Ava Rose, LCSW

10/24/2025

💜🫶🏽✨

10/12/2025

10/04/2025

Repair Template:

Step 1: Apologize, no excuses, no deflection, no blame shifting, just a sincere apology

Step 2: Do what you can to make things right. This includes stopping what your child said was hurtful. This can also include paying for therapy, etc.

Step 3: Sit with the discomfort. Just like any other relationship an apology may not result in a restored relationship. If you are apologizing with the only goal to have a restored relationship, you’re doing it wrong.

10/03/2025

Great explanation of dysregulation as a result of past developmental trauma.

(Note: my reposting isn’t an endorsement of the workshop advertised at the end. I’m just sharing the wisdom).

09/04/2025

Early on, if your body learned that playing a certain role such as the caretaker, peace-keeper, overachiever, invisible child, keeps the connection intact, this became about survival: your autonomic nervous system constantly scanning for cues of safety and threat (neuroception) and adapting by sacrificing authenticity for attachment.

But here’s the cost: when you keep rehearsing that role into adulthood, your nervous system continues to treat old patterns as current truth. Instead of evolving toward regulation and authentic expression, you remain trapped in the very dynamics that once protected you.

Stepping away from that role is not simply a matter of willpower. It requires the rewiring of neuroception, a renegotiation of safety. It means teaching the body that it no longer has to maintain connection by collapsing, appeasing, or self-erasing.

And yes, this shift may unsettle those who benefited from the old performance and will invite them to evolve. But healing requires breaking the loop: the invitation for your nervous system is to learn that safety can coexist with authenticity.

That is where post-traumatic growth begins.

Effie 🦋

09/03/2025

A groundbreaking study using brain scans has revealed a disturbing parallel: children exposed to intense family conflict show brain changes similar to those found in combat veterans. That’s right — the emotional warfare inside a home can mimic the neurological toll of literal battlefield trauma.

Researchers found that kids who witness chronic yelling, aggressive arguments, or domestic tension have altered brain activity in areas linked to fear, stress, and emotional regulation. These are the same brain regions often affected in soldiers returning from war zones.

The amygdala, a part of the brain responsible for processing threats and fear, becomes hypersensitive, constantly on alert. Meanwhile, the prefrontal cortex, which helps manage emotions and make rational decisions, often becomes underdeveloped or impaired. This combination can lead to long-term emotional difficulties, anxiety, or even PTSD-like symptoms later in life.

What makes this even more alarming is that many families underestimate the impact of loud fights or emotional tension on children. But the science is clear: a child's brain is shaped by the emotional climate they grow up in.

This discovery highlights the urgent need for family therapy, safe environments, and emotional education to protect developing minds. Just because there are no visible bruises doesn’t mean the damage isn’t real.

07/21/2025

07/12/2025

If you’ve ever wondered why you must have training and a license to drive a car, but no training and no license is to raise a child, then the following might interest you.

Everyone can’t be forced to take parenting classes, but what if there was an entirely new kind of parenting education that reaches everyone, everywhere?

A kind of parenting education that reaches grandparents raising grandchildren, mature parents, young parents, soon-to-be parents, teens, and school age children.

A kind of parenting education that would become a permanent fixture of our culture.

A kind of parenting education that comes not from a government entity that some people might not trust, but from the community itself.

Believe it or not, this entirely new kind of parenting education exists…

and it requires no planning, no effort, no time, and costs nothing.

The Camarillo, CA nonprofit Advancing Parenting does one thing and one thing only. It gives away parenting tip bumper stickers.

Don’t laugh!

Bumper stickers are an easy and powerful way to teach everyone about parenting. There are fifty-five in a set and the messages focus on the development of children’s mental health, intellect, and character. Some are quite wordy, but there’s plenty of time to read them at stoplights.

At intersections you can use your rearview mirror to watch drivers and passengers read the message. They point, smile, nod, and conversations begin. People are genuinely pleased that parenting information is being shared in this very public way.

Visit www.advancingparenting.org to request a free bumper sticker. Schools, communities, businesses, clinics, organizations, service clubs, and agencies may request complete sets that can be put in holders and placed on counters so staff and visitors can choose one for their cars. They can also be given away at meetings and events.

Just one will be read thousands of times! Please share.

07/11/2025

Some children grow up in homes where there isn’t enough care to go around.⁣
⁣
So they step in.⁣
They become the organiser, the emotional support, the caretaker.⁣
⁣
Not because they should.⁣
But because the system needs someone to hold it together.⁣
⁣
This is how parentification begins — when a child takes on the role of a parent.⁣
⁣
It can happen when:⁣
🌀 A parent is ill, absent, or overwhelmed⁣
🌀 There are younger siblings to care for⁣
🌀 The child is pulled into adult conflict⁣
🌀 Substance abuse, divorce, or emotional immaturity are present⁣
⁣
It’s a survival strategy.⁣
And it can follow us into adulthood — making it hard to rest, receive, or even know what we need.⁣
⁣
If this was you, you make sense.⁣
And healing is possible.⁣
⁣
Love, Jen 🪷⁣
________⁣