It feels a little strange to say that the podcast will not be Better Regulate Than Never any more, but change can be a beautiful thing, and today, I'm here to share some exciting news about the evolution of my podcast journey.
First and foremost, let me put your minds at ease – nothing is going away, and I'll still be here with you every Tuesday. The essence of what I do, supporting young people in regulating their emotions, remains the heart of my mission. However, we're taking a new direction with a rebrand.
So, what's in a name, you ask? Well, quite a lot, as it turns out! Over the past year, several insightful individuals told me that "Better Regulate Than Never" doesn't quite resonate or make it easy for people to find us in the vast podcast universe. In a world of around 4 million podcasts, discoverability matters, and "Better Regulate Than Never" doesn't scream "Find me!"
After careful consideration and advice from my business coach and others, I've decided it's time for a rebrand. Don't worry; I'm still the same me, just with a new name. From now on, you can find me under "Cynthia Coufal Coaching." The podcast, in particular, will be renamed "The Teen Anxiety Maze."
Why the focus on anxiety, you might wonder? Well, it's not just about young people. Anxiety is a universal emotion that we all grapple with, and I've always discussed emotional regulation in my content. I believe that all 165+ episodes of my podcast, in their unique ways, have touched upon anxiety. It's all part of the same beautiful journey towards emotional wellness.
Embracing this change is incredibly exciting for me. Once I wrapped my head around it, the floodgates of inspiration opened. There are countless directions we can explore, and I'm bursting with ideas to share with you. This rebrand is about reaching more listeners, making a greater impact, and helping even more young people – and those who care about them – navigate the intricate world of emotions.
I've been through a journey with my own daughter, who faced anxiety, and it's given me a unique perspective. I've learned that anxiety isn't just about external situations; it often starts within our minds. In her younger years, she couldn't always express what she felt, and that's a challenge many young people face. It's my mission to be the bridge of understanding for both teens and their parents, as I've navigated this path myself.
And speaking of parents, I'm here to offer a unique perspective as a parent who doesn't experience anxiety, but whose child does. This is an important angle I want to share with you, as it highlights the complexity of these emotions and the crucial role of parents in the journey of their children.
In the grand scheme of things, this rebrand is just a change in name, but it signifies a renewed focus and determination to be the best source of information, support, and guidance for teens and their families. The core of my podcast remains the same – nurturing emotional well-being and resilience.
I want to thank you for being a part of this journey so far, and I hope you'll continue to join me in this exciting new chapter. Change can be scary, but it can also be wonderfully transformative. Stick with me, and let's explore the Teen Anxiety Maze together.
I can't wait to continue my Tuesday rendezvous with you, sharing insights, stories, and strategies to help navigate the maze of emotions. The adventure is far from over!
Stay tuned, stay curious, and most importantly, stay well.
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Email me: ccoufal@cynthiacoufalcoaching.com
Text me: 785-380-2064
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[00:00:00] Hey you, this is episode number 166. It seems so weird to not say better regulate than never. So I want to tell you. About what's going on in my life. Nothing is going to change really about what I do, except for the name of what I do. And probably a little bit of the content though. Better regulate. The never is my baby, and I love that name so much. And. Over the course of the last year, three different people had told me. That the name doesn't make any sense and that I need to change it. And I didn't want to change because I thought it was so cute and. And it did tell me what I do, which is help people, help young people regulate their emotions. But. That is their business. People are telling me that it's going to be hard for me to get more and [00:01:00] more listeners and get more and more clients. From something that people can't find. And when you think about that, there are 4 million around 4 million podcasts. If somebody is looking for a podcast, they're like searching key names or key words to come up with a podcast or wanting to listen to. And better regulate than never is probably not words that they are searching for. So, Aye. Have decided that it's time to rebrand, but I am going to keep every Tuesday, you're still going to hear from me and you can still watch my YouTube channel. Some of the names are changing over to Cynthia Coville coaching. And let's what I'm going to be on social media. For the most part, you know, all my social media, everything was better regulate than never. And. In the, in the coaching that I'm getting from business, my business coach. And others is [00:02:00] that I need to be Cynthia Koval coaching and that my podcast needs to be renamed. So it's going to be renamed the teen anxiety Mays. And because I've always talked about. Emotional regulation. And I've always talked to teens. I want to continue to still be talking to teens. And anxiety is just one of the many emotions that we need to regulate. And I believe that really all the other 165 other episodes that are already in this podcast have to do with. Anxiety in different ways, because if we're regulating our emotions and we're, and we're writing down our thoughts and we're figuring out where we fall in all these things, we have a lot of self-awareness. Our anxiety is going to be a better, so. None of it's been a waste and I'm actually super excited about this change. Now, now that I've got my head around it. I didn't want to change it for a while because I thought, how can I talk [00:03:00] every Tuesday about anxiety? Like that's going to get old, but there's so many directions like. As soon as I decided that I was going to do this, so many ideas came from the universe. Like all this stuff is in my head and I cannot wait to share all this stuff with you. And I know that it's just going to take my business on a whole nother. Direction, and I'm going to get more listeners and I'm going to have even more clients and have more impact on the world. And that's what I'm super excited about. So, Continue to join me nothing. Nothing is going wrong here. Nothing is nothing. Is.
Going away. I'm still going to be here every Tuesday, having a YouTube video and having my audio podcast. And I'm still a coach and I'm still working with young people. And I'm still doing all the things. It's just a name change, and I'm probably, I'm going to focus more on [00:04:00] anxiety. But there's still so many things. That I can do, you know, When I started to make this change, my business coach said. Tell me about your clients. What do they come to you for? What, what do most of your clients deal with? And I realized they were all about anxiety. And then he said, when you go to events, what two parents come up and talk to you about? And I said, oh, they talked to me about anxiety. And actually another business coach had said this to me before, and I was like, no, I can't, I can't be the teen anxiety coach. I just like, that's it, it just seemed like. How can I focus just on that? But I totally can. And that's what I'm going to do. And I'm so excited because I know. Many of my listeners who are parents. Or people that, you know, have young people in your lives. You know, that anxiety is one of the main things that's getting in their way and anxiety might be getting in your way. So. Even if you're [00:05:00] not a team, this podcast, as I've said so many times before emotional regulation is the same, no matter how old you are. So you're going to still get tons of stuff out of this, and maybe we'll even help you more to deal with the other people in your life. Who may be, have, have anxiety. And you know what, that is another thing that I want to tell you about.
I don't even know why that this didn't really occur to me or that I didn't realize how much. I should be the teen anxiety coach. Not only my 31 years of experience and many, many, many students had anxiety and I helped them through it. And my clients now. But my daughter has anxiety. And I do not have diagnosable anxiety where I actually have a disorder or I don't take medication for any of that. And I actually don't really experience it. In a, in a negative way, like everyone has [00:06:00] anxiety prom. I promise you. There's not a person. You cannot be human. And not have anxiety.
But there is anxiety that's regular in your body that keeps you alive. That is part of the stress response that everyone experiences, and then there's anxiety. That's out of control. And stopping you from doing things and needs, sometimes needs to be medicated. And I want to talk to you about all of those things and I'm learning more and more about it because.
I'm going to tell more of this, I think on social media, but I wanted to, in case you're not on my social media. I wanted to let you know. You know, my personal experience with my daughter having anxiety. So. As I'm thinking about this rebrand and all the stuff that I can talk about, I started thinking about. How she, her, her journey with anxiety. And the first thing I remembered was when she was around second grade, I always say second grade, [00:07:00] but it was around that time. She was an elementary school. There was a year, at least that she threw up almost every day before going to school. And she didn't have a fever and she wasn't really ill because as soon as she threw up. She was, you know, fine. If that's what you would call it. And I still made her go to school because I was very particular about you go to school no matter what. And even if you don't feel your best, you still go. And of course, if she had a fever or some other kinds of things, I didn't make her go, but I knew that the throwing up wasn't about having like a virus or a bug, it was something else. And I'm a mental health professional. So. I know that it could be anxiety though. Anxiety was not talked about when she was in elementary school, but I knew it could be like a bullying situation or she was worried about a test or she didn't like her teacher or something like that. So I asked her all those questions, you know, how's it going at school what's going on?
And she was like, [00:08:00] eh, I don't know. It's fine. And I knew that bullying was going on. Cause she and I talked about it. But she also knew how to handle it or like what she could do about it. So I knew and asking her that she would either tell me I can't handle these bullies or a can. And she was not saying that. So then I got it as a parent. I get in my head that, oh, well she has, she must be allergic to food dye. That's in her vitamin because the vitamin I gave her every morning was red. And I got this idea in my head that she had a food allergy to red dye, but there's so many red dye numbers and people do have these. Allergies. And so, you know, it was a super weird that I thought that, but I just played it off as well. It's not anxiety because she didn't tell me it was anxiety. Yeah, or it's not about bullying or it's not about her teacher because she didn't tell me that. But, you know, now when I think about it and knowing kids. She probably didn't know why she was feeling the way she was. And now that I [00:09:00] know. That her anxiety isn't just situational or thought provoked, but actually happening in her brain first. Of course a second grader doesn't understand that or whatever grade she was in. And because anxiety has just become a buzzword, I think since she's maybe been in high school. I didn't think anything about it. I thought, well, I'm doing all the right things. I'm asking her the question she says, it's fine. I'm still making her go to school, even though she's not really sick. And so there was that, and that kind of dissipated after a while. And I don't remember that happening too much after that. And then I would say. You know, when I'm thinking about like real. Times that I remember anxiety happening. Then I remember when she went to college and she was only about 30 minutes from me when she was in college. I remember her. [00:10:00] Calling me. And doing screen what I call scream, crying, being hysterical on the phone. And I would need to go over and talk her down out of being in some kind of a panic attack. And again, I mean, I knew that she had some stressors going on her dad and I had gotten divorced a couple years before that. And I think that, you know, I knew that some of this could be. Coming from having. Negative thoughts about those things, but we would talk it out. And, you know, some of it seemed a little bit situational, you know, being new in school and just the stress of being in college and living on your own and having divorced parents. But she was also taking birth control pills. And I remember thinking, well, these birth control pills are making her have panic attacks. Again, I was putting the, what was happening with her on something else and not anxiety. Then I remember when she got her [00:11:00] first job. She was telling me about how she couldn't sleep because all night long, she would just think about things. And my advice to her was we'll stop thinking about that. Because that's what I do. And because I don't have that kind of anxiety. I can stop thinking about things if I want to. And she was like, mom, that doesn't work. And she explained all these different things to me. And I was like, well, I don't understand that. Like, I don't know why. You can't just stop thinking about it. So. Then at that time, she started seeing a therapist to talk about all sorts of things, but she also got on medication and I remember her telling me. Mom. I don't feel like those thoughts. Aren't so loud and they're not. Like I can sleep and I can think differently and I can feel, I feel better. And I'm like, oh, well, that's great. And I was all for the medication if that's what she needed. And it seemed like, okay, that's, that's the ticket. And she still continues to take medication to this [00:12:00] day, but. So then, you know, she's on this medication, she feels fine. She still occasionally might have a panic attack, but I think when you have that kind of anxiety, that's going to happen. And then she had a husband who talked her out of her. Panic attacks. So I didn't need to go and take care of them. And sometimes she would just tell me about them. Afterwards or whatever. Well, then she has a baby. And that baby was, you know, very much wanted and, and ex. And they were very excited about this baby. But very shortly, like within days of him being born, she was calling me with panic attacks and I was going over to try to help not only take care of the baby, because when you're in a panicked state, It's hard for you to, to function at all because you can't think. And then she had made the mention. Maybe it would be better if I died. And then I thought, oh my gosh, this has turned into postpartum depression. [00:13:00] So, I, I mean, she was going to a therapist still. She was still taking the medication. I said, get to that person right away. Make sure they know how you feel about all this stuff. They increased her medication. And she was said she was feeling better. So I'm like, well, thank goodness that's over because that was really scary. And I didn't like it. And I would ask her occasionally when I went to see her and, or the baby, you know, Hey, how are you doing? How are you feeling? She was like, I'm fine. I was like, okay. But I think because I wanted her to be fine. I didn't press any of that. Well, then I had a former student. That died by suicide. Because of postpartum depression, the baby, her, the former students, baby was around the same age as my grandson. And I had talked to this girl several months before she died by suicide. And I was just feeling so devastated about [00:14:00] it because I thought, oh my gosh. I had no idea that, you know, it had gotten that bad. And so I had sent a message to my daughter about, oh my gosh, this happened with my former student. And I'm so sad. And my daughter is a school counselor too. So she, you know, shares former student stories with me too, about these kinds of things. And it was just right after that, she sent me, she called me and she said, I need to talk to you. And she said, When you sent that to me, I realized I need to talk to you about, I had my suicide plan and had just been a couple of weeks before that. And the, I did do an episode. I don't know if I talked about it specifically. I might've. Where I talk about feeling helpless. And. I did. I was like, oh my gosh, I'm a mental health professional. Now, when I tell the story now with all these pieces in place, I'm like, That seems I'm such a dummy for not knowing. That this could turn into this, but as a parent, [00:15:00] And I know that many of you listening are parents. As a parent. We don't want to believe that our child has a problem. We don't want to believe that it's something that could turn into depression or suicidality. And I, she is good now. Thank goodness. And it's truly, I mean, I could feel it on her because as parents, we also have that gut feeling about things. And when she was telling me she was fine before that. I just wanted to believe it, but I did always feel like something was off and I don't feel like something's off anymore. I know she's good. And I'm so glad about that. But I feel like as the teen anxiety coach, I can speak to parents from the parent perspective. And I'm a parent who doesn't have anxiety, but my child does. And I know there's plenty of parents out there that you are also struggling with anxiety and your child has it. So I just want to be the source of information for you. [00:16:00] On both sides. And even though I'm still going to continue to talk to teens in this podcast, because I think we need more teen podcasts. I think we need more. People working with teens. So many people tell me we'll just work with adults because they have the, the money, you know, like they they're in charge of their own money where kids aren't in charge of their money. But. I am not going to give up on young people, having this information. And being able to use these tips and tools and, and have mentors in their lives and parents in their lives that are informed that are going to help them have amazing lives. And you know, now I've got two grandbabies. That are coming along, that I'm going to teach these things to them too, because their parents have anxiety or, you know, so it's pretty possible though. They'll have anxiety too. And. So I, I just want to be an informed grandma that can talk them through all these things, because we love them so much. And I love everyone who [00:17:00] listens to this podcast and I. I want you to stick with me through this rebrand, because it's really not going to be that different. Just different. There'll be different names and I have a different podcast cover. But really nothing else is really going to be that different. I am the same every day, all the time. And so I'm still going to continue to be who I am. But maybe this will help more people to know who I am, what I'm doing. I'll be able to help more people because there's a zeroed-in focus for what this podcast is about. So I will talk to you soon.