Family Insights Therapy

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Family Insights Therapy

I help cycle breakers give their kids a childhood they won’t have to heal from! This page is not a replacement for therapy.

If you have a mental health emergency, or experiencing a crisis, please call 9-8-8 or 9-1-1. This page is not equipped for crisis response. Messages here are checked sporadically, and I cannot guarantee when I will return a message. This is my business online parent coaching page. I also am a clinical therapist in Missoula Montana. If you are a current or past client, I do not respond to messages on Facebook.

01/01/2026

My review — the tremendous growth my clients have shown and how full my heart is. And it isn’t stopping.

What’s to come is just continuing to bring continued growth because that’s what life does.

What I didn’t include is the work to save our democracy, feed our community, and bring safety to individuals and groups who are not safe. That isn’t performative work for me — and it’s always ongoing.

Also December I was struggling with an uncooperative kidney stone and had a basal cell carcinoma removed. Way too many visits to urgent care, hospital and clinics for my taste but I’m heading into 2026 healthy!

12/23/2025

🌅 Yesterday was the solstice.

The light is returning—and I like to mark that.

As it does, I’m clarifying 🔍 my values and gently examining what needs to shift so I stay aligned with where I’m going.

This letting go isn’t seasonal. ❄️ 🌱 ☀️ 🍂

It isn’t sudden.

🌀 It’s the continuation of decades of healing, practice, and evolution—work I’ll keep doing for as long as I’m here.

Steady. Grounded. Ongoing. 🥾

12/08/2025

💝 Most parenting advice starts with: “Connect with your child.”

But here’s the truth no one says out loud:

🤦‍♀️ You can’t authentically connect with your child when your own nervous system is in full alarm mode.

😩 When you’re triggered, flooded, angry, scared, overwhelmed, or transported straight back into your own childhood — your body cannot fake safety.

Kids feel what’s happening inside us before they hear a single word we say.

Connection doesn’t start with scripts.
It starts with your state.

If you’re tense, bracing, shutting down, or simmering with frustration, your child’s neuroception picks it up instantly.

💓 Even “gentle” words can feel threatening when the adult’s body is broadcasting danger.

This is why “connection over control” sometimes fails — because it’s being done from a dysregulated body.

Kids don’t need perfection. They don’t need calm. They don’t need a Zen master. 🧘🏼‍♀️

They need realness.

They need truth.

They need a parent who can say, “Hang on, my body is freaking out — I’m here, and I’m working on it.”

They need a parent who can take one breath, soften one muscle, shift one cell toward presence.

Because here’s what children learn from that:

“My parent’s stress isn’t my fault.”

“I’m not too much.”

“We can have hard moments and still be okay.”

“Relationships can rupture… and repair.”

These scripts aren’t about being polished.

They’re about being honest and connected while you’re human and triggered.

😮‍💨 If you’ve ever felt like you’re failing because you get overwhelmed — you’re not.

💞 You’re doing the courageous, generational repair work of learning to stay present with yourself and your child, even when your own history gets loud.

✨ This is parenting from truth, not performance.
And kids feel the difference immediately. ✨

12/07/2025

💓 If “connection over control” feels impossible when your child is spiraling, you’re not broken — you’re human.

Connection doesn’t start with the child. It starts with your nervous system. 🧠

Your child learns regulation from the state you bring into the moment, not the scripts you say.

If your body is bracing, tense, overwhelmed, scared, or triggered, they feel it instantly. 😬

💖 Kids don’t respond to the performance of calm — they respond to the truth of your internal state.

➡️ This is why “trying to be patient” often backfires.

➡️ The child senses the pressure.

➡️ They sense the fear.

➡️ They sense the overwhelm behind your eyes.

✨ They sense everything. ✨

🌀 And for some kids — especially neurodivergent kids whose neuroception is extra sensitive — even a slightly dysregulated parent can feel like danger.

Not because you’re dangerous, but because their nervous system reads energy before language.

The real work isn’t to be calm. ⬅️

😊 The real work is to be authentic, regulated enough, and honest:

“I’m getting overwhelmed. I’m here. I’m taking a breath.” 😮‍💨

💞 That is connection.

❤️ That is safety.

You don’t have to be perfect.

You don’t have to suppress your emotions.

You don’t have to bubble-wrap your body language.

You just have to be present enough to stay with your child’s experience without abandoning your own.

That’s what builds trust.

That’s what builds cooperation.

That’s what builds resilience on both sides.

💝 Connection is a nervous system state — not a parenting technique.

12/06/2025

😫 If you’ve ever wondered, “Why won’t my kid just LISTEN?!” — you’re in good company.

🧐 Most “not listening” moments aren’t defiance at all.

🧠 They’re nervous system moments. Overwhelm moments. Connection moments.

Kids don’t learn regulation through fear, threats, or power struggles.

💞They learn it through relationship — through the steady presence of an adult whose body says, “You’re safe with me.”

💚 When a child’s nervous system feels supported, their brain can shift out of survival mode and into cooperation, flexibility, and problem-solving.

🌀 And here’s the part that matters just as much:
your nervous system is part of the equation too.

Your tone, your tension, your history, your internal weather — your neuroception — all shape how your child’s body reads the moment.

Neither of you is operating in isolation; you’re in a living, breathing feedback loop with each other. ♾️

➡️ You don’t have to be calm all the time.

You just need to notice what’s happening inside you as well as inside them. 💖

🌀 And for neurodivergent kids (ADHD, autism, sensory needs, PDA profiles, etc.), overwhelm hits faster and harder. ✨

Their nervous systems often burn brighter, feel bigger, and fill up more quickly.

That’s not misbehavior — it’s human wiring.

Connection and co-regulation help them access their strengths. 💪

This is why “connection over control” isn’t about being soft or permissive.

🌻 It’s about understanding how human brains and bodies actually work.

💓It’s about leading from warmth instead of threat.

💝 It’s about teaching skills instead of enforcing obedience.

🤗 It’s about being the adult your child can come toward, not hide from.

You don’t need scripts or perfection.

You need presence. Repair. Curiosity.

A willingness to feel with your child instead of managing over them.

When we choose connection — even imperfectly — something shifts.

Their body softens.

Ours does too.

And in that little pocket of relational safety, kids finally have the space to listen, learn, and grow. 🌱

11/27/2025

In a season that carries both warmth and weight, I’m holding many truths at once.

Gratitude, yes — but also the complicated reality that these holidays rest on stories of Indigenous erasure and displacement.

This isn’t abstract for me.

My own lineage is woven into that history: ancestors who arrived on the Mayflower, ancestors who taught in a Protestant Indian school on Madeline Island, ancestors who helped open Yosemite Valley to tourism — a legacy that reshaped land and lives in ways I can’t ignore.

I sit with that history because I believe in repair — not as a grand gesture, but as a daily practice.

As someone living now on the unceded lands of the Kootenai, Salish, Cayuse, and Walla Walla peoples, remembering isn’t enough.

Gratitude that doesn’t also make room for truth isn’t gratitude at all.

So these ten gratitudes aren’t a bypassing of history — they’re what steadies me within it.

They’re the threads that help me show up with presence, humility, and a willingness to keep unlearning and relearning.

They’re how I root myself in the kind of future I want to contribute to — one that honors the land, the people who have always belonged to it, and the responsibility I carry because of where and who I come from.

Whether you’re spending this day with family, chosen family, a quiet walk, your dogs, or a pie eaten straight from the tin (no judgment), I’m sending you steadiness and warmth.

May gratitude make us softer, not smaller — and may it make us braver in the truths we choose to hold.

What’s grounding you this week? ✨🍂

11/04/2025

👋 Hey!

I am thrilled to announce that my episode on just dropped this morning!

💖 It was an incredible experience sharing my insights, stories, and perspectives with all of you.

We had an interesting conversation and talked about the great city of together.

⏰ If you haven’t listened yet, now is the perfect time to tune in and come along on this podcast adventure with me!

I want to express my sincere gratitude to the amazing hosts, and
, for the warm welcome and for providing such an incredible platform to share my
story.

✨ It’s an honor to be a part of community. ✨

10/25/2025

😘I see you — the parents doing everything they can to make ends meet, juggling work, care, school, and hope.

I’ve been there. Programs like Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) helped me keep food on the table when every dollar was already spoken for.

🥰 The day I no longer needed those benefits, I felt proud — not because receiving help was shameful, but because I had finally reached a place where I could stand on my own.

🛟That’s what safety nets are for: to help us get through and move forward.

That’s why part of my practice includes helping outside my sliding scale when I can — because support matters.

💻If you need help finding resources, findhelp.org is a good place to start.

💗And if you’re in a position to give, supporting programs that meet families where they are can change lives.

10/14/2025

💖You don’t have to micromanage your kid’s every move to be a good parent.

Stepping back isn’t giving up — it’s giving them room to grow. 🌱

Real confidence doesn’t come from us doing it for them.

It comes from them realizing, “I’ve got this.” 💪

Take a breath and exhale. You’ve got this too. 💛

10/12/2025

Play is the language of childhood… and sometimes the kindest thing we can say is nothing at all. ✨

No rescuing. No micromanaging.

Just showing up steady, curious, and grounded while kids build their own stories.

And if stepping back feels hard — that’s not you doing something wrong.

That’s your nervous system remembering. 🧠

Maybe no one gave you that space when you were little. Maybe play didn’t feel safe, or fair, or free.

But now, as the adult, you get to rewrite the script.

You get to breathe, notice what’s happening inside you, and hold the steady ground your child can grow on.

🌿 This is how kids learn trust — in themselves, and in you.

Save this for the next time your hands want to jump in faster than your heart does. 💛

09/04/2025

Fantastic!!!

Mel Moon Comedy best ever!

https://www.facebook.com/melmooncomedian/videos/1031525742088973/?mibextid=rS40aB7S9Ucbxw6v

09/03/2025

✨ Risky play isn’t reckless — it’s how kids learn courage, self-regulation, and resilience.

🌳From climbing high to disappearing around corners, 🚴‍♂️ kids naturally seek just enough fear to grow—and research shows it benefits emotional and physical development.

Ellen Sandseter describes six types of risky play—
1. heights,
2. speed,
3. tools,
4. elements,
5. rough‑and‑tumble, and
6. disappearing

—that spark joy and build real-life skills.

Evolutionary studies and animal research show that as structured play increases, free play decreases.

And risky play deprivation leads to anxiety, depression, and behaviors that struggle with fear, and lowered emotional resilience.

😬 Yet letting children take risks often feels terrifying. Parents face their own fears, overwhelming community scrutiny, and even the threat of CPS. 🚨

But here’s the truth: children are experts at knowing their edge.

They dose themselves with just the right amount of challenge—and stop when it’s too much. 🛑

👉🏻👉🏻In fact, they’re often safer in free play than in adult-directed sports.👈🏻👈🏻

Protecting kids doesn’t mean removing all risk. (Definitely remove HAZARDS).

It means creating brave spaces where they can stretch, explore, and say, “I can handle this.”

Risky play isn’t the opposite of safety—it’s the path to true resilience. 🦸‍♀️ 🦸🏽‍♂️🦸🏾‍♀️

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http://familyinsightstherapy.com/

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Let’s regard childhood a bit differently....

I believe children and babies deserve to be respected, and regarded as human beings in their own right, from the get go. I do everything I can to educate community members and parents on where we fall short of providing our children with this respect, in how we birth them, raise them, allow them to become educated, and allow them to play freely, and how we teach them how to be in this world socially. I am not currently taking clients, however I am happy to answer questions. I will be sharing blog posts, articles, and ideas here, and on my website at http://dylanannspradlin.com. Please consider signing up for my newsletter so you don’t miss a blog post! You can do that here: http://dylanannspradlin.com/sign-up/