How can I ease my child’s incessant anxiety about coronavirus?
Published: Irish Examiner
Author: Dr. Malie Coyne
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Clinical psychologist Dr Malie Coyne, a lecturer at the National University of Ireland Galway and author of Love In Love Out – A Compassionate Approach to Parenting Your Anxious Child , says: “This health crisis has been challenging for many, especially those prone to anxiety.
“My experience as an anxious child, as a parent and as a clinical psychologist, has taught me that parents play a crucial role in containing their child’s anxiety, and in finding the tricky balance between helping them to feel safe and empowering them to test their fears.”
How to show compassion and support for an anxious child
Published: The Irish Times
Author: Sheila Wayman
Interviewee: Dr. Malie Coyne
“Anxiety is both professional and personal for Dr Malie Coyne, a clinical psychologist and self-confessed “little worrier” as a child.
From around the age of eight, she knew there were tensions within the family unit that trailed around the world after her father, a Dutch diplomat, and later ambassador, married to an Irish woman.
“It was just the five of us travelling to all these countries, because you don’t have your cousins, aunties and uncles, and then you are getting to know people all over again.”
She reckons she attended at least nine schools, having started in French education, moving on to the British system and then finishing off her second-level education by doing the International Baccalaureate in South Korea. But it was while she was still of primary-school age that she became aware “all was not okay” at home.”
Dr Malie Coyne’s new book draws on her experiences as a childhood worrier
Published: Irish Independent
Author: Liadan Hynes
Interviewee: Dr. Malie Coyne
“Two minutes into speaking to clinical psychologist Dr Malie Coyne, I’m asking her for advice about my own child. I recount how my six-year-old daughter said to me out of the blue recently, “Mommy, I know the virus kills people,” and describe my panicked attempt to come up with a reassuring answer. “I know it does,” my daughter had replied with a stern look, adding: “You’re going to lie to me.”
Malie’s new book, Love in, Love Out: A Compassionate Approach to Parenting Your Anxious Child, is perfectly timed, given the norms we now live in. In the past few months can anyone claim not to have undergone, at some point, heightened levels of anxiety? Malie’s approach is about supporting your child, while also managing your own emotions.
“I’ve poured everything I have in terms of my own experiences of being an anxious child into it, so it was really emotionally driven. And then working with people every day, and being a parent myself… all of those voices are in there,” she reflects.”
Share a #smileypancake with a ‘warm someone’ who brightens your day
Published: mentalhealthireland.ie
Author: Dr. Malie Coyne
Mother Teresa wisely said; “We shall never know all the good that a simple smile can do”
Thinking of Mother Teresa and all the love and compassion she shared with the most vulnerable gives me a really warm feeling and brings a smile to my face. She was an amazing human being with such a presence about her. When she smiled she ignited a true sense of self-worth and dignity in those who may have felt they had little to smile about.
How to manage a panic attack
“Think of your body as an overprotective parent just trying to look after you.”
Published: Joe.ie
Author: Malie Coyne
Anxiety and panic attacks are both increasing issues in the lives of young people in Ireland. The My World Survey 2, published last year and a follow up from the original My World Survey in 2012, found that 49% of Irish teenagers suffered with mild, moderate, severe or very severe anxiety, often leading to panic attacks.
Speaking to JOE, Clinical psychologist Malie Coyne explains that “a panic attack is a sudden and intense surge of anxiety which can just hit you out of the blue. It affects many people and a lot of people don’t know what is actually happening to them.”