And what you can do about it…

We’re now well into the summer holidays. The early excitement has faded, the routines have gone out the window, and for many families, the emotional temperature in the home is rising faster than the outside weather.

While the summer break is sold to us as a season of freedom, for children who struggle with anxiety, emotional regulation, relationship difficulties, low mood, or behaviour challenges, it can feel anything but relaxing.

In fact, for families across Telford and surrounding areas, the summer holidays often act as a pressure test. With no school structure in place, many children start to unravel in ways that are difficult to understand, let alone manage.

Summer Struggles in Disguise

Children with mild mental health challenges don’t always show clear or obvious signs. These are often the kids who hold it together in public and fall apart at home.

You may have started noticing your child becoming more irritable, withdrawn, clingy, or reactive since the holidays began. Maybe they are:

• Melting down when plans change suddenly

• Struggling with sibling conflict or feeling left out

• Overthinking, overreacting, or shutting down emotionally

• Desperate for friendships but constantly feeling rejected

• Showing resistance to going out or engaging in activities

• Unable to wind down, even though there is no pressure to perform

These are not signs of disobedience or defiance. They are communication. Children are trying to show us, in the only way they know how, that something inside doesn’t feel right. Often, that something is underlying anxiety.

Why Unstructured Time Feels Unsafe

School, for all its pressures, provides rhythm. Children know what to expect, where to be, who they will see, and how the day will unfold. That predictability is a safety net. When it disappears, children who rely on external structure to regulate themselves are left without a compass.

In therapy, we often talk about the window of tolerance. This is the zone where a child can manage their emotions, focus, interact, and problem-solve. Many children fall outside of this window in summer, especially when routines vanish, social expectations change, and their internal coping mechanisms are stretched thin.

This is where child therapy for anxiety and emotional regulation can make a real difference.

How NLP Strategies Help Children Cope and Thrive

I use NLP strategies adapted for children and young people to support emotional awareness, self-regulation, and healthy patterns of thinking. These practical tools can help a child feel more in control, calmer, and better understood.

Some of the techniques children often respond well to include:

• Anchoring: Teaching a child to connect a calm, confident emotional state with a physical action like tapping fingers or squeezing hands. This becomes a reliable tool they can use during stressful moments.

• Future pacing: Helping the child mentally rehearse a situation like a family gathering, sports day, or return to school while feeling calm and prepared. This builds confidence and a sense of safety.

• Reframing: Supporting the child to look at a situation from a different perspective. For example, turning “Nobody likes me” into “I had a tricky day today, but tomorrow might feel different.”

• Emotional mapping: Using visuals like colour charts, traffic lights, or weather metaphors to help children describe how they feel when they don’t yet have the words.

These approaches are especially powerful for children living with anxiety, as they provide structure, predictability, and a way of calming their nervous system without overwhelming them.

Summer Can Reveal What School Covers Up

Often, the unstructured nature of summer doesn’t create new problems. It simply uncovers what was already there. It gives us a window into the parts of your child’s emotional world that need more support. That might be managing transitions, understanding emotions, building confidence in social situations, or handling anxiety when their environment changes.

These are not things children are born knowing how to do. They are things we teach.

In Telford, Shrewsbury, Stafford, and surrounding areas, parents often say they wished they’d sought support earlier. It’s not about waiting for a crisis. It’s about recognising when your child is stuck and gently helping them find a better way forward.

If your child is in that space, maybe frustrated, frightened, overwhelmed by anxiety, or just flat, know this: it’s not bad parenting. And it’s not a permanent state. With the right support, children can learn to understand their emotions, communicate their needs, and feel more in control of their world.

Summer doesn’t have to be stressful. It can be an opportunity. A moment to pause, reset, and give your child the tools to face the school year and life with more confidence and emotional strength.

By Louisa Gauld-Crichton
https://childtherapytelford.nlp4kids.org

You don’t need to have all the answers. You just need somewhere to start.

If your child is finding things tough right now and you’d like to explore how therapy could help, I offer a free, friendly discovery call where we can talk it through together.

Click here to book: https://childtherapytelford.nlp4kids.org