EP 271: 4 Functions of Behavior, FBAs, and a Nervous System Approach

OT on Tuesday, a speech eval callback on Wednesday, play therapy on Thursday, a school meeting on Friday that's really just another appointment in disguise. When the calendar starts looking like a second job, the question that actually matters isn't a number — it's whether all of it is moving your family toward regulation, connection, and felt safety, or quietly draining it. This episode walks through how to prioritize when everything's been recommended, and nothing fits, when it's genuinely okay to pause the therapy someone called non-negotiable, and why supporting your own nervous system might be the highest-leverage intervention in the whole house.In this episode you'll learn:How to tell whether your family's current appointment load is building felt safety or quietly working against it A framework for prioritizing between recommended therapies when you can't do all of them, including what to weigh beyond which one "sounds" most importantWhy pausing or delaying a therapy you've been told is essential isn't neglectWhy your own support sometimes needs to move to the top of the listResources mentioned in this podcast:The Brain Science Behind Your Child's Biggest Behaviors→ RobynGobbel.com/brainseriesA NeuroDevelopmental Approach {EP 47} → RobynGobbel.com/neurodevelopmentalapproach20 Non-Therapy Therapeutic Interventions → RobynGobbel.com/therapeuticinterventionsRead the full transcript at: RobynGobbel.com/somanyservicesWe can't wait to review your application for the BBTI's Immersion Program for Professionals.Go now to RobynGobbel.com/apply .Applications are already streaming in and registration is starting to fill up! The new Guided Journal for Raising Kids with Big, Baffling Behaviors hits the shelves on September 21!AND! If you pre-order TWO or more copies, you can come to Baffling Behaviors LIVE! - a day-long live event for parents and caregivers in Richmond, VA on September 21. RobynGobbel.com/LIVE Grab a copy of USA Today Best Selling book Raising Kids with Big, Baffling Behaviors robyngobbel.com/bookJoin us in The Club for more support! robyngobbel.com/TheClubSign up on the waiting list for the 2027 Cohorts of the Baffling Behavior Training Institute's Immersion Program for Professionals robyngobbel.com/ImmersionFollow Me On:FacebookInstagramOver on my website you can find:Webinar and eBook on Focus on the Nervous System to Change Behavior (FREE)eBook on The Brilliance of Attachment (FREE)LOTS & LOTS of FREE ResourcesOngoing support, connection, and co-regulation for struggling parents: The ClubYear-Long Immersive & Holistic Training Program for Parenting Professionals: The Baffling Behavior Training Institute’s (BBTI) Professional Immersion Program (formerly Being With)

So many struggling and overwhelmed parents feel like their biggest problems are their kids' behaviors and the chaos that's taking over their family. This week's guest, a longtime Club member, talks about how she slowly came to realize that what she really needed to focus on wasn't strategies to change her kids' behavior, but experiences that would soften the shame she was carrying.This guest bravely shares that her shame didn't soften on her own. It took showing up in community with other parents who were honest about their own mess and who received her without judgment, over and over, before she could start offering herself that same compassion.In this episode you'll learn:Why self-compassion is almost impossible to build aloneHow this mom's own regulation changed before her kids' behavior didWhat it sounds like when your kids start offering that same compassion back to you — and to themselvesRead the full transcript at: URL goes hereWe can't wait to review your application for the BBTI's Immersion Program for Professionals.Go now to RobynGobbel.com/apply .Applications are already streaming in and registration is starting to fill up! The new Guided Journal for Raising Kids with Big, Baffling Behaviors hits the shelves on September 21!AND! If you pre-order TWO or more copies, you can come to Baffling Behaviors LIVE! - a day-long live event for parents and caregivers in Richmond, VA on September 21. RobynGobbel.com/LIVE Grab a copy of USA Today Best Selling book Raising Kids with Big, Baffling Behaviors robyngobbel.com/bookJoin us in The Club for more support! robyngobbel.com/TheClubSign up on the waiting list for the 2027 Cohorts of the Baffling Behavior Training Institute's Immersion Program for Professionals robyngobbel.com/ImmersionFollow Me On:FacebookInstagramOver on my website you can find:Webinar and eBook on Focus on the Nervous System to Change Behavior (FREE)eBook on The Brilliance of Attachment (FREE)LOTS & LOTS of FREE ResourcesOngoing support, connection, and co-regulation for struggling parents: The ClubYear-Long Immersive & Holistic Training Program for Parenting Professionals: The Baffling Behavior Training Institute’s (BBTI) Professional Immersion Program (formerly Being With)

Every morning (or afternoon or evening) feels like just one long stream of complaints. Breakfast isn’t right, the bowl isn’t right, SOMETHING is always not right, and no matter what gets fixed, it’s never right enough.^That perfectly describes a nervous system stuck in protection mode. This week’s episode explores how and why nervous systems get stuck and practical ways you can help- even when NOTHING you do seems to help. In this episode you will learn:Why your child's reaction is almost never about the thing they're reacting toWhat it means for the past to show up as a "tsunami" in the present momentThree simple places to start dropping in more felt safety today, even before anything else changesNext month in The Club we’re hosting a workshop so we can all get together, pull out the Grow Your Child’s Owl Brain with Cues of Safety workbook, and make a real plan for how to increase safety in your child’s stream of the NOW - which eventually does calm the tsunami in the stream of the pastResources mentioned in this podcast:Why Sticky Behaviors Stay Stuck (Part 1 of 3)→ RobynGobbel.com/stickybehaviors1All Behavior Makes Sense → RobynGobbel.com/allbehaviormakessenseRead the full transcript at: RobynGobbel.com/cuesofsafetyWe can't wait to review your application for the BBTI's Immersion Program for Professionals.Go now to RobynGobbel.com/apply .Applications are already streaming in and registration is starting to fill up! The new Guided Journal for Raising Kids with Big, Baffling Behaviors hits the shelves on September 21!AND! If you pre-order TWO or more copies, you can come to Baffling Behaviors LIVE! - a day-long live event for parents and caregivers in Richmond, VA on September 21. RobynGobbel.com/LIVE Grab a copy of USA Today Best Selling book Raising Kids with Big, Baffling Behaviors robyngobbel.com/bookJoin us in The Club for more support! robyngobbel.com/TheClubSign up on the waiting list for the 2027 Cohorts of the Baffling Behavior Training Institute's Immersion Program for Professionals robyngobbel.com/ImmersionFollow Me On:FacebookInstagramOver on my website you can find:Webinar and eBook on Focus on the Nervous System to Change Behavior (FREE)eBook on The Brilliance of Attachment (FREE)LOTS & LOTS of FREE ResourcesOngoing support, connection, and co-regulation for struggling parents: The ClubYear-Long Immersive & Holistic Training Program for Parenting Professionals: The Baffling Behavior Training Institute’s (BBTI) Professional Immersion Program (formerly Being With)

Screens. Sugar. Anything that feels really good. The advice to just "lower the demand" can fall really short because for some kids, more access brings real relief. But for others, more access actually causes more stress and we wind up asking kids to take on a responsibility that is beyond their developmental capacity.  This episode digs into what's actually generating the stress underneath the behavior, and what it looks like when a kid needs to be held steady instead of shifting our expectations.In this episode you will learn:Why high-reward things like screens carry their own built-in stress, and how that changes the question of whether to give more access or lessWhat it looks like when a kid needs the burden of managing something taken off their shoulders entirelyHow to tell if a boundary is actually working: not whether your kid protests, but which direction things are trending over timeIf this is landing for you and you want to map this out for your own kid, come join us in The Club. Our resource library and our members will help you map your child’s nervous system, troubleshoot things when they don’t seem to be getting any better, and show you how to take care of yourself in the middle of all of it. Resources mentioned in this podcast:Enabling vs. Low-Demand Parenting → RobynGobbel.com/enablingExploring Low Demand Parenting → RobynGobbel.com/lowdemandStress Response System → RobynGobbel.com/stressresponseRead the full transcript at: RobynGobbel.com/morestressWe can't wait to review your application for the BBTI's Immersion Program for Professionals.Go now to RobynGobbel.com/apply .Applications are already streaming in and registration is starting to fill up! The new Guided Journal for Raising Kids with Big, Baffling Behaviors hits the shelves on September 21!AND! If you pre-order TWO or more copies, you can come to Baffling Behaviors LIVE! - a day-long live event for parents and caregivers in Richmond, VA on September 21. RobynGobbel.com/LIVE Grab a copy of USA Today Best Selling book Raising Kids with Big, Baffling Behaviors robyngobbel.com/bookJoin us in The Club for more support! robyngobbel.com/TheClubSign up on the waiting list for the 2027 Cohorts of the Baffling Behavior Training Institute's Immersion Program for Professionals robyngobbel.com/ImmersionFollow Me On:FacebookInstagramOver on my website you can find:Webinar and eBook on Focus on the Nervous System to Change Behavior (FREE)eBook on The Brilliance of Attachment (FREE)LOTS & LOTS of FREE ResourcesOngoing support, connection, and co-regulation for struggling parents: The ClubYear-Long Immersive & Holistic Training Program for Parenting Professionals: The Baffling Behavior Training Institute’s (BBTI) Professional Immersion Program (formerly Being With)

Every behavior. Every parenting moment that feels impossible. It all comes back to three sentences — the three core tenets that distill how relational neuroscience makes sense of behavior and give us a roadmap toward change.This episode lays out the three truths underneath everything I do — this podcast, my books, The Club, the Immersion Program — and why they matter more than any single strategy ever could. Caring for kids with big, baffling behaviors is so overwhelming and confusing. Having an anchor is non-negotiable.In this episode you'll learn:The three sentences that hold up this entire framework and sum up what behavior really isWhy Social Baseline Theory says your nervous system was never built to carry hard moments aloneHow these three truths can help in the middle of a meltdown — with your kid, with yourself, with anyone you love who's having a hard timeYou don't have to hold onto these truths by yourself. That's what The Club is for!Resources mentioned in this podcast:Start Here Podcast: The 6-episode series built to go first → RobynGobbel.com/starthereFocus on the Nervous System to Change Behavior — free masterclass + ebook → RobynGobbel.com/masterclassThe Owl/Watchdog/Possum, Stress-Brain-Behavior, and Parent Regulation roadmaps → RobynGobbel.com/downloadroadmapsRead the full transcript at: RobynGobbel.com/threethingsWe can't wait to review your application for the BBTI's Immersion Program for Professionals.Go now to RobynGobbel.com/apply .Applications are already streaming in and registration is starting to fill up! The new Guided Journal for Raising Kids with Big, Baffling Behaviors hits the shelves on September 21!AND! If you pre-order TWO or more copies, you can come to Baffling Behaviors LIVE! - a day-long live event for parents and caregivers in Richmond, VA on September 21. RobynGobbel.com/LIVE Grab a copy of USA Today Best Selling book Raising Kids with Big, Baffling Behaviors robyngobbel.com/bookJoin us in The Club for more support! robyngobbel.com/TheClubSign up on the waiting list for the 2027 Cohorts of the Baffling Behavior Training Institute's Immersion Program for Professionals robyngobbel.com/ImmersionFollow Me On:FacebookInstagramOver on my website you can find:Webinar and eBook on Focus on the Nervous System to Change Behavior (FREE)eBook on The Brilliance of Attachment (FREE)LOTS & LOTS of FREE ResourcesOngoing support, connection, and co-regulation for struggling parents: The ClubYear-Long Immersive & Holistic Training Program for Parenting Professionals: The Baffling Behavior Training Institute’s (BBTI) Professional Immersion Program (formerly Being With)

You know that kid who just can't stay in the therapy room? They leave, wander around, get into things that aren't theirs, or are maybe even destructive? And three therapists have already called it quits.Maybe this describes your kid. Maybe this describes the kids you work with. This episode is for both of you. The helper who is trying to be with this kid, wondering what they're doing wrong. The helper who is working with a furious or checked-out parent — because it's the same question. But this episode is for the parent of that kid, too.In this episode you will learn:Why saying yes to this work means saying yes to dysregulation — kid dysregulation, parent dysregulation, all of it What it looks like to stay regulated next to someone else's protection mode, whether that's a kid on a windowsill or a parent saying nothing is workingWhy a helper- or a parent- can't do this alone; and how being met with regulation yourself is what makes it possible to offer it to someone else.Come find your people — the ones who get how hard and how worth it this work is. If you’re a parent or caregiver, join us in The Club at robyngobbel.com/theclubIf you’re a helper and want to be included in my database of professionals trained in my framework, apply for the immersion program at https://RobynGobbel.com/immersionResources mentioned in this podcast:Reframing Resistance → https://robyngobbel.com/training/reframing-resistance/RobynGobbel.com/starthereImmersion Program → RobynGobbel.com/immersionRead the full transcript at: RobynGobbel.com/helperframeworkWe can't wait to review your application for the BBTI's Immersion Program for Professionals.Go now to RobynGobbel.com/apply .Applications are already streaming in and registration is starting to fill up! The new Guided Journal for Raising Kids with Big, Baffling Behaviors hits the shelves on September 21!AND! If you pre-order TWO or more copies, you can come to Baffling Behaviors LIVE! - a day-long live event for parents and caregivers in Richmond, VA on September 21. RobynGobbel.com/LIVE Grab a copy of USA Today Best Selling book Raising Kids with Big, Baffling Behaviors robyngobbel.com/bookJoin us in The Club for more support! robyngobbel.com/TheClubSign up on the waiting list for the 2027 Cohorts of the Baffling Behavior Training Institute's Immersion Program for Professionals robyngobbel.com/ImmersionFollow Me On:FacebookInstagramOver on my website you can find:Webinar and eBook on Focus on the Nervous System to Change Behavior (FREE)eBook on The Brilliance of Attachment (FREE)LOTS & LOTS of FREE ResourcesOngoing support, connection, and co-regulation for struggling parents: The ClubYear-Long Immersive & Holistic Training Program for Parenting Professionals: The Baffling Behavior Training Institute’s (BBTI) Professional Immersion Program (formerly Being With)

When life is overwhelming and your kid's behavior makes no sense — and feels like it's getting worse — even the best resources get hard to use. You're too dysregulated to sort through 270 episodes or an almost 300-page book to figure out where to start. Of course you are.This episode breaks down why you freeze in the face of new information, or end up just begging someone to tell you what to do — plus a personal story about learning that the hard way, and the actual order to work through instead.In this episode, you’ll learnWhy "I don't even know where to start" is a regulation problem wearing a content problem's clothesWhy more information stopped being the answer at a certain point, and what had to happen insteadThe exact order to work through first — and which of three free roadmaps actually matches where you are right now Resources mentioned in this podcast:Start Here Podcast: The 6-episode series built to go first → RobynGobbel.com/starthereFocus on the Nervous System to Change Behavior — free masterclass + ebook → RobynGobbel.com/masterclassThe Owl/Watchdog/Possum, Stress-Brain-Behavior, and Parent Regulation roadmaps → RobynGobbel.com/downloadroadmapsRead the full transcript at: RobynGobbel.com/WhereDoIStartWe can't wait to review your application for the BBTI's Immersion Program for Professionals.Go now to RobynGobbel.com/apply .Applications are already streaming in and registration is starting to fill up! The new Guided Journal for Raising Kids with Big, Baffling Behaviors hits the shelves on September 21!AND! If you pre-order TWO or more copies, you can come to Baffling Behaviors LIVE! - a day-long live event for parents and caregivers in Richmond, VA on September 21. RobynGobbel.com/LIVE Grab a copy of USA Today Best Selling book Raising Kids with Big, Baffling Behaviors robyngobbel.com/bookJoin us in The Club for more support! robyngobbel.com/TheClubSign up on the waiting list for the 2027 Cohorts of the Baffling Behavior Training Institute's Immersion Program for Professionals robyngobbel.com/ImmersionFollow Me On:FacebookInstagramOver on my website you can find:Webinar and eBook on Focus on the Nervous System to Change Behavior (FREE)eBook on The Brilliance of Attachment (FREE)LOTS & LOTS of FREE ResourcesOngoing support, connection, and co-regulation for struggling parents: The ClubYear-Long Immersive & Holistic Training Program for Parenting Professionals: The Baffling Behavior Training Institute’s (BBTI) Professional Immersion Program (formerly Being With)

For years, "the four functions of behavior" has been the go-to framework for understanding why kids do what they do: attention, escape, access to tangibles, sensory. It's not wrong, but it's not the whole story either. In this episode, we dig into where this model actually came from, what it leaves out, and what's underneath it once we go looking with a relational neuroscience lens.In this episode, you'll learn: Where the four functions of behavior actually came from, and why this is relevantWhy naming a behavior's "function" and saying it started in the nervous system aren't competing ideas — they're just two different layers of the same truth What's actually underneath attention-seeking, escape, tangible-seeking, and sensory behavior - and how to start identifying the missing skill that can be scaffoldedResources Mentioned on the PodcastAll Behavior Makes Sense ep. 198When it’s not Working ep 261The Club (membership community + troubleshooting worksheet)Read the full transcript at: RobynGobbel.com/behaviorfunctionWe can't wait to review your application for the BBTI's Immersion Program for Professionals.Go now to RobynGobbel.com/apply .Applications are already streaming in and registration is starting to fill up! The new Guided Journal for Raising Kids with Big, Baffling Behaviors hits the shelves on September 21!AND! If you pre-order TWO or more copies, you can come to Baffling Behaviors LIVE! - a day-long live event for parents and caregivers in Richmond, VA on September 21. RobynGobbel.com/LIVE Grab a copy of USA Today Best Selling book Raising Kids with Big, Baffling Behaviors robyngobbel.com/bookJoin us in The Club for more support! robyngobbel.com/TheClubSign up on the waiting list for the 2027 Cohorts of the Baffling Behavior Training Institute's Immersion Program for Professionals robyngobbel.com/ImmersionFollow Me On:FacebookInstagramOver on my website you can find:Webinar and eBook on Focus on the Nervous System to Change Behavior (FREE)eBook on The Brilliance of Attachment (FREE)LOTS & LOTS of FREE ResourcesOngoing support, connection, and co-regulation for struggling parents: The ClubYear-Long Immersive & Holistic Training Program for Parenting Professionals: The Baffling Behavior Training Institute’s (BBTI) Professional Immersion Program (formerly Being With)

We've been in a three-part series on sticky behaviors (behaviors that don’t seem to change, no matter WHAT you do!), and today we're doing the detective work: what is your specific child's nervous system actually predicting? In This EpisodeThree detective questions to help you identify what prediction might be driving your child's stickiest behaviors, and what those behaviors are actually protecting againstWhy you don't have to get the detective work exactly right, because the mismatched experience that changes the brain is almost always the same thing no matter what prediction is runningHow your working theory about your child's nervous system changes something in you first, and why this is so important (but also, no pressure. We’re all doing the best we can)Resources MentionedRaising Kids with Big, Baffling Behaviors — robyngobbel.com/bafflingbookThe Club — robyngobbel.com/theclubImmersion Program for Professionals — robyngobbel.com/immersionPart 1 of this series: Why Sticky Behaviors Stay Stuck Part 2 of this series: What Actually Changes Sticky BehaviorsRead the full transcript at: RobynGobbel.com/predictingWe can't wait to review your application for the BBTI's Immersion Program for Professionals.Go now to RobynGobbel.com/apply .Applications are already streaming in and registration is starting to fill up! The new Guided Journal for Raising Kids with Big, Baffling Behaviors hits the shelves on September 21!AND! If you pre-order TWO or more copies, you can come to Baffling Behaviors LIVE! - a day-long live event for parents and caregivers in Richmond, VA on September 21. RobynGobbel.com/LIVE Grab a copy of USA Today Best Selling book Raising Kids with Big, Baffling Behaviors robyngobbel.com/bookJoin us in The Club for more support! robyngobbel.com/TheClubSign up on the waiting list for the 2027 Cohorts of the Baffling Behavior Training Institute's Immersion Program for Professionals robyngobbel.com/ImmersionFollow Me On:FacebookInstagramOver on my website you can find:Webinar and eBook on Focus on the Nervous System to Change Behavior (FREE)eBook on The Brilliance of Attachment (FREE)LOTS & LOTS of FREE ResourcesOngoing support, connection, and co-regulation for struggling parents: The ClubYear-Long Immersive & Holistic Training Program for Parenting Professionals: The Baffling Behavior Training Institute’s (BBTI) Professional Immersion Program (formerly Being With)

Part 1 was about why sticky behaviors stay stuck. Part 2 is where the hope lives. We're diving into the two mechanisms that actually change sticky behaviors at the neurological level. This is the episode that makes the hardest ask of Part - shifting away from ‘fix-it’ and ‘this has to change’ energy- make sense.In this episode you'll learn:Why your child's dysregulation isn't the obstacle to healing; it's actually the doorway to itThe two mechanisms that change sticky behaviors at the neurological level, why one creates the conditions for the other, and why neither of them will look like anything is working for a long timeWhat it actually means to stay regulated during your child's hardest moments Read the full transcript at: RobynGobbel.com/changestickyWe can't wait to review your application for the BBTI's Immersion Program for Professionals.Go now to RobynGobbel.com/apply .Applications are already streaming in and registration is starting to fill up! The new Guided Journal for Raising Kids with Big, Baffling Behaviors hits the shelves on September 21!AND! If you pre-order TWO or more copies, you can come to Baffling Behaviors LIVE! - a day-long live event for parents and caregivers in Richmond, VA on September 21. RobynGobbel.com/LIVE Grab a copy of USA Today Best Selling book Raising Kids with Big, Baffling Behaviors robyngobbel.com/bookJoin us in The Club for more support! robyngobbel.com/TheClubSign up on the waiting list for the 2027 Cohorts of the Baffling Behavior Training Institute's Immersion Program for Professionals robyngobbel.com/ImmersionFollow Me On:FacebookInstagramOver on my website you can find:Webinar and eBook on Focus on the Nervous System to Change Behavior (FREE)eBook on The Brilliance of Attachment (FREE)LOTS & LOTS of FREE ResourcesOngoing support, connection, and co-regulation for struggling parents: The ClubYear-Long Immersive & Holistic Training Program for Parenting Professionals: The Baffling Behavior Training Institute’s (BBTI) Professional Immersion Program (formerly Being With)