Willow Counselling

01/09/2026

She will honestly stand there meowing as if she's been locked away for eternity 😅

31/08/2026

27/08/2026

5 tiny interactions that genuinely support your child’s developing brain 👇

I saw a post on here about the 5 phrases your child needs to hear everyday as stated by a Scandinavian psychologist... I looked into it... there was no scandi psychologist and there aren’t 5 magic phrases your child must hear every day.

But there IS good evidence that responsive, back and forth interactions with caring adults help support healthy brain development.

Researchers call this “serve and return.”

A child “serves” by looking, pointing, talking, crying, showing you something or trying to connect.

You “return” by noticing and responding.

Here are 5 simple ways to do it:

1. Notice what has their attention
Follow what they’re interested in rather than constantly directing them.

2. Respond to their attempts to connect
They look at you, you smile.
They point, you look.
They say “watch this!” and, when you can, you watch.

3. Put words to what they’re experiencing
“You’re really disappointed.”
“You spotted a huge dog!”
“You worked hard on that.”

This helps children connect their experiences with language.

4. Let them lead sometimes
Join their play instead of always turning it into a lesson.

5. Let the moment end
Children move on quickly. You don’t need to force connection. Just stay available for the next moment.

This is not about intensive parenting. These interactions happen while getting dressed, making dinner, walking to school or lying on the sofa.

You don’t need to be endlessly entertaining, perfectly regulated or saying exactly the right thing.

You just need lots of ordinary little moments of:

“I noticed you. You reached for me. I responded.”

That matters far more than any viral list of “magic phrases.”

Source: Harvard Center on the Developing Child, Serve and Return.

Save this for the days you’re worried you’re not doing enough 🩷💚



Child development, parenting tips, child psychology, serve and return, responsive parenting, emotional development, parent child connection

20/08/2026

Teenagers ignoring your perfectly sensible advice isn’t just them being difficult. There’s actual brain science behind it. 🧠

During adolescence, the brain is going through a massive renovation.

The prefrontal cortex; the part involved in planning ahead, weighing up consequences, controlling impulses and making considered decisions is still developing well into the 20s.

Meanwhile, the brain’s reward and emotion systems are highly active.

That means teenagers can be more pulled towards:
✨ what feels good now
✨ what their friends are doing
✨ excitement and novelty
✨ avoiding embarrassment or rejection

…while finding it harder to give the same weight to what might happen next week, next month or next year.

And then there’s our advice.

Teenagers are also developing autonomy, their sense of “I am my own person and I can make my own decisions.”

So when an adult says:

“You need to…”
“You should…”
“If I were you…”

their brain may hear CONTROL rather than helpful information.

That doesn’t mean we stop guiding them.

It means guidance often works better when we move from:

❌ “Here’s what you need to do.”

to:

✅ “What do you think your options are?”
✅ “What do you think might happen if you chose that?”
✅ “Do you want my thoughts, or do you just want me to listen?”
✅ “What feels like the best next step to you?”

Because the goal isn’t to make every decision for our teenagers.

It’s to give their developing brain lots of opportunities to practise making decisions with a safe adult alongside them. 🧠💚

Follow me for more help decoding your teenagers unhinged behaviour



teenage brain development, why teenagers don’t listen, why teenagers make bad decisions, teenage decision making, prefrontal cortex teenagers, adolescent brain development, parenting teenagers, how to communicate with teenagers, teenager behaviour explained, supporting teen mental health, helping teenagers make good choices, teen emotional development

19/08/2026

School anxiety in September rarely starts on the first day back.

For lots of children, the worry starts weeks before, when sleep gets later, school starts creeping back into conversation, and the reality of going back begins to feel very real.

And if your child has struggled with school anxiety or EBSA before, waiting until they’re refusing to go through the door is often way too late.

There are things you can start doing now to make that transition feel more predictable, manageable and safe.

That doesn’t mean forcing them to “get used to it” or spending the rest of August talking about school. It means gently reducing the unknowns, rebuilding routine and making sure there’s a plan in place before things reach crisis point.

And if you’re already thinking, “Yep… September is going to be rough” I’m running an EBSA webinar for parents covering:

✨ What school anxiety/EBSA actually is
✨ Why some of the things we instinctively do can accidentally make anxiety worse
✨ What helps instead
✨ How to respond when your child says they can’t go
✨ Practical strategies you can actually use at home and with school

Comment SCHOOL and I’ll send you the details 💗

Save this for the last couple of weeks of the holidays and send it to a parent who is already dreading September.



school anxiety, school anxiety in children, EBSA, emotionally based school avoidance, school refusal, back to school anxiety, September school anxiety, child anxiety, anxious child, school attendance difficulties, school avoidance, SENCO support, reasonable adjustments at school, helping a child with school anxiety, parenting an anxious child