Brains in Bloom
The Neuroscience Behind Your Child’s Big Feelings and Behaviors
3-week online parent group
This is an invitation to get curious about their most over-the-top reactions and under-the-table retreats.
It’s time to gather more effective strategies for the days, months and years to come.
I know you’ve tried A LOT of things.
We’re adding a missing piece: The brilliance of our brain and nervous system to increase protection when we face more challenge than we’re ready for.
Understanding this neurobiological process is key in boosting regulation and resilience.
Behavior change is rooted in connection.
Let’s explore what’s fueling the distress you’re seeing.
And finally make sense of what those behaviors are communicating.
This summer, we’re planting new seeds of connection. And resilience is blooming.
“It’s crucial to keep in mind that no matter how nonsensical and frustrating our child’s feelings may seem to us, they are real and important to our child.
It’s vital that we treat them as such in our response.”
― Daniel J. Siegel, pediatric psychiatrist & relational neuroscientist
From Meltdowns to Moments of Connection
We’re going WAY beyond rewards and consequences here
When we focus on behavior as good or bad, we can get stuck on the idea of increasing of extinguishing it. We risk missing the need that’s driving it. And it happens all over again!
Growing research in relational neuroscience links sturdy relationships with increased regulation. This helps us make sense of non-verbal cues and respond to distress in ways that satisfy both their needs and ours. Even if not in the very same moment.
Become a behavior detective. If there’s one thing we can count on, it’s the power of conflict to point us toward a shift. So in this class, we’re shifting how we look at behavior—and decoding the clues it gives us about what’s going on inside.
Good news! We can use this information to recover from upsets, mistakes, and missed connections, too. That’s part of secure attachment and bonding.
Parents are family leaders
We set the tone. As parenthood maps a path through our lives, we’re called to make new connections between how we were parented and what signals home and safety to us.
We shape the route. As we navigate what strategies are truly effective with each of our kids, we gain stamina by tuning in to what works for us, tracking our own stress levels and coping.
We get to savor and delight. Just as we learn to comfort and play with our children, we are called to notice what steadies us. I want you to follow your own guidance and needs as we lean into Summer. This series is for you. We will laugh!
We learn to balance their needs with our own. Because weighing our roles and values with our coping skills is excellent modeling, planting the seeds of regulation, rupture, and repair as we tend our kids. We’re teaching them to self-regulate.
This 3-part series offers an overview of how brain development and off-track shenanigans, combined with the physiology of stress and regulation, and the power of connection—can shed a whole new light on the function of kids’ big baffling behaviors.
Let’s start to cultivate a shift!
3-week Tour of Brains In Bloom:
🪴 The Neuroscience of Behavior 🪴
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WEEK 1 :: What You See...Is NOT What You Get
We’ll map a new path as you become the resident expert on your child’s behavior. Here’s where we’re headed…
Why It’s Perfectly Normal
to feel a bit baffled, confused & overwhelmed in parenthood—it’s not just you!
How Not To Take The Behavior Bait—and resist getting sucked into other people’s reactionsBasic Brain Development
That helps orient to realistic expectations and shift your attention on purpose -
WEEK 2 :: The Keys To Regulation + Connection
Let’s connect the dots between which behaviors show up and what they mean. Looking for patterns…
How Regulation Drives Behavior, so you can recognize the needs underneath and strategies for relief
Stress Shapes Our Nervous System and motivates our behavior in strange and surprising ways!
Decode Non-Verbal Clues + Cues And proactively offer support—before behavior goes sideways! -
WEEK 3 :: A New Lens On Behavior Saves You Energy
When you get fresh perspective on stuck spots, new focus shows up to shift where your energy goes!
Teach kids about their brains and needs without shame or blame
Understand the science of behavior, with resources to support your learning
Survival skills for chronic stress to protect your energy and practice before you’re flooded
What to Expect
We’ll meet virtually for 3 sessions
Choose your dates at check-out:
🌸 11:30-1pm Pacific, Mondays in June
🌺 4:30-6pm Pacific, Wednesdays in July
Meeting on Zoom
$147 per family for 3 weeks
small group teaching sessions
email support for your questions
journal prompts to help you practice and reflect on what you’re learning between sessions
visual tools to help new info stick (and keep practicing)
guidance for talking with kids about their own brains and needs
resources for continued learning and sharing with co-parents, teachers, etc.
Partial scholarships available by request.
Seeing behavior differently offers a whole new perspective.
Let’s join forces
Parenthood is a multi-layered endeavor. Maybe you want to understand ages and stages—so you can predict when they’ll grow out of tantrums, lean into transitions, or stop tangling with siblings.
Less noise and chaos would be nice. And a nap.
Maybe you’re committed to yelling less and listening more. Or maybe you’re fed up with contradictory tips from “parenting experts.”
Just because you don’t know what to do doesn’t mean you don’t know your kid. In fact, knowing is not even half the battle! We’ll get curious about what gets in the way, even when your thinking is sound and your commitment is sturdy.
You are the absolute best resource they have. Because you are their person. And you love them to oodles and bits.
Which means there are plenty of cracks and crevices for frustration and concerns to get stuck in.
That’s where I come in.
I don’t shy away from the messy, contradictory, fully-charged bits and tangles of parenthood. I’ve travelled this territory. And I own a haz-mat suit just for these purposes.
I’m MereAnn Reid (sounds like Mary-Ann) and I support preschool and school-age families through navigating BIG behaviors. I offer practical, flexible tools rooted in regulation and supported by brain science, with playfulness, buckets of compassion, and a golden thread of curiosity to guide us.
If you’re raising a kid who’s extra-bright, extra-sensitive, or extra-intense—this series is for you.
Let’s join forces and explore ways to get unstuck.