Online Course
How to Help Your Child Calm and Regulate
Learn Practical Strategies that Help Your Child Manage Their Emotions
What would it mean for your family, if you could feel confident that the parenting practices you’re using will help you and your child calm more quickly and resist you less?
Would it mean that:
- You’d feel confident in your skills for calming your kids?
- Your kids would gain skills for calming themselves?
- Your family would be more peaceful?
And while I’ve always been upfront about the fact that connected parenting creates lasting changes over time, I know that every single time you practice calming yourself and helping your child to calm, you improve your ability to stay calm in future during your kids’ outbursts, AND your kids are learning to calm themselves from your example.
Because I've Been There...
This is the story of the parenting challenges I was struggling with, with my sensitive spirited child, and how I turned the corner from feeling like I was failing, to finding strategies that helped me gain confidence to connect with and calm my child.
Why Your Child Has Meltdowns
You’re not a bad parent if your child has tantrums or out-of-control behaviour.
And your child is not a bad child if they’re aggressive or having uncontrolled outbursts.
It can be tempting to blame yourself or think you’re doing a poor job of parenting.
I remember feeling like a complete failure as a parent when all the other parents I’d talked with had strategies that worked for their kids’ tantrums—but nothing worked for mine. It seemed like it had to be my fault that they’d get that out of control.
And when I lost my patience, I worried I’d damaged him for life.
But here’s the truth.
When your child is out of control, it’s because the fight/flight part of their nervous system has been activated by something, and they don’t know how to de-activate it. (Many adults still struggle with this too, and if this is you, this course may help you as well.)
This “over-activation” is also called nervous system dysregulation, and can be caused by something as simple as a scratchy clothing tag, sensitivity to sounds, or frustration.
Over-activation happens to everyone sometimes, but it’s a much bigger deal for sensitive kids. They need your help. They need you to have some practical strategies for helping them calm their nervous system.
Learning about nervous system regulation is THE single most important thing that helped me learn to parent my sensitive child differently, and let go of the SHAME of feeling like a bad parent.
It gave me hope, and helped me learn new strategies.
And I’ve seen it help many parents since then.
You have nothing to feel guilty
or ashamed about.
Once we understand it’s the nervous system, we can take a different approach.
Learning how to soothe your child’s nervous system and your own is a beautiful lifelong gift you can give your child, that will affect their relationship with you and with all others into their future.
Parents, caregivers or teachers of sensitive children, this is for you if you:
- Worry when your child has intense emotional outbursts
- Wish you could do more to help your child learn to manage emotions
- Feel frustrated with your child when they have an outburst
- Feel as if you’re running out of ideas for how to help your child calm down.
Would you like some new strategies you can use to help your child learn how to manage their behaviour?
This online course was created to help you address these challenges
- You have a sensitive, emotionally intense child, and sometimes when they have big outbursts you’re at a loss for how to help them.
- You feel ashamed or like a bad parent when you can’t stop your child’s aggression or out-of-control behavior.
- You feel bad for your child when you can’t soothe them.
- You’re worried about the impact on siblings or the rest of the family, and your child's relationships.
- Sometimes you get frustrated with your child, and then feel bad later because you know that doesn’t help. But it’s hard.
- You may even be worried that you caused this because you’ve been too lenient with your child and spoiled them.
Through our work together in this course, you'll:
- Learn how to help kids calm down when emotionally upset, and how to teach them these skills
- Learn why many traditional strategies don’t work & why these nervous system techniques create lasting changes
- Feel calmer when your child is upset because you understand what’s happening in her brain and nervous system
- Feel confident when your kids are upset because you have several practical strategies in your toolkit that can help them become calm and learn to manage their emotions
Enjoy the convenience of watching or listening to the content when it fits your schedule–maybe in the evening after kids are in bed, or while driving or making dinner.
In this course, you receive:
content
— ~4hr of video or audio recordings that include explanations for why your child or teen has tantrums, acts out, gets angry or aggressive, and practical strategies for how to manage outbursts.
— A 53 page Guidebook that contains:
- Class Notes summarizing all content (no need to take notes unless you want to),
- Reflection questions and Exercises to enhance your self-awareness and apply the learning to you and your child,
- Practical Strategies you can use to help calm your child's/teen's (and sometimes your) intense emotions. (For younger kids, there's also games to play with them).
resources & support
— Organizational Checklist - a detailed checklist for staying organized and keeping track of your progress in the course.
— *Personalized Guidance (this is specifically for parents who choose the option below that includes a 1:1 session) - how to attune to your child and create strategies that fit their (and your) unique needs.
— Reference and Resource List - a list of references and resources you can refer to for adding to your learning.
Course Availability
Online Course
This option is suited to parents who feel confident they can apply the new knowledge without any coaching guidance
OR
For parents who want consistent support to make some bigger changes, you can purchase this option plus a 2 month coaching package which includes email support in between sessions.
*See FAQ below for additional detailed information.
Course + 1:1 Session
Course plus personalized coaching:
This option includes one 60min 1:1 coaching session with Colleen
It’s suited to parents who would like personal coaching guidance from Colleen on how to apply what they’ve learned to a specific parenting situation.
*See FAQ below for additional detailed information.
Client Testimonials
“I thoroughly enjoyed and benefited from Colleen’s Parenting workshop. It was so reassuring to have her expert guidance and appreciated her ability to adapt the material to each family’s unique situation. I found it immensely helpful to listen other parents’ stories and hear Colleen’s perspective because I know some of those situations will likely come up for us in the future. I feel more confident and prepared to navigate the teen years because of Colleen’s instruction.”
— Carmen Spagnola, Intuitive Coach at Sacred Made Simple
“Knowing why my daughter was having intense emotional reactions to things gave me the tools, strategies and language to help us both regulate so I could support her calmly and respectfully. I’ve been experimenting with Colleen’s tips, and I’ve noticed an immediate, positive effect on us both. I feel hopeful about our future and my ability to nurture my children in a way that honours their unique gifts, strengths and individuality.”
— Krista Bauer, Mom of two sweet and spirited babes
“I found the information and the course extremely helpful … Being able to calm myself first has been huge! I catch myself starting to ramp up with my daughter; then take a breath and restart. It has been a game changer for me. 8 months later, I still use the tools from the course I took from you all the time! That course was the first steps in me shifting the dynamic between my daughter & me. I will eternally be grateful.”
— Yohanna hestler, Intuitive Energy Healer & Massage Practitioner | Blueprint Numerologist
“I really enjoyed taking the “How to Teach Your Child to Calm and Self-Regulate” course. I gained lots of insight into what’s happening in my own nervous system and how that affects my response to my children. I also gained a deeper understanding of what is potentially going on with my kids in challenging times. I appreciated the sense of community and support I felt while taking the course. Colleen created a safe, compassionate space to share during the calls and gave valuable, helpful feedback and suggestions for supporting myself and my kids.”
— Katie M., Mom of 4yo and 10yo
Overview of Course
Each module contains 1 – 3 learning sessions and has an accompanying PDF file which forms a part of your Guidebook.
Each session consists of a video/audio + class notes, reflection questions and exercises, and Practices for using with yourself and your child.
- You’ll print the PDF at the beginning of the module.
- For each session, you’ll watch the video or listen to the audio, then do the accompanying reflection/learning exercises and choose from new suggested practices in each session.
- Each week when you print the PDF file for each lesson, add them to a binder or duo-tang, and by the end of the course, you’ll have a 53-page Guidebook.
Module Topics
Why Your Child is Having Tantrums or Aggressive Behaviour
- What is self-regulation?
- Co-regulation – definition, and why it’s vital to calming your child.
- How to recognize what your child needs when they’re having a tantrum.
Identifying Your Own Triggers
- Guided Imagery exercise to gain self-awareness
- How to regain your calm after your kids have triggered you
Key tips for making the strategies work, and how to help your child with anger.
- Explanations for how some parenting strategies “talk” directly to the nervous system to calm your child.
- Anger – why it’s important; parenting approaches to help your child develop a healthy relationship with anger and avoid creating toxic shame.
Practical applications
- Strategies and games to try.
- Strategies specifically for connecting with teens.
- Understanding how the strategies work so that you can modify them to meet yours and your child’s individual needs.
Practical Applications: How to keep the practices going when the course is over
- Common challenges and what you can do about them.
- What to do if the practices aren’t working.
- Repairing and reconnecting after your parenting “mistakes”.
“I found your course really helpful at the beginning of my journey of discovery for my kids. I wish we all had access to this information when we had kids.”
— Zoë Fox, Support Worker for Autism & Neurodivergent Children
“I learned so much about the neuroscience behind healthy parenting when I attended this workshop. I learned about why you have to be in a good space in order to help your children. You can only share what you have, not what you don’t have— this is called co-regulation. Colleen shares a lot of material on the psychology of attachment parenting and her dedication to following the recent discoveries in neuroscience means that you are getting very current perspectives. I highly recommend this workshop.”
— Nomi Adamson, passionate mother (of 2 sons) and Mother Goose facilitator
FAQs
For the first 3 modules, allow at about 2 hours for content and exercises for each module. (Please see the above Module Topics section for length of video/audio recordings in each module.)
Using the new practices with your kids won’t take much extra time, although you may want to set aside 5 minutes each morning to set a goal or intention for what you’ll focus on that day, and 5 minutes at the end of the day to reflect/journal on how it went.
About 85% of the content is relevant to kids of all ages, and in fact, many parents tell me that their new knowledge helps in all of their relationships, including their partner relationship.
At the beginning of the course, there are slightly more strategies that are appropriate for younger kids (under age 11), but there are strategies throughout for teens and tweens as well. In Module 4, there’s a 36min video with very specific strategies to use with teens and young adult children.
Feedback from the Mom of a 13yo several months after she attended: “I still use the tools from the course I took from you all the time! This course was the first steps in me shifting the dynamic between my daughter and I. I will be eternally grateful”
I encourage you to share the videos and guidebook from this program with your partner and/or co-parent so you can be consistent in your approach with your children.
*Other than your partner or co-parent, I ask that you keep the links and course content private, as this course is part of how I make my living. Thank you.
I can share with you what I’ve seen over the past few years of teaching this course live, to help you make a good decision for your situation.
An occasional parent doesn’t need to ask questions, but most do.
Most parents have been stuck and struggling for a while, and they have at least 1 or 2 challenging issues and want help for how to apply the material to their specific situation. For all of us, it’s hard to see our own “blind spots”, and having a set of “outside eyes” can help you see the situation in a new light. In addition, I often help parents with modifying strategies to suit their family values and their child’s temperament, and also with finding words and phrases to use that are specific to their situation.
Many parents also appreciate being able to have consistent support over a period of time, and if that appeals to you, you can purchase the online course by itself (above), and also purchase the coaching package with 4 sessions over 2 months, which includes email support between sessions.
After offering this program a few times now, I’ve discovered that it’s difficult to find a time that’s convenient for all parents to attend, given that people have varying schedules for work, kids’ bedtimes, sports and family activities. The current format offers the convenience of listening to content when you have childcare available or your kids are in bed, and the option to purchase it with a 1:1 session or a 2 month coaching package if you want additional support.
If you’re craving group support, send me an email to let me know–I love to create programs in response to what you need. Also watch my newsletters for drop-in Q&A calls or group programs.
If you have a technical question or any difficulty accessing the course materials, please email me at colleen@colleenadrian.com
You can also email me if you encounter something in the content that isn’t clear to you–I’d be happy to clarify.
If you have a question about how to apply your new knowledge to your situation and you’ve purchased the option with a 1:1 session with me, write your questions down and bring them to the 1:1 session.
If you haven’t purchased a 1:1 session, but you think you might need help applying the new knowledge, you can book a 1:1 session to get help with your situation. Or, if you’re not sure about how I’d help and you want to get a better sense of that, you can book a free chat to ask questions about how I work with parents and decide whether it’s a good fit for you. Use the links on this page to book either of these options.
(I offer 1:1 session for $95/hr, or coaching packages which have a reduced hourly rate + email support in between).
All situations are different, however, most parents that I work with notice some changes very quickly once they’ve learned some new strategies for responding to their child, and they often feel a stronger connection and less resistance from their child almost immediately. Having said that, all kids and parents are different, and it depends somewhat on how old your child is and your past experiences.
Also, the process for your child to learn to regulate emotions independently is something that happens over the longer term, and the practices you’ll learn in the course will be used by you over time to help support your child to learn this independence.
Yes. If you aren’t satisfied with the course, you can get a full refund.
If you have more questions, please email me at colleen@colleenadrian.com
about colleen adrian
Why learn from me?
I’m a parent mentor, speaker and author (Freeing Your Child from Self-Criticism and Perfectionism, 2018). I’ve been researching, writing and teaching workshops about parenting for over 10 years now. I changed careers after having my son. Prior to this, I practiced clinical nursing and taught nursing at the university and college for over 20 years. I have a Master of Nursing degree (and several other trainings that you can read about here).
Like many parents, I really wanted to parent my child differently, but despite taking courses and reading a lot of books, I often found calming my child wasn’t as easy as it seemed in the books. Sometimes I felt frustrated; other times when I fell into an old pattern of yelling. I felt despairing and like a failure, worrying that I’d damaged my son for life. But this was also my motivation to dig deeper for answers.
When I learned about nervous system regulation and how it impacts behaviour, it was a gamechanger for me as a parent, and also for the parents whom I work with and teach. I no longer had to try to convince myself I *shouldn’t* feel ashamed, I “got” why parents and kids both “lose it” sometimes, and more importantly, I figured out what we could do to change the patterns.
ALL out-of-control behaviour stems from difficulty with nervous system regulation
Using strategies that focus on this is the key to helping kids manage emotions for the rest of their lives. This is true for all people, but it’s especially vital if you have some trauma in your own background.
Nervous system regulation and Dr. Stephen Porges’ polyvagal theory are the keys to helping you and your child have success with managing emotions in your everyday life, complete with all of its stresses. And you don’t have to spend a lot of time learning the science. I’ve done the research, broken it down, and learned how to apply it to practical strategies.
If this course sounds like a good fit for you, I invite you to join me, receive the distilled information I have to share, and bring your stories and challenges for discussion and creation of strategies that fit your unique needs.
