Supporting Our Children’s Emotional Intelligence & Empathy

Available for Interviews: Dr. Colleen Cira

Dr. Colleen Cira, PsyD, is a Licensed Clinical Psychologist as well as the Founder and Executive Director of the Cira Center for Behavioral Health. She is an anxiety and trauma expert as well as a consultant, supervisor, speaker, writer, and advocate.

What Dr. Colleen Cira can say in an interview about
Supporting Your Child’s EQ & Empathy:

Dr. Cira has worked with hundreds of people struggling to parent the way they’d ideally like to. There are several ways that you can increase your child’s emotional intelligence and empathy.

        1. You must have empathy yourself. The most effective way that kids learn is by watching the way their parents behave. If YOU, the parent, have and demonstrate empathy, your children will grow up to be empathic. Give money to homeless folks, check in on friends, family, and neighbors who are ill and/or struggling, take your child to a peaceful, family-friendly protest, volunteer at a food bank together. SHOW UP the way you’d like your child to show up someday.
        2. You must accept your child’s emotions. This sounds easy but is not. It’s hard to see our children hurting—we’re actually biologically programmed to struggle to tolerate it. We want to make it better for them if they are sad. We want to make it go away if they are angry. But in order for our kids to learn how to accept other people’s feelings as they are, we have to teach them how to accept THEIR OWN feelings and the only way to do that is when WE accept their feelings. Let your kids experience big feelings without fixing or punishing.
        3. When your kid has an absolute meltdown about something, once they’re calm, talk it through with them. When your child is freaking out about something big or small, that is NOT the time to try to reason with them. Validate their feelings at the moment (that does NOT mean give them whatever they want), help and/or let them calm down, and then ask them to talk through everything that happened, just like they’re telling a story. Have them tell you the beginning, middle, and end and what they learned from it. See our children’s brains are not fully developed and won’t be for a long time (think mid-20’s – GASP!) which includes the connectivity between the two hemispheres. When you help tie a child’s emotional response to a rational (and verbal) response, you help them develop their brain in a way that honors their emotions but also increases their rationality.
        4. Talk about feelings. Your kid doesn’t show up in the world knowing when they are sad, scared, angry, or worried. YOU have to teach them that. The only way to have empathy—an understanding and acceptance of another’s feelings—is by having an understanding and acceptance of your own feelings. This means you need to know what the heck you’re feeling! There are subtle differences between sadness and grief. Anger and frustration. Anxiety and fear. Help your child start to learn those things and tease them apart by labeling and talking about feelings. Share your own feelings. Take a guess at what they’re feeling and believe them when they say it’s not that. When you read books or watch movies together, encourage them to speculate on how the characters are feeling or what they are thinking. All of these things encourage 1) feeling identification and 2) perspective taking both of which are required for empathy.

 

Interviews: Dr. Colleen Cira

Dr. Colleen Cira, PsyD, received both her Masters and Doctorate from The Illinois School of Professional Psychology and is a Licensed Clinical Psychologist in the State of Illinois.  She’s the Founder and Executive Director of Cira Center for Behavioral Health, PC, a boutique group practice specializing in Women and Trauma with locations in Chicago and Oak Park.

She was named one of the “Top 100 Women in Chicago Making a Difference,” by Today’s Chicago Woman. Dr. Cira is a trauma and anxiety expert, clinical supervisor, writer, speaker, consultant, activist, wife, and Mommy to two little ones.

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How to Effectively Resolve Conflicts For Good

Available for Interviews: Dr. Alice Fong

Alice Fong, ND, is an integrative naturopathic doctor specializing in stress, integrative medicine, diet & weight loss, and is a business growth consultant for holistic healthcare providers.

What Dr. Alice Fong can say in an interview on
How to Effectively Resolve Conflicts:

Conflict happens in our everyday lives. Some are serious while others are just petty misunderstandings rather than full-blown conflicts. However, it is important to note that most full-blown and serious conflicts often start from small, seemingly less important ones. And once conflicts have reached levels that are already difficult to manage, many aspects of our lives become casualties—relationships, physical and mental health, and even the way we interact with others.

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6 Steps to Avoid Having the Same Fight in a Relationship

Available for Interviews: Dr. Alice Fong

Alice Fong, ND, is an integrative naturopathic doctor specializing in stress, integrative medicine, diet & weight loss, and is a business growth consultant for holistic healthcare providers.

What Dr. Alice Fong can say in an interview
on Breaking the Fight Cycle
: 

Do you ever feel like you’re having the same argument in your relationship over and over again?  Even though WHAT you are fighting about might vary, what is SAID seems to be on constant repeat.  You’re not alone. This is a very common issue in relationships. Especially during these trying times, stress can prevent people, in general, from practicing effective communication skills.

Here is how to stop having the same fight over and over again:

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How to Avoid an Argument Over COVID Rules While Traveling This Summer

Available for Interviews:  Christopher Elliott

Christopher Elliott is an author, advocate, and journalist. He writes six weekly columns about customer service, with a special emphasis on travel and technology. His work reaches more than 10 million readers a week. You
have likely read his work in USA Today or Forbes.

What Travel Expert and Consumer Advocate, Christopher Elliot,
could say about traveling this summer:

If you think COVID-19 disagreements during the pandemic were remarkable, wait until the virus heads for the exit. –Chris Elliott

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How to Avoid 5 Common Manager Mistakes That Crush Workplace Culture

Available for Interviews: Dara Barlin

Dara Barlin is the Founder & CEO of the Center for Transforming Culture and the author of the new book, A New Kind of Power: Using Human-Centered Leadership to Drive Innovation, Equity, and Belonging in Government Institutions.

 

What Dara Barlin Can say in an interview on
Common Manager Mistakes & Solutions for Success:

There are a number of traditional management behaviors that have been commonplace in the workplace for centuries. While these strategies served a purpose for a while, they have recently been linked with destroying team culture and creating big problems for organizations including employee apathy, lower quality work, increased attrition, more sick days, more conflict, and worse overall outcomes. The good news is, many organizations are starting to change things up by adopting behaviors aligned with a more human-centered approach to management. In doing so, they’ve seen a big difference in the workplace, including more trust, improved collaboration, increased innovation, higher quality work, and better talent retention. Here are some common behaviors to look out for if you want to create a thriving work environment for your team (and some suggestions for what to do about them).

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7 Steps to Better Anger Management

Available for Interviews: Carol Barkes

 

Carol Barkes, CPM, MBA, is a conflict resolution expert, mediator, national speaker, educator and bestselling author who uniquely applies neuroscience to the fields of conflict resolution and negotiations. Her expert perspective is always fresh and relevant.

 

Talking Points from Carol Barkes on what she can say in an interview
about How to Manage Your Anger:
 

1) Explore the root of your anger. Anger is a secondary emotion in that there are other emotions that manifest as anger. It can be especially helpful to explore the underlying emotions that are leading to anger as they provide insight into what is the root issue. It can also be helpful as these underlying emotions pave the way to a better understanding of your feelings by giving you more adjectives to use. For instance, you might be frustrated, sad, or feel that you have been treated unfairly, feel that you have no power, etc. When you can use more words to express yourself rather than that you are just angry, it not only feels better but it helps others understand you better.

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4 Strategies to Avoid COVID-Related Conflicts With Fellow Air Travelers

Available for Interviews: Carol Barkes

 

Carol Barkes, CPM, MBA, is a conflict resolution expert, mediator, national speaker, educator and bestselling author who uniquely applies neuroscience to the fields of conflict resolution and negotiations. Her expert perspective is always fresh and relevant.

Talking Points from Carol Barkes on what she can say in an interview
on Conflict Resolution and  Travelers Who Do Not Follow the Rules
:

Stress and anxiety has been sky-high over the last several months, and this couldn’t be more true at 10,000 feet, too. If you must use air travel the following advice will help flyers avoid unnecessary problems.

“If we are flying, we are in the position to
be in close proximity to a potential hostile traveler—
if we do not handle this well.” –Carol Barkes

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