When a child believes the unkind story about themselves, reassurance can feel impossible. Kind words may sound boastful or untrue, while harshness feels more honest.

In this episode, Amy Smythe is joined by family therapist Denise Bevan to explore what is happening when children get stuck in painful self talk. Together, they reflect on development, emotional safety, and why some well meant responses create space for children while others create pressure.

This is not a conversation about fixing or convincing. It is about attunement, noticing, and holding both truths at once. What you can see in your child and what they are genuinely experiencing.

There are times when children begin to make themselves smaller. They apologise for taking up space, soften their needs, or quieten parts of themselves that once felt free. Often this is not a problem to fix, but a response to what feels safe around them.

In this episode, Amy Smythe and family therapist Denise Bevan gently expore what it can mean when being "too much" starts to feel unsafe. They reflect on the difference between adaptability and self erasure, and how children learn to shape themselves in response to their environments and relationships.

This conversation invites a compassionate lens on belonging, context, and nervous system safety. It offers reassurance that noticing these moments with care can help children feel held, seen, and safer to be themselves again.

When a child can only see what they've done wrong, reassurance often isn't enough.

In this episode, Amy Smythe and family therapist Denise Bevan, gently explore why children can become stuck in self-critical stories, and what it can mean for a grownup to hold the good stories a child can't yet see.

This compassionate conversation reflects on why reassurance so often fails in these moments, and how witnessing rather than convincing can help children feel safer when big feelings and self-doubt take over.