{"id":53575,"date":"2025-10-03T15:27:15","date_gmt":"2025-10-03T15:27:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/53575\/"},"modified":"2025-10-03T15:27:15","modified_gmt":"2025-10-03T15:27:15","slug":"utah-therapist-shares-how-parents-can-help-kids-cope-with-tragedy-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/53575\/","title":{"rendered":"Utah therapist shares how parents can help kids cope with tragedy"},"content":{"rendered":"

RIVERTON \u2014 With so many heartbreaking headlines lately, the church shootings<\/a> in Michigan, the shooting of Charlie Kirk<\/a>\u00a0and even the recent death<\/a> of an elementary student in Provo Canyon last week, it\u2019s not just adults who feel the weight of the news. Children do, too.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are definitely (seeing) an increase in kids and teens the past few months and year,\u201d said Tracie Penunuri, a licensed clinical social worker and founder of Mountain View Family Therapy<\/a> in Riverton. \u201cThe way that they cope is different than adults. It\u2019s a big struggle.\u201d<\/p>\n

Penunuri said many parents want to shield their kids from tragedy, but in today\u2019s world, that is nearly impossible.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe exposures, they\u2019re constantly there,\u201d she said. \u201cThey\u2019re going to hear about it on their phones. They\u2019re going to see it as they walk past the living room on the TV. They\u2019re also going to hear it at school from their friends and all of their perceptions and interpretations.\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s why she encourages parents to talk to their children and ask them how they\u2019re doing.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s really, really important that as adults, we get ahead of that and we have some conversations with them and we\u2019re really open and encourage that communication,\u201d said Penunuri. \u201cThat is a key, key important responsibility of all the adults in kids\u2019 lives, to reassure them that they\u2019re safe, that we\u2019re going to do everything we can to keep them safe.\u201d<\/p>\n

She said parents should also watch for sudden changes in their children, like withdrawing, lashing out in anger, becoming impulsive or struggling with sleep.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you see your child doing something that\u2019s different than is their norm, that\u2019s the first place you want to start,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

And when kids don\u2019t have the words to explain what\u2019s happening inside them, therapy can give them another language.<\/p>\n

\u201cPlay is the language of children,\u201d said Penunuri. \u201cWe have special toys, special activities and things in the play therapy room that are set up for the child to be able to reenact. In some ways it\u2019s very literal reenactment, and sometimes it\u2019s a more figurative reenactment. But we\u2019re able to ask some guiding questions and make some observations and reflect what we\u2019re seeing. And the child becomes more and more comfortable, and they start to pull that resilience they have within themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n

Building resilience, Penunuri said, is important and it doesn\u2019t always have to happen in a therapy room.<\/p>\n

\u201cGet out. Go see these beautiful fall colors right now that we have,\u201d she said. \u201cGet your children out. Go out. Take a walk. Be around other people. Connect. All of those things, again, build that resiliency muscle.\u201d<\/p>\n

Her office often works with the Jordan School District to help with therapy sessions for students.<\/p>\n

One of the most rewarding parts of her job is seeing children come out the other side.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is incredible to be able to see someone suffer less. It\u2019s incredible. You know, there\u2019s a lot of suffering in the world that you can\u2019t do much about. We all just kind of have to deal with it. But unnecessary suffering is the worst kind of suffering,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

And perhaps the most important reminder she has for anyone is that no parent or child has to go through this alone.<\/p>\n

\u201c100%,\u201d she said. \u201cWe are not wired to do all of this stuff alone. We are connecting beings. That is who we are at our very core. When we do that, we heal so much faster.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"RIVERTON \u2014 With so many heartbreaking headlines lately, the church shootings in Michigan, the shooting of Charlie Kirk\u00a0and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":53576,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[163,2607,85,46,40698,40696,522,523,105,40697,8440,1481],"class_list":{"0":"post-53575","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mental-health","8":"tag-health","9":"tag-home","10":"tag-il","11":"tag-israel","12":"tag-ksltv-com","13":"tag-ksltv-com-utah-news","14":"tag-mental-health","15":"tag-mentalhealth","16":"tag-sports","17":"tag-talk-and-community","18":"tag-traffic","19":"tag-weather"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53575","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=53575"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53575\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/53576"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=53575"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=53575"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=53575"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}