Parenting Help Podcast

A Conversation with Katie Palmer

Adolescent mental illness is extraordinarily hard on all members of the family, especially if others have not yet worked through their own challenges, trauma, or patterns of maladaptive behavior in the presence of big emotions.

Tracey Yokas shares her family’s story in the book Bloodlines.

On our podcast we talk about what she had to do as a Mom, wife, and individual to understand and begin to heal her own trauma before she could really help her daughter.

With over 20 years experience in education and over a decade specializing in behavior analysis, Katie Palmer has had experience as a classroom teacher, a para-educator, a Board Certified Behavior Analyst, an Educational Consultant, Instructional Coach and Parenting Consultant. She has worked with dozens of schools, hundreds of students, and their families to understand and change behavior, acquire new skills, and deepen learning. In 2017, she designed and built a school to support students whose challenging behavior was such that their needs could not be met in their home district. As the Director of Two Roads Academy, she trained staff and created the environment necessary for these students to grow and succeed.

As a Board Certified Behavior Analyst and doctoral student with a Masters in Education, the breadth of experience that informs her practice will support assessment of need and individual coaching will allow her to design an approach to change that is sustainable and successful for you.

Her work is focused in Acceptance and Commitment Training – a way of reducing struggle and suffering by increasing psychological flexibility. With over 850 randomized controlled trials, this approach has evidence for effectiveness in reducing suffering in multiple areas.

She helps people focus on what matters to them, and teach them to move toward those things even in the presence of discomfort or difficulties.

Episode Highlights

I share, in part:

About the wide variety of (normal) emotions that accompanied our journey.
How reassurance is invalidating rather than supportive.
How repetitive cycles around food, weight, and body image dogged my childhood and my daughter’s childhood.
Without healthier ways to cope, I ended up unintentionally focusing on my daughter’s behaviors, which can feel like a parent pointing a finger at what’s “wrong” with the child.
How my emotional rock bottom led me to take responsibility for myself.
Why willingness was a crucial part of my self-growth journey.
Where curiosity comes into the mix of a healing journey.
Why self-care tools are imperative.