#18 What to say to a bereaved child with clinical psychologist Dr Rebecca Hershberg Artwork

Helping Children Smile Again with Amanda Seyderhelm

Whether it's the grief of bereavement, the strain of divorce or the uncertainty of a new home or school, loss and change affect children in countless ways. Teachers and parents frequently find themselves ill-equipped to help children struggling with the difficult feelings that these situations, and others like them, bring. Helping Children Smile Again offers guided support for teachers, health professionals and parents through interviews with experts in the fields of education, healthcare and parenting.

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Helping Children Smile Again with Amanda Seyderhelm

#18 What to say to a bereaved child with clinical psychologist Dr Rebecca Hershberg

April 05, 2021 • AMANDA SEYDERHELM

Teaching parents how to separate adult emotions from those of their children, their own pasts from their children's presents is the foundation work of Dr Rebecca Hershberg, clinical psychologist and parenting coach. So often, she says, we don't even realise the two have become linked, or fused, and yet our parenting choices - conscious or reflexive - are dictated by what 'our' nervous system knows based on past experience, and not on the child in front of us.

This fusion can be a problem when dealing with big emotions and feelings, where the potential to be triggered escalates, especially around any kind of loss, and after a bereavement. In this episode, Dr Hershberg explains the importance of learning not only to see, but to feel the difference, and then act upon it, over and over again.

This is the key to healing, and to breaking the generational cycle of parenting that may not have been the most helpful (however well intentioned), and she gives some excellent practical examples of how to challenge this cycle including using Worry Boxes (in all weathers!), the Fear Frog, and exactly what to say to a bereaved child that keeps both you, and your child calm, and regulated.

You will not want to miss this episode!

Dr. Hershberg is a clinical psychologist who specialises in early childhood social-emotional development and mental health, and is the founder of Little House Calls Psychological Services, PLLC. She has held an Assistant Professorship in the Department of Paediatrics at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, through which she taught both paediatric residents and medical students. Dr. Hershberg is the author of the Tantrum Survival Guide (Guilford Press), and has been published widely, including in The New York Times, and on Parents.Com, TODAY Parents, Modern Loss, Big City Moms, and the website of the Child Mind Institute. She lives in New York with her husband and two children.

www.littlehousecalls.com
Instagram @littlehousecalls

Connect with Amanda

If you are supporting a bereaved child, or know someone who is, you can purchase my book Helping Children Cope with Loss and Change.

www.amandaseyderhelm.com

https://twitter.com/TheKidDecoder