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Parenting Through Everyday Struggles —
What Unique Psychology Can Show You
I understand why most people try to “fix” their kids. If you’re lucky, it works, and they appreciate it too. But we all know that many kids grow up with complaints about what their parents did to them, and this is why looking at your child’s Unique Psychology can help you guide them in a way that might be more respectful of their unique limits and needs.
When you look at someone’s Unique Psychology, patterns that seemed random, frustrating, or even worrying begin to make sense. And when we make room for our child’s difference, and have language to explain it to others, their behaviour becomes less of an issue a more just a part of who they are.
This page covers some of the everyday struggles that Unique Psychology can shed light on, even though Kirlian Photography and Esogetic Medicine has it’s place, there’s a lot that we can do without it or until you are ready.
This page is long, feel free to read only the sections that are right for you.
Sleep
Some children take hours to fall asleep. Some wake screaming in the night. Some are exhausted no matter how much sleep they get.
In Human Design, each type has a different way they need to sleep — with some added nuance based on what environment they feel best in. Some children need to be genuinely exhausted before their body will let them rest — sending them to bed when they are not tired can lead to restlessness, not sleep. That said, others need to lie down before they’re exhausted, so they can empty out and relax into sleep. Some need time to talk about their day. For many, unresolved emotional conflict will bring on bad dreams (we can see this in their Kirlian photo too). Some can handle screen time before bed, others can't handle music, and some need their environment to be set up in a very specific way, to feel safe enough to go to sleep. Esogetic Medicine has many ways to remedy sleep disorders, but even Unique Psychology alone can help.
For example, I had a client whose 18-month-old was having night terrors that no one could explain. One look at his Human Design showed that he was a Reflector — a type that takes in and amplifies everything from the people around him. When his routine was consistent and his environment was familiar, the night terrors didn't happen. When he fell asleep somewhere unfamiliar, they came back. Knowing his design gave his mother the confidence to speak up for her child needs — and the night terrors stopped.
Since Reflectors tend to enjoy surprise over disappointment, it is possible that the improvement in this child’s ability to sleep was less about keeping his routine and more about his mother being able to stand her ground, which helped her child feel safe too.
It may surprise you that kids don’t feel safe when they carry more power than their parents do.
I changed my name when my kids were young because my birth name didn’t carry enough power to signal to me eldest that he was safe, and that I could hold space for his level of anger. While not about sleep, still connected to what kids need. Sleeping, going to the bathroom, learning are all things that happen easier when we can remove the background stress. For those who are spiritually inclined, you may find it interesting that the book Anna, Grandmother of Jesus shares that even Jesus needed someone to hold space for how the world impacted him when he was a child.
Eating
In Human Design, there are 12 ways that a person may be intended to eat — not what, but how, when, and in what environment. When the way a person needs to eat is not understood, people start to think “they are just picky”. It is important to understand that following how we were intended to eat can heighten our unique intellectual gifts, just like violating how we are intended to eat can not only cause digestive upset, but can make us less able to think, learn, and express what we know.
To this point, I had a client whose daughter began experiencing hallucinations — in part because her dietary preference was not being respected. Once the family became open to allowing her to eat in a way that matched her design — in her case, eating before sunrise and after sundown — her hallucinations went away. The people I have worked with who have this dietary type tend to be highly sensitive. Eating at night tends to lead to being awake at night, when fewer people are awake. One client moved to working the night shift in a caregiving role and this has brought her so much joy, fulfilment, and relief.
Even without dropping down into the 12 different eating types, just looking at whether a person’s brain needs a lot of food for fuel or is hindered by overeating can be super helpful in understanding how and why they eat the way that they do.
Eating right is the gateway to being able to live right — letting in what is right for you and being able to say no to what is not.
My child can get very aggressive if someone bothers her when she is eating. Adjusting to eating at school was a gradual process — at first, I only sent her in after she had a big, slow, relaxing meal at home, and picked her up when she needed to eat again. Eventually she found a way to snack at school and eat when she got home. But it took time and a lot of communication with her teacher, for example: "I know she needs to learn from natural consequences, but she can't concentrate or learn if she is in survival mode, hunger is a major sign of danger for her. Food is something we are using to help her cope." The right language can make a big difference in whether someone will work with you to accommodate your child's needs or try to override them (and you).
A lot of people say "pick your battles in parenting." Regardless of whether food is the hill you are going to die on, it's best to do so with all the information about your child's unique Human Design — because no one wants to shortchange their child's potential based on their beliefs about how everyone should eat.
School behaviour
A child who has been labelled a problem child, who is constantly disruptive, who acts out and no one can explain why — is almost always a child whose Unique Psychology is in conflict with the environment they have been placed in.
In Human Design, a child with an open identity center absorbs and mirrors the behaviour of everyone around them. In a regulated classroom, they may seem fine (but this is only if the people in their class are actually fine, if anyone is masking, they are feeling it, and might even begin to act it out). My son (with an open identity) wears clothes opposite to the weather (a common trait for people with autism according to Life & Beth), and is absent or late frequently, to protect and regulate himself. People with an open identity may gravitate toward children that they think are fun, but then not understand why they can't control themselves.
This video offers an example (with agreement and permission from the families involved):
Learning struggles
If you have concerns about your child’s ability to do well at school, there are many things we can do to try to understand this better. Gifted and underachieving, talented but uninspired, tend to go hand in hand. We tend to feel better when we see that there will be a path for our kids where they can be successful.
That said, Esogetic Medicine and Felt Safety allows us to consider and address a person’s window of tolerance, reducing the impact of stress, improving brain and body coordination, and shifting the emotional system away from being stuck scanning for cues of danger, which makes it easier for them to relax enough to be able to learn, which actually means deciding if the information being present is aligned with our truth and worth integrating. It is by no mistake that mastering skills can be very satisfying, given that the reward system via our emotions is a big part of how we learn. Motivation and ability to remember are easily addressed for people over the age of 9. Around the age of 9 is when are brains start to become beta dominant, before that, our brains are intended to be in a more relaxed state.
If we go back to focusing on what we can do online by looking at your child’s Unique Psychology: it is worth understanding how your child is designed to learn, before assuming that the problem is your child’s willingness or ability.
In Human Design, some children absorb everything at once rather than following a linear sequence — they may look like they are not paying attention when they are actually processing at a much deeper level. Some cannot retrieve information on demand — ask them a direct question and they appear not to know the answer, but give them a question that unlocks what they have inside and even they will be impressed to see what they know. Some people need to move in order to process information, and others need to sit still.
And looking at their Soul Contract, we can see that some need new information to connect to what they already believe before they can absorb it. And some people’s inability to listen and express themselves may be tied to feelings of unworthiness, which, with awareness, we can help them work through.
A child who struggles in a conventional classroom is not necessarily a child who struggles to learn. They may be a child whose natural learning style is simply not what the system is built to measure. Or they may have other stressors that need to be resolved first.
Anxiety
Anxiety means something doesn't feel safe or isn't a fit for me. It can extend into what looks like a learning disability, especially if what is being taught is not a fit for their reality. School has a very hard job of integrating people from many different backgrounds, they assume to know what is right for all, but they are not always as informed as they could be, and this is where we can start to fill the gap.
When we address anxiety using Unique Psychology, the parent and child get insight into why they feel the way they do. When we address it using Felt Safety, it isn't just intellectual — it becomes understanding how the person feels in their body, why certain experience trigger behaviour that looks like fight or flight, this helps us wait for readiness before trying something new.
From an Esogetic perspective, treating anxiety, depression, or even mania can be done without words. Guided by what we see in a Kirlian photo, selecting the right Esogetic Treatment can allow the person to feel better, which then allows them to see options they couldn’t see before. See: the Mental Health page
But don’t worry if you can’t get to me for Esogetic treatment, there are workarounds and I didn't have these tools to address my own anxiety — I used Unique Psychology and Divine Healing and that was enough. That said, Esogetic Medicine is faster, so I am glad it is something that I can provide for families now, and there are workarounds if you are not able to come see me in person.
Having your four-year-old wake up one morning and say: "I'm not afraid of bugs anymore, I'm ready to go to school, can I have another treatment?" is delightful. And parenting doesn't end there. We take out what we can take out, and the rest becomes an ongoing discussion. Discipline, after all, stems from the word disciple: to teach.
If we want to reduce a child's anxiety, we need to understand what it is like to be in their shoes — and teach them how to operate in a way that minimizes anxiety, given their Unique design.
Gaming and screens
A child who disappears into gaming or screens is often a child who has found a place where they feel in control, competent, and not asked to be someone they're not. This is worth understanding before it becomes a battle.
In Human Design, some types are designed to respond to what's in front of them rather than initiate. When the day is full of demands, expectations, and environments that don't fit — the screen becomes the only place where response feels natural and satisfying.
Being "addicted to screens" can mean "I feel safer when I can block you guys out." My son used to say "I learn 50% from school, 50% from my parents, and 50% from YouTube" — I am not sure who was responsible for teaching him math, but it's true that screens give children the ability to control what they want to learn and when they move on, in a way that in-person learning under a public-school curriculum cannot allow.
Understanding their type doesn't mean accepting unlimited screen time — but it changes how you approach the conversation about limits.
Projectors, destined for success, like Manifestors and Reflectors, are not endowed with excess energy. They may be less prone to wasting their energy on video games. But a burnt-out Projector, may zone out in front of a screen, when they are no longer able to work in a way that meets their standards. And Reflector seek surprise over disappointment, so if their friends are gaming, they may want to too, and taking in a lot of TV, may be what helps them feel like part of the community.
This video shows how my son's behaviour was concerning to my father but, seeing how I treated my son, given what I knew about my son’s Unique Psychology, helped my dad feel more at ease:
Depression and self-care
Most people don't have access to tools that can show early signs of a mental health struggle, they need to wait for a crisis. A Kirlian photo can show why a person’s mental health and self-care are not in place, before clinical depression develops. Unique Psychology can also show respectful and effective ways to negotiate with your child about their habits, routines, and self-care — using their design in your favor, in order to help motivate them. It is still trial and error to get them there, and the needed shift is often physical — something we didn't understand that was weighing them down, but when it is lifted, things can become easier.
The child who won't get up in the morning, who doesn't seem to take care of themselves, and who seems unmotivated often has underlying physical issues that mainstream cannot see. They may also require something specific to activate them.
According to his Human Design, my son won't do anything unless it “calls him out” (meaning that it is genuinely right for home). What looks like being unmotivated or lazy from the outside is actually a sophisticated filter, waiting for what is worth his effort, for what is going to bring him satisfaction and peace, avoiding what will only bring about frustration and anger. We have made this more pronounced by respecting how he want to eat, which allows his brain to be very selective in signaling YES or NO. This is the long game — and why many parents are hesitant to choose it. Similar to when Alfie Kohn says "don't make your child apologize, they have to mean it" — it is a social setback to have a child who apologizes only when ready, but you're growing an amazing person if you can wait until they get there.
When you and your child keep clashing (or you think they favor someone else)
Understanding how we are the same and different from our kids and what clashes are simply part of our design can be very helpful. I remember when I told someone that their relationship with their spouse (from a Human Design perspective) was called “6 and 3 better to be free”. Not something that is easy to say, but surprisingly it brought them a feeling of relief. They had been looking at how their relationship operated compared to their peers and thought it was odd that they were so independent. That said, my youngest and I have “6 and 3 better to be free” and it took a long time for me to be comfortable being one on one with my child, but once we found our routine, it’s a very enjoyable relationship.
Look at your designs and I am sure you will find peace in knowing why things are the way they are. It is not about try harder or love more, it’s about understanding what is without attributing any blame.
Self-harm and emotional regulation
If your child is hurting themselves, or you're worried they might — this needs a direct conversation.
→ Please book a free 15-minute consultation or email me so we can talk it through.
Here is a video with Red Flags that we might see in someone's Unique Psychology:
This page covers a lot and none of it is meant to overwhelm you. It is meant to show you that what looks confusing from the outside often makes complete sense when you have the right map.
Unique Psychology can show you why your child does what they do, and what they need to feel safe and understood. For many families, this alone creates a meaningful shift — without any in-person treatment.
If your child's struggles show up primarily as emotional reactions, anger, or frustration:
→ Parenting Through Big Emotions
If you are concerned that your child's behaviour may become unsafe:
→ When the Behaviour Has Become Unsafe and What Lies Beneath
If you are willing to come to Oakville, Ontario for a Kirlian photo and treatment:
→ When a Diagnosis Isn't Enough — the full framework for what's possible
To see what information is needed to access your child's Unique Psychology, and what to expect from your first session: