S3 Episode 12: Wired from the Start, Why the Nervous System Should Always Be the First Place We Look with Fran Aitken

Welcome to My Mighty Quinn

In this deeply grounding and illuminating episode, I’m joined by Fran Aitken, founder of Awaken Chiropractic, to explore why the nervous system must always be the first place we look when a child is struggling.

This conversation is called “Wired from the Start” — because so many children’s challenges don’t begin with behaviour, school, or diagnosis. They begin much earlier, in pregnancy, birth, and the early environment, where a child’s nervous system is already adapting, compensating, and doing its best to survive.

Together, Fran and I unpack how early stress can wire a child’s nervous system into heightened vigilance from day one. We explore why symptoms like poor sleep, sensory sensitivity, emotional dysregulation, hyperactivity, digestive issues, tics, and difficulty with transitions are not “bad behaviour” — but biology communicating distress.

Crucially, this episode also speaks to parents. Because children don’t regulate alone — they co-regulate — and why self-care is not indulgence, but a duty of care for our children’s development.

Key Takeaways include:

• Why many children arrive already in a heightened, protective nervous-system state
• How pregnancy, birth experience, and early environment shape nervous-system wiring
• Why symptoms are signals — not failures, flaws, or “naughty behaviour”
• What neurological insight scans reveal (and what they don’t)
• How heart rate variability reflects resilience, fatigue, and adaptability
• Why regulation must come before protocols, therapies, or learning demands
• How nervous-system organisation supports sleep, digestion, immunity, emotional ease, and connection
• The essential role of co-regulation — and why parents’ nervous systems matter just as much
• Simple, compassionate first steps families can take today

This is an episode about sequence, safety, and hope.
About understanding that healing doesn’t start with fixing symptoms — it starts with helping the nervous system feel safe enough to develop as nature intended.

Resources

Free Guide. 

Fran's Website

Transcript

Lucia Silver (00:00)
So welcome to today's episode, which we have called Wired from the Start, Why the Nervous System Should Always Be the First Place We Look. This is a My Mighty Quinn conversation with Dr. Fran Aitken. So welcome back to My Mighty Quinn, a mother's conversations with world leading experts. I'm your host, Lucia Silver, mother to the mighty Quinn and founder of the Brain Health Movement.

Today's conversation is one I have been wanting to have for a very long time. And if you followed our journey, you'll know that Quinn and I recently travelled to see today's guest to get a detailed set of something called neurological scans, scans that have helped us better understand how his nervous system is adapting, compensating and coping. And for us, this wasn't just about the present moment. It was about finally tracing things back to the beginning.

to the sequence that so many parents are never told matters. Because when you look closely, so many children's challenges don't begin at school age or indeed with so-called behaviours. They start much earlier with what Tony Ebel calls the perfect storm of prenatal stress, of birth stress, sometimes transgenerational patterns that have been pulled through.

early environmental overwhelm that may shape how a baby's nervous system wires itself from day one. And in Quinn's case, again, as many of you will know from following us, as with so many children, those early stresses create adaptations that later show up in Quinn's case as a tick. But for so many, there is a trajectory of colic followed by lack of sleep, lack of latching on.

digestive troubles, emotional dysregulation, sensory overwhelm, and a general sense of a tiny body working incredibly hard. And these are the things that parents are often told, well, they'll just grow out of it, or brushed off as normal, when in reality, they are the nervous system communicating. I'm doing my best to cope with what I've lived through. And once you understand this,

You realise that healing doesn't start with fixing symptoms, it starts with regulation, with giving the nervous system the chance to feel safe, supported and organised so the body can develop as nature intended. And this is why these scans were so powerful for us. They didn't diagnose anything per se, they simply helped to sequence patterns more clearly. And they now guide the neurologically focused work we do every week with this chiropractor here at home.

They've given me a framework for understanding my son's story in a way that traditional systems never explained. And this is really why I wanted to bring this conversation to you today, because so many parents spend years trying to understand why their child seems to struggle with regulation and transitions and specific areas of development. And why so often behaviours just don't seem to make sense to the outside world and no one's talking about the nervous system.

And this is at the heart of the whole child philosophy that we champion. The nervous system must be the first place we look. And my guest today, Francesca Aitken, is the chiropractor and founder of the fantastic Awaken Chiropractic in Northamptonshire. Fran has undertaken advanced training in neurologically focused care, including mentorship with our very own Dr. Tony Ebel with the PX Docs model.

and she specialises in understanding how a child's nervous system develops, adapts and communicates, always within UK guidelines and with huge respect for what each child's body is trying to do. Fran brings together nervous system science, early development, epigenetics, stress physiology and the lived experience of families and she explains it in a way parents can finally understand. So today we will talk about

Why so many children seem wired, stressed or overwhelmed from the very beginning? How early stresses from pregnancy and birth experience to the environment they enter shape a child's patterns? What neurologically focused scans can reveal about how a child's system is functioning? How the brain and body communicate and why that communication is foundational for resilience, learning and emotional ease?

what families often observe when their child's nervous system becomes more organised and regulated and this is the real juice and what we as parents can do to support our child's sense of safety, comfort and adaptability. And Fran has also given a wonderful free gift for you, her nervous system blueprint which is a beautifully clear guide to understanding stress patterns and regulation and how parents can create a calmer nervous environment at home.

So Fran, thank you so much for joining us and for the incredible insight that you gave when you scanned Quinn. I'm so excited to have this conversation today.

Francesca Aitken (05:16)
Thank you for having me on.

Lucia Silver (05:20)
So we have a lot of very important information to get through today. So starting with foundations and setting the nervous system scene. Fran, can you start by explaining how these early stresses, pregnancy, birth experience, environment, shape the way a child's nervous system adapts and perceives the world?

Francesca Aitken (05:43)
Hmm. I mean, something I really wish more parents were told early on is that a child's nervous system is being shaped long before they're even born. The nervous system is learning, listening, absorbing, adapting from the very beginning, even in utero. So during pregnancy, the baby is getting a sense of the world they're about to enter, not through conscious thought, but through physiology. They feel the mother's stress levels, her rhythms.

her rest, her overwhelm, her safety. And this is absolutely not about guilt or blame. It's just simply how biology works. Birth is a huge experience as well, whether it was long, fast, intense, more medical, calm, or even unexpected, the baby's nervous system takes all of that in. It's their first big transition. And the way the birth unfolds can influence how their little system perceives the world when they arrive.

And those early days and weeks, everything from noise to touch to the emotional tone of the home continues to shape their nervous system. Babies are incredibly sensitive. Their systems are so open. So when we see children later who struggle with regulation, transitions, big feelings or feeling overwhelmed, it often makes perfect sense when we trace back through their story, their nervous system has been adapting all along.

Lucia Silver (07:10)
Yes, and so often when we're speaking with you and you do do such a deep dive into birth, how were you as mum while you were even at the conception stage, all sorts, you are very used to seeing some of these patterns coming through. Were you by any chance C-section? Were you by any chance a forceps delivery? You know, there are absolute correlations between symptoms and birth delivery or mum stress and baby in fight and flight.

Francesca Aitken (07:30)
Mm-hmm.

Lucia Silver (07:40)
There's a huge amount of mirroring that you almost anticipate seeing, aren't there?

Francesca Aitken (07:45)
Sure, absolutely. And you know, it's really interesting some of the patterning's that, you know, that do happen as a result of some of the things that, you know, our kids are exposed to early on. Definitely very much my own experience from having my own two children. They are what I would describe as two very perfect storm kiddos. Again, through no fault of my own, but...

Having me understand the patterning's and how their nervous system has had to adapt in order to survive has given me insight in how to serve them best and how to help them become more regulated versions of themselves.

Lucia Silver (08:24)
And I just want to impress here as well, which I did in our podcast with Dr. Tony Ebel, which is a beautiful marriage with this one, that quite often parents will say, no, no, we had a perfectly normal delivery. And I'll say, oh, fabulous. How are forceps? Oh, no, we had a perfectly normal, we booked in for a C-section. know, unfortunately nowadays, so-called normal birth seems to be parents are like, well, we weren't bleeding. weren't,

Francesca Aitken (08:44)
Yeah.

Lucia Silver (08:52)
shuttled into emergency section or NICU. You there are so many versions of modern birth interventions that are deeply disruptive to a child's And I think we could pretty much say, couldn't we Fran, that more often than not, it's the case that something has happened in the delivery room these days.

Francesca Aitken (09:14)
I think so, looking at more of the research and the evidence that there are definitely more birth interventions now than they were before previously. ⁓ So there's, you and it's not that we're necessarily looking to place blame on that because absolutely, if I hadn't have had both of my medical interventions, I wouldn't be standing here today and speaking with you. So we have to, you know, put service on that, but how we can still help our children recover, regulate.

and lead healthy, the healthiest lives because we're all parents and we want to do the best for our kids. Really, that's the end of the story for me, how I can serve my kids the best and give them the best start in life.

Lucia Silver (09:51)
Yes, yes.

Or indeed the beginning of the story as the case may be, you it begins with a delivery, you not a diagnosis. Now you often say very specifically that our children or many children start life in a heightened state. What does that mean specifically, Fran, in simple terms?

Francesca Aitken (09:58)
Yes, yeah absolutely.

Mm-hmm.

I mean, when I say kids start life in that heightened state, I'm really referring to a nervous system that arrives already slightly more or even more alert or protective. Some babies seem like they're working harder from the very beginning. Maybe they're jumpy, maybe they don't settle easily. Maybe they're aware of everything going on around them. Maybe they struggle to switch off, go to sleep. Their muscles might feel tense. They might find it difficult to

to fully relax in your arms. And again, I wanna be clear this, just to observe these as a pattern, it's the nervous system telling us a story. It's trying to say, like, I'm ready, I need to keep an eye on the world because there's not as much safety as potentially some of the other kids have. So, with my own son, my first born, I can now look back and see how incredibly sensitive he was to light, sound, changes in pace and rhythm and...

because he was my first, I didn't have the words for any of that back then. I just knew that he was more. I just knew that he was more alert, more reactive, more perceptive. And now that he's older, he's six now, I understand that his nervous system was doing exactly what it needed or what it thought it needed to do to keep him safe. And that understanding changed everything for me as a parent.

Lucia Silver (11:37)
And there are so many little sensitivities aren't there and you don't know what you don't know as a mum. That's the point. kind of, nobody explains it. The information isn't there, which is why we're here to really empower parents now to have some foundation of understanding. As you say, it completely changes the picture.

Francesca Aitken (11:47)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Mm.

Lucia Silver (11:56)
So what are some of the early signs that a child's nervous system may be under more strain or working harder than we realise, whether that's behaviour and emotional sensory? What would some of those things be?

Francesca Aitken (12:08)
I think when a child's nervous system is working harder, it often shows up in every day, even non-clinical signs. You might see things like difficulty settling to sleep, waking frequently, big reactions to small changes, trouble slowing down, resting, sensory overwhelm in busy environments, like that challenge with transitions, mom, dad arriving home or leaving for work.

you know, changing from eating the food on the table to bath time to bedtime, emotional storms that feel completely out of proportion, restlessness, fidgeting, digestive changes, like constipation or irregular stools. They aren't labels, but they're clues and clues that the system has been adapting maybe for a long time. And parents often tell me, I've always known my child, it was sensitive. I just didn't know what that meant.

And once you understand the nervous system, you start to realize nothing about the child or our kiddos is random. It's all connected.

Lucia Silver (13:10)
It's all it's all biology talking and I often say and it's a lovely one to hold in your head when especially if your child is a little bit older and you're challenged, it's it's not behavior, it's biology. And when you can see it from that perspective, it gives you a little bit of breathing space, you're not dealing with someone trying to be difficult, you're dealing with someone having difficulty. And I think that's a helpful signposting always what's what's going on right now.

Francesca Aitken (13:12)
It does.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Lucia Silver (13:39)
What's going on right now? ⁓ So to these scans, because they're such a great answer to what's going on right now, you know, ⁓ I think they are absolutely fantastic. They're fantastic for so many reasons. They sort of plot us back into a trajectory of understanding whether indeed we're making some improvements because we like to see that we're seeing a nervous system.

Francesca Aitken (13:46)
Yeah.

Lucia Silver (14:04)
settling a little bit or if we're analysing through as you'll explain heart rate variability we can see changes in those readings. ⁓ and again I'm very strong to impress that this is really very key there are many pieces on the journey of whole child ⁓ the roadmap to understanding how we can address some of the symptoms that we see and help our children thrive ⁓ whether that's through diet through

neurologically focused chiropractic through lifestyle changes, through reducing toxins and screen time and better sleep patterns and even better parenting to some extent, know, understanding better communication models. There's much to understand in the course, but really what we impress is that the sequence is really important and that when a child is really struggling with

nervous system in the first instance and clinically we refer to this I suppose as a sort of sympathetic dominance when we're talking about the nervous system but in more common parlance I guess that's fight or flight we talk about imagine if there's a sort of lion in the room that's what it would have been in nature and you know and you're in this highly highly highly vigilant alerted state unless we address that first if a system is in panic it's very difficult for it to respond to lots of other protocols and

help and treatment and the various things we might be doing to help our children. So we really advocate that this is an important place to start. This is really, really, really at the foundation of the development of the autonomic nervous system. And so these scans are a great place to start. They are a great place to shine the light on what's actually going on. So for parents that have never seen neurological insight scans, can you describe what they show?

and perhaps what they don't show. mean, what are they?

Francesca Aitken (15:58)
So, I mean, just to kind of go over the scans that we use in practice, they are purely observational. They're not medical tests. They don't really diagnose anything and they don't tell us necessarily what's wrong, but they do show us how the nervous system is responding to stress. Where tension is sitting, where effort is being used and where fatigue is really setting up in the body and where the body's been holding on for so long, you know, it's really struggling. There's almost not enough energy left in the system to adapt anymore. And that's really key. It's like,

Quite often what you can see is how the nervous system has really adapted through these scans. And it's a little bit like you're looking at posture, you know, or gait, not diagnosing by looking, but you're gathering valuable clues about how the body is organizing itself. And the scans can really help us understand what's happening underneath the behaviours, underneath the challenges that parents are seeing. So we have three different scans that we use here in the office.

The first one, they all use thermal, so they're completely non-invasive, very easy to use on kiddos. And the first one is thermal scans. So this is really giving us temperature differential information around the peripheral nerves that come out every spinal segment all the way through the system. When the system is more cold, and that is indicated when we see more blue on the scan, the body has...

is holding on to usually a lot of fatiguing in those areas, a lot of tension that's almost disconnected. The brain is really struggling to see that part of the system. When there's like a lot of red areas, that's usually indicating that there's more warm, more inflammation, if there's big, large red areas that are indicated on the scan. So again, that's where the system is almost working too hard in those spaces. So it's not...

disconnected, but it's too connected, if that makes sense.

the second one that we scan is EMG, which stands for electromyography. And this is again, it's non-invasive and it measures electrical activity.

in the muscles. through the whole spine, from the coccyx all the way to the occiput here, we're measuring the whole system. And the great thing about that is that we can see the difference between the thermal scans and the electric scans to see is there symmetry, are there things happening, is there regulation, is the system working together, or is there more dysregulation.

So what we're really looking for ⁓ in the electrical energy index, if you like, is particular banding depending on their age groups. So the younger the kid, the higher the we're allowed that kind of energy index to be because in order for the nervous system to develop, you need more energy. So as the nervous system is going through that development process, which is usually coming to more of a conclusion around the ages of seven to nine years old, then the energy starts to drop down. But you can imagine it.

quite often a patterning that I see, for example, is when kids like really struggle, let's say, with focus, with concentration, with the inability to sit still, their energy index is way higher than what it needs to be for their age range. So that, you know, if you can imagine your system is full of energy, and there's just so much going on internally, it's going to be really hard for you to sit still, it's going to be really hard for you to focus until that starts to come down to within that kind of suitable age.

sort of bracket, if you like. So that's, you know, again, it's, we're looking at these scans and kind of building a picture as to what's really going on inside the child and how the child's behaviours is really just to show what's really going on underneath. it's, you know, it's, it's, it's not behaviour is not the problem. It's how the nervous system is really functioning and what those signals are putting out into the world. And when we can try and have a language for that, then we can really form the tools to really.

help the child through those neurodevelopmental milestones, because there's many of those. All the parents are listening. We have many of those that we go through as parents. And then the last one that we look at is heart rate variability. So we monitor heart rate for three minutes, ideally. Sometimes with some of the more dysregulated kids, we can only get up to a minute, but it does give us an idea of what their heart rate variability is on average for that time period.

And this is really, for me, this is a key understanding about how far into that fight flight patterning their nervous system really is. Because if their heart variability is more low, it tends to mean that they're very, they are very fatigued. Their body is running on empty. There's exhaustion there. And we can see how much resilience and adaptability the nervous system is based on whether we have a good high variability or a low one.

And somewhere in between is, you know, a lot of people tend to sit. So again, that's one of my key indicators I would say as to how the nervous system is really functioning overall.

Lucia Silver (20:58)
remember you saying with Quinn and I that it was a really strong indicator for you. It's your sort of your favourite one, if you like. with HRV, with heart rate variability, I mean, we expect to see it vary. The point is, you know, if we're programmed to move away from danger to if something feels stressful, we are supposed to heighten our cortisol levels and our heart's supposed to pump faster and so that we can get blood to our muscles and run, right? So we're not looking for a kind of straight line. We're looking for

Francesca Aitken (21:03)
Mm-hmm. Yes.

Yeah.

Lucia Silver (21:28)
a modified appropriate response to the stimulus in question. Would that be fair?

Francesca Aitken (21:35)
Yeah, absolutely. I mean, just coming back to my, my own example with my own son, mean, he is somebody that I would describe as more sensitive. His nervous system is already more heightened. So it's like he's living with a tiger all day, every day. Well, it was like he was living with a tiger. He's definitely less, what I would call sensitive and calmer a more regulated version these days, but there's still an element when stress hits.

it's like some of the old patterning's of his nervous system definitely start sneaking back in again. And I think just, you know, helping that kind of almost bandwidth and that the nervous system having much more adaptability and flexibility moving forwards, it just gives you so much, it just gives the kids, even adults as well, just so much more. Does that make sense?

Lucia Silver (22:25)
much more and also

it kind of really paints the obvious picture in many ways which is so this is why there's so much hyperactivity or restlessness this is why you know as a result of that there's a knock-on effect which is guess what exhaustion come the end of the day so you're going to be if you're in hypervigilance if you think there's a tiger in the room

Francesca Aitken (22:35)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Lucia Silver (22:48)
How much time do you think your body and your mechanisms, your entire systems have got for development if they're focused on the tiger in the room? So it's gonna have a knock on effect on that. And how relaxed do you think your gut's gonna be for digestion? And how do you think your immune system's gonna be working when it's in that state? why, you know, the question for me is why would it not have an impact on all the other systems? So rather than starting with,

Francesca Aitken (22:57)
Thank

Lucia Silver (23:18)
the systems that are impacted, we can start with settling the nervous system that is generating these problems, if you like, in the first place. So if we want to get a little bit more granular, and I'm happy for us to share Quinn's journey as I do so transparently with his permission along the way with the various aspects of his incredible transformation and journey. When you scanned Quinn, what kinds of patterns are you

Francesca Aitken (23:45)
Mm.

Lucia Silver (23:47)
looking for in the first instance. We know that Quins had a tick and some dysregulation there. It's a very different story that we're telling now than we were three years ago. What are you typically looking for? Your language is sort of tension and asymmetry in areas of overexertion and over effort, but I'm very happy for you to just localise it so it's not so abstract for our parents listening, but kind of what does that look like in a body like Quins?

Francesca Aitken (24:16)
I think, I mean, if you're happy for me to share about Quinn scans from, know, because we've just gone through the rescan process there, ⁓ what tends to come up a lot is like, you know, on the thermal scans, like big blocks of either blue or red areas. And also what we tend to see is one side is more so than the other side.

So some areas where movement potentially is restricted or not so much one side where there is so much more fatiguing going on than the other side. And, or, you know, there might be asymmetry. Sometimes I see that as well go through the scan. I know even Quinn did have some asymmetry coming through on his scans where there's like more torsion going, there's going on either left to right or right to left. And that's just where the, there's so much more being.

pulled through, you know, on the spine, on the muscles, and then on the spinal cord itself, because the spinal cord is sitting within the spine. So if there's any pressure or tension acting on that, then actually, we have to have some understanding that this is also going to be impacting the spinal cord, which is the heart, one of the very heart pieces of the nervous system. And if you have torsion anywhere, you know, sometimes I like to get a blanket when I'm explaining this to parents, and you, you know, you have

You have wedges at each four corners of the blanket. If you pull just very gently on one of the corners, you don't just see movement happening at that corner. You see movement happening throughout the whole blanket. And this is what's happening in somebody's body. Even just the smallest amount of pressure somewhere has an impact through the whole system. So, you know, it might look more minimal, but actually the massive impact sometimes that that can have for somebody is, is huge.

And just by creating those tiny little shifts and helping the nervous system reorganize also has a hugely dramatic effect on someone's ability to regulate, someone's ability to switch off, to relax, to come back to themselves, to start to sleep better, which then has the knock on effects, as you've just said, throughout other systems in the body. Of course, when those things start to happen, yes, we expect their gut to be better. tend to, a lot of families tend to report.

what we call the soft signs changing. So they start to sleep better. Their sleep is more restful. It's deeper. They poop better. Their poop is different and or maybe they're pooping more frequently or poop is really stinky. Like we love having conversations about poop because it really tells us how the nervous system is switching from that sympathetic state in and the parasympathetics are starting to switch on. So all those autonomic processes are starting to

come back online again as the nervous system moves away from fight flight. And we can really see that through the scans. When scans switch from more blue in the thermal scans to more red, that's like a massive indicator that there's so much less fatigue in the body. The body is so much more online, more connected. And another thing parents report is that their kids, it's like their kids are more present. Their kids are, they're able to connect more with.

the somebody behind the eyes. I think a lot of my families tend to report that. And that's just so beautiful to see when that kid can really come through and they're coming through their own physical body. And then they're able to really connect with the people around them. mean, what a massive thing for a kid to be able to have more in their life than that connection, which is what we all seek as human beings is more connection more often and more of the time.

And then you piece that with the heart rate variability and you start to see that working its way back. have a chart. So you, we've got five zones, zone one and two are at the top, three and four at the bottom. They're the most fatigued zones. Zone five is like in the middle. It's the green zone. It's the zone that we really want the heart rate variability to sit in. So if you're on more on the left side of this chart tends to indicate that your sympathetic system is, is more online. You're more wired.

The further down you are on that left side, the more tired you are. It's like, you think about your accelerator in the car, it's like the accelerator has just been on the whole time. And we just, the nervous system's not understanding how to take the foot off the accelerator to slow down. If we're more showing up on the right-hand side of this chart, it means that our brake pedal is on and we're just, headed for burnout, know, real, real exhaustion. And the further down we are on that right side, the more exhausted that we are.

So the closer we can get to this green zone tends to indicate the more adaptability, resilience that our nervous system has. So we know that when stress comes, because it always comes in some shape or form, we have the resilience, we have more adaptability. Whereas when we're further down the chart, we are running on empty. So there's less adaptability. It's like we're looking at a nervous system that's adapted over a long period of time, and it just doesn't have the energy to adapt anymore.

And that's when we really want to seek true reorganization to help the nervous system really process some of the stresses that it's been holding on for so long.

Lucia Silver (29:28)
And that connection piece is so huge, you know, being present and being regulated that you allude to, that's what we're really, I think as parents, that's our first sign. It's soft signs, pooping and sleeping and so forth, but deep signs for me were really around. know, Quinn was never offline per se, but definitely with all that going on in his body, just so distracted and exhausted by the ticks and the...

dysregulation that now he's present and that is just an extraordinary feeling as a mum to be able to share and connecting really watching this work, connecting the brain and body really, you know, this communication loop where it's not necessarily just their connection with this world, but it's their interception, it's their connection inside their own bodies as well.

their feelings of cold, their feelings of being hungry or not, ⁓ that's all played a part in this as well. And I know that you talk a lot about this communication loop. ⁓ This is foundational for a child's comfort and ease and coordination and behaviour and general adaptability. And the scans are obviously feeding into reading that a little bit as well, aren't they? So why is that communication loop so important?

Francesca Aitken (30:55)
I think the brain body are just constantly talking to each other. Every second, millisecond of every day, messages go down from the brain and messages come back up from the body. And when that communication is clear, the child tends to move and behave and feel with more ease. When the nervous system is under high strain, though that communication loop can get noisy or slow down, that can make everyday things feel more overwhelming or more effortful.

It's, as I said, it's not misbehaviour, it's physiology. And it's when that two-way communication is a bit disruptive or a bit more burdened, that's when parents usually see, I suppose, more relatable things like that difficulty unwinding for sleep, that sensory overload in new environments, emotional outbursts that feel like out of nowhere, difficulty with coordination or body awareness or feeling stuck emotionally.

Lucia Silver (31:27)
the end.

Francesca Aitken (31:52)
You know, we tend to see some of those things and I said they're not character flaws. It's not intentional behaviour. These are all signs the nervous system is adapting.

Lucia Silver (32:01)
Yeah. And sometimes adapting, following quite chronic, I mean, damage, Dr. Tony Ebel, your colleague talks a lot about, you know, the upper cervical, the C1, C2 brainstem areas and how certainly in a case like Quinn, know, yanked and yanked and forceps and von Tues and, know, this prolonged period of...

for a long time you couldn't touch Quinn's neck since he's been having neurologically focused chiropractic work and the scans leading the way. You can have contact around Quinn's neck. This area was physiologically damaged, I'd go as far as to say that, and when those areas are...

interrupted for want of a better word, and then in their normal development, this incredibly fragile cervical area, which is connecting one of the key areas for connecting the brain to the body is happening in this area in the early years, this is the primitive reflexes that we talk about in our course, this is those early stages of the brain, making these fundamental milestone adjustments, you know, our brain is not fully formed, unlike

watching a nature program only yesterday and looking at it, you know, two day elephant walking around drinking, eating, doing all of those things, you know, we'd simply don't, we're born with only 25 % of our brain in full operation, it's all happening outside of the womb. And it begins through this autonomic nervous system. So when this area, this critical area that's dictating that early development in the upper cervical is interrupted or damaged or impeded, it's getting in the way of

so much that is subsequently needing to happen. So this brain-body connection is in a sense what, not in a sense, it is what I have witnessed neurologically focused chiropractic bringing back. is reconnecting the areas, rewiring the areas that need to be as nature intended. It's not superimposing anything. It's not a miracle. It's simply facilitating the body to do what it originally intended.

Francesca Aitken (33:59)
Mm-hmm.

Definitely. And I think, you know, you just describing Quinn's neck when he first started care is, definitely not an uncommon thing that happens in the office here. You know, you can, you can associate all sorts of patterning to that, but at the end of the day, the neck doesn't want to be touched because there has, there is an element of neurological defence there. There's like shut down almost that freeze response there. So just by

somebody, somebody's hands being in that area, it's like the body's just gonna, you know, squirm away from that because the physiology knows that that's, it's not a safe place. Having something done, it's almost like it's barely got enough energy just to keep the status quo, let alone to have any ability to change and adapt because it's already done that to the max. So, you know, especially when we're working with kids like that, actually it's about, sometimes it's about working with where works and

Lucia Silver (35:04)
Yes.

Francesca Aitken (35:05)
helping the nervous system create that safety again, helping the body come back to that sense of ease. And when we work with where works, you're not creating more defence in the body anymore. You're creating the safety that the nervous system has longed for for so long. And the body's so clever. I think we don't give it enough credit. It's gotten us this far. Don't forget, defence is a survival strategy. And when we're really working with people, wanna, the nervous system,

created that for a reason. It can uncreate that, if that's the right word. The brain can absolutely reconnect back into the body and process some of the tension and trauma that's stored there. 100%. We see it all the time. then the fact that people are getting some changes, like you say with Quinn, like now he can have his neck touched again. Isn't that amazing? And we see that with so many of our own kiddos here as well. And it's not a place of defence anymore.

It's a place of ease again.

Lucia Silver (36:04)
No,

absolutely. And this is the hopeful piece. And I think that the buzzword, of course, is the neuroplasticity, the body's extraordinary ability to keep changing and adapting according to the needs that it needs to meet. And this extraordinary work that you do within neurologically focused chiropractic is such a facilitator of that, you know, almost shining the light on where

creating new patterns, new patterns that were always intended, but might be delayed or making connections where they were always intended. So the idea that these patterns can change is really, really fundamental. It's what helps the nervous system become more organized and regulated and adaptable over change. So with the work in question and how I've seen Quinn being

ever so gently touched and always led by what his body is ready to respond to and receive. Now, role is this work playing in the facilitation? How is it working with the nervous system? What's it doing?

Francesca Aitken (37:11)
well, that's a big question. So I think just to reiterate your point, I mean, what I find so hopeful is that the nervous system is designed to change. It's not designed to be fixed. The nervous system has adapted for a reason. And I think we need to start to be able to give the nervous system permission to start to heal, take away any of the stresses that we, you know, sometimes

So let's go back to my own example. You know, I was raised very speak when you're spoken to, like stay in the corner and be quiet, be hidden until I want you to be seen. And that kind of people pleaser patterning. I definitely have that in oodle amounts. ⁓ and now with my first born, because his nervous system is very different from my own. It's a

about learning his own neurological language and wiring so that we don't keep putting the nervous system further into defence. you know, whilst I'm learning as well, boundaries and consequences still definitely have a place. Actually, things like punishments and things that potentially I had as a kid, you know, taking things off of me and they just don't work for him.

because what's happening is I see his nervous system is going deeper into defence when I have tried some of those parenting strategies on him. And I realized, you know, a while ago now, but doing those things actually is not going to help his nervous system move through faster. And actually if we can just surrender to how the nervous system is going to naturally develop over time and just take away all the pressure off of the system and actually

be a little bit more child led with boundaries and guidelines, of course, but it just allows for the nervous system to move through some of these neurodevelopmental milestones with much more ease and grace and more from a coaching perspective, rather than a, told you not to do that perspective or, you know, some of the things that maybe I had when I was a kid, ⁓ which probably a lot of you are going to resonate with. ⁓ but you know, this is how we,

we can kind of take a step back and just really see with this neurological kind of mindset, you know, how we can go about doing things differently. And it's the same thing in the care that we offer here in the office. It's, it's not about, I need to fix you because you're broken. Like the nervous system isn't broken. The nervous system is fundamentally inspiring and clever to be able to adapt to a point where it can survive and get through some of the things that it's had to endure.

And actually by creating that sense of ease and working with an area that actually wants to be worked with and that is open. And in my care, we call them gateways, but they're like access points into the nervous system that when you connect with them, the system can reconnect with ease. The brain can start to reconnect into the body. The body can start to process some of the tension that it's held for so long. It can start to open up. The breathing starts to get better. It starts to become more.

And even with some of the wiggly little kiddos, the younger tots and some of my more dysregulated kids that really can't sit still, there are ways of actually connecting with a part of the nervous system that actually works. And it can be very quick and it can be very efficient. And as the nervous system, and then it's just allowing and waiting for the nervous system to do what it does best, reorganize, start to heal.

start to rebuild those connections that it's had to sever in order to be able to survive and move through. And that's not a process that we can do anything about. That's the hero is the kiddo of the journey. It's their nervous system that's doing the work. It's their nervous system that needs to be celebrated. It's the kid that needs to be celebrated because they are the hero of their own journey. And everybody, we all have a nervous system.

It's about, it's about more about allowing than anything else and just have having that presence and connection to really go beyond what we see on the outside and actually have some understanding of how we can further connect with the person on the inside.

Lucia Silver (41:43)
That's beautiful, Fran, and makes it very clear. And I think it brings us very smoothly onto the part that we as parents play at home, because co-regulation is part of this, you know, the nervous system, we can't be in your clinic all day long being adjusted 24-7, you know, we spend most of our lives with our children at home. And they are borrowing our nervous systems as listeners to our podcast would have heard me say it.

million times, know, those areas that regulate in the prefrontal cortex are not really developed until they're nearly 26. So, you know, our children are borrowing our nervous system for a very long time in order to co-regulate or as the case may be down-regulate if they're in a hypervigilant state. And so, of course, the inevitable problem comes when mum, dad, chief caregiver is dysregulated themselves, which is so often the case nowadays in our pressured lives.

And I was thinking as many mothers, maybe like me listening to you a moment ago where you're sort of describing how, you know, we have to make it, we need to make it safe and the child's readiness is all and if it doesn't feel safe, then, you know, the next piece of the journey isn't ready to happen. And I was thinking last night of my sort of war with Quinn with the remote control. Now I have neurologically focused chiropractic work and I can see that my

window of tolerance is growing enormously. My resilience and my, it's such an overused word, resilience. do sometimes want to poke teachers' eyes out when they use the word building resilience, because I think there's so many nuances within that. in simple terms, it's about us becoming responsive, but less reactive and seeking connection rather than confrontation or control.

And the remote control is such a great metaphor for that because Quinn will grab it and he wants it all evening. And at one point the volume was too loud and then it was bedtime. And I observed myself doing very, very well with this very gentle negotiation to get him to put the remote control down and go to bed. But he was pretty engrossed in this program. And I managed to, by the end of it, snatch the remote control, which felt like a massive fail on my part. But I'd obviously ran out of steam at that point.

not feeling particularly well and it was past bedtime and I'd already given him the extra 15 minutes so I was you know human and out of steam but what was really interesting is when I snatched the remote control that absolutely triggered him because that was his fight or flight as would have if I'd raised my voice and many parents will be listening to this thinking yeah but you get to a point where quite frankly enough is enough you know where are these boundaries where at some point you just go

Francesca Aitken (44:23)
Mm-hmm.

Lucia Silver (44:34)
Absolutely not, it's bedtime, you've had your extra 15 and you do, you might raise your voice or for some children, I don't tend to raise my voice but just my firm voice or just my slightly firm face will, you know, concern Quinn. On this occasion, I made the big goof and snatched the remote control which was like, ooh, I'm really scared mommy and he was straight into being aggressive ⁓ because he perceived me that way and that's how his nervous system had responded. So I had to go into...

you know, a whole thing of bringing that back down again and finding our way back. But the point is, in that very human tale of what felt like a bit of a mother failing, is that we also need support. And if we are at home with little ones, and quite often mothers will share with me, I'm just like you, I'm a single mum. And when people say, just take some time for yourself, you're like, well, how, how? Or

You might have two or three children and you're juggling work and two of the children might have some particular needs that take extra care and we're containing it all and we don't have an outlet. We don't have somewhere to go to let it out or to we're containing for everyone and attempting to co-regulate for everyone. So this is something that I talk about a lot.

And this is first step. This even precedes when we do work on our children. Let's start with ourselves because we are the house. We are the host of this entire healing and beautiful journey of development for our children. And if that house is on shaky soil, then it's very difficult to safety overhead. So the parents role, Fran, you know, let's talk about this.

because I know you work with parents directly and I would be coming to see you too if you weren't quite so far away at this juncture but what do you wish every mother or father understood about their own nervous system when it comes to their child's development?

Francesca Aitken (46:38)
So I always say this gently and there's good reason because we can get into this conversation of, ⁓ know, the parents should do this, you do that, et cetera. But this comes from a place of love, but our nervous system becomes part of our child's environment. They borrow our calm and they borrow our overwhelm too. And as you've just said, you know, and you've shared.

Very personal story, and I am no expert in this field either. I'm not sitting on some pedestal saying to you guys that I get it right. I don't get overwhelmed. I 100 % do. I'm just a human being. I run a business. We have a team of 14 staff and I have two kids, one of them neurodiverse. And juggling all of that, definitely sometimes my system becomes overwhelmed, but I...

do get nervous system care myself. couldn't, don't think I could function without it. And this is never said to add pressure. If anything, it's to give parents more compassion for themselves. You know, I saw this with my own son, the days that he struggles most often mirrored the days I'm running on empty, you know? And once I start supporting my own nervous system and allow myself to soften into my feminine, which for me is key, I...

definitely run from my masculine more often. I can watch him soften too. And children are so attuned, they're like little mirrors, so attuned to our regulation. you know, I think we don't know yet. We are, as a society, I think we are heading in that direction of becoming more empathetic, becoming more understanding of what's really going on.

I love having these conversations with people like yourself Lucia, because it just invites something new to the story. It's something that we are all seeking to do more of in our lives. And I think part of that comes with having some compassion for ourselves. ⁓ I feel like we are one of the first generations to really look at doing this and doing it in a different way because of some of the deep rooted traumas I think that we have all had as children growing up.

And yes, there are gonna be things that our children trigger us. They are us. So they are naturally designed to push our buttons because they are energetically at least 50 % us and 50 % at. So of course we're gonna be more triggered by our own kids and we live with them 24 seven. So cut yourself some slack, definitely, but also have some awareness that...

we also can hold a key to their neurological development. And, you know, how kids learn safety and regulation through us is how we breathe, our tone, our every cell in the body vibrates. So we are all sending out signals all of the time. And of course our kids are going to pick up on that. And a hundred percent, you can change the signal. When you talk about resilience this year,

In my brain, I was thinking, yes, it's a kind of annoying word sometimes, but I like to use the word resourcefulness because resourcefulness to me is a really key indicator of how the nervous system is integrating and adapting going forwards. Because when the nervous system is vibrating at a higher level, when you're more attuned to different things around you, you become a more resourceful version of yourself. And with this resourcefulness,

is when you can really create and master some of the changes that you're looking to integrate into your life. So sometimes when we're running on empty, we've got no energy. We aren't sleeping very well. There's just so much going on around us. We are not in a very resourceful state. So it's going to be very hard to make some of the changes that you want to make for your kids. It's going to be very hard to do some of the things that you would want to do to support your kids.

Yes, we need to build in that time into our own schedule. Five, 10 minutes a day. For me, I go to the gym half an hour every day. That's my, that's my space. That's my zone. And it really lifts my energy. It, it exercises my body. I get that release and I am, I can just be more, be more on it along with going to see my own chiropractor at least fortnightly. mean, she's in London, so it's a bit far from where I live, but I make that a priority. And for me,

having some things that are non-negotiable, you know, in that time to support my system first, because I know, hand on my heart, when I am in that space, I am so much better for my kids. I show up so much better, and I don't always get it right, you know? I really don't, but I'm just learning the same as everybody else. And like, another thing is like, we choose to slow down,

And like presence is such an important part of the conversation. And it's probably the hardest thing to do when we have so much going on is to just quit the noise in our head and to just play with our kids. Because actually that's what they need more than anything else in the world. You know, just play. It doesn't have to mean anything just there. You're not on your phone. You're not thinking about anything. You're just building a train track as I do on a regular basis if I'm not at work.

Lucia Silver (51:53)
yet.

Francesca Aitken (52:09)
or building some Lego or Kinects or something, or building a puzzle just to just sit with them and have that bonding. Because I also know that whilst it's hard, it's going by so fast, so fast. And I just know that in a blink it's gonna be gone and they're gonna be older and I'm not gonna get that time anymore. So it's only hard right now and it will get better. But yeah, overwhelmed parents can...

You can definitely regulate yourselves. One slow deep breath at a time. You can lower your shoulders. You can soften your voice, step outside for 30 seconds. A key one is to let your exhale be longer than your inhale. It's a key one to help the Vagus nerve. Give yourself permission to pause. Take that long bubble bath if you need one when the kids are in bed. ⁓ And give yourself permission to pause.

Lucia Silver (53:01)
Absolutely, that's the one that I do. Mine's the bubble bath and I'm definitely going to steal your resourcefulness rather than resilience because I think there's a pressure with resilience to be resilient all the time and we're not looking for that. We're looking for adaptability. We're looking for versatility. We're looking for, just as we've been saying earlier on, we're looking for appropriate responses to, know, rather than thinking, God, I thought I was calm and then...

Francesca Aitken (53:20)
Yes.

Lucia Silver (53:30)
that driver pulled up in front of me and I'm screaming like a banshee. Well, clearly you weren't feeling quite as calm as you thought you were. But the other thing I love about resourcefulness is while it's about being connected with our children, it's also about being connected within and with ourselves. And with resourcefulness, I feel like I can kind of say to myself, how resourced do I feel today?

You know, and I mean that honestly, mean, not seeking to always be, I'm a 10 out of 10, but actually today, I feel like I'm an empty bucket or I'm an overflowing bucket. I'm definitely under-resourced and overwhelmed. I don't have what I need. And Brené Brown, who's someone I absolutely love, who talks about vulnerability and shame and all sorts of important human emotions, she and her husband have a habit of

Francesca Aitken (54:09)
Mm-hmm.

Lucia Silver (54:27)
at the end of the day they both work very hard and been raising kids and doing it all and they check in with one another and they say where are you at today and she'll say oh I'm at it I'm kind of three and hubby will go well that's okay because I'm seven and then they know that that's the balance of play that's happening and if it happens that they're both two out of ten at the end of an exhausted day

Francesca Aitken (54:46)
Mm-hmm.

Lucia Silver (54:54)
then they know that they need to be especially delicate and careful with one another. Well, I don't have that partner there and some people listening may and may not, but just by asking yourself the question and checking in with yourself, how am I actually doing? What is it that I actually need? For someone as questioning as I am, that's a really novel new idea to me. You know, I've read all the books, I've done it, but just that, just check in with yourself.

And if you need to take that moment, I'll now just go into the kitchen and as you've said, Fran, I'll do some breathing. If I feel like, you know, what is it I need in this moment? Because I'm super under resourced and Quinn needs me right now. So yes, I think self-compassion and self-care takes on for me.

Francesca Aitken (55:29)
Mm-hmm.

Lucia Silver (55:43)
It's not a cliché, it's not that put your oxygen mask on before you put your kit, which people just seem to be deaf to, it's just a sort of phrase we don't really engage with. What I've been saying really is that self-care is a duty of care for our children. If you are not taking care of yourself, you will not be able to do best by your children.

let that sink for a moment because it's really really important in this sequencing. So the family experience, so without you know making any claims or what are some of the shifts that families often report once their child's nervous system becomes more settled because they love hearing this and lots of our listeners have heard some of the extraordinary things that have happened for Quinn as a result of this work but let's just look at some of the

things like sleep and emotional ease and digestion and adaptability, what sort of things might we start to see?

Francesca Aitken (56:40)
think again, families often tell me when the nervous system of the child begins to feel more settled, it's those soft signs of the things that really shift first. And that's what we really look for. you know, communicate that to parents is better sleep, like you've said, smoother digestion, emotional storms seem fewer, the adaptability and it goes up, you know, more of that happens.

I think more moments of calm is another one. And people talk about transitions, but I think that's a key one is that it's, think kids have an easier time generally transitioning. And then, you know, I mean, we talk about gut changes, but that's kind of some of the things that we might look for later down the line is that the gut really does start to regulate or find a new rhythm. And again, that's unique to each individual kiddo. And then, you know,

later down the line again, people start to say, they don't get so many colds anymore. Well, they, you know, used to get a cold every week at nursery and it's just not happening quite as much anymore. I definitely feel like that's something that happens as well. It takes a little longer. But you know, when you talk about some of the primitive reflexes as well, like that's something that we look, you know, we definitely do assessments along the way, but the primitive reflexes start to integrate sometimes on their own.

when the nervous system is really taken care of. And, you know, maybe the system does need a little bit more help sometimes, but yeah, a good portion of that tends to shift. And as I said, as well, kids just become more present, more authentic. They can connect with adults and sometimes those social interactions just become easier as well. So yeah, a huge myriad of things, you know, depending on the kiddo.

Lucia Silver (58:33)
Fantastic and those same things really would be reflected in the changes that parents notice in themselves when the family nervous system finds more ease.

Francesca Aitken (58:38)
Yeah.

Yeah, absolutely. And I mean, it's, you know, it's not just saying, it's, it's the, if the kid could do this, then things would be so much easier. Or if the parent could do this, then it'd be, but it's, it's, it's the whole picture. You know, it's everything intertwined. You know, obviously if the kid's nervous system is more regulated, then you're going to get some real changes that aren't going to have so much of a triggering impact on the family as a whole. But it's a two way street too. You know, if the nervous system of the parents,

can become more regulated, then they're not going to trigger the kids as much either. So it's definitely, you know, everyone together. And at least, you know, if you can't, if you don't have access to neurologically focused chiropractic care, it's, you know, having that mindfulness to, to just observe some of those patterns or undertaking, you know, there's plenty of courses out there that you can go on that can help the nervous system at least find some ease, even in the short term.

⁓ and things like that. So families start relating to each other from a place of understanding rather than with fear or confusion or trying to figure out what's going on, you know.

Lucia Silver (59:52)
I think, you say, finding your thing, finding your thing, breath work for many, I think, has been very powerful. And parents will be thinking, where can I find urologically focused chiropractic? And that certainly would be my first recommendation to anyone thinking, what can I do now? Where could I take my kitty? And I'll always add on, how about you, mama? And how's dad feeling? And who else is in the picture? Are there any siblings? Because if it's affordable and you can address the whole family.

then it really is a whole family delicate ecosystem. It isn't just about one little person. That little person, as we've said, is so intricately connected to everyone else. So for parents listening who do feel overwhelmed or unsure, what is that one simple compassionate first step that they can take today to support their child's nervous system? If there's one little golden thing they could take away, what would it be Fran?

Francesca Aitken (1:00:45)
I always say start small, like one just compassionate habit a day. It could be that breathing slower. It could be just waking your child gently, having a shower together in the morning, or I don't know, this might be outside of your comfort zone, but like a naked hug in the morning, know, some skin on skin and just to kind of connect before the day begins. Or you could just choose to give yourself 30 seconds.

before responding. know, don't, sometimes we always think we have to respond straight away or on the spot. You don't. And it's perfectly okay to say to your kiddos, especially if they're older, just, mommy just needs a sec right now and I'll get back to you in a minute. ⁓ Like you don't have to respond straight away, but it's about those small things done consistently that really creates the support that the nervous system is seeking. So it's not, it's not the.

massive changes that we're always trying to make. It's just those one or two little things. And I always just add one. Like whenever I'm trying to do something, you know, even as a team in the office in the business, I'm just doing one thing because one thing takes a lot to integrate usually and a lot of more energy and resourcefulness to really allow that shift to happen and become a habit going forwards. So just pick something that you feel resonates with you and just

share that I do have some other options in the blueprint that Lucia is going to share with you guys.

Lucia Silver (1:02:18)
Yes, I mean, we've got the fantastic and nervous system blueprint and it will help our parents understand a lot around this. I love your, you know, impressing the point that because we know the nervous system finds safety and consistency and habit and repetition as well, that whatever that small thing is, it's important that it's small because the critical part is doing it regularly. It might only be 20 minutes, half an hour of play a week, but it's without your phone. It's with your focus there that they know that that's

what you're going to do when you come in on a Thursday. I actually said to myself only yesterday that I was thinking what can I do with Quinn? I'm absolutely on my knees and I want to spend some time with him. I thought why do you need to do anything? Why don't you just put your phone down and go and just sit next to him on the sofa? He's watching telly, doesn't matter, just go and sit with him. It was quite revelatory, so simple.

You don't need to come up with a card game or come up with a novelty or come up with, just go and sit with him and take interest with him and whatever he's watching. Just have some snuggle up time on the sofa, which is what I did and it was delicious.

Francesca Aitken (1:03:14)
Mm-hmm.

Amazing.

Lucia Silver (1:03:30)
So on that

note Fran, we've got your wonderful Nervous System Blueprint. What will it help them understand? What's inside it that parents can look forward to?

Francesca Aitken (1:03:34)
You do.

I think I've tried to break it down into really easy, understandable kind of sections. So the first is just how the nervous system works. We talked about sympathetic and parasympathetic. What does that mean? And what is going on almost biologically, physiologically in the body? Just trying to break it down so you guys can have some understanding of that. There's a section on ⁓ epigenetics as well and how are...

you know, parents' nervous systems can have an impact on the kids. There's definitely a toolkit in there as well. So you can have a look and read through some of the toolkits. And there's like little exercises that I have throughout where you can just sit and pause through the chapters and just have a think about what's going on for you. Some kind of awareness exercises as well in there. And then there's some links at the back. You know, in the office, you know, we've tried to come up with some ways that more people can have access to this kind of care.

So we do intensives in the office where people can come, they can come hang out for a week ⁓ and get access to the scans. They can have ⁓ X amount of sessions through the week. We always do a rescan at the end of the week as well. We do weekend events as well. So if you're traveling away, at least whilst I'm building at the minute in the background, ⁓ a list of all the practitioners that would work in a very similar way.

I'm hoping to launch that at the beginning of next year, but to give you more of an idea about who is potentially in and around your area, because there aren't that many of us, but working on lots of different tools and resources all the time at the minute to get more people access to this incredible work.

Lucia Silver (1:05:25)
Fran, you're an absolute warrior. Thank you so much, not just for today with the podcast, but for your fantastic nervous system blueprint and your beautiful work in supporting Quinn and the families that I know love you so much.

Francesca Aitken (1:05:30)
Mm.

Thank you so much for having me. I'm very grateful. And you're doing amazing work with your own podcast and just sharing your own personal story, which is, you know, can be a very vulnerable time to do that and to just show up on that amazing, just to have that amazing space that you can hold for all these wonderful families listening to so much needed work. It's incredible. You're inspirational.

Lucia Silver (1:06:04)
Well, I know that every parent listening is walking away today with a clearer and kinder understanding of their child's nervous system and I hope their own. Their lived patterns and why so much of what we see is simply adaptation, not failure, not fault, not behaviour to fix, just biology doing what it needs to do. And what you've shared today brings real hope and such a refreshing level of clarity for anyone listening.

So as we've mentioned, Fran has generously gifted her nervous system blueprint, which you can download in the show notes. It's a beautiful, simple introduction to stress patterns and regulation, and how we can support our children with more confidence and less fear. And as always, these conversations sit at the heart of our whole child, whole family philosophy at the Brain Health Movement, understanding development, connection, and regulation before anything else.

So thank you again Fran and to everyone listening. Please take a single moment for yourself today, maybe now, even one slow breath, because your nervous system matters just as much as your child's. If you enjoyed this episode, please follow, subscribe and leave a review. It helps more parents find the support that they deserve. We'll see you next time on My Mighty Quinn.