It’s so important to find the right fit for you and your child.

And with our therapists, when we come together as a team, we help to make sure you’re getting the best help possible. All of our therapists have their own individual clinical backgrounds and experience, but they also have the specialized training as team in how to best work with anxiety and anger management in kids, teens, and college students.

What makes Compassionate Counseling St. Louis special? All of our therapists understand that anger and anxiety serve a purpose.

Our team would never call anxiety or anger bad. We may not like how it feels, or our reactions that we have may be unhelpful, but we always want to figure out how to move forward with anxiety and anger, and how to help it not feel so big.

Thoughts feel so powerful, especially when you have anxiety.

Thoughts can get really loud, and feel really overwhelming. Thoughts can seem huge. Thoughts can cloud your judgement and get in the way of you moving forward.

But taking a step back, we recognize … thoughts are just thoughts. Your brain is just firing off neurons, and sending chemicals across different synapses. Thoughts are just a normal bunch of noise. They’re not all powerful or all knowing. They’re just there.

Your brain tells you that your thoughts are facts. But that’s not really the case.

If you closed your eyes, and thought about your brother’s hair turning blue, would that actually change the color of his hair? Of course not. Not all of our thoughts are believable or actually happening, but we often act as if they are.

Thoughts aren’t always important. Thoughts aren’t always wise.

Sometimes, our thoughts are just nonsense. Our thoughts can act like 5-year-olds, making up stories, telling us we’re being doo-doo heads, throwing tantrums, bossing us around, and just generally being ridiculous. Why on earth should we treat our thoughts as all powerful and all knowing?

Finding a pediatrician can sometimes feel daunting.

Just like the search for a great therapist can feel overwhelming, so can finding a pediatrician for your kids. The great thing about working with a therapist is that they can also help you find a pediatrician and vice versa! We like to work with a lot of professionals in the area so we can tailor our approach to you and refer you other awesome resources for your kid, teen or college student. When we all work together, the search can feel a little less overwhelming.

This is why we wanted to share our interview with Joel Koenig, MD about his experience as a pediatrician in St. Louis. He shares what happens in a first appointment with him, how he approaches anxiety with his clients and even lets us in a few famous relatives he has! Check out the interview below.

Winter Break Tip #10 - Let It Go

Hey, parents? You get to choose your battles. Which means that sometimes, you choose not to go to battle. You know what's great about letting something go? You still get to be in charge.

When faced with a problem, we want to teach our kids and teens to evaluate if it's really a big deal. And even if it is a big deal, you still get to decide: do I want to work this out, or do I want to just let it go? Letting it go doesn't mean holding a grudge, or holding it against someone later. It really and truly means that you're moving past it.

Try it out over winter break (we're sure you'll have several opportunities to do so with your kids, your in-laws, or the holiday lines at the grocery store!) See how much more power you feel when you decide to just let something go. It's huge.

Winter Break Tip #7 - Attune and Connect

How many times has someone asked you ”How are you?” and you’ve replied, “Good!” and that’s the whole conversation? Good isn’t a feeling! And, our guess is that you’re feeling a lot more than just “good.”

It’s so easy to gloss past emotions without really taking the time to attune to what’s going on emotionally. This is especially important for your role as a parent. You have to teach your children how to correctly identify their emotions and move forward with them.

Rather than a quick check in with your kids before moving on, take some time to really attune to their emotional state and connect with them, Help them normalize their emotions, and never label a thought or a feeling as good or bad. Even when you or your child are feeling angry or sad or overwhelmed, these emotions give us very important information!

Winter Break Tip #4 - Identify and Empathize

How many of us take the time to really figure out how we're feeling from moment to moment? It can be so easy to gloss over what we're feeling, and then, before we know it, an emotion has built and built until we feel like we're going to explode.

Our first step to helping our kids identify their emotions? You want to help them clue in to what you're noticing on the outside, and what they might be feeling on the inside. Try "You seem stressed," or "I'm wondering if you feel angry." Give them space to correct you. Help them build up their emotional language far beyond "I feel good/bad/fine."

There’s no such thing as a bad emotion. And, honestly, there’s no such thing as a good emotion. Emotions just are, and all emotions are healthy and helpful. We just need to figure out what to do about them.

Winter Break Tip #1 - Think Through Last Year

Our top tip for parents is to PLAN AHEAD. What went well last year? What were the challenges? What do you want to try out differently this time?

You can’t prepare for everything, but you can set a great plan for winter break. Prep your schedule for these upcoming weeks - what’s going to happen and when? Go through this schedule with your kids. Figure out what time will be structured and what time will be unstructured. And, prepare your expectations and time management.

Winter Break Tip #2 - Prepare

When you have expectations for your child’s behavior, it’s important to set your kid up for success. Some parents tell me they want to “test” their kids - which I get. But at the same time, why not coach your kid rather than test them. There will be plenty of opportunities to see how they handle things - use winter break as a time to focus on the positives, and really praise their positive choices.

It’s okay to dread the holidays.

Holiday season can bring on a lot of anxiety. You might be gearing up for extended family to come stay with you, preparing big feasts, packing for a trip or helping your kids study for their last few finals of the semester. It seems like the last few months of the year always go by the fastest and there isn’t a lot of time to relax. This time can be especially overwhelming for families with divorced parents.

Even if you have a great relationship with your ex, the holidays can bring up a lot of emotions for you and your kids.

There’s no one-size-fits all model when it comes to how to approach the holidays with your kids. Even if you have a custody agreement of where they spend their time, you might notice irritability, angry outbursts, tension and sadness more often than usual. It can be tough and even frustrating at times to get them to “be on their best behavior.”

This time of year can trigger a lot of emotions for people struggling with eating disorders.

As the semester winds down, things can get pretty overwhelming for those who deal with anxiety. The pressure of exams, finishing projects and gearing up for the holidays can be a lot to take on. This time can also be really overwhelming for those who struggle with eating disorders.

It’s important to get help from a specialized therapist which is why we reached out to Melissa Koch, MA, LPC to discuss Somatic Experiencing and how she uses this approach with her clients. We are thrilled to share her expertise with you! Read more below about how this approach can really help when dealing with eating disorders and anxiety.

Social media is a lot to keep up with.

Social media can be an awesome thing! The funny videos, the choreographed dances, the lip syncs and photos of family and friends, can keep you engaged and laughing for hours. But it can also lead to a lot of comparison, a need to fit in and a craving for validation. Does the pressure to be entertaining and look perfect feel really overwhelming? It’s okay because you aren’t alone in feeling that way!

The pressure that comes from posting online can be really tough.

It's especially tough if you already struggle with perfectionism or anxiety.

Sometimes, the culture around us can affect how we view ourselves.

It’s easy to let what’s happening around us influence our opinions of ourselves. We live in a culture that is driven by social media and puts unnecessary pressure on us to look like we have it all together, all the time. Sometimes that pressure gets to be too much and we need help to manage that anxiety.

We reached out to Tina Cummings, LPC, NCC, to discuss how she approaches therapy with high-achieving clients. She talks about the importance of self empowerment, taking a break from “hustle culture” and getting to know her clients as a whole.

Perfectionism isn’t always a good thing.

You probably hear that a lot already, but your brain is telling you, “Well… perfectionism helps me do well in school. Perfectionism means I only turn in the best work. Perfectionism means that I care.” And your brain is probably right!

Perfectionism probably does feel like it makes you a better student.

Perfectionism is doing a lot of other not so good things, as well.

At the same time, perfectionism can feel helpful.

When you have a high drive to succeed, perfectionism feels like it helps you turn in the best work possible. You know that you have to do your best. You criticize every small mistake you make, which means you won’t make those mistakes ever again - right?

Have you noticed anxiety in your child ?

Our therapists at Compassionate Counseling St. Louis have a lot of experience working with anxious kids, teens and college students ,and we wanted to take the time to really showcase the work that we do!

We have our ongoing interview series, which is a great way to get to know other therapists in the area, but we also want you to get to know the therapists here at our office, too! Each of our therapists tailor their approach to you and your child, so you get the most out of your sessions and you feel supported the whole time.

This week, we spoke to Art Therapist Maggie Schmidt on her clinical experience, what it’s like working at Compassionate Counseling St. Louis, and when it might be a good idea to get therapy for anxiety. We’re so lucky to have her at our office!

Failure is really important!

If you’re worried about failing, chances are, you’re a teen or college student who wants to do well. We specialize in working with kids and teens who are consistently high performers in school. And a lot of times, underneath all that drive and ambition, there's a ton of anxiety.

With the start of a new school year, you’re probably starting to remember how much stress you experience with school. You worry about failure. But what if we figured out a way to use it and move forward?

It’s okay to feel worried and anxious.

Our therapists at Compassionate Counseling St. Louis have a lot of experience working with anxious kids, teens and college students and we wanted to take the time to really showcase the work that we do! Our interview series is a great way to get to know other therapists in the area but we also want you to get to know the therapists here at our office too! Each of our therapists tailor their approach to your child so you get the most out of your sessions and your kid feels supported the whole time.

This week, we spoke to Allegra Grawer on how her experience, what it’s like working at Compassionate Counseling St. Louis and when it might be a good idea to get therapy for anxiety. We’re so lucky to have her at our office!

Supporting your child with social anxiety

It can be overwhelming for a child experiencing social anxiety while not understanding what it is or how to cope. It can also be frustrating for you, as the parent, to deal with the many challenges of social anxiety. Since social anxiety can manifest in a lot of different ways, it’s important to learn what it is and how it looks, so that you can best support your child in dealing with it.

Play is a language that all kids understand.

When we work with anxiety and anger management with our children and teens, we often integrate play into our work. Sometimes, we connect families to family therapists even if everything feels like it’s going well. A family therapist can offer their perspective on the entire family dynamic and work on issues together in a way that is different from the work we do individually.

Play therapy can be a great option to opening the lines of communication within your family

We reached out to family therapists in the St. Louis area to discuss the ins and outs of family therapy to help you decide if it’s the right choice for you. Play therapy can be a really great option for families with kids and Rose R. Trevino is a great resource! We interviewed Rose to learn more about how Play Therapy is used within family therapy. Read more below about her experience!