Preparing for Back-to-School: Mental Health Tips for Families

Back-to-school season already?

If your nervous system is screaming “nope” while you dig out backpacks and schedules, you’re not alone. Whether you're a parent holding it together with caffeine and calendar reminders, or a high-achieving teen silently spiraling—this time of year can feel like a lot.

The good news? You don’t have to white-knuckle your way through it. Let’s talk about back-to-school stress, how it shows up in your body and behavior, and how to create more regulation, rest, and connection—for you and your family.

Why Back-to-School Stress Hits Hard

Even if everything looks fine on paper—lunches packed, routines dialed, Target haul complete—this season can stir up way more than logistics.
This transition can trigger:

• Separation anxiety (for kids and grown-ups)

• Performance pressure

• Social overwhelm

• Sleep disruptions

• Regression in behaviors (meltdowns, irritability, etc.)

And for families with a history of emotional neglect, trauma, or high expectations? Back-to-school can feel like returning to a battlefield—masked as a classroom.

Mental Health Tips for a Smoother Start

1. Validate Big Feelings
Don’t skip over your kid’s (or your own) back-to-school dread. Instead of "You’re fine!" try, “It makes sense that you’re nervous. New things are hard.”

2. Create Predictability
Structure doesn’t have to mean rigidity. Try gentle rituals like “Monday breakfast check-ins” or after-school “cozy corner” decompression time.

3. Watch for Nervous System Clues
Backtalk? Tummy aches? Sleep struggles? These might be regulation issues—not misbehavior. Help your child (and yourself) ground with simple tools like breathwork, movement, or weighted blankets.

4. Limit the Hustle Culture Pressure
Your worth—and your kid’s—isn’t measured by how many extracurriculars you juggle. Slow mornings, intentional connection, and emotional rest matter just as much as GPA.

5. Check In With Yourself
Parents, your own inner child might be activated right now too. Maybe you hated school. Maybe you felt unsupported. Notice what’s yours so you don’t unintentionally pass it on.

How Therapy Can Support You and Your Family

Whether you're seeing anxious perfectionism in your teen, emotional shutdowns in your child, or you're just plain exhausted from holding it all—therapy can help.

At Anthology Collective, we support high-achieving families who are navigating anxiety, trauma, and emotional overwhelm.

Using EMDR, somatic therapy, and parts work, we help clients (big and small) move through back-to-school stress in a way that’s trauma-informed and actually 

Ready to make this school year feel different?

If your search history includes “how to survive back-to-school season” and “mental health tips for families”—hi, I wrote this for you.
Whether you’re a parent needing your own support, or exploring EMDR therapy for your teen—we’ve got space for you.

Let’s figure it out together.

📍 In-person intensives in Gilbert, AZ
💻 Virtual intensives available throughout Arizona

👉🏽 Schedule your free 15-minute consultation
Your future self is already exhaling.

🤎🌿✨

About the author

Karla Storey is a licensed trauma therapist based in Gilbert, Arizona and the founder of Anthology Collective. She specializes in helping high-achieving women heal from emotional neglect, perfectionism, and hyper-independence using EMDR, somatic therapy, and parts work. Karla offers both weekly sessions and EMDR intensives for clients who are ready to stop performing and start feeling. Her approach is warm, real, and rooted in lived experience – because she’s done the healing work too.