Aware Parenting Stories with Joss Goulden

This episode is another beautiful conversation with Danni Willow. We talk about our imprints around belonging and sisterhood from our childhood and how they can shape our relationships with other women as adults. We share how we have supported ourselves to find safety, trust and authentic connection in friendship now as women. We discuss learning how to navigate rupture and repair in friendship ju...

Welcome back to another episode in the series of conversations about Attachment Play, this time in conversation with Linde Lambrechts, mother of 2 boys, psychologist and Aware Parenting Instructor in Belgium In this conversation, Linde shares her journey with Attachment Play and how she has found ways to support her own needs in play, whilst also meeting her children's needs, in order to find more...

I am so happy to share another episode in the series of conversations about Attachment Play, this time in conversation with Vivian Viester. Vivian is a level 2 Aware parenting Instructor in the Netherlands and has a 15 year old son. In this conversation, Vivian shares how she has learnt to incorporate her own big painful feelings into attachment play with her son and gives lots of examples of how...

I am so happy to share another episode in the series of conversations about Attachment Play, this time all about Contingency Play. I talk about why this type of play is so beneficial for children and how to offer these games. I share lots of examples of contingency games. I talk about why it can be hard for us to play in this way and share some ideas of how you might support yourself to have more...

In this episode, Danni Willow and I share vulnerably some of our own healing journey through motherhood in this last year. We talk about the importance of finding support and safety in order to bring transformation to ourselves through hard times, especially as Aware Parenting mothers giving so much to our children. We discuss finding love, care, tenderness and understanding to hold us in this wor...

Welcome back to another episode in the series of conversations about Attachment Play, this time with Ayla Dewilt. Ayla is the mother of 2 daughters and is an Aware Parenting Instructor and homeschool mom, with a love of psychology and emotional hygiene. In this episode Ayla shares how she discovered Aware Parenting. She shares some of her own reparenting journey in the early years of parenting and...

Welcome back to another episode in the series of conversations about Attachment Play, this time with Sanne Greuter. Sanne is the mother of a 4 year old daughter in The Netherlands. She is an aware parenting instructor, psychologist and a mental health professional, trained in Emotion Focused Therapy, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, Nonviolent Communication, and Stress and Burn-out Coaching. She...

To celebrate World Breastfeeding Week, I am so happy to share this episode in conversation with Carly Facius about ending the breast feeding journey. Carly is mother to three beautiful children, She is a Registered Midwife, International Board Certified Lactation Consultant (IBCLC), Aware Parenting Instructor and hold a Master of Primary Maternity Care. In this episode, we talk about the pressures...

Welcome back to another episode in the series of conversations about Attachment Play, this time with Nathalie Hendleman. Nathalie is a French-American mother of 2 children aged 5 and 3 who lives in France. She is a trained midwife, lactation consultant, Aware Parenting instructor, and is also trained in NVC and IFS. She blends all of these life experiences to support families in their transition t...

In this episode I talk about Nonsense Play, which is 1 of the 9 types of Attachment Play in Aware Parenting. I describe why is so helpful for our children and what it looks like. I give lots of examples of how to bring this type of play to some of the challenges we all face in parenting and offer inspiration to be more silly. I talk about why it can be hard to offer this and end with some words of...

Welcome back to another episode in my series about Attachment Play, this time in conversation with Felicity Juhn. Felicity is mother to two boys, aged 6 and 8 and is an Aware Parenting Instructor. She runs an in-person parenting group called Wild Hearted Parents, which she co-facilitates with fellow Aware Parenting Instructor, Marisa Taylor and offers an in-person "Mums, Let's Chat" in her local p...

Welcome back to another episode in my series about Attachment Play, this time in conversation with Britt Ortmann-Wold. Britt is a Certified Aware Parenting Instructor living in Minnesota, USA. She has two young daughters, Sophie and Athena and shares a passion for Aware Parenting with her partner Ryan. Britt has spent nearly 15 years in the self-awareness and spiritual healing space. Her work has...

Welcome back to another episode in my series about Attachment Play in Aware Parenting. This episode explore power-reversal play, what it is and why it is so important for children to feel powerful. I talk about how it helps children to move out of hyper-arousal or dissociation into releasing and healing. I give lots of examples of when these games can be effective and helpful for our children and...

Welcome back to another episode in my series about Attachment Play, this time in conversations with Eliza Parker. Eliza is a certified Aware Parenting Instructor, Infant Developmental Movement Educator, Body-Mind Centering Practitioner, and trained Feldenkrais® practitioner. American sign language interpreter. She has special expertise in healing birth trauma, and parental attunement to non-verbal...

Welcome back to another episode in a series of conversations about Attachment Play. In this episode I am talking with Maru Rojas who is an aware parenting instructor in the UK with 2 children, aged 7 and 5 and she shares her journey with bringing the healing power of laughter and play to her family. In this episode we talk about how to reconnect with our own innate playfulness and how to support o...

This episode explores Symbolic Play, one of 9 forms of Attachment Play that are outlined by Aletha Solter in her book Attachment Play. I talk about how this type of play is helpful to support healing, connection, cooperation and non-punitive discipline. I describe how to offer Symbolic Play and share several examples of when it can be used to support our children with some of the most common sourc...

Welcome back to another episode in a series of conversations about Attachment Play. In this episode I am talking with Rebecca Sheikh, who is a level 2 aware parenting instructor and the regional coordinator for aware parenting in UK, Ireland and Sub-Saharan Africa. In this episode we talk about how to better understand children's behaviour so we can then use attachment play in order to support the...

This episode of my podcast is a beautiful conversation with Suzanne Thijs, from the Netherlands. Suzanne is an Aware Parenting Instructor and mother to two sons aged 4 and 7 and a stepdaughter aged 23. She offers training and courses for professionals working with children through her business Kinders Academie in Netherlands. In this episode, Suzanne shares her journey with Aware Parenting and Att...

In this episode I speak with Hannah Mushit who is the mother of 4 children, a registered play therapist and an Aware Parenting Instructor in Fremantle in Western Australia. She shares her journey with Aware Parenting and offers some examples of using Attachment Play to support her family. We discuss how to help ourselves in the moments where we "should" ourselves about play and how to support ours...

This episode of my podcast is all about non-directive child centred play, also often known as Special Time. I describe what this kind of play is and how it is so therapeutic and helpful for our children. I explore how we can offer it, when it's particularly helpful for our children, what can happen when we offer this type of play, as well as why this can be hard for us to do. I talk about how to s...

This episode is the first in my new series of conversations about Attachment Play. I describe what Attachment Play is and the benefits of this for our children. I talk about how this type of play supports us in the practice of all the aspects and principles of Aware Parenting. and share how we offer it to our children. I explain the 9 different types of play and discuss why it can be hard for us a...

Welcome back to another episode of the Aware Parenting Stories podcast. After having a few weeks off, I am back with the final episode for this year and the last episode in the series of conversations I have been having about Embracing Imperfection. In this episode I share some final reflections on where perfectionism comes from, the effect of our childhood experiences and the socio-cultural facto...

This latest episode of my podcast about embracing imperfection is all about the journey of self-acceptance in fatherhood. I am really excited to be having a conversation with Mark Gee, who is a counsellor, a mental health first aid instructor, a Rites of Passage leader and an online Circle Work Facilitator. He is a father and supports other fathers through his 6 week online Dad's Journey Workshops...

Welcome back to another episode and the next instalment in my series on embracing our imperfection in Aware Parenting, in conversation this time with Rebecca Sheikh who is a level 2 Aware Parenting Instructor and the regional coordinator for the UK, Ireland and Sub-Saharan Africa. In this episode we talk about how parenting invites us to tend to the hurt places within us from our childhoods and ho...

Welcome back to another episode and the next instalment in my series on embracing our imperfection in Aware Parenting, in conversation this time with Katie Fusco who is an Aware Parenting Instructor and a specialist perinatal and infant mental health practitioner in the UK. In this episode Katie shares with beautiful vulnerability her journey with embracing imperfection following a profoundly diff...