(NewsNation) — For the families of the victims killed in Tuesday’s massacre at Robb Elementary School in Texas, where a gunman killed 21 people, including 19 children, healing and grieving with their loved ones will be a long, strenuous journey.

Even for the rest of the country, just witnessing the details of this latest mass killing of children in their school can trigger an array of emotions — including empathy, sadness, anger and confusion — that can be hard to deal with.

For parents, the task of talking about the tragedy with their children can be even more daunting.

Dr. Norman Fried, a psychologist who specializes in pediatrics, spoke with NewsNation’s Nichole Berlie on Wednesday during the “Rush Hour” broadcast to talk about the ways people can cope with tragedies like this and how they can best explain them to their children.

Berlie: We see these images, we know that they can be triggering. What are some good mental health strategies that all of us need to consider?

Fried: What you’re saying to us is we as people who watch the news will be triggered from the things we see in the media and it’s important that we have some safety strategies for our own mental well-being.

While we see these things on the news, we must also attempt to turn the TV off, go outside, get in touch with the elements of nature, feel the sun on the back of your neck, allow the neurotransmitters in your brain to regenerate because you’re in touch with nature and recognizing that you’re doing life-affirming things in the face of watching such devastating news.

Q: How do parents talk to their kids about these tragedies, especially when it’s very difficult to for adults to grasp and even understand these tragedies themselves?

A: It is very difficult and I tell all of the parents I work with that first, you must manage a way to be able to speak about this, without crying or falling apart before you then share the information you want to disseminate with your child. Practice on somebody your age that you can get the words out and then speak to your child in a language that is appropriate to their age, development, appreciation and cognition. Which means state the facts simply, and elementary, take out adjectives and don’t be too expletive because the children will need your style and manner of calm to help them calibrate and maintain calm themselves.

We do not have answers to the most existential of questions. Why is there so much pain and suffering in the world? Why would a god allow this happen? Why do people do such bad things? It would be important for me to say to all the parents not to come up with answers for which you are not prepared to back up with your own knowledge and lived experience or evidence. Instead, it’s O.K. to say ‘no sweetheart I don’t have an answer to your question. It’s a beautiful question and I am going to keep trying to figure out the answer for you, Perhaps we could speak to a priest, a rabbi, a teacher, somebody who could help us, I don’t necessarily have all the answers but I am here, I support you and I will find the best answer I can in time.’

Q: Are there resources for kids to turn to when schools are closed?

A: Try to establish a therapeutic alliance, make sure that your child or you yourself, who have been seeing these things on TV, has the ability to talk to a therapist, a counselor, if not a clergy or a wise friend but I much prefer that you really reach for a professional who understands trauma and recovery. Tell your story. Everybody who watches the news and hears these awful events and see the pictures over and over has a story to tell and when we find a listener who can hear our story in all of it’s gory details, the process of healing begins. Remember, connection is the most powerful component of the healing experience. Even though we grieve singularly when we raise it to a plural abode, a public abode, we heal better.