Dr. Leigh Weisz is the Founder of Coping Partners, a mental health clinic. She is a licensed clinical psychologist in private practice after having been on staff and affiliated with The Family Institute at Northwestern University for several years. She has experience working with children, adolescents, families, and individual adults in areas such as child and adolescent family therapy, grief and loss, and relationship issues.
Dr. Weisz earned her graduate degree in clinical psychology from the Illinois School of Professional Psychology with a speciality in children and families. She holds a bachelor’s degree in psychology and Spanish from the University of Michigan having graduated with honors. Dr. Weisz has practiced in community mental health, hospitals, and outpatient family medicine practice settings.
Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn:
- Dr. Leigh Weisz talks about the Fourth of July mass shooting in Highland Park, Illinois
- What parents should tell kids who have experienced a traumatic event
- How to answer questions from kids and help them process their emotions
- Dr. Weisz explains how adults who experience a tragedy can process their feelings
- How to help a child afraid of attending mass gatherings following a chaotic event
- Dr. Weisz’s tips for healing and moving forward
In this episode…
The mass shooting during the Fourth of July parade in Highland Park, Illinois left residents traumatized and scared. In the aftermath of the tragedy, many parents are wondering how to talk to their children about the violence that occurred. So, what are some ways you can help your children process their emotions and heal from such devastation?
Dr. Leigh Weisz says to first determine exactly what your children witnessed during the event. Once you’ve established that knowledge, it’s important to provide your kids with a safe space to express their feelings, without introducing any outside information from media sources. By validating your children’s feelings and reassuring them of their immediate safety, you can begin the healing process.
In this episode of The Coping Podcast, licensed clinical psychologist Dr. Leigh Weisz is joined by Dr. Jeremy Weisz, the Co-founder of Rise25 Media, to discuss how to talk to children after a traumatic event. Dr. Weisz talks about the mass shooting in Highland Park, Illinois, explains how adults and children can process their emotions, and shares tips for moving forward.
Resources Mentioned in this episode
Sponsor for this episode…
This episode is brought to you by Coping Partners.
Coping Partners is a mental health practice dedicated to helping children, adolescents, and adults manage various challenges including anxiety, divorce, behavioral issues, relationship problems and much more in the Chicago suburbs.
Our practitioners are devoted to building on our clients’ strengths and bolstering weaknesses.
To gain insight and tools for getting unstuck check out our website at CopingPartners.com, email us at support@copingpartners.com.
Episode Transcript
Intro 0:01
Welcome to The Coping Podcast where we share strategies for coping with the stressors of life, especially the difficulties of parenting. And here is your host, Dr. Leigh Weisz.
Dr. Leigh Weisz 0:15
This is Dr. Leigh Weisz. I am the host of The Coping Podcast where I talk about topics like raising healthy children, parenting, and so much more. I have Dr. Jeremy Weisz here of Rise25, who has done 1000s of interviews. Today, we have flipped the script and he will be interviewing me.
Jeremy Weisz 0:33
Dr. Leigh, thanks for having me.
Dr. Leigh Weisz 0:36
Thank you for having me do this.
Jeremy Weisz 0:39
You know, we were gonna talk about something earlier today. But we decided to postpone the recording of this. And you know, what happened today was a mass shooting. And so we’re gonna discuss that, and actually, unfortunately, happened in our hometown, and affected people we know, personally. And so I wanted because people have been calling you about what do we tell our kids in this scenario? And so I just wanted to maybe paint the picture of earlier today, what we were doing, and usually every year, as we’re recording this as the fourth of July, what do we do? Yeah, so
Dr. Leigh Weisz 1:30
in Highland Park, and I’m sure in towns everywhere in the United States, we have these parades. And for those of us with young kids, or grandkids, it’s such a happy time, joyous time to, you know, dress up and right away in blue, and just be all together as a community. And so I think the town today was, you know, in great spirits after a few years off from COVID. And we were kind of reminiscing about all the years, we’ve done this with our, with our young kids. And then unfortunately, I think we know what happened was was, you know, really traumatic for the whole community. But you know, essentially another mass shooting except this time in our hometown.
Jeremy Weisz 2:16
Yeah, I mean, an hour before it happened. We are walking exactly right by where everything took place. And we have friends and family who were within 10 feet of people being shot, and some people we know, were injured. So the question is, people who, you know, saw something, or people who didn’t see anything, and just, you know, people laughed, everything at the scene and just ran. I mean, one person I was reading, they left their wallet, their keys, their phone, because of the chaos, and some of our friends were saying, It was the scariest moment of their life of what happened. So I guess it goes into what do you? How do you tell your kids, you know, who were there? And then we could talk about like, what do you tell people who are just watching it on TV or or hear about it? What do you tell your kids? Let’s say you were one of the people there. And you had to just pick up your kids and run if you’re following the news. So I mean, one person put their kids in a dumpster to protect them. Yeah. Yeah. Well, I
Dr. Leigh Weisz 3:39
think, you know, the first thing is obviously, in the moment, right? Safety is the most important, immediate safety. And so parents and families just did whatever they had to do to immediately, you know, get into action and get their kids and get their family safe. And I don’t think there’s a right or wrong, you know, parents should not beat themselves up if they said something that was scary in retrospect to their kids, because they needed to in that moment, just get them safe. But I think that, you know, one of the ways that you can help your kids is to start with understanding, like, what is it that they actually were exposed to? What do they actually know? So, if someone, you know, knew there was danger and got to safety, that’s different than if someone saw, you know, the actual shooter, or if someone saw it on the news later. So you just want to understand again, what you’re dealing with, rather than introduce new information for your child to that process. So first, just find out again, exactly what they saw or what they know. So that their exposure isn’t more than it has to be. I think so.
Jeremy Weisz 4:53
Yeah. Topic. So let’s say someone’s listening to this. You go to your kids, and you would just ask them And what would you ask them? How would you introduce that conversation? Well, I guess it depends on if they were with a expert what they were
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