Aware Parenting Stories

Welcome back to another episode in the series about embracing imperfection in Aware Parenting. In this episode I talk with Helena Mooney who is an Aware Parenting Instructor and a Hand in Hand Instructor with 2 children. She share her journey with learning to embrace her imperfection in parenting and learning to accept her children's imperfection too. We talk about self-criticism and learning a more compassionate inner dialogue. Helena shares the power of receiving her own listening and honouring her own feelings to be able to come back to acceptance, compassion and trust. We talk about the difference between Aware Parenting in theory and how we put it into practice. To learn more about Helena and her work, please visit www.helenamooney.com and follow her on social media at helenamooney_parentingwithplay. Her podcast is Parenting with Play. If you would like support with this or any other aspect of Aware Parenting, please contact me at support@awareparenting.com.au

Welcome back to another episode in the series about embracing imperfection in Aware Parenting. In this powerful episode, Danni Willow and I share some reflections from our recent extraordinary Aware Parenting Retreat about the truths of motherhood and how embracing imperfection as mothers can be both liberating and deeply healing. We talk about the mother wound and sisterhood wound, two often unspoken pains that show up in our longing for connection, in our guilt, and in the quiet ache for holding and unconditional love. Whether it's the absence of nurturing we craved from our own mothers or the comparison, competition, hurt and disconnection that can arise between women, these wounds carry a weight that many mothers silently bear and that make embracing our imperfection harder. We share the transformative power of what unfolded on our retreat and how being vulnerable together with other women, and being deeply held supports transformation and healing. If you've ever felt like you're not enough, or if you've longed for a kind of mothering or sisterhood that you didn't receive, this episode will speak to your heart. It's an invitation to step into compassion, find connection and holding and offer yourself radical acceptance. We talk about the power of receiving deep support to bring more closeness, connection and capacity within our families and the need for mothers to be held in order to mother. To learn more about Danni's work, please visit her website and follow her on social media at Danni Willow https://www.thewayofthewoman.com.au To learn more about my upcoming Aware Parenting Workshop, please visit https://awareparenting.com.au/my-courses/parenting-workshops/ To join the waitlist for our next Aware Parenting Retreat, I invite you to get in touch and if you would like support with this or any other aspect of Aware Parenting, please contact me at support@awareparenting.com.au

Welcome back to another episode in the series about embracing imperfection in Aware Parenting. In today's episode I am offering a guided meditation to support listeners to learn to embrace their imperfection in parenting and to bring themselves more acceptance, more ease, more self-compassion. If you would like support with this or any other aspect of Aware Parenting, please contact me at support@awareparenting.com.au

Today's episode is a short acknowledgement, celebration and honouring of all Aware Parenting mothers in the run up to Mother's Day. It is a message of love to all mothers doing the often invisible work of offering Aware Parenting in their families. For everything that you are doing for your child/ren, for yourself, for your families and for the world, you deserve appreciation and support. I am sending you all lots of love and wishing you a happy Mother's Day.

Welcome back to another episode in the series about embracing imperfection in Aware Parenting. In today's episode I am talking with Gwen Dunlop from Ontario Canada. Gwen is mother of an adult daughter, a violinist, a yoga teacher, an animal advocate, a qualified and experienced ESL teacher, a certified Facilitator of Self-Healing, a certified Aware Parenting Instructor for a long time. She lives off grid and is passionate about sustainability. In this episode Gwen shares how she found Aware Parenting and how motherhood was a portal to start the painful process of releasing and healing her own childhood trauma. She shares how powerful Aware Parenting has been, both in her family and in her wider work and connections in her community to bring more emotional safety. She shares the challenges of coming to Aware Parenting later and how she has supported herself to deeply understand that any mistakes can be healed. We talk about the power of attunement, connection and contingency play. Gwen shares some of the ways that she supports herself and we discuss the power of Aletha Solter's amazing work to change the world. If you would like to connect with Gwen, her website is www.gwendunlop.ca If you would like support with this or any other aspect of Aware Parenting, please contact me at support@awareparenting.com.au

Welcome back to another episode in the series about embracing imperfection in aware parenting. In this episode I talk about how normal it is for us all to have painful moments of rupture in our families and how to come back to connection again. I talk about how important it is for us to tend to the source of our behaviour at times of rupture, to support ourselves and make it less likely in future. I share ways we can support ourselves with our thoughts, our needs and our feelings so we can offer authentic apology. I offer a description of what rewind and repair might look like and I share why doing this with our children is so powerful for them, for us and for our relationship. If you would like support with this or any other aspect of Aware Parenting, please contact me at support@awareparenting.com.au

Welcome back to another episode in the series about embracing imperfection in Aware Parenting. In this episode I am delighted to welcome back Maru Rojas, who was previously on Episode 10. Maru is an Aware Parenting Instructor originally from Mexico now based in London. She is particularly passionate about supporting families with potty learning and elimination communication. supporting families with children from 0 to 6. Maru shares her journey with embracing imperfection. She shares some of her own experiences in childhood that have contributed to her perfectionism and the power of offering her children unconditional acceptance. We talk about the power of repair and Maru shares her understanding that repair matters more than rupture and what that looks like in her family. She shares how she has supported herself at difficult times and we normalise that we all need support at times in parenting. We talk about the affect on the world of practising aware parenting. To learn more about Maru, please visit www.parenttogether.co.uk and follow her on Instagram at _maru.rojas_ If you would like support with this or any other aspect of Aware Parenting, please contact me at support@awareparenting.com.au

Welcome back to another episode in the series about embracing imperfection in aware parenting. In this episode I talk about why it is so hard to be trying to shift so much in parenting in just one generation. I talk about how our own childhood experiences and cultural conditioning effect who we are as parents and how we feel about ourselves. I talk about what we would have needed to receive as children ourselves in order to be able to be "perfectly" parenting now. I talk about some of the things that we need to be receiving and experiencing now as parents in order to be find it easier to offer aware parenting. I offer lots of phrases that you might find helpful to bring more compassion and acceptance of yourself. I offer words of celebration and acknowledgement for all the things you ARE doing to support your child with more awareness and love and why they are all so powerful for your child, yourself, your family and the world. If you would like support with this or any other aspect of Aware Parenting, please contact me at support@awareparenting.com.au

Welcome back to another episode in the series about embracing imperfection in aware parenting. In this episode I talk with Shelley Clarke. Shelley is a Physiotherapist, CranioSacral Therapist, Aware Parenting Instructor and Parent Mentor. She is the mother to three beautiful children and is passionate about the nervous system, human body and helping families thrive. She is the host of the Mind Body Parenting Podcast lives and works in Adelaide. In this episode, Shelley shares her journey with learning to embrace imperfection in her parenting, learning to support herself at the challenging times and how she has come to see that getting support and listening for herself has transformed her ability to offer compassion, support and repair with her children. We share some painful moments in our parenting and Shelley shares the practices and phrases she offers herself to bring more compassion and acceptance to her parenting. To learn more about Shelley please visit www.shelleyclarke.com and follow her on instagram at _shelleyclarke_ and Facebook at Shelley Clarke Mind Body Parenting. If you would like support with this or any other aspect of Aware Parenting, please contact me at support@awareparenting.com.au

I am delighted to share another episode in the series of conversations I am having with Aware Parenting instructors about embracing Imperfection. This is a powerful conversation with Belynda Smith, who was on episode 75 of my podcast. Belynda has been a hand in hand instructor since 2017 and an Aware Parenting instructor since 2023. She lives in WA with her 2 boys. In this conversation Belynda shares her painful experiences of starting parenthood wanting to be perfect and the shame, judgement and hurt that she experienced when she realised that was not possible. We talk about the power of listening partnerships to receive validation, safety and unconditional acceptance to enable us to offer compassion to ourselves and our children. She shares some of her favourite phrases to increasing self-compassion and shares some examples of difficult and painful moments in her family and how she has found her way back to connection and love. To learn more about Belynda, please visit her website https://belyndasmith.com.au and follow her on social media at belyndasmithparenting. To learn more about The Aware Parenting Retreat with Danni Willow and Joss Goulden, please visit https://awareparenting.com.au/aware-parenting-retreat/ To learn more about my Aware Parenting Teenagers Course that Belynda mentions, please visit https://awareparenting.com.au/my-courses/aware-parenting-teenagers/ If you would like support with this or any other aspect of Aware Parenting, I am here for you.

Welcome back to another episode in this series of conversations about embracing imperfection in aware parenting. In this episode I have the absolute pleasure of talking with Mary Walker. Mary is a writer and poet from Aoteroa New Zealand and she lives in the countryside with her husband, 3 teenagers and 5 cats. She discovered Aware Parenting in 2015 when her children were 7, 5 and 3. She has been writing and sharing her poetry since 2017. Her first book of poetry Lullaby for Mothers came out in 2019. Her book of nature poems, called The Land Will Hold You, was published in 2022. Mary's third poetry collection is about to be released, and it is called Home: poems for becoming who you are and releasing who you are not. In this conversation, Mary shares some of her journey with Aware Parenting and how she has learnt to bring more compassion, connection and healing for her children and herself. We talk about the challenge of discovering Aware Parenting later and power of trust and repair. Mary shares some of her exquisite poems to inspire and support listeners on their own aware parenting journey. We talk about learning to see the gift of crying with loving support. If you love poetry and Aware Parenting, this episode is for you. And if you have never enjoyed poetry before, hearing Mary's profoundly beautiful words will enrich your aware parenting experience and invite more self-compassion and trust. To learn more about her work, please visit www.marywalker.co.nz and follow her on Instagram at Mary Walker Writer. If you would like to sign up for her free email poetry subscription called A Beautiful Beginning, inviting readers to start each week with a poem and a moment of quiet reflection, the link is on her website. If you want to learn more about the Aware Parenting Teenagers Course that Mary mentions in this episode, please visit https://awareparenting.com.au/my-courses/aware-parenting-teenagers/ And if you want support with this or any other aspect of Aware Parenting, please get in touch support@awareparenting.com.au

Welcome back to another episode in this series of conversations about embracing imperfection in aware parenting. In this episode I have the pleasure of talking with Nic Wilson from Peaceful Parenting. Nic is an aware parenting instructor, Marion Method mentor and mother to an 11 year old girl. In this episode Nic shares her journey in moving from an internal dialogue of telling herself she was not good enough, to being more compassionate and accepting of herself. We talk about embracing imperfection in ourselves and in our children. Nic shares some practices she uses to support herself in challenging moments. Nic also shares really vulnerably a recent very challenging time in her family and how she found her way back to connection with herself and her daughter. To learn more about Nic, please visit www.peacefulparenting.com.au or follow her on social media at Peaceful Parenting.

In this new episode, I am talking with Carly Facius. Carly was on episode 85 sharing more of her story so i invite you to listen to that. She is mum to 3, is a registered midwife, lactation consultant, and aware parenting instructor who has been supporting parents from conception to parenthood. And we have had some gorgeous conversations together in person recently about the mistakes, the difficult parts, the mess that is parenting so I was so looking forward to this conversation here. In today's episode, Carly shares how she has seen perfectionism show up in the families that she works with and how she saw this in herself once she became a parent too. We talk about the ways we can try to support ourselves with some of the cultural pressures that get put on us in parenthood. We share how we have brought more balance to parenting between our ideals and the reality of life and the balance of understanding the theory of aware parenting and how we can put it into practice. Carly shares some examples of times in her family that she has not been the parent that she wanted to be and how she has supported herself and her child at those times with self-compassion and acceptance. If you want to learn more about Carly, please visit her website https://www.seedpodfamilies.com and follow her on social media.

Welcome back to another episode in this series of conversations about embracing imperfection in aware parenting. In this episode I have the pleasure of talking with Devon Harris. Devon is an aware parenting instructor and a specialist in child and adolescent behaviour. She supports parents to meet the developmental needs of their children, as well as to capitalise on undesirable behaviour as an opportunity to deepen trust and connection. She loves attachment play and sharing this beautiful apporach with her clients. Devon shares her journey towards self acceptance and embracing imperfection in aware parenting. We talk about learning to speak more compassionately with ourselves and Devon shares her practices and processes and the phrases she has learnt to bring to her internal dialogue. She shares some examples of challenging times in her family and how she has navigated her way through getting support, and offering connection and attachment play. We talk about how we have navigated comparison and judgment in parenting and the power of community and connection on the aware parenting journey. To learn more about Devon's work, please visit https://www.devonharris.com.au and follow her on social media. To learn more about my Aware Parenting Teenagers course or to join the new live round starting on 25th February 2025, please visit https://awareparenting.com.au/my-courses/aware-parenting-teenagers/

Welcome back to the podcast and the second conversation in this series about learning to embrace imperfection in Aware Parenting. This conversation is with my dear friend and colleague Danni Willow, who is an amazing aware parenting instructor with 2 daughters living on the Surf Coast of Australia. We have been running our beautiful Exploring Aware Parenting Community together for the last 3 years. She has also been on many of the previous podcast episodes. In this conversation, Danni shares her journey of moving from guilt and shame and judgement to self compassion and self connection. We talk about how have learnt to offer ourselves support, compassion and acceptance. Danni shares vulnerably some messy, painful moments in her family and how she has found her way through those times. We talk about repair with our children and the immense power for them of authenticity and connection. We talk about bringing in acceptance and compassion in relation to control patterns. We talk about how we offer ourselves celebration and acknowledgement as an antidote to the harshness and judgment. If you want to learn more about Danni please visit www.thewayofthewoman.com.au And follow her on social media. If you want to learn more about our in-person retreat please email me at support@awareparenting.com.au to go on the waitlist as places will be limited. If you want to learn more about my Aware Parenting Teenagers course, the link is here https://awareparenting.com.au/my-courses/aware-parenting-teenagers/ if you want to learn more about Marion Rose's powerful Marion Method, the link is here https://marionrose.net/marion-method-courses/

This is the first episode in a new series of conversations on my podcast called Embracing Imperfection in Aware parenting. In this episode I share some of the reasons why it can be difficult for us to accept ourselves and our mistakes in parenting and not go to judgement or harshness, criticism or comparison. I talk about some of the ways that I have supported myself to have more self-compassion and to be able to rewind and reconnect with my children at times of rupture. I share some examples of experiences where I have not been the parent that I wanted to be and how I have been able to repair with my children and learn to offer myself deep unconditional acceptance and support. If you would like help with this or any other aspect of Aware parenting, encourage you to get in touch at support@awareparenting.com.au

Welcome back to another episode of my podcast where I am talking about offering Attachment Play to teens and tweens and how this aspect of Aware Parenting is still so powerful, healing and connecting as our children grow up and approach adulthood. It is often difficult to know how to be playful with teens, particularly if you haven't been practising aware parenting since they were much younger, but attachment play is so beneficial for our teenager's physical and emotional health and wellbeing and for our connection with them. I describe each of the 9 types of attachment play, how it helps our teenagers, offer LOTS of examples of how we might play in each of those 9 ways and share some of what might come up for us when we are playing. I offer some reflections to support listeners to come back to feeling playful with their teens. I hope this episode gives parents of teens some motivation and inspiration to be more playful. If you would like a copy of my free Introduction to Attachment Play eBook, which includes examples of play we can offer our teens, please email me support@awareparenting.com.au and I will send it to you. If you want to learn more about my course Aware Parenting with Teenagers, which explores in depth how to practise Aware Parenting in the teenage years, including offering attachment play, please visit https://awareparenting.com.au/my-courses/aware-parenting-teenagers/ If you want individual support with this or any other aspect your parenting journey, I am here for you and I encourage you to get in touch by emailing me at support@awareparenting.com.au or to visit my website www.awareparenting.com.au/parenting-coaching/

Episode 104 - Meeting Needs for Our Children and Ourselves by Aware Parenting Stories with Joss Goulden

In this episode I have a beautiful conversation with Josha van Baalen. Josha is the mother of two daughter ages 10 and 4 and has been an Aware Parenting instructor since 2016 when her first daughter was 2. She is also a psychosynthesis coach and a somatic experiencing practitioner with her own online private practice for clients and offering sessions in all 3 modalities. In this conversation we talk about how Josha discovered Aware Parenting and started listening to her daughter's feelings. We talk about the power of connection, slowing down and bringing more simplicity to life. We talk about learning to meet our own needs as well as our children's and she shares some of the ways that she supports herself back to loving presence with her children. And we talk about our own reparenting journeys that Aware Parenting invites us to take. If you would like to learn more about Josha, please visit her website www.joshavanbaalen.com If you would like support on your parenting journey, I am here for you and I encourage you to get in touch by emailing me at support@awareparenting.com.au or to visit my website www.awareparenting.com.au/parenting-coaching/

In this episode I have another beautiful conversation with Danni Willow who is an aware parenting instructor and mother to 2 girls. Danni shares her background in teaching and what she learnt during the 5 years working in schools. She shares her family's story of schooling and describes how and why she recently made the choice to take her children out of school and start homeschooling. We talk about the effect on our children of being outside of the school system and all the ways we see them flourishing when we are offering aware parenting whilst supporting their learning at home. We talk about some of the challenges with home schooling and how we have supported ourselves with the deconditioning that we need to do in order to come back to trust and connection. We talk about the joy of living life aligned with our values of connection and compassion. To learn more about Danni, please visit her website www.thewayofthewoman or follow her on social media @danniwillow. If you would like support on your parenting journey, I am here for you and I encourage you to get in touch by emailing me at support@awareparenting.com.au or to visit my website www.awareparenting.com.au/parenting-coaching/ If you want to learn more about my Aware Parenting and Natural Learning monthly online circle, please visit https://awareparenting.com.au/circles/ If you want to read my articles about homeschooling and aware parenting please visit https://awareparenting.com.au/articles/?_select_a_category=homeschoolingandnaturallearning

In this episode I have a conversation with Marion Rose about her wonderful new best selling book Sound Sleep and Secure Attachment with Aware Parenting. Marion, who is a Level 2 Aware Parenting Instructor and the regional coordinator for Australia, New Zealand and Indonesia, shares so much wisdom. She shares how to bring ourselves more compassion. She describes how we can interpret what their behaviour is telling us about how they are feeling and what they are needing. Marion shares the 3 ingredients that babies and children need for restful restorative sleep without having to dissociate; to feel tired, to feel safety (through connection and closeness) and to feel relaxed (through utilising their innate mechanisms to feel, express and release painful feelings). We talk about learning to deeply trust the innate wisdom of our children and their knowing of how to relax and what they need in order to feel safe. We talk about the immense value of doing our own inner work in order to be able to support our children. Marion also shares 2 of the beautiful stories from her book of what it feels like for a baby and for a teenager to experience our loving support. I highly recommend buying Marion's new book, available in paperback or on Kindle from Amazon. Her new course by the same name is on her website www.marionrose.net If you would like support with sleep or any other aspect of your parenting journey, I am here for you and I encourage you to get in touch by emailing me at support@awareparenting.com.au or to visit my website www.awareparenting.com.au/parenting-coaching/

Welcome to the 100th episode of the Aware Parenting Stories podcast! I am so excited to share this celebration of Aware Parenting. I invited anyone who felt called to share, to come and have a conversation about what Aware Parenting means to them and the effect practising Aware Parenting has had on their family. I am so grateful to Lucy, Sarah, Belinda, Vicki, and Vivian for taking the time to join this conversation and share some of what they love about Aware Parenting. I hope you find their stories and reflections to be inspiring and helpful. Thank you to everyone who has given up their time to come on my podcast over the last 100 episodes and to everyone who has listened and shared the podcast, and messaged me about it. And a huge thank you to Dr. Aletha Solter for her amazing work, research and expertise about humans. Thank you also to Marion Rose for the wonderful way that she has supported me and hundreds of other parents to understand and embody this beautiful approach. If you would like support on your parenting journey, I am here for you and I encourage you to get in touch support@awareparenting.com.au Or visit my website www.awareparenting.com.au/parenting-coaching/

In this episode I respond to a question from a listener who is thinking about taking her child out of school and wanting to know more about the connection between aware parenting and natural learning/homeschooling. I share some of the ways that I see aware parenting and homeschooling fitting together so well and some of the advantages that I perceive of not sending our children to school. If you want to learn more about my Aware Parenting and Natural Learning monthly online circle, please visit https://awareparenting.com.au/circles/ If you want to read my articles about homeschooling and aware parenting please visit https://awareparenting.com.au/articles/?_select_a_category=homeschoolingandnaturallearning If you want to listen to the Aware Parenting and Natural Learning podcast with Marion Rose and myself, please visit https://soundcloud.com/awp-and-nl-podcast?utm_source=clipboard&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=social_sharing To listen to other podcasts where I share about my journey with homeschooling, here's the resources page link https://awareparenting.com.au/certified-parent-coach/resources/ Aletha Solter's Principles of Learning can be found here http://www.awareparenting.com/learning.htm

This episode I talk about how to offer the balance of attention to our children and why this is necessary in order for them to release and heal from stress and trauma. I describe what the balance of attention is and how it works. I then offer lots of suggestions about how to give our children an embodied experience of safety and connection on the one hand, and connection to the past feelings of distress on the other in a way that then supports them to use their powerful natural recovery processes to heal. If you would like support on your parenting journey, I am here for you and I encourage you to get in touch support@awareparenting.com.au or visit my website www.awareparenting.com.au/parenting-coaching/ To read Aletha Solter's book Healing your Traumatized Child, the link is here To read Marion Rose's book I'm Here and I'm Listenting, the link is here

This episode is a response to a request from a listener to talk about the times when we can't parent the way we want to, when we feel overwhelmed or in really big feelings ourselves. It is always such a pleasure to share these conversations with Danni Willow. Danni is an aware parenting instructor and has 2 children. In this conversation we talk about overwhelm in parenting. We share some of the reasons why it can feel overwhelming for us all to be practising Aware Parenting. We share how important it is to learn to offer ourselves compassion in the challenging times and to be receiving that from others too. We talking about finding ways to meet our own needs and how to support ourselves through the tough times. To learn more about Danni's work, please visit www.thewayofthewoman.com or follow her on social media at Danni Willow. If you would like support on your parenting journey, I am here for you and I encourage you to get in touch support@awareparenting.com.au Or visit my website www.awareparenting.com.au/parenting-coaching/

In this episode I welcome Kirsty Fernandes back to the show. Kirsty joined me in episode 44. Kirsty is an Aware Parenting Instructor in New Zealand and is passionate about supporting mothers in the post-partum period and offering birth debriefing. She is the mother of 2 children and shares her work supporting mothers through her business Honouring Māmā. In this conversation we share our own experiences of trauma in giving birth. We talk about what birth trauma is and some of the ways in which the current system often results in trauma for parents. We talk about how birth trauma can affect birthing women, their partners and children and share the profoundly transformative experience of receiving support to process and heal, by sharing our stories and having all our complex, layered feelings about our births welcomed, witnessed and validated. To learn more about Kirsty's work, including her birth debriefing, please visit https://www.honouringmama.com and follow Kirsty on Instagram and Facebook at Kirsty Fernandes Honouring Mama. If you would like support on your parenting journey, in relation to birth trauma or any other aspect of aware parenting, I am here for you and I encourage you to get in touch support@awareparenting.com.au Or visit my website www.awareparenting.com.au/parenting-coaching/

This episode dives into why children so often need to cry. I talk about many of the different challenging and stressful experiences that children face, from their time in utero all the way through childhood and share some of the painful feeling they then experience. I offer compassion and support to parents listening so that they can offer compassionate understanding and support to their children. I normalise frequent big feelings for all children and remind parents how important it is to be taking care of ourselves and finding ways to try to meet our own needs in order to be able to take care of our children. If you would like support on your parenting journey, I am here for you and I encourage you to get in touch support@awareparenting.com.au or visit my website www.awareparenting.com.au/parent-coaching/ To learn more about needs and feelings, please visit www.cnvc.com

This episode dives into how we can support our children when they suck their thumbs or fingers. Often in sessions parents express their concern and frustration about these behaviours so if this is happening in your family, you are not alone. I talk about why children suck their thumbs/fingers, how we can support ourselves and how we can support them to not need to do this anymore. To learn more about the Exploring Aware Parenting Community with Danni and Joss, please visit www.awareparenting.com.au/community To learn more about my new Aware Parenting Workshop, please visit https://awareparenting.com.au/my-courses/parenting-workshops/

In this episode I have a conversation with Lavinia Brown. Lavinia is a trauma-informed psychodynamic coach who supports mamas to become the conscious parents they want to be through healing their inner child. Through acknowledging and integrating unprocessed pain from the past, overcoming unconscious patterns and learning how to accept, love themselves and assert healthy boundaries, mamas stop feeling ashamed, anxious, guilty and angry, and can show up as the authentic parent, partner and woman that they want to be, instead of who their primary caregivers thought they should be. Lavinia lives with her partner and 3 children in the UK. In this episode Lavinia shares how she came to do this work after feeling overwhelmed and desperate as a parent herself. She explains what an inner child is and how these younger parts of us show up during the course of our day-to-day life as parents, as partners and in many of the interactions and experiences that we have. We talk about how to connect with our inner child and explore what is coming up for us, going towards the feelings and then supporting the integration of those painful experiences so we can become freer from the activations of our inner child wounding. To learn more about Lavina, please visit www.laviniabrown.com and follow her on social media at the.innerchild.healing.expert. The link to her podcast is here https://open.spotify.com/show/0NvSnxZWCG4uVTAUR4WRdc. Her partner's work with fathers can be found here www.andrewlynn.net and https://www.instagram.com/life_coach_for_dads/ To learn more about Marion Rose's Inner Loving Presence Process course, please visit https://innerlovingpresenceprocess.com To learn more about the Exploring Aware Parenting Community with Danni and Joss, please visit www.awareparenting.com.au/community

Parenting our Children and Reparenting Ourselves by Aware Parenting Stories with Joss Goulden

This episode is in response to a question from a listener about how she can explain Aware Parenting to her parents. I talk about how important it is for us all to keep learning more, getting clearer and deepening our understanding of Aware Parenting in order to be able to explain it to others. I describe the key assumptions of Aware Parenting and outline the main aspects in a way that is easy to share with others. I talk about why it can be hard to explain this to our families and friends and how we can support ourselves when we are wanting to have these conversations with others so that it feels empowering and enjoyable. If you would like to access my free introductory course, my attachment play ebook or any of my articles or previous episodes, please visit my website www.awareparenting.com.au. If you would like more support, with this or any other aspect of aware parenting, I invite you to get in touch.

Episode 90 -Understanding & Supporting Children's Behaviour by Aware Parenting Stories with Joss Goulden

In this episode I talk with Raluca Stefan. Raluca is mom of two beautiful children, a certified Peaceful Parenting coach, an Aware Parenting instructor, and the founder of Peacefully Parenting. She helps families to find more balance, peace, and joy in their lives, running support groups for mothers, webinars, and offering 1-1 coaching for parents. She says “The first step into peaceful parenting is more compassion for our children and us. Our children can change the world if we raise them with respect, love, and compassion”. English is Raluca's third language and yet she shares so beautifully her Aware Parenting story. In this conversation, Raluca describes how she found aware parenting and how she supported herself to be able to listen to her children's feelings. She shares how raising our children in this way gives such profound learning for us as parents too and supports our children to have deep emotional awareness and self-connection. We talk about the power of journalling regularly to support ourselves to stay connected to our thoughts and feelings and internal world. Raluca shares how she supports her children with control patterns and with attachment play as well as bring joy, laughter and playfulness to herself. We talk of the effect of Aware Parenting on the world. If you want to learn more about Raluca, please follow her on Instagram at peacefully_parenting or visit her website www.yogalifeparenting.com

In this episode I talk with Kirsten Cobabe. Kirsten is a former therapist turned coach, teen and parent whisperer and artist, and specialises in supporting families navigate the waves of adolescence. For over two decades, she has guided parents in learning how to listen to, and talk with, their teens. She engages parents in personal reflection, embracing their evolving role, understanding the teen brain and restoring harmony in the home. In recognizing this unique stage of development, her hope is to bridge the widening gap between parents and their children, creating conscious, stronger bonds. Through compassionate guidance, intentional, sound strategies and tailored techniques, Kirsten empowers families to pilot these pivotal years with deeper awareness. Her work is not just about addressing immediate concerns, but about lighting the path to a more empowered future, ensuring that today's challenges become the foundation for tomorrow's brighter relationships. Her work aligns closely with Aware Parenting. In this conversation Kirsten and I talk about some of the stresses and challenges that our teenage children face as they are growing up. She shares how we can communicate with our teenagers in ways that support a strong, respectful relationship, whilst also guiding and modelling to them. We talk about some of the different ways parents need support and community in raising teens whilst also doing their own re-parenting work. Kirsten shares how she brings more care and joy to herself and encourages the parents she works with to do the same. We talk about how to bring more connection to our teenagers in ways that also respect their needs for privacy and individuation. We talk about cultivating trust in our families and the results of raising our teenagers in this way. If you want to learn more about Kirsten, please visit her website www.kirstencobabe.com and follow her on Instagram at kirstencobabe. If you want to know more about my Parenting Teenagers Course, please visit www.awareparenting.com.au/my-courses/aware-parenting-teenagers/

Episode 87 - Heard, Held & Honoured with Aware Parenting - Meg Rankin by Aware Parenting Stories with Joss Goulden

This episode explores death, loss and grief and how Aware Parenting can support us in the deeply painful process of grief. It is another conversation with my wonderful friend and colleague Danni Willow. Danni is an aware parenting instructor and mother to 2 girls. If you are currently experiencing grief, we are sending so much love to you and encourage you to reach out for support. In this conversation, we share some of the ways that we experience grief in our lives and some of the many intense, mixed feelings that we often experience in response. We talk about how our imprints around grief were not very supportive and we therefore often have a lot of accumulated unexpressed feelings about loss and death. We talk about the on-going, individual journey of grief and how Aware Parenting is so helpful in grief because it validates and welcomes all feelings. We share how grief can be a portal to access and release lots of other intense painful feelings. We share some of our own experiences of grief and how aware parenting helps us to support our children to process and integrate their grief. And we talk about bringing ceremony and ritual to support the on-going grieving process. Here are the resources that Danni has found helpful for her and her children on their on-going journey through grief. For kids: The invisible string and the invisible leash by Patrice Karst The Memory Tree -Britta Teckentrup Beginnings and Endings with Lifetimes in Between – Bryan Mellonie & Robert Ingpen Let's Talk About When Someone Dies – Molly Potter & Sarah Jennings Adult books: The wild edge of sorrow by Francis Weller The grief deck by Adriene Jenik Bearing the unbearable by Joanne Cacciatore If you want to know more about Danni's work, please visit her website https://www.thewayofthewoman.com.au and follow her on social media at Danni Willow, The Way of the Woman.

Carly Facius is mother to three beautiful children, who are her greatest teachers on this journey. She is a Registered Midwife, International Board Certified Lactation Consultant (IBCLC), Aware Parenting Instructor and hold a Master of Primary Maternity Care. For more than a decade, she has supported parents from conception throughout the childbearing journey and into parenthood. She believes that people's intuition can be their greatest asset, and is passionate about offering a space where people can feel held and deeply seen, and know that they are not alone. In this conversation, Carly shares how she discovered Aware Parenting from a place of depletion and exhaustion and understanding how crucial it is for us to be finding ways to meet our needs as parents too. We talk about supporting our children's big feelings, in particular how to respond when they are being aggressive in a way that bring us back to compassion and connection. We talk about the importance of us getting listening and care in order to us to be able to offer aware parenting and the profound shifts we see in our children's behaviour after we have been supported ourselves. We talk about the power of moments of intentional presence and self-connection in parenting. To learn more about Carly please visit www.seedpodfamilies.com or find her on Instagram at seed_pod_ To learn more about Marion Rose's Inner loving presence course, the link is here https://innerlovingpresenceprocess.com

In this episode I talk with Sarah Martin. Sarah is a mother to 2 now grown up children. She has taught handcrafts at the local Steiner school, worked as a birth doula, is a Hakomi Somatic Psychotherapist, and worked as a child and family practitioner for Relationships Australia, offering parenting support and child directed play therapy for children and various support processes for teens facing life challenges. She has also developed and run Rite of Passage Camps for mothers and their teen daughters. She is now taking her birth support role to the next level as a midwifery student working towards being a home-birth midwife for our local town alongside her women's rite of passage work. In this episode we talk about our own on-going journeys with body image and how the messages and imprints we received as children have affected us as adults. We share how we have supported ourselves (and continue to do so) as we have tried to create an accepting relationship with our body. We talk about how we have tried to support our children to have different experiences about body image, in the face of immense pressures of social media and global marketing. We talk about how Aware Parenting can support our children with this and how we can encourage a deeper spiritual connection with our bodies for us and our children, full of wonder, celebration, self-acceptance and compassion. To learn more about Sarah, please visit her website www.redtempletherapy.com.au and follow her on Facebook and Instagram at Red Temple Therapy.

This episode explores what we can do when the feelings aren't flowing for our children. This comes up so often in sessions with many clients and something that we all struggle with at times. I share some thoughts about why it is hard to truly welcome our children's feelings, how we can support our children when their feelings and behaviour seems stuck and how we can support ourselves to shift what is there for us. I share some ideas for how we can come back to trusting the journey for ourselves and our children. If you are finding this challenging in your family, I am here to support you. If you want to connect with me please visit www.awareparenting.com.au If you would like a copy of my free Introduction to Attachment Play eBook, please email me support@awareparenting.com.au

In this episode I talk with Candice Morse. Candice started working with children and parents in 2012. She has crossed through many different rolls from face painter to art therapist. Having always been driven to inspire a deeper sense of wellbeing to the littlest members of our world, she is now a deeply loving mother of two. Since becoming a mother she has become passionate about the natural process of birth and devoted to cultivating and inspiring healthy and respectful relationships with children. In this episode Candice shares how she found Aware Parenting and how quickly she noticed big changes for her daughter and for a deeper connection to her authentic self too. She shares the stories of her births, what supported her and how she came to have a very empowering birthing experience for her second child. She shares the support in birth of aware parenting teaching her how to sit in the discomfort of big feelings and how to deeply listen in times of intensity, as well as bringing her back to connection and trust. Candice shares some of her own healing journey in motherhood and the power of aware parenting in that work. We talk about the benefit of rewind and repair and attachment play in parenting and the power of aware parenting to change the world. Here are the resources that we recommended in this conversation to support women in preparation for birth: Birthing from Within: An Extra-Ordinary Guide to Childbirth Preparation by Pam England and Rob Horowitz Face to face with Childbirth by Julia Sundin Reclaiming Childbirth as a Rite of Passage by Rachel Reed The Art of Giving Birth: With Chanting, Breathing, and Movement by Frédérick Leboyer The Orgasmic Birth Podcast by Debra Pascali Bonaro Attachment Play by Aletha Solter Playful Parenting by Lawrence Cohen If you want to connect with Candice or learn more about her, please visit tending.the.temple on Instagram. If you want to connect and get support from me, please visit www.awareparenting.com.au or follow me on social media at Aware Parenting with Joss

Episode 81 - You Are Not Alone with Joss & Danni by Aware Parenting Stories with Joss Goulden

In this episode I talk with Cath Hakanson about how to talk to our children about sex. Cath is a mother, sex educator and founder of Sex Ed Rescue. Bringing her 25+ years clinical knowledge, a practical down-to-earth approach, and passion for helping families, Cath inspires parents to talk to their kids about sex so that kids can talk to their parents about anything! Sex Ed Rescue arms you with the tools, advice and tips to make sex education a normal part of everyday life. In this episode, we talk about why it can be hard for parents to talk to their children about sex. Cath shares how to start having these important conversations with children to counter some of the unhelpful and often dangerous information and messaging that our children are now exposed to from a young age. We talk about supporting children with puberty, the prevalence of pornography, consent, masturbation and staying safe online. If you would like to learn more about Cath's work or explore her resources for parents, please visit www.sexedrescue.com. If you would like to learn more about my course for connected parents, Aware Partnering in Parenthood, please visit https://awareparenting.com.au/my-courses/aware-partnering-in-parenthood/

In this episode I respond to a listener's question about what we can do when we are triggered by our children's behaviour. I talk about how normal it is for us all to have many moments when we are activiated in response to our children. I share about some of the main ways in which we were wounded and hurt as children and how this can affect us as adults, underlying some of our reactions to our children. I share some of the ways we might be triggered by our children. And I share how we can get support and support ourselves to make this less likely to happen, less painful and intense so we can be more often the parent we want to be. I also describe the power and importance of offering rewind and repair to our children when we are triggered, As always, I end by sharing what I wish I had known 18 years ago at the beginning of my aware parenting journey about this. Information about my Aware Partnering in Parenthood course is here https://awareparenting.com.au/my-courses/aware-partnering-in-parenthood/ For more information about my circles, please visit https://awareparenting.com.au/circles/

This episode is another conversation with my wonderful friend and colleague Danni Willow. Danni is an aware parenting instructor and mother to 2 girls. In this conversation we talk about the aware parenting perspective on supporting our children with food. We share really honestly some of our own stories about food and how that has played into us learning to offer self-directed eating with our children. We talk about learning to trust our children and ourselves with food when we are able to process our feelings about it. We talk about eating/feeding control patterns and offer practical strategies for how to encourage more self-connection about food for our children. If you want to know more about Danni, please follow her on social media at Danni Willow or visit her website www.thewayofthewoman.com.au. Her webinar on Self Directed eating is available here https://www.thewayofthewoman.com.au/shop/p/the-self-regulated-eating-seminar Our Monthly Mothers Circle is available here https://www.thewayofthewoman.com.au/shop/p/aware-circle-with-joss-and-danni-2r78m If you would like to learn more about my offerings and courses, please visit www.awareparenting.com.au

In this episode I have a powerful and inspiring conversation with Dr Greer Kirshenbaum. Greer is an Author, Neuroscientist, Doula, Infant and Family Sleep Specialist and Mother. She trained at the University of Toronto, Columbia University, New York University and Yale University. Greer has combined her academic training with her experience as a doula and mother to lead The Nurture Revolution. A movement to nurture our babies' brains to revolutionize mental health and impact larger systems in our world. Greer wants families, professionals, and workplaces to understand how early caregiving experience can boost mental wellness and diminish depression, anxiety, and addiction in adulthood by shaping babies' brains through simple intuitive enriching experiences in pregnancy, birth and infancy. Her book is called The Nurture Revolution: Grow Your Baby's Brain and Transform Their Mental Health Through the Art of Nurtured Parenting. She offers resources, workshops, and coaching. Her work aligns closely with many aspects of Aware Parenting. Greer brings her neuroscience lens to share information about some of the physiological brain changes that mothers experience in early parenting and how they are perfectly designed to support and enable deep connection, bonding, protection and safety with our babies. She describes how supporting the emotional development of babies is the foundation of physical health and mental health for life. Greer shares why she changed her career from research science to science communication in order to share with parents that early maternal care has profound impacts on wellbeing and to counter the beliefs in our low-nurture culture that are harmful to babies, children and parents. She shares how we can support our children's needs for connection, for emotional responsiveness and with sleep. We discuss how important it is for parents to be getting support. To learn more about Greer, please follow her on Instagram at nurture_neuroscience_parenting and visit her website www.nurture-neuroscience.com

Ellie Gut-Silverman is an Aware Parenting Instructor who lives with her husband Gideon, their beautiful daughter Zeva, their Irish Wolfhound Alfie, three bulls and three goats just outside Bellingen in NSW. She is an aware parenting instructor, dedicated to supporting families throughout pregnancy and in early parenthood, and is passionate about supporting others on their paths of reparenting, repatterning, and healing so that they can live and parent with more presence, compassion, ease and joy. In this conversation, Ellie shares how she discovered aware parenting and started listening to feelings and what she has learnt to support herself to listen. We talk about learning to trust our children, through the on-going practice of listening to some of the many feelings our children have. Ellie shares how interconnected we are with our children and how important it is for us to offer ourselves these same practices of loving listening and meeting our needs in order to be able to support our children. She shares how aware parenting practices have supported a deepening in her relationship with her daughter, herself and her husband, and how she supports her daughter to be more willingly cooperative using attachment play. To learn more about Ellie, please visit www.awarevillage.com.au, and follow her on Instragram at aware_village.

Belynda Smith is mother to two beautiful boys are now in their tweens/teens, a single mum living in Perth WA. She has been a Certified Hand in Hand Parenting Instructor (since 2017) and built on this solid foundation with a Certification as a Level 1 Aware Parenting Instructor in 2023. She is passionate about parenting with connection, supporting parents in the many roles she has, sharing particularly about the importance of listening for us all and reading, connection and books. In this episode Belynda shares her journey with Aware Parenting. She describes how receiving listening for herself transformed her early parenting journey from struggle and overwhelm to being able to be the parent she wanted to be. She shares how aware parenting has given her a nuanced understanding of each of her children's unique needs and what lies underneath behaviour in the difficult moments. We talk about all the ways getting regular, consistent listening for ourselves, ideally in multiple different spaces, supports us in ways that make aware parenting possible. We describe our current set ups for listening and we reassure listeners that having struggles is a normal part of being human and needing support is a natural need for us all. Belynda also shares her love of books and why books bring so much value and joy to her life. If you would like to learn more about Belynda please visit her website https://belyndasmith.com.au/ and follow her on Facebook: ParentingwithBelyndaSmith and Instagram: @belyndasmithparenting Her podcast is called Tales from the Toolbox Podcast

Welcome back to a new episode where I talk with one of my best friends, Helen Marshall. Helen is an inspiring speaker on real food, value-based business in wellness, and creating a life you love. She is the founder of Primal Alternative, a company that empowers people to run their own home-based baking business through the Primalista Licence. She has over 30 years of experience in the health and wellness industry. Based in Albany WA with her husband and 2 children, Helen enjoys Body Balance, meditation, walks in nature, and champagne in the spa. In this episode Helen shares her motherhood story and how she came to practising Aware Parenting when her children were teenagers. She shares some of the ways that she incorporates Aware parenting into her family, how she has learnt to listen to feelings and offer special time. She shares how she has learnt to meet her own needs and take care of herself. She shares how she set up her business Primal Alternative to help over 290 Primalistas in Australia, New Zealand, the USA, and the UK create successful grain-free food businesses from home. To learn more about Primal Alternative, please visit www.primalalternative.com and follow her on Facebook and Instagram at Primal Alternative.

Welcome back to a new episode where I talk about healing from stress and trauma through loving listening. I talk about what trauma is, what some of the sources of stress are for children and how these experiences affect children. I share how our children's bodies respond to stress and how the expression of feelings with loving support is a natural healing process. I talk about creating the necessary sense of emotional safety for healing to occur and what is not supportive for our children in this process. I share some very helpful quotes and descriptions from Dr Aletha Solter's book Healing your Traumatized Child. I also share lots of tips and advice about how to listen to our children in a way that supports healing and how to get that for ourselves too and how to explore and process what comes up for us when listening to feelings. If you want support to listen to your children and help them to heal from stress and trauma or if you want support to explore and release your own feelings, I am here for you.

Welcome back to a new episode where I have the pleasure of talking with Marion Rose Ph.D. about her wonderful new book I'm Here and I'm Listening. Marion is the best-selling author of The Emotional Life of Babies and is the co-author of Raising Resilient and Compassionate Children with Lael Stone. She has been practicing Aware Parenting since 2002 and is the mother of two young adults. She has been an Aware Parenting instructor since 2005 and is a Level Two instructor and the Regional Coordinator for Australia and New Zealand. She hosts The Aware Parenting Podcast and The Psychospiritual Podcast, and co-hosts The Aware Parenting and Natural Learning Podcast with me! I love this book so much and highly recommend it for all parents. In this episode we have a beautiful conversation about some of the key themes of her new, best-selling book. Marion shares her wisdom about connection and relationships with our children, doing our own re-parenting work, trusting children's innate wisdom, loving limits, supporting our children to heal and much more. It is such a powerful conversation. If you want to learn more about Marion's book, please visit www.amazon.com in your country. She shares more about her work on social media, and on her website www.marionrose.net. If you want to learn more about my Aware Partnering in Parenthood Course, the link is here https://awareparenting.com.au/my-courses/aware-partnering-in-parenthood/

Welcome back to a new episode where I have a conversation with Leah McDermott. Leah is an unschooling advocate and mother of three. After over a decade spent in the world of education, two Masters of Education degrees, and multiple teaching certifications, Leah slowly began to realize that the way we are teaching our children in public schools went against everything that we knew to be true about learning acquisition and child development. Her passion for helping other children and families led to her developing a child-led learning curriculum, creating a supportive space online for parents, and opening Bridge Academy - a private umbrella school for homeschoolers, Leah continues her life's work of encouraging adults to unlearn what they've always believed to be true as they lean fully into trusting their children as natural, capable learners. Leah currently lives in Pennsylvania with her husband, Brian, their three boys, and a collection of pets. In this episode we have a powerful conversation about some of the damaging long-term effects of schooling and the pressure that children often face at school. We share many of the benefits we have seen of supporting children to learn in their own way, in their own timing, relaxed and self-connected at home. We talk about cultivating trust in our children and dealing with the judgements and questions of others so that we can truly enjoy facilitating our children's learning at home. If you want to learn more about Leah's work, please follow her on social media at Your Natural Learner or her website https://www.bridgeacademy.us/. If you want to learn more about Natural Learning from me, I have a series of articles on my website here https://awareparenting.com.au/articles/?_select_a_category=homeschoolingandnaturallearning. I also offer workshops on Natural Learning here https://awareparenting.com.au/my-courses/parenting-workshops/ and run an online natural learning and aware parenting community together with Marion Rose https://awareparenting.com.au/parenting-coaching/community/. We also have a podcast series together The Aware Parenting and Natural Learning Podcast, that you can find on all podcast platforms.