Growing with Your Kids as They Grow Up (with Kenya Malcolm)

Growing with Your Kids as They Grow Up (with Kenya Malcolm)

From It's a Lot by Emily Hessney Lynch

May 12, 2026 · 1h 0m · Season 1 · Episode 26

About this episode

Emily Hessney Lynch discusses parenting challenges and mental health with Dr. Kenya Malcolm, exploring trauma and attachment.

Are we doomed to traumatize our kids? Host Emily Hessney Lynch sits down with Dr. Kenya Malcolm, PhD, a clinical psychologist and the Director of Infant and Early Childhood Initiatives at the University of Rochester Medical Center's Department of Psychiatry, for a conversation about exactly that. We explore how our trauma shows up as parents and how our anxieties can impact the environment our kids grow up in and their attachment to us, what your first stop should be when you're worried about your child's mental health (or your own!), and how to parse all the conflicting parenting advice you see online. In the second half of the episode, we chat about a new title Kenya recently added: grandma! She shares her hopes for being a grandparent (hint: it involves spoiling them and having tons of fun), how she's taking care of her daughter postpartum, and how she built a relationship with her daughters that was flexible and allowed both her and her kids to grow and change as they got older. Links: We both use a Brick to help reduce the time we spend on our phones; if you're interested in trying it, you can save 10% with my link ! For more of Kenya, follow her PhD Instagram , her…

People in this episode

Host: Emily Hessney Lynch

Guest: Dr. Kenya Malcolm

Topics covered

  • parenting
  • mental health
  • trauma
  • attachment
  • grandparenting
  • child development

Keywords

  • parenting advice
  • mental health
  • trauma
  • attachment
  • grandparenting
  • child development

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: University of Rochester Medical Center

Books & works: The Whole-Brain Child, How to Talk So Kids Will Listen & Listen So Kids Will Talk, My Mouth is a Volcano!, I Just Don't Like the S

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