S10|02 - Movement and Play in Parenting with Dr. Lori Baudino

Kids are movers… they are meant to move, and their movement is always communicating to us. We can use this knowledge to help them through fears, worries and stressors, as we integrate both their brain and bodies. We can begin to view children as the wise souls that they are and believe that they know what their bodies need.  

Join me in this conversation today with Dr. Lori Baudino, who has been a practicing clinician for over 20 years. Her work is grounded in the belief that the mind, body, and spirit are interconnected. Her work is helping to change the way we think about health and healing, and she is inspiring people all over the world to celebrate and move together! 

What we chat about today: 

• Body language and non-verbal communication and how we can use our kids’ typical “baseline” to see when things are going well, and when things are a little off
• Helping kids (and ourselves) through anxiety or other stressors, using body, movement and mindfulness
• What a top-down approach is, and how to use a bottom-up approach too (with specific ideas that you can use to help your kids today!) 

 

Connect with Crystal:
Get started on this work through a daily mindset practice from Coach Crystal- Journal HERE
Work with Crystal 1:1: www.coachcrystal.ca/miracle or in group: www.coachcrystal.ca/creationroom
Grab your copy of Crystal’s feelings wheel here: www.coachcrystal.ca/wheel

 

Connect with Dr Lori: 
Website: www.drloribaudino.com
Instagram: www.instagram.com/drloribaudino
Facebook: www.facebook.com/drloribaudino
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/drloribaudino
Her books are HERE and HERE.

 

Summary of the Episode

In this episode of the Parenting Coach Podcast, host Crystal interviews Dr. Lori Baudino, a licensed clinical psychologist and board-certified dance movement therapist. They discuss the importance of integrating movement and play into parenting to support children's emotional and mental health. Dr. Baudino explains the concepts of top-down and bottom-up approaches in therapy, emphasizing the significance of understanding and responding to children's non-verbal cues and body language. She shares practical strategies for parents to connect with their children through movement and play, and highlights the benefits of dance movement therapy in addressing various childhood challenges, including anxiety.

Key Topics Discussed

• Introduction to Dr. Lori Baudino and her background

• Top-down vs. bottom-up approaches in therapy

• Importance of understanding children's body language and non-verbal cues

• Practical strategies for parents to connect with their children through movement

• Benefits of dance movement therapy

• Addressing childhood anxiety through body-based approaches

• The role of sensory experiences in children's emotional responses

• Encouraging mindfulness and movement in daily routines

• Dr. Baudino's book "Moving Moments in Childhood"

This transcript has been created to provide a text-based version of the podcast episode for accessibility and convenience. While effort has been made to ensure its accuracy, it may contain errors or omissions. Please note that the exact words and intended meaning of the speaker(s) are best understood by listening to the original audio recording.

To experience the full conversation in its authentic form, please listen to the episode directly on your preferred podcast platform.

 

 Full Transcript

Introduction

[00:00:00] Welcome to the Parenting Coach Podcast with Crystal. Over seven years ago, I felt like I was stuck in this cycle of yelling and reactivity in my parenting that I did not want to be in, but I didn't know how to get out of. I knew how I wanted to parent pretty much exactly, and I'd spent hours reading books, but not finding a way to show up how I wanted to.

That's when I started to turn inwards. My own inward journey was what my family needed. As I changed, everything around me changed. My kids meltdowns decreased by 90 percent or more with no medications or therapy. I stopped yelling, sibling fighting became almost entirely non existent, and I found that this change flowed into other areas of my life too.

My intuition increased. I started to run my life and business in a very different way. If this sounds like something you want too, I can help. Join me each week as I share my journey, including the laughter, fun, hard times, and tears. Tune in for support, guidance, and fun conversations every week. With my favorite experts and really anything else that interests me too.

Hello, everybody. Welcome to the Parenting Coach podcast. It has [00:01:00] been a fun new season already. I love the guests that I've been able to have, and I'm excited to introduce you to a new guest today. I'll actually get her to introduce herself. Tell us a little bit about you, Dr. Lori. How do you pronounce your last name?

Bodino?

Guest Introduction

Yeah. Dr. Lori Bodino. And I am a licensed clinical psychologist and a board certified dance movement therapist and a mom of two. And so I use this integrative approach looking at the whole child, not only top down kind of how we understand emotions and mental health and in the brain, but more so this bottom up, which is that lens of dance movement therapy.

Top-Down vs. Bottom-Up Approaches

Yes, absolutely. So we connected through Dr. Dan Siegel. And, I had a great interview with him. If you have not listened to that, go check out the last season, season nine. And he was one of the last few interviews on that. it's a great podcast episode. And, so Dr. Lori, tell us a little bit about that.

Specifically, I love this idea of the bottom up approach. Tell us first, maybe what the top down approach might look like with kids before we get into the bottom up.

Yeah, and it is important to have both because we, you know, [00:02:00] want to use this bottom up, this understanding of the whole body and how we experience emotions in the body and express them through movement.

And so what talk therapy might look like, what we, what we hear about, we tend to to identify as that top down. So where we talk about things, we use thought, to change our perspective, our different insights of how we're thinking. And then this bottom up approach is really understanding that our mind is embodied and that in order to understand emotions, especially, I work with children, I always include parents and educators and, and, other professionals, so that's the adults, but that we're constantly communicating with our bodies.

And so what better way than to understand what this communication looks like, what it means, and what I love with parents is finding that predictability in parenting. And so it's really exciting. It's often brought into the room. So right when you walk into the room with a child, you see how experiences are felt in the body.

You You see mental health, when you have a [00:03:00] pathology illness, disease, we see this in the body, how a child moves, how they express themselves, how their facial expressions range. And then we can see that there's a parallel process between those movements and their emotional health.

 

Understanding Children's Body Language

Yeah, I remember hearing the phrase over and over again, like over, I think it was like over 90 percent of your communication is through like body language and like nonverbal cues.

And I don't know exactly what that number is, but it definitely, definitely feels right. just yesterday I was talking to my kiddo about how things were going for him with him. I have four kids. This is one of my younger ones. And I'm just asking him about life and we have like these little check ins every once in a while.

And one of the things he said was like, I can always feel people's like energy. Like I can feel what they're feeling. And he's like, just by like being around them, I can feel it. He's like, I'm going to just stop for a moment. And he was like, isn't that cool? Like, it's kind of like magical that I can like.

see what people are feeling. And I was like, it is so cool and cool that he [00:04:00] has even the awareness that he can do that. but I think, like you said, like there's so much happening. Like, I think, I think a lot of help, a lot of support, a lot of therapy, a lot of modalities. definitely are top down approaches.

And for me, that has been helpful to a point. But then there's also like this whole other minefield of stuff that needed to be dug into that was not being addressed in just top down approaches. So, tell us what that looks like in kids though, specifically as parents supporting kids.

Absolutely. Yeah.

And I, and I do see this as an adjunct to all therapies so that this is a lens that we all can be using as parents, like you're saying as providers, as teachers. And so what that looks like is first and foremost, I kind of say like, if you're listening to this at minimum, you start looking at your child, you get a baseline.

I call it a true temperature check is like their mind, body, and spirit. it shows up in the body. So what's your child's baseline? What does it look like every day when they wake up out of bed? Are they a kid that jumps up and [00:05:00] barrels through ready to go? Are they a kid that kind of like hides under their bed and you're trying to pull them out?

You know, we have an idea of you. I kind of joke and say, if you were playing charades, you could act out your child without work. You can show up like each child. And if you have four kids, you could probably show each child how they're different, right? Just in the sense of the body. And then you kind of have their they're that baseline and then you notice when things differ, right?

You notice when a day at school looks different for them. You notice when they're under the weather. You notice that a week before a child gets sick, there's kind of this difference happening within their, their dynamics, how they communicate. and then we have so much information. We have patterns that we see when children are, I often talk about the toddler to teens, these parallel processes that happen.

And so we've seen this over and over again, these patterns, and it gives us insight into communication. And then we can skip forward. There's lots of levels to this, lots of layers to how, how movement looks like in a session and, and, different activities we [00:06:00] do. But what we can jump into is, is kind of how do we communicate and express with our children?

So not just talking about something, reading about something, listening to something, but actually how do we embody it? So I use like a simple analogy of like assertiveness. You don't know how to be assertive. You can understand it as a concept, but until you walk up and say, excuse me, that's mine. You don't know what that feels like in the body.

Oftentimes children are expressing all the time and we're missing those cues. And then we might say, Oh, but they didn't tell me. But they're already communicating. And then once we join their bodies, we sit like them, we kind of match what they're doing or in dance movement there, we amplify, we make a movement look bigger.

I call it like the, the whale in the water, we kind of make ourselves expanded. So we, they bring our attention to us or we kind of make it more subtle, more slow. These are different qualities we use. And all of a sudden more communication happens. And there's just so many ideas of different ways we can explore this.

But again, at [00:07:00] minimum, we start noticing that the body is truly communicating all the time.

Yes. Yes. And our kids are communicating. I love that idea of like baseline too. Like if I know what my kids kind of that energetic body baseline is, then I can tell when things are not kind of aligning like they normally are.

I am, I have a couple of questions. I'm trying to figure out which way I want to go to first. I would love to hear more about your book, but I think what I'd love to hear first about is how do we use this? And maybe these are the same question, but how do we use this within our, within our kids? Like as parents, what could we use as far as movement goes, both helping them, like you said, with like kind of the dance therapy movement stuff idea, and also recognizing that they're communicating to us through their body.

Practical Strategies for Parents

Yes. So definitely my I have a book that just came out called Moving Moments in Childhood, and it's a dance movement therapy lens for supporting the whole child. And it does give 50 vignettes of different dynamics of children from anything from anxiety to pain to neurodivergence. to sibling [00:08:00] dynamics, to everyday life with children, toileting, sleeping, eating, pooping, you know, all the things, right?

And so it gives you 50 vignettes of what that could look like in a session. It gives you the theory and analogies, kind of the background, the research, and then also the activities, things you can actually do at home, or if you're a clinician, things you could, incorporate it within your practice or even in your teaching in school.

And so as a parent, there's so many different areas. I think some of the, the the ones that come to the top of my mind is that before we give a demand to a child, we want them to transition. We want them to do a task required, you know, demand within the home that we join them first. So that means actually looking at their bodies, noticing how they're sitting, where their eyes are looking and really having this parallel process, which we see with toddlers.

You know, you see these two little, little ones playing next to each other. So we want to see, we want to join within the body first. And if you can't physically do the same thing your child's [00:09:00] doing. Maybe they're sitting on their head and you're like, I'm not going to go and sit on my head. Then maybe we're just narrating it.

We're bringing information, some words to what they're doing. and that allows us to get into their world. And then, you know, we say things like, I see you're sitting and you're scrolling on your phone, or I see you're building with those Legos, depending on what age your child is. And now we're going to walk to the door and pick up our dirty clothes, right? So like, there's like, first I see this and now this.

Stripping Away Labels

Other thing that I'd love to see it. Yeah, go ahead.

Yeah. Well, just, I was thinking that another thing that's really key to my work is really stripping away the labels of, you know, seeing and emotion. Emotions are so important to explore.

And yet we often put a label on something that might not be so accurate. We kind of say that some, a child is aggressive when really they're moving quick, direct, and strong. And if you move quick and strong and direct in your [00:10:00] quality of movement, that can be really assertive. And so it's kind of, where do we put those movements?

And a child who is identified as lazy, they could be moving quite slowly. They could be indirect, meaning they're taking up all the space around them. They're not really going towards one thing or another, which we want them to do that task. They're kind of exploring everything and they're kind of light.

They're not really kind of moving, with a lot of like assertion. And so we call them, you know, we label lazy. And so we have these words that we often do, and we've stripped away the labels. It gives the child the ability to recognize, what am I doing in my body? And do I want to keep doing this or do I want to change it?

So you can already hear as I'm talking, there's so many ways where we can start to reshift, reshape, and, kind of allow more of a connection to our children and seeing that their movements are an adaptive response, that they're actually having meaning to them. They're not trying to be difficult. And this can be really helpful for communication.

Addressing Childhood Anxiety

I think the way that we think about them really [00:11:00] matters, right? If I think, and I've had clients come to me before who were there just like, not even just before. I mean, I just had conversations like this literally yesterday where they were like, but my husband is doing this. Like he's choosing to do this.

Or my kids are choosing to be like this. Like, it's like this. We take what's a habitual pattern for that person that they're really, it's not really a conscious choice and we make it seem like it is. And then when we make it seem like it is then we all of a sudden like judge it and feel like they shouldn't be doing it that way or whatever.

So I think it's a helpful thing to shift in our mind too to recognize like these are like patterns or whatever and how can I think about it in a different way that takes my own judgment off that that takes me from like judgment to maybe like curiosity or to compassion or empathy. I would love to chat because you're like, I, you, he said like, I, we have these like 50 different vignettes and then we have ideas that you can do within them.

And I think one of the big ones that comes up for a lot of people is anxiety. And I think that's kind of an all ages, doesn't matter if you're a parent or you're a child or you're a teen. so can you walk us through some of that? Cause I would love to, I love when I listened to podcast episodes and I can go home and be like, I'm going to go practice that [00:12:00] right now.

Like I'm going to go do something. Can you give us something like that where somebody can really incorporate what they're learning from us in this episode.

Yes, there's so many layers to anxiety. To me, I tend to put quote marks around the word anxiety because to me, there's an underlying body based experience that's happening.

So to me, I look at the sensory system, how the environment, environment, meaning relationships, right? We feel happy, sad, all the emotions because of a relationship. Maybe we're in love or out of love with someone or we're in a relationship. connection with someone or a disconnect. That's one way we, we have an environment, but we also have it based on sound and sight and touch and smells and, and, the taste, right?

And then we have this awareness inside our bodies, this interception of like, what's happening, how do we detect if we're hungry, if we're asleep, if we're, if we're feeling like something's not right. And so we have all these levels of these sensory needs. And when our nervous system detects things as threatening over and over and over again, we [00:13:00] have anxiety.

So to me, when I assess someone, they come into my office from, you know, birth all the way to 18 and their parents, and they say, Oh, I struggle with anxiety. And I start to explore questions about their sensory system, about their body. How, what, how do they soothe? How do they, they find comfort? Every single time there is a relationship to Oh, well, I really have an aversion towards this.

You know, I don't like that that that texture or Oh, yes, my child always covers their ears there. There's a history there. Okay. So you asked me what can we do? so first and foremost, I want to get people into their bodies. And so when we feel anxious, anxious is a future thought like a what if. But in the moment in the here and now as clinicians and providers, we know that there is no anxiety in the moment where you are you are sitting in your chair, you're listening to this podcast, you might be having a drink like a tea or coffee, you might be looking outside and seeing birds [00:14:00] flutter by and right there in that moment, there is no anxiety.

you are just present in your body. And so then what happens is you start to recognize what is that trigger point. And there's, again, many, many examples of this in my book and also just things that I explore. So there's just one level of it. I would just say this one, one piece of many things, but I would start to notice what is that sensory experience that triggers you, that gets you into that reactive state where you start to think, what if the negative happens.

And we tend to have these. And so we tend to hear, you know, the cognitive or the, the top down approach would be saying to yourself, this too shall pass, or take a breath, or, you know, do something where you're like mentally thinking and, and changing. in, in addition to that, it's identifying in this moment, What is triggering you?

Is it the overwhelm of all the clutter? And what if someone comes in and your children are are messy and they start judging you and they'll never learn how to organize? is it because of the [00:15:00] noise? What if you're not a good parent because your child is screaming and you're feeling anxious about this?

What if they screamed in front of other people? What if the neighbor's here? So there's all this. you know, these anxieties. So then we sit in and we say, which triggered you? Was it auditory or was it visual? These are just examples. And then we can support that. So a strategy, one of many that you could look at is if it is visual, then you can hone in your eyes to super kind of connect, I call them super senses, but hone in your eyes, like really, really cue into that point that brings joy.

So amongst the clutter, you might see your child smiling. And so the clutter is not so overwhelming. If there's auditory, maybe you start to notice all the sounds of what you hear. Maybe you start to discern, is there any laughter? Is there any playfulness? Is there any moments of silence? So that's one way of joining those senses.

The [00:16:00] opposite is also available where maybe the overwhelm is the visual. So you get really in touch with that tactile stimulation. You're holding onto your sweater, you're curling up with something cozy, you're having something yummy to drink or taste.

If it's visual, maybe you're focusing on something you smell.

Or you put on some music and you start to listen to something. So this is how a body based approach can incorporate not only the thinking, but also how we can actually experience. And it's so much easier to change a sensation than just to tell yourself like, Oh, stop being anxious. Stop worrying.

That's hard to do.

And also, yeah, when has that ever happened, right? When it's like worrying and you're like, I know the answer. Just stop worrying. And they're like, Oh, cool. That works. Right. I have a kiddo with pretty severe social anxiety. So his is always before going into social situations where he doesn't know what's going to happen, where he doesn't know the people there.

where there's a lot of people that aren't people he knows. This can be in a grocery store. This can be literally anywhere that's like not inside our house. [00:17:00] And anyway, so this is the same kiddo that I was talking to about how he was like noticing other people's like emotions and stuff. So what would you do in that kind of a situation as a parent to help prepare them?

Maybe not in the moment when they're feeling the intense anxiety of the situation happening. although maybe you have ideas for that also, but in, in preparation for that, like if you know that that's their kind of trigger is like the visual, like seeing other people thinking about what the other people are going to be thinking and all of that, how to support them through something like that.

Because I think social anxiety is something that. Probably across the board. Like so many people are dealing with it. 

Social Anxiety and Preparation

So, yeah, absolutely. It is a big one and it's so important because there is so much we can do and it is a process. It's not just kind of a one and done. it's something that is, is a muscle that develops and good news is the more they get accustomed to these rituals and patterns that really serve them.

It actually feels less overwhelming to go into those social environments. So kind of start with the prevention is, you know, narrating, kind of sharing what, what [00:18:00] are they about to see, but not only telling them, but helping, helping them to identify being curious. What does that look like? I use the acronym dance.

you know, I, I say I'm a dance movement therapist and because everyone then thinks, oh, you teach dance, which dance is a beautiful art form. I love dancing, but I am not a dance teacher. I use it as an acronym. So The D is for differentiation. So differentiate apart. So helping that child notice that there's little movements within their body that they do before they enter an environment.

And that little movement might be a breath. It might be paying attention to where their hands are. It might be noticing the little movements that are around them. So if you have a child, you were saying that cues into everyone else's energy. you know, can they be aware of the little, little movements that are happening?

And then the A is we attach these movements together to make rituals and patterns. So children love having rituals and patterns. Sometimes a lack of them can feel very overwhelming. It's like unknown. So what kind of pattern does your [00:19:00] child develop before they go into that environment? and so they might, decide that instead of it being and it's a whole another topic but not creating like an obsessive compulsive need to do something multiple times but if we get ahead of it and say would it feel nice to have the bag with you or to wear the sunglasses to kind of dissipate the visual of all the visuals you're about to see at the grocery store or you know your like your toolkit of what's going to help you these rituals and patterns can be really helpful and then they end up not really because they kind of help them they feel more secure Yeah, absolutely.

And we all have these things. We have patterns of how we get ready in the morning, how we put our makeup on, how we brush our teeth, how we get out of bed. so we're helping our children develop these skills and they often have them already. It's just bringing attention to them and being like, that's awesome, buddy.

Like it really, that was really a cool idea that you did it. And the body always does it. I love hearing stories of parents that will say, My child does this thing where they click their fingers or they, they rub their face. They have something they do. And I [00:20:00] don't know why they just saw it as odd, but like, wow, what a great idea that your body did that.

and this is, this is how it did it. And can we expand from there just to continue on with the acronym? The N is for narration and narration is such a key part of narrate because we have these words. We say what we see, so we bring to the C is consciousness. When we narrate the, the visuals of what's happening around us and what our body's doing, it brings it to consciousness.

We have more control over it. And then we have empathic engagement, which is the E. So we have this instant way of connecting. And this happens, this dance happens every moment of every day, you and I, even on this, podcast are in a dance together, this back and forth, back and forth, little movements that attach together, we're bringing words to it, we're explaining it, brings it to consciousness, everyone's listening, and we have this engagement, even those that are listening, and then you and I, and these are kind of the patterns we can do with our children over and over and over again.[00:21:00]

And so we're part of that pattern? Is that what you're saying to like, we kind of are we're trying to help them do that dance those steps on their own.

Yeah, so a little bit of both. I kind of substitute the word help for engagement or support or joining. I often tell parents take away the word help and use join like I'll join you.

We are meant to connect and collaborate and be a partnership and I think there's a big misunderstanding in our, in our world right now, especially with this autonomy and independence where we think, Oh, if we're with our child, we're hovering, but if we're far away, then we're detaching. And then they're out on their own.

And there's a middle ground, which is engagement and we're collaborating. So you're not doing it for your child, but you're certainly Going to the store with them. So you might as well do it as a partnership. And they are, there is a co regulation happening where they're feeding off of you and you're feeding off of them.

And just like you would do with your like best friend, I really see in [00:22:00] an opportunity for us to be really collaborative with our children. And it can be really fun to go, like say to the grocery store or do an activity where they're, they have their list of things they're grabbing and you have your list and you're meeting in the middle, you have that separation and coming back together.

But there's a real sense of joining and there's a meaningfulness behind it versus a disconnect.

Yeah. I love that joining. I often think about like when with my kids feelings, like co regulation to me is like coming alongside them, like coming and sitting with them and like being with them and their feelings.

And I think joining is the perfect word for that. instead of like, here, your way down here, let me like help you up. It's like, let me come, come alongside you. Yeah. They often

don't need help. Right. They, they know how to, we don't want to give that false understanding that they're not capable. They're so capable.

Yes. Yeah. And I think they know so much more than we do. Like, I remember we were at Disneyland recently and I have, two of my four kiddos that deal with quite a bit of anxiety. And so we're like everything, you know, everything in Disneyland is anxiety inducing. It's like loud and there's crowds and you [00:23:00] don't know what's going to happen.

And anyway, so we would like, talk about it in line. Okay. What do you need? And they were like, we need to like read reviews and we need to watch a video and we kind of decide. and for me, I'm totally the opposite. I'm like, I want to be surprised. I don't even like. Watching movie trailers before I see the movie because I want like every moment of it to be shocking to me and they're totally the opposite.

So I was like, okay, we'll go through and do this. And then they would be able to decide like, is this one I want to go on or not? And if it is, then it would be a lot more helpful for them because they were like prepping for it and like, okay, now I feel good about doing it. So. I think they often, I often ask my kids, like, what does help you?

Like, I just asked him this yesterday. I'm like, so when you're in those situations and you're feeling that way and you're having a hard time around new people, like what helps? And I like sit and listen to them because I think our kids just have so much wisdom in them. And so I think like that idea of like, if I'm helping, then that means like that you don't know the answer.

And I do. And let me like bequeath my wisdom on you instead of joining in them with their wisdom.

Yeah. One of my favorite activities [00:24:00] with, anxiety, I guess. Again, I'm putting it in quote marks is, this, this quote about worry is a waste of our imagination and talk about in my book. and, and it's this idea that when we're worrying, when children are worrying, it's like this, what if, and it's like worst case scenario,

but

there also is like this incredible opportunity to explore, like.

best case scenario. And also when it's worst case scenario, like how dark and deep can you go? And this doesn't mean we're like putting thoughts in the child's head. That's like, right. The fear of the parent is like, wait, we shouldn't talk about that. But sometimes the children want to explore all the thoughts that come in and all the ways.

So like, What if, you know, my roof caves down on me when I'm sleeping? Oh my gosh, right? And then we get to deep dive. And so I usually use something physical. Well, I'll have a ball or a pillow and we pass it back and forth and I'm rational thought and they're worry and we pass it back and forth and back and forth.

And it is [00:25:00] hilarious where we go and how much fun the child goes where they're not actually scared or worried. They're just curious and they want to see where it goes. They want to imagine, they want to explore. And that's why children. you know, for better or worse, love movies and technology. It's like it gives them all this kind of sensory experience all bang for their buck, but you can actually do that in your own mind.

Yeah. And so being like, stop having that worry, let's like control it and make them think, Oh no, no, there's nothing to worry about. Don't, don't worry. Like a parent would say that, right? Instead it's like, Oh really? Let's deep dive. Like, what should we be scared of? And It's interesting what children come up with and they tend to resolve it themselves.

I have to tell you with over 20 years of doing this, every time the child will be like, Dr. Lori, I'll just do, you know, I'll just put up a giant balloon and it will hold up the roof and I'll blow it up. And all of a sudden my house will turn into a parachute and the roof will fall, crumble to the side.

You know, they'll come up with something amazing. And I'm like, perfect.

Yeah. [00:26:00] I think like part of it, like either it'll kind of get dismissed because it's like funny or just like silly or like they see how ridiculous it is. But also sometimes you get like, cause I do this with my clients too, this worst case scenario thing.

Sometimes you get to it and then you realize like, Oh, well I'll be okay. Like really that's what they feel in the end is like, even if the worst case scenario happens, I really will be okay. And it shows our brain that now, and I love to work through.

Yeah, I'd love to see that. Like, I really am just the main character in my own drama and my own drama main character likes to say things like nobody wants to hear what you have to say.

Nobody likes you and all those things. And I'm like, wait, but I could also choose to be the main character in the drama where like everybody I'd be. loves everything I say, right? Like, if I'm just the one making this up in my mind, and, our brains are so imaginative and creative. And so we can use that creation for both.

We can imagine something super awesome too. Yeah. So I love that. Yeah.

Sorry. I was just going to say, I love those ideas. And I just wanted to know if there was anything [00:27:00] more that you wanted to share about that or about like a little piece in your book where you're like, I really want to make sure I say this one thing because it's awesome.

Oh my God. So many things. yeah, I think I was just going to say in a dance movement therapy session or in, in my clinical sessions, the, the next step is that we embody it. So we're not just talking about it, but we're role playing. We're moving. We're using art. We're putting music on. And we're. We're actually being the characters.

And again, there is so much parallel to how a child moves and how they resolve and that really embodied resolution that comes from it, versus just thinking about it. Yeah. So again, adjunct and I think. With that said, I just, you know, mindfulness has become such a beautiful adjunct to our learning in our world, and people are like really getting on it, and they have been, and it's wonderful to hear.

Movement and Mindfulness

And I also continue to get excited about the day in which We [00:28:00] move from no movement and mindfulness to now full mindfulness where you have to sit still and teach it like sit still and breathe to this middle place, which is, which is the lens that I, I really advocate for because I see it really connect to us as, as people is that movement and mindfulness doesn't have to be prescriptive.

that children are already communicating. And so there's this natural, I love this word, I, I kind of talk about it probably to exhaustion, but rapprochement, there's a natural coming back. So if you allow your child to move and express themselves, they naturally will recover and sit still and breathe. They won't be moving endlessly.

and so it's really giving permission to, to let children and all of us explore more parents as well, all of us getting to move together. So we kind of take away the prescriptive of like, Oh, you have to sit still, but let them, you know, let them move every day in a space of kind of seeing what their body [00:29:00] wants to explore.

It's also a great way to end the day. Oftentimes parents want to know, like, how do I connect my child after school, find a way to get moving, run around the car, pass the bag back and forth, give a tight squeeze. lift each other up and flip over in different ways that we connect with the body.

Conclusion and Book Promotion

Yeah. I think movement, I just think it's so powerful.

I really, I've noticed it for my own self, but then also for my kids too. And when they're not doing as well, you know what I can tell that they've had like too much screen time or they're a little slow. Sleepy or they had a bad day or whatever. It's usually lack of movement. Like they're usually like laying around and don't want to do anything.

And as soon as I'm like, okay, we're going to run around the house five times, and then we're going to do pushups. And then we're going to do like a spelling bee or like something fun and like funny and everybody's laughing and whatever. it just immediately changes that energy. So. Thank you for being on here and sharing with us.

It sounds like an awesome book. And I think that also people that are listening to go and read it and to use those ideas with your own kids as well, [00:30:00] right? Those all like those movement, those examples that you can do to kind of bring in more movement. And I think really to just to recognize like our kids are so innately intuitive and wise, like they really, I think we can learn a lot from them when we feel like we're not the ones that have to like instill them with all this wisdom that we have that they don't have, instead of just like watching them, listening from them, especially even with body language and communication, not just words.

Yeah.

Absolutely. And it crosses all levels, you know, all ability. It connects all abilities, no matter what you're able to do. I work with children in pediatric hospitals. Everyone's a mover from your breath to your eye flutter to your heartbeats to those big jumping twirling. And then, and the ethnicity, religion, yeah.

sexuality, gender, all of it. We all innately communicate, which is such a joy to, to bring it into an offering to kind of say, Hey, mental health matters. And it starts with this whole integrative approach.

[00:31:00] Yes. Beautiful. Thank you so much, Dr. Lori. Thanks for coming out and sharing with us. Thank you. Thank you.

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