
I’m here today with Jess Sherman, who has her master’s in teaching, and is a Functional Diagnostic Nutrition Practitioner and board certified in Practical Holistic Nutrition. She helps kids experiencing anxiety to feel better in a very comprehensive way. Jess actively works to help doctors, therapists, teachers, kids, and their parents understand and apply a whole child, whole body trauma sensitive approach.
This approach also focuses on nutrition and lifestyle factors to help kids from the outside in and the inside out. With anxiety at an all time high for our kids, Jess has a great take on how we can help. Jess has online programs, virtual coaching, and a book, Raising Resilience to help parents take the stress out of feeding their family. We talk about why nutrition is so deeply linked to mental health and anxiety.
Jess goes over everything from adventure therapy to her definition of resilience: being adaptable in the face of stress. And we go over how the the nervous system is very hungry and how we can nurture and nourish resilience. We’re often told how kids are so resilient, but often the damage from situations can just go unnoticed for a while. By feeding our children’s nervous systems they become much more resilient and able to adapt to the stressors of life.
I had a lot of fun talking with Jess and I’m sure you’ll enjoy our talk as much as I did!
Episode Highlights With Jess
- How she trained in adventure therapy and learned to race dog sleds
- What adventure therapy is and how it can be helpful
- Resilience is being adaptable in the face of stress and how to nurture this
- The nervous system is very hungry
- What biological resilience is and how to increase it
- Lack of nourishment sends a signal of being unsafe to the body and can deplete resilience
- How focusing on the root cause specific to anxiety can lead to parents and children feeling stuck
- What she means by the cyclone of stress
- Her model for nervous system health
- Understanding the five core nourishment needs and limiting the five core stressors
- The hidden stressors that send messages of threat to the nervous system
- How genetics come into play in mood and behavior and how understanding them can help parents
- Sleep issues are also connected to safety and nervous system health
- What a lack of sleep can indicate and how to help kids through it
- Importance of approaching these factors with curiosity and help kids take agency from their own health as they get older
Resources We Mention
- Jess Sherman – Website
- Jess Sherman – Instagram
- Raising Resilience: take the stress out of feeding your family and love your life: 36 ways to help your kids relax, learn and grow by Jess Sherman
- Nutrition Genome
- Simplicity Parenting: Using the Extraordinary Power of Less to Raise Calmer, Happier, and More Secure Kids by Kim John Payne
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