Audio
Video
Alastair is joined by Emily Haslam-Jones, a consultant, therapist, yoga teacher, and specialist in co-regulation and neurodivergence. Emily works with children, parents, carers, and businesses in crisis. She helps them rebuild trust, connection, and emotional regulation using evidence-based tools. Her background spans humanitarian crisis intervention, specialist education, and the therapy room, giving her a uniquely cross-generational lens on the challenges families and workplaces face today.
In this episode, Emily explores what really drives the anxiety crisis in Gen Alpha and younger Gen Z, why the loss of unsupervised free play matters more than most people realise. She talks about co-regulation which is the science of nervous systems attuning to one another, and how it is the missing piece in both parenting and leadership. She also makes a powerful case for ‘connection-seeking’ as a better frame than ‘attention-seeking’, and shares her most practical, immediately usable tools for parents and managers alike.
Emily Haslam-Jones Takeaways:
- ‘Attention-seeking’ is better understood as ‘connection-seeking’ — reframing it reduces parental reactivity and improves outcomes
- 10–15 minutes of daily, fully focused, uninterrupted connection time with a child is more powerful than hours of half-present attention
- Catch desired behaviour within 5 seconds and praise it — most parenting interventions focus on the unwanted behaviour and miss this window entirely
- Self-care is not selfish: parents (and leaders) must regulate their own nervous systems first before they can co-regulate anyone else
- Organisations bringing in wellbeing and behaviour training must also work with the managers and leaders — not just the presenting problem
- Neurodivergent children (ADHD, autism, demand avoidance/PDA) need boundaries AND low-demand flexibility — the ‘garden fence’ metaphor captures this balance
- Co-regulation principles translate directly into leadership: a dysregulated manager cannot create a regulated team
Emily Haslam-Jones Links
Generationally Speaking Links:
