self-Care in COVID-19

Self-Care in COVID-19

Self-care can feel like just another thing to add to your to-do list. I KNOW life is hard right now. My kids are fully remote, and sometimes it's a struggle to make it through the next class or piece of homework. I have to thank my colleagues because I keep getting emails and seeing posts about self-care. It's a reminder to me to talk about it and do it. I find that I need to take time for myself. Otherwise, I find myself being more crabby or cranky, and it's hard to accomplish anything. And I need to practice what I preach.

© Encourage Play, LLC / Coping Skills for Kids 2021