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Torque

How To Talk To Your Children: A Clinical Psychologist's Toolkit for Parents Who Want To Connect

Season 1, Ep. 15
•

How To Talk To Your Children

A Clinical Psychologist's Toolkit for Parents Who Want To Connect

Guest: Dr David Marcus — clinical psychologist, 40 years working with families



Episode Description


Dr David Marcus has spent 40 years working with families under stress. What he sees, consistently, is not bad parents. It's parents making assumptions about their children that stop communication before it starts.

In this conversation, David walks through the four assumptions parents make about their children's emotionality — and why, if any one of them is false, you're not going to get a response. He introduces the concept of the soothing presence — what it actually means to be okay when the person in front of you isn't, and how that skill, when a child internalises it, becomes the foundation of their emotional resilience for life.

He talks about why asking why did you do that might be the worst question a parent can ask, what to say instead, and the power of the word something as a non-judgmental way into a difficult conversation. About the fairness trap with siblings. About how the history level — the accumulated memory of how conversations have gone before — fills us up before we even begin. About the pressures teenagers face. And about what he'd tell any parent right now who wants to connect more with their children.

This is an episode for parents. But as Dom reflects in the takeaway, the skills David describes go well beyond parenting — they apply to every difficult conversation you will ever have.




Timestamps


01:17 Introducing Dr David Marcus

01:36 What Does He Typically Witness in Families Under Stress?

02:42 The Four Assumptions Parents Make About Their Children

02:42 Assumption 1 — That Children Experience Their Emotions

03:46 Assumption 2 — That Children Can Tolerate the Intensity of Their Emotions

04:07 Assumption 3 — That Children Have the Language to Express Their Emotions

05:11 Assumption 4 — That It's Safe for the Child to Express Their Emotions With This Person

05:36 The Soothing Presence — Being OK When the Person in Front of You Isn't

06:40 The Temptation to Fix — Why It Doesn't Work

07:02 Emptying Out — Why Logic Doesn't Land When Someone Is Filled Up

07:50 How Parents Feel About Children Often Reflects How Children Feel About Themselves

08:16 Predictability as the Source of Trust

09:47 Unpredictable Parents — What It Does to a Child's Sense of Security

13:00 Screen Time — The Soothing Presence Problem of Modern Parenting

14:00 David's Pillow Story — When the Clinical Psychologist Got Mad

16:00 Why Children Need a Predictable Time When You Are Really There

18:00 The Dinner Table Conversation — Tell Me About Your Day

20:32 Why Did You Do That — The Worst Question You Can Ask

20:47 Something Made That Happen — A Better Way In

21:01 The Power of the Word Something — Non-Judgmental and Open

22:10 Mirroring Back — Emptying the Child Out

23:14 No Wonder You Did What You Did — Validating Without Approving

23:28 Productive Discipline and Building Resilience

25:03 Siblings — The Fairness Trap

26:53 The Emptying Out Process — What It Actually Means

29:01 The History Level — Getting Filled Up Before You Even Begin

32:00 Walls That Build Up Between People — How Communication Breaks Down

33:47 A Different Definition of Support

35:20 Teenagers Under Pressure — The Cost of Meeting Everyone Else's Expectations

36:58 David as a Parent — His Own Pitfalls

41:26 The Key Thing — Be OK Yourself First

42:44 Dom's Closing Reflection



You can find Dr David Marcus at

ParentRX - Dr. David Marcus Ph. D.


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Original music composed and used with permission from Alex Tilley

Video Editing for Socials assistance provided by Lily O'Connor

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  • 14. Just the Beginning — What 13 Conversations About Men's Mental Health Taught Me

    09:52||Season 1, Ep. 14
    Just the BeginningWhat 13 Conversations About Men’s Mental Health Taught MeA solo episode with Dom FioreEpisode DescriptionThis episode wasn’t planned. A guest asked Dom to hold their episode back at short notice — for good reason — and rather than fill the gap with something formulaic, Dom used it to reflect on what thirteen conversations with men about pressure, identity and connection have actually taught him.It’s also almost exactly a year since Dom had an accident that resulted in a brain injury — the event that led directly to this podcast existing. This episode is the first time he talks about it publicly.Dom reflects on the thread that runs through every conversation so far: the gap between the version of ourselves we show the world and the version we actually are. Where that gap shows up. What it costs. And what it takes to begin to close it.He also talks about David ‘Jacko’ Jackson — a former professional rugby player who sustained a brain injury and is currently running 100 consecutive ultra marathons for Headway, the brain injury charity — and what Jacko’s challenge says about the human capacity to find purpose in the hardest circumstances.The episode ends with a direct message to the listener: you have the power and the agency to write your own story. This is just the beginning.Timestamps00:00 Why This Episode Is Different — A Guest Asked to Hold Their Episode Back00:53 What It Means — A Chance to Reflect on 13 Conversations01:00 13 Episodes, 13 Conversations With Men About Life Under Pressure01:25 Why This Show Exists — The Brain Injury Anniversary01:39 What the Brain Injury Changed — Physically, Cognitively, and How Dom Connects02:03 Talk Came Out of the Accident, Not in Spite of It02:37 David ‘Jacko’ Jackson — 100 Ultra Marathons for Headway03:17 What Jacko’s Challenge Says About Finding Purpose in Hard Circumstances03:29 The Thread — The Gap Between the Version We Show and the Version We Are03:50 How the Gap Shows Up Differently Across Every Episode04:26 What the Men in These Conversations Have in Common04:43 Reflection 1 — Most Men Are Carrying Something They Haven’t Named05:26 Reflection 2 — The Gap Between the Outside and the Inside05:53 Freddie at the Olympics Feeling Like a Fraud. Jason Feeling Invisible.06:01 Connection Is the Answer — Not Therapy or a Programme or a Book06:18 The Moment Things Usually Change — Feeling Heard for the First Time06:33 The Well Actually There Is Something Moment06:51 Identity — Who Are You When the Job, the Sport, the Title Disappears?07:11 What Every Guest Has Had in Common — Willing to Find Out What’s on the Other Side07:21 This Has Been a Journey of Discovery and It’s Far From Over07:31 The Brain Injury — What It’s Taken Away and What It’s Given07:53 Lower Tolerance for the Superficial Version of Connection08:00 Here’s How to Connect Properly08:13 I’m Not Willing to Let the Accident Be the End of My Story08:25 You Have the Power and the Agency to Write Your Own Story08:36 The Pressure Men Feel — Real, But Not Fixed08:48 It Shifts When We Talk. It Shifts When We Listen.09:05 Thank You — 48 Countries, 13 Episodes, Just the BeginningAbout JackoDavid ‘Jacko’ Jackson sustained a brain injury during his career as a professional rugby player. He is currently running 100 consecutive ultra marathons to raise money for Headway, the brain injury charity. He is also a running coach. Find him on InstagramHeadway is the UK’s leading brain injury charity: Headway - the brain injury association | Headway