Navigating Big Emotions in Kids (and Moms): Co-Regulation, Repair, Emotional Resilience and Inviting God Into Parenting with Alisha Ferrell [Ep 39]

Michelle interviews licensed professional counselor Alisha Ferrell about helping kids (and moms) navigate big emotions. Alisha defines emotional regulation as noticing, understanding, and managing emotions in healthy ways, emphasizing that “regulated” doesn’t mean always calm and that parents’ nervous systems affect their children’s. They discuss common triggers for parents, including depleted needs (HALT: hungry, angry, lonely, tired), personality differences, attachment dynamics, and how past trauma can be stored in the body and reactivated in parenting. Practical tools covered include co-regulation (staying calm, getting on a child’s level, naming emotions, and being present instead of quickly redirecting), movement and play for kids, breath work, fidgets, somatic/body-based practices, stillness via the Pause App, and building margin. They highlight the importance of repair after escalation, creating an open-door culture where emotions are welcome, and modeling honest emotional expression as parents. The conversation also addresses nutritional and health supports. Spiritually, they talk about emotions as God-designed, Jesus as a model for emotional life, using Scripture (Psalms, Hebrews), inviting the Holy Spirit into hard moments, surrendering children to God, and relying on community. Alisha shares signs counseling may help, mentions EMDR as a trauma tool, and recommends the Raising Boys and Girls resources and the book The Worry-Free Parent. Alisha’s mom hack is a nighttime potty-training bathroom trip, and her parenting aim is to delight in her kids. The episode closes by encouraging moms to pause, invite God in, repair when needed, and remember that emotional safety in the home starts with the parent and that parenting is sanctifying work.00:00 Welcome + Today’s Topic: Kids’ Big Emotions02:35 Meet the Guest: Counselor & Mom Alisha Ferrell05:54 What Emotional Regulation Really Means (and Why It’s Hard)10:18 Tools to Name Feelings: Wheels, Posters & Tangible Aids11:23 Why Kids Trigger Us: HALT, Wiring, Attachment & Trauma17:34 Why It Peaks Around Age 3: Development, Autonomy & Tantrums21:18 Co-Regulation in Action: Staying Calm, Validating, Not Fixing24:28 Why Yelling Back Makes It Worse24:53 De-escalating a Meltdown: Calm Voice, Calm Hands, Even Whispering25:54 When You Mess Up: The Power of Repair & Apologizing to Your Kids26:53 In-the-Moment Regulation Tools: HALT, Breathwork, and Somatic Resets30:13 Build Margin: Stillness, the Pause App, and Why We’re So Easily Triggered31:23 Helping Kids Regulate: Movement, Play, and “Run a Lap” Resets32:32 Supplements & Hormones: Lab Work, Theanine/GABA, and Cycle Tracking34:51 Inviting God Into Emotional Healing: Jesus, Psalms, and Surrendering Your Kids40:19 Counseling, Trauma Triggers, and EMDR Explained44:03 Wrap-Up: Mom Hack, and Final EncouragementAbout AlishaAlisha is an LPC at Living Well Holistic Counseling and Wellness Center in Tyler, Texas. She received her undergraduate degree in psychology from Texas A&M University and a Master’s degree in Biblical Counseling from Dallas Theological Seminary. She has many years of therapy experience with families, women, teens, and children and is also an LPC-Supervisor and EMDR trained. Alisha holds a certification in Perinatal Mental Health as she is passionate about walking alongside women through the childbearing years.  -Website: Living Well Living Well IG Alisha IG Resources: -The Bible-the Pause App -The Raising Boys and Girls Podcast -The Worry-Free Parent (David Thomas and Sissy Goff) -Raising Emotionally Strong Boys (David Thomas) -Raising Worry-Free Girls (Sissy Goff) -EMDR-Emotions Wheel pillow (Amazon) -Emotions books Grumpy Monkey, I am a Tornado, Tacos Fall Apart, Even Superheroes Have a Bad Day, Sometimes I’m a Bombaloo Theanine with Gaba or Gaba Calm suppsConnect with Michelle:IG: ⁠@Mommin_Together @Michelle_Barnett_ Join our ⁠Mommin’ Together Facebook Community⁠