Raising Kids With Big, Baffling Behaviors:
A Course for Parents
10 weeks of practical, brain-based tools for parenting highly-sensitive kids and steady support for YOU.
Your kids are not in that stack of parenting books…
And their behavior is not a reflection of you.
We are ALL wired for connection.
And we each feel connection a little differently.
Some of us are just more sensitive. Or creative. Or navigating the world at different speeds.
Some are autistic. Or artistic. Or Both!!
Maybe you’re a mathematically-minded inventor. Or an improvisational cook. A teacher with an ADHD brain. Or all these!
Kids are like this too: Multi-faceted. With shifting strengths. And changing needs.
We are perfectly imperfect humans, all doing our best in each and every moment.
Raising kids means raising resilience—and we each have our own flavor. This is why I periodically get the urge to throw a parenting book across the room!!
You already know traditional parenting isn’t working the way you’d expected. Nor as described on page 47. When you implement some of the tried-and-true, well-meaning suggestions—they can backfire.
Your kid sees right through them. Because they’re super smart. Or maybe, ‘fake it til you make it’ doesn’t sit quite right with them.
And I’m guessing that what worked with your other kid, or your neighbor’s kids, or your niece…isn’t landing the same way with your sensitive or spicy one.
You’re not doing it wrong.
And, for sure, it’s not just you.
I’m a child and family therapist who’s neurodivergent myself. I’ve spent the past 5 years of my 16-year career honing my specialty in neurodiversity-affirming play therapy, parent support, and training fellow therapists.
This group is the main program I lead for families navigating the gifts and challenges of parenthood with sensitive nervous systems in the mix.
Whether your kids—or you—need an approach beyond rewards & star charts, ever-more creative consequences, or school behavior reports—you’ll be in good company here. I’m so glad you found us!
Get support with tantrums and mixed signals, boundless energy and power struggles!
Live sessions on Zoom
April 2 - June 11, 2025
Wednesdays, 4:30-6:15PM Pacific
What You Can Expect:
10 weeks of sturdy, neurodiversity-affirming support (adapting supports to fit your kid, their needs, and yours— in their current stage of development)
45 minutes of teaching + tools each week
Q&A discussion every time we meet
Full-color printable workbook & visual resources to keep the tools at your fingertips—or on your fridge!
Sensory activities and tools to practice between sessions
You get to decide how much “homework” (i.e.—mindful experiments, written reflection, video/audio resources)
You get to decide how much “homework” (i.e.—mindful experiments, written reflection, video/audio resources)
We’ll explore the neuroscience of behavior, expanding your toolbox with a series of flexible, practical strategies for responding in the midst of intensity and overwhelm, while you’re also supported in growing your capacity for managing stress and reducing frustration.
This group is especially designed to explore what’s fueling BIG behaviors and engage differently to invite different results in situations like these:
- High Anxiety around transitions, unexpected changes, separation, new routines, and peer/social interactions
- Daily Routines that go sideways —like picky eating, toileting issues, bedtime worries, and sensory differences—to bring some harmony and a more predictable rhythm
- Power Struggles and Sibling Tangles —that no one can win; I’ll show you what to do with your energy instead
- Meltdowns and Blow-Ups —how to tell the difference + what they’re trying to communicate
- Aggression & Risk-taking —that scare the bejebees out of you! Let’s set some limits that stick
- PDA Tendencies—including demand avoidance, high frustration, anxiety, defiance, control-seeking
- Sensitivity to Rejection / Criticism —including misreading social cues, social anxiety, and feeling left out; these are disorienting and stressful for kids, and confusing for adults. I’ll share strategies for navigating miscommunication, bringing down the intensity, and easing avoidance.
This series is strategically designed, so you don’t just learn a bunch of parenting tools and techniques. You’ll be equipped with practical interventions that actually work—and you’ll understand which tools to use when, and why—based on the science of being relationally, socially, and behaviorally human.
With this no-shame, no-blame approach to parenting, you’ll finally understand why good intentions and honest emotions can clash—even when you “know what to do”—but especially when you feel overwhelmed.
The course is especially powerful for parents navigating neurodivergence in their kids, themselves, or both. The curriculum was created by Robyn Gobbel, host of The Baffling Behavior Show podcast. The content is practical, smart, playful, and packed with immediately useful tools—I love teaching it and hearing parent feedback and questions!
Our weekly topics are mapped below, so you have an idea of where we’re headed.
Part One :: The (stunning) Neuroscience of Behavior
How To Become The Expert In Your Kid’s Behavior
We’ll explore the brain science of regulation and behavior, with attention to non-verbal communication, taking a no-shame, no-blame approach to making sense of big reactions and specific support for anchoring through high stress moments.
I’ll share how I talk with kids about understanding their own brains and needs—so you can help guide them through this process, too. And you’ll get to experience a whole new perspective on what it means to navigate the world (inside and outside) with a vulnerable nervous system.
Week 1
What You See Isn’t What You Get
You are nearly the best-equipped person in the world to write the operator’s manual for your own child, second to only to them!
Why do none of the off-the-shelf parenting books seem to work for your kid?
Because they’re not written for or about them.
What a book can’t tell you is how to handle each individual moment when you and/or your child are flooded. You know them best. And ALL behavior is important communication.
Week 2
Regulated, Connected Kids Who Feel Safe Can Behave Well
The deal with parenthood is that we don’t get all the information up front. It’s more like a spigot that turns on fast or slow over time, sometimes a trickle of insight flows out—other times it’s gushing!
In this series, we’ll start with navigating the hotspots, making sense of what’s happening in those moments, and working backward from there…so you can uncover what’s sparking intensity or shutdown—and meet the next mighty moment with more perspective & tools.
Week 3
A New Lens On Behavior
Why rewards, consequence, logic & control don’t budge some of the most persistent behaviors.
When we focus on the behavior, it can feel like playing a game of Whack-A-Mole! Just when one behavior shifts, another one pops up…
You’re not nuts—and you’re not the only one! This is how vulnerable nervous systems respond to stress.
Together, we’ll get curious about how Connection, Protection, and Non-Verbal communication are part of the path to finding new ways in.
Part Two :: The Tools
Now Let’s Shift Those Behaviors
(not ‘fix’ your kid)
Week 4
Getting To Know The Engage, Protect, Shut-Down Brain Pathways
Start talking with your kids about their own brains and regulation needs. Inviting them to recognize and befriend their different moods and internal cues goes a looooong way to empowering self-soothing. It begins with modeling some fresh tools and making them your own.
Week 5
Increase Felt Safety (in the body, the environment, and relationships)
We have a lot more power over the environment and communication patterns around our kids than we do their internal experience. This week we’re talking about how all these factors come together to signal a shift in intensity and invite connection.
Week 6
Changing The Brain With Connection and Co-Regulation
Repairing upsets and side-stepping power struggles means tracking the signals we’re sending and how we’re managing our own emotions. We’re expanding your toolbox with non-verbal communication and limits that stick without harshness or punishment. A focus on connection is not permissive parenting; it’s a baseline bond you can lean into, and path back when they flip their lid.
Weeks 7
Strategies To Calm The Activated Brain And Soothe The Shut-Down Brain
This section, alone, has 6 flexible strategies for soothing and settling. And start crafting your filter for which ones to use when! Don’t worry…we’ll also cover the pitfalls of each strategy, so you know when to pivot.
Week 8
What To Do When Their Thinking Brain Returns
(Or “What about a consequence?”)
Rupture and repair are essential parts of the attachment dance. We can’t prevent every conflict or meltdown, but we can definitely use those fire-starters as sparks for reconnection! This module is all about recovering from conflict and strengthening your family bond.
Part Three ::
The Regulated Parent
Why Knowing Isn’t Even Half The Battle
(AKA: Why “know better, do better” isn’t the whole story)
Supporting your child and their needs is an essential responsibility of parenthood. But it does not require you to let go of your own needs in the process. It’s possible to feel more connected with your child without losing track of yourself. I’ll show you what I mean…no bubble baths or solo retreats required. And no judgment if those are part of your dream! We’ll lean into expanding your capacity by tuning into yourself.
Week 9
How You Can Know What To Do And Still Not Do It
We’re braiding together what you know with how to access your new tools in moments of overwhelm. And how to recover when you can’t stop the snowball from rolling!
Week 10
Growing Your Capacity For Stress Tolerance + 4 Steps To Not Flip Your Lid
Expanding your Window of Tolerance and making your tools more portable are two keys that will help you keep your new awareness and strategies accessible.
We’ll wrap up together, with a chance for review, more Q+A, and a tiny celebration!
Discount offered for current clients. Payment plans available by request.
A word about trust and belonging.
I trust your judgment, insights, and bandwidth. There’s no such thing as “being behind” in this series. You are where you are. And all of you is welcome.
This series is geared for families navigating neurodiversity and behaviors that feel confusing, overwhelming, or not responding to “typical” parenting strategies. Sometimes this includes adjustment to new diagnoses or parents discovering your own traits of neurodivergence in the process of figuring out what your child needs to best support their brain and learning style.
If you’d like to enroll with a partner/co-parent, the fee is per family, not each—they are welcome to join you! Kids do not attend sessions; it’s for parents only.
Partial scholarships & payment plans available by request. Overall, the group will apply to raising kids, ages 2-14.
I’m offering spots first to families in my therapy practice. If there are any spots left, I’ll reach out to my waitlist and past clients.
If we haven’t yet worked together, and you wonder if this group is a fit for your family, request a free phone consult, and let’s chat.
You’re also welcome to send me your questions via my Contact Form, or let me know you’re interested at the application button below. This series is by application-only, so I can balance the group with respect for each family’s needs.
Parenting With Neurodivergence In Mind 🌸
Parenting With Neurodivergence In Mind 🌸
Join me for a series dedicated to raising kids with respect for who and how they are—and more support for parenting them!
More About MereAnn
Hi! I’m MereAnn Reid, LPC, RPT, child development specialist and registered play therapist.
This collection of resources and portable tools is shaped by over 20 years in play therapy, early childhood education and youth programs, with lessons learned from working with kids in classrooms, playrooms, and summer camps. My approach to working with child development and family dynamics includes extensive training in attachment, sensory & emotional regulation, relational neuroscience, trauma healing, and mindful parenting.
My work with kids and families has been significantly influenced by several mentors and colleagues. Since 2017, Robyn Gobbel has been a mentor for me in parent coaching and neurosociology (the brain science of human behavior). When she created this course, I joyfully joined her in a full year of intensive study in a community of committed parents and neurodiverse humans.
My personalized teaching of this material also incorporates the brain and neuroscience research of Dr. Bruce Perry—founder of the Neurosequential Model of early childhood development—the playful parenting approach of Hand in Hand Parenting, and attachment theory of Circle of Security.