On the first Tuesday of every month, at 11 am Eastern time, from September through May, Dr. Ross Greene and Lives in the Balance Director of Outreach Kim Hopkins cover a wide range of topics related to how we understand and treat our kids -- especially those with concerning behavior -- and the Collaborative & Proactive Solutions (CPS) model. Whether you're a parent, a grandparent, an educator, a mental health clinician, or just someone who cares about kids, you can call into the program to get your questions answered or submit them via email here. And, if you can't listen live, all the programs are archived on i-Tunes. Today's program topic: De-escalation is not crisis prevention.

We had an update from one previous caller (Plan C for the win!), an email about how to use the model with toddlers, and another caller who is worried about her 18 year-old son who seems to have regressed considerably.  Check out the advice given about the CPS Model across a range of ages!  We will be back in September - You can call into the program to get your questions answered or submit them via email here.  And, if you can't listen live, all the programs are archived on i-Tunes.

We were able to clear some of our email backlog in today's episode and talk through how a grandparent could bring up CPS to her daughter who is parenting a challenging child, what to do when solutions don't work, and using the model with a kiddo who appears to be cognitively rigid.  Have a listen!

Interesting discussion about how step 1 - the Empathy Step - of the CPS Model helps us to understand the inner worlds of our children and how they perceive things...which often can be very different from how we adults perceive things.  Important not to skip this step if we are going to help them durably solve problems!  Hear the surprising information our caller learned when she talked with her child about what makes it hard to engage in CPS and problem solve things that are not going well.  We also briefly answered an email regarding sensory issues.

Thanks to two callers, we were able to talk through some of the key things that get in the way of Plan B getting off the ground - have a listen!