Janine Halloran, Coping Skills
Janine Halloran
Supporting teen emotional regulation while ...

Over the past decade, families have been feeling the pressure more than ever. From social media and constant screen time to the shared stress of the global pandemic and rising expectations for both parents and kids — it’s easy to feel disconnected and overwhelmed. In this episode, we explore how families can navigate these challenges, reduce stress, and build stronger, more connected relationships at home.

In this episode Ronnie and Janine discuss:

In this episode they discuss:

Janine Halloran, Coping Skills
Janine Halloran
Cooking as a Way to Connect: An Interview with ...

Food is magic! Cooking together as a family has lots of benefits. As well as being a time to learn and teach such a key life skill. It presents an opportunity to share family recipes, whether they are cultural recipes or family recipes passed down through the generations is a beautiful moment for families to share together. 

In this episode they discuss:

Janine Halloran, Coping Skills
Janine Halloran
Exploring and Understanding a Child’s Sensory ...

We all know the 5 senses and learned them from the time we started school. But did you know there are actually 8? Unpacking and understanding these can help us to understand yours and your child's needs and how you move around your space well. Joining Janine is Occupational Therapist, Sarah Collins who unpacks the senses and encourages you to find the words and strategies that work for your child's sensory needs. 

Today Sarah and Janine discuss: 

Janine Halloran, Coping Skills
Janine Halloran
Helping kids understand how their brain works: ...

As parents, we are concerned that our kids and teens may engage in high risk behaviors as they grow up. How can we, as parents, encourage our children away from engaging in these high risk behaviors? Or, if they are already doing any of these behaviors, how can we encourage them to stop them? 

In this episode Carrie and Janine discuss:

Coping Skills
Janine Halloran
Coping Skills Practice: Processing

Exploring different coping strategies helps us expand our child’s toolkit of strategies that work. But sometimes, it’s a challenge to get kids to try new skills. In this summer series, Janine tries to make it easier by walking you through six different strategies which she invites you to try with your child. Practice each one a few times to see if it’s a strategy that your child likes, and if they want to add it into their coping skills toolkit.

In today’s episode…

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.

Supporting Kids Around Friendships - An interview with JoAnn Crohn, Author of Me and My Friendships

In this episode I talk to JoAnn Crohn, former elementary school teacher and podcast host of No Guilt Mom. She is the author of Me and My Friendships, to help kids learn more about themselves and build friendships with other kids. We cover a lot of topics in the episode, including:

Strategies to Tackle OCD - An Interview with Natasha Daniels, Child Therapist

On today’s podcast, I get a chance to speak with Natasha Daniels, the founder of AT Parenting Community, about Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. Natasha’s expertise is anxiety and OCD, and we discuss what OCD can look like, when you should seek out more support, and different strategies that you should use when dealing with OCD.

Five More Amazing Open-Ended Toys

Does your child gravitate towards open-ended toys? These are toys which can be used in multiple ways dependent on your child’s imagination - like LEGO® bricks for example. This nurtures their creativity and developing skills. Today I will share five amazing open ended toys. I did cover this subject last year on my podcast but since it’s holiday time, I wanted to share a few more with you.

Managing Anxiety and Worry - An Interview with Dr. Dawn Huebner

Anxiety is not a bad emotion, it is one that we need to keep ourselves safe in the world. But sometimes anxiety can become overwhelming to the point that it affects the daily life of the adult or child - this is the type of worry we need to work on. What better way to learn about this than with the fantastic parent coach and psychologist Dr. Dawn Huebner who teaches us how to help kids deal with worry and anxiety.

A Conversation about Mental Health and Sports: Interview with Jon Cunha, LMHC

In this episode I speak to my guest, Licensed Mental Health Counselor, Jon Cunha about mental health in the sporting world. Due to the Olympics, we’ve seen several high profile athletes such as Simone Biles, Kevin Love and Michael Phelps speak out about their mental health issues and how they’re dealing with them. We also discussed how this is impacting the children of today, how they’re looking up to their sporting heroes speaking out about their mental health and opening up the conversation. Jon speaks about how he works with men differently to get them comfortable with therapy.

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…


© Encourage Play, LLC / Coping Skills for Kids 2021