We Made Four Courses So You Don’t Have To Google At 2 A.M.

Searching for steady, evidence-based help when your child is struggling can feel like wandering a maze in the dark. We shine a light on what actually helps: four clinician-led courses for parents and carers, plus free webinars that let you sample the approach and ask questions before you commit. Along the way, we share how our podcast conversations frame the emotional and psychological worlds of children, adolescents, and families without judgment or jargon.

We start by grounding early childhood in attachment and co-regulation. From conception to six, small relational moves—calm routines, responsive caregiving, respectful separation, playful learning—shape a child’s brain and sense of safety. Then we turn to adolescence, where identity, risk, and big emotions collide. You’ll hear how to read the brain changes behind impulsivity, how to respond to anxiety, depression, and self-harm with clarity and care, and how to hold firm boundaries that protect connection instead of escalating conflict.

We also reframe ADHD as a neurodevelopmental difference, not a deficit of effort. By understanding executive function and emotional regulation, parents can swap shame for structure, build predictable systems that reduce friction, and use a psychoeducational approach that helps kids know their brains and advocate for themselves. Finally, we face the realities of separation and divorce: loyalty conflicts, attachment ruptures, and high-conflict dynamics that quietly undermine a child’s well-being. We share practical ways to reduce harm, stabilize routines, and center the child’s needs even when adult tensions run high.

All courses run online via Zoom, with free introductory webinars to help you decide what fits your family. Full details and booking are at thechildrensconsultancy.com. If this conversation helps you feel more resourced, subscribe, leave a review, and share it with someone who needs practical, compassionate guidance today.

Transcript

Welcome And Purpose

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Hello and welcome. I'm Kim Lee, child and adolescent psychotherapist, and this is the Children's Consultancy Podcast series. Now, today's episode is a little different because I want to tell you about the podcasts, the courses we've developed for parents, and the free webinars that introduce them. Now, if you're a parent carer or professional supporting children and young people, this episode is designed to help you find the right resources. And whether you're waiting for services, working alongside them, or simply trying to understand your child more deeply. I regard the podcasts as a series of conversations, and in them I try and talk openly and thoughtfully about the emotional and psychological lives of children, adolescents, and families. And this is particularly relevant given the limitation on current services where mental health care is urgently required. In recent episodes, I've explored topics such as depression and suicidality in adolescence. Depression, looking at the different ways it finds expression and the treatment pathways that work. I've looked at what can happen in relationships, looking at things like emotional manipulation and relational patterns. And also in earlier podcasts, talked about beliefs, the systems that they create and how they find expression, very often through relationship. We've looked a little at loss, grief, and attachment, and we've also looked at principles like the difference between responsibility for and responsibility to. That's about boundaries, burnout, and emotional enmeshment. All of these are clinically grounded, offered in what I hope is an accessible way and without judgment. So really they're here to help you think, reflect, and feel less alone. Now, alongside the podcasts, I've developed four structured clinician-led courses for parents and carers. Each course runs for 12-week sessions and designed to be practical, reflective, and supportive. Now these online courses can simply be attended through the platform Zoom, and details of how to access those and indeed the webinars listed on the website which is thechildren's consultancy.com. The first course is entitled Growing Healthy Small People, and that's about from conception to age six. And the reason I've included conception and indeed pregnancy is because very early development in the unborn child is something which we can influence. And the course looks at the neurological growth in neutro and a variety of other factors that are really about the relationship that is already forming before the child is born. But I think the other really important thing here is that we are trying to understand the steps that create relational development. So we look at things like attachment, emotional regulation, sleep separation, play, and early behavior. And what we're trying to do is really walk through the developmental pathways, which are actually not so visible as we might hope for. But this is a fascinating topic. It is designed for parents who want a grounded psychologically informed understanding of their child's early development. Now the next course is entitled Parenting Adolescents in Distress, Navigating the Turbulence. Now, adolescence is a period of enormous change, risk-taking, emotional intensity, and for parents it can be everything from demanding to harrowing. So the course explores typical adolescent brain development, emotional volatility and identity formation, anxiety, depression, self-harm, and risky behaviors. We also look at what happens in families and relationships where communication, breakdown, and conflict can occur. So what we're trying to do is look at the best ways of supporting adolescents while preserving boundaries. And it's especially relevant for parents who are worried about their teenagers' mental health or behavior. In course three, we're looking at the different ways in which the child with ADHD can be parented. Now, this is a non-pathologizing understanding of ADHD as a neurodevelopmental difference, not an illness. So we look at what ADHD is and what it's not, the various forms. We understand emotional dysregulation and impulsivity and how the executive brain function can run into difficulties. We also look at what is called the psychoeducational approach. Some people talk about strategies. I tend not to. But the psychoeducational approach is a method that I teach parents to use with children who have a variety of difficulties, including ADHD. What I'm finding is that many are reporting back that they are seeing progress and change. Now, course number four is about helping children survive separation and divorce. Unfortunately, in my practice, I see many children who may be, and very probably are, still carrying the impact of acrimonious relationships between parents, separation, divorce, contact difficulties. And very often these things underpin the manifest difficulties that they're experiencing, which could be emotional dysregulation, withdrawal, anger, and a whole variety of other things. So we explore the emotional impact, we examine where loyalty conflicts and attachment ruptures occur. We look also at contact difficulties and high conflict relational dynamics. We look at how emotional harm may be present, how it can be recognized and responded to. So the course is particularly helpful for parents who want to protect their children's emotional well-being during relational transitions, and how to enable them to be as robust as possible in spite of what they've experienced. Now, with each of these courses, there are free webinars, and the purpose of those is to really introduce the nature of the course, to provide an overview, to look at the course themes, and to allow you to meet me and ask questions. And you can help decide whether the course feels right for you. You can attend any individual or all of the webinars, depending upon your interest. And they're designed to be accessible, supportive, and informative. So if you want to consider this, you can find the full details, as I've said, of the courses and indeed the webinars on the website. There you'll find booking details, and as I have mentioned earlier, the webinars and the courses will be provided on a Zoom platform. I hope you find this helpful, and please have a look at the website where other resources exist, including the podcasts which are updated regularly. And if you find those helpful, you might consider following from whichever platform you use so that you can get updates. And if you think there are others who may benefit from listening, then please do share them. Thank you for listening, and there will be more soon.