Dr. Ilyssa Bass: Decoding Your Child

A 6-Part Parenting Course for Understanding Your Child

Dr. Ilyssa Bass helps parents look beyond challenging behavior and understand what their child may be communicating. In Decoding Your Child, you’ll explore the physical, emotional, cognitive, and spiritual needs that can influence your child’s behavior and development.

Parenting a sensitive, intense, or complex child can be challenging. You love your child deeply, but understanding what is behind their behavior isn’t always easy.

With Dr. Ilyssa Bass, you’ll learn a different way to look at behavior. Instead of asking only, “How do I stop this behavior?” you’ll learn to ask, “What is my child trying to tell me?”

The goal isn’t to meet every need perfectly. It’s to understand the bigger picture, stay curious, and make targeted changes that can lead to more sustainable behavior change.

This Course with Dr. Ilyssa Bass Is for Parents Who…

• Feel Lost When Behavior Escalates: You’ve tried different parenting techniques, but nothing seems to stick. You want a deeper framework for understanding your child.
• Love Their Child Deeply—but Struggle Daily: The love is enormous. The struggle is real. You want to understand your child better and make everyday parenting more manageable.
• Suspect Something Deeper Is Going On: Sensory needs, anxiety, learning differences, or other underlying stressors may be affecting your child. You want to understand the full picture.
• Are Raising a Sensitive or Intense Child: Big emotions, big reactions, and big needs can be hard to navigate. Learn how to meet your child where they are while maintaining your own balance.
• Want to Stop Surviving and Start Connecting: You want more than strategies for getting through the day. You want to understand your child and strengthen your relationship.
• Want to Create Sustainable Change: Rather than looking for another quick fix, you’ll learn how to identify underlying stressors and create more targeted, effective ways to support your child.

This 6-part parenting course with Dr. Ilyssa Bass includes practical methods and class notes to help you apply what you learn to everyday parenting.

Decoding Your Child: Full 6-Session Schedule

Session 1: Overview + Complex Body Systems

Choose one behavior you would love to see change. Begin by looking at the physical factors that may influence your child’s behavior.

Explore sensory needs, interoception, allergies, inflammatory issues, sleep, eating patterns, and other physical stressors.

Learn how looking beneath the behavior can give you a clearer picture of what your child may need.

Session 2: Emotional Needs & Connection

Explore the emotional needs that can influence your child’s behavior.

Look at social skills, anxiety, rejection sensitivity, motivation, and different types of connection. Learn how to enter your child’s emotional world and meet them where they actually are.

Session 3: Cognitive Needs and School Fit

Discover how giftedness, learning differences, and the school environment can affect your child.

Explore cognitive needs such as stimulation, executive function, novelty, mastery, rest, and exploration. Learn how to better advocate for your child and create an environment where they can thrive.

Session 4: Spiritual Needs & Real Self-Esteem

Explore the deeper needs that shape your child’s sense of self.

Learn about true self-esteem, Jewish values and community, mastery, and the need to feel accepted, respected, and valued for who you are.

You’ll also explore the deeper questions of meaning and purpose that can arise as children grow.

Session 5: Pulling It All Together

How do you actually create lasting behavior change?

In this session, Dr. Ilyssa Bass brings the different pieces together. Learn how to identify your child’s underlying stressors and use that information to create more targeted prevention plans.

You’ll return to the behavior you chose in Session 1 and develop a practical, sustainable plan for change. You’ll also explore how understanding your child’s stressors can bring more compassion and create a sense of “us against the problem.” The course material emphasizes using this understanding to create more targeted and effective prevention plans.

Session 6: Question and Answer Session

Listen to a recorded Q&A session with Dr. Ilyssa Bass, featuring guidance and insights to help you apply the ideas from the course to your own child and family.

What You’ll Gain from Decoding Your Child

By the end of this 6-session parenting course, you’ll have a practical framework for understanding your child and responding to challenging behavior with greater clarity and compassion.

• A Framework for Understanding Behavior: Look beyond meltdowns, shutdowns, and power struggles to consider what may be happening underneath the behavior.
• A Deeper Understanding of Your Child’s Needs: Explore the physical, emotional, cognitive, and spiritual factors that may be affecting your child.
• More Confidence in Challenging Moments: Understand what may be driving a behavior so you can respond with greater clarity and compassion.
• More Targeted Parenting Strategies: Learn how understanding your child’s individual stressors can help you create more effective prevention and support.
• Deeper Connection: Build greater compassion and understanding within your family and create a sense of working together against the problem.
• A Personalized Action Plan: Apply what you’ve learned to one specific behavior and create a practical plan for sustainable change.
• Greater Compassion for Yourself: Learn to look at your own needs and stressors with the same curiosity and understanding you bring to your child.

Learn with Dr. Ilyssa Bass

Decoding Your Child with Dr. Ilyssa Bass gives parents a practical framework for looking beyond behavior and understanding what may be underneath it. Learn to recognize your child’s physical, emotional, cognitive, and spiritual needs, respond with greater compassion, and create more sustainable change.