David Thomas - Raising Emotionally Strong Boys

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"Emotionally mature" may not be the words you use to describe your son. Maybe your boy is prone to outbursts, or rarely says more than one sentence at a time. Counselor and author David Thomas is here to help us nurture and raise emotionally strong boys. In today's conversation, you'll learn: 

2:30 How can we understand our boys better by using the Incredible Hulk? 

5:00 Teach these three R’s to your kids so they can regulate themselves, going from stressed to settled 

7:00 Work things out for yourself out loud so your child can hear how you manage stress and problems without angry outbursts

9:10 Boys funnel emotions through anger; they are more physical than girls (hitting walls, biting, etc) 

11:00 How a walk, run, and movement can help your son regulate emotions 

13:30 How to respond according to research when your boy says, “But I want to play my video game, it helps me calm down.” 

15:00 Creating a top five list of regulation strategies 

17:20 Emotional vocabulary chart - how to get one for free 

19:45 The difference between saying “I am depressed” versus “I feel sad” 

22:30 Suicidal ideations - how can you tell if your child is serious? 

24:30 Adult men lead some of the scariest stats out there - including suicide 

27:50 Practice this exercise to put events in perspective (so they know losing homework isn’t the end of the world) 

David Thomas is the director of family counseling at Daystar Counseling in Nashville, TN and the coauthor of 10 books. He and his fellow counselor Sissy Goff co-host the podcast Raising Boys and Girls. David’s newest book is Raising Emotionally Strong Boys: Tools Your Son Can Build on for Life.  

Find out more about David Thomas and his book Raising Emotionally Strong Boys at RaisingBoysandGirls.com

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