Authentic Parenting

Unexpressed grief from the past may be one of the most overlooked public crises of our time. Says my guest, Hope Edelman today-who is a strong voice and influential figure in the bereavement field and her books have helped countless people, especially women, as she wrote about mother loss. And mother loss, doesn't necessarily mean loss by death. There is abandonment, separation, neglect… Her new b...

Shaka Senghor, authhor of Letters to the Sons of Society on the power of transformation, father's love, vulnerability and freedom.  His first book is a memoir Writing My Wrongs: Life, Death and Redemption in an American Prison, debuted on The New York Times and The Washington Post Best Seller Lists.    RESOURCES AND LINKS Follow Shaka on Facebook Follow him on Twitter Follow him on Instagram Watch...

In this solo episode Anna talks about the 6 critical emotional needs of children. She provides an overview with some examples to help you understand your children better; become a better decoder of their behavior, uncover their emotional needs and meet the needs with responsiveness and sensitivity.  She goes over her 4 Buckets Framework for understanding challenging behaviors (NEEDS is only one of...

Do you suffer from anxiety?  We are living through one of the most anxious periods any of us can remember.  Dr. Jud Brewer, renowned addiction psychiatrist and neuroscientist explains how to uproot anxiety at its source, using brain-based techniques and small hacks accessible to anyone.  He has created a step-by-step program that anyone can use to feel better. He teaches us how to map our brains t...

We all have a story. Your life story defines who you are.  And only you can tell your own story.  By sharing it you not only release painful feelings, make sense of what happened to you, gain a new perspective, form a new meaning, but you access a possibility of transforming your life. Whether you share your story orally or in a written form, it has healing power. Do you have an untold story insid...

Have you noticed that your ability to pay attention is collapsing?  Did you know that in the US teenagers can focus on one task for only sixty-five seconds at a time and office workers average only three minutes? Like so many of us Johann Hari was finding that constantly switching from device to device and tab to tab was a diminishing and depressing way to live. He went on a quest to find out what...

Parenting is hard. But being a parent doesn't mean you have to stifle your most basic wants and needs. It doesn't mean it has to consume you to the degree of self-sacrifice and martyrdom and you definitely don't need to lose yourself to be a good parent. Ericka Souter , author of How to Have a Baby and a Life on why being good for our kids has to become synonymous with being good to ourselves.  If...

Warning: This episode contains mature themes and sensitive topics.  While I think the conversation is deep, important and rich, it could be triggering for some. Please use your best judgment and assess whether you are in the right state of mind to be exposed to such content at this point in time. Hope Edelman and Dr. Judith Rabinor on how mother loss shapes our identity and impact the way we paren...

We enter into the world with a breath and the process of breathing continues automatically. We don't pay much attention to it unless of course something goes wrong.  But the way we breathe has an enormous impact on our health. To quote my guest directly:  "Breathing impacts every aspect of health-sleep, digestion, movement, mental well-being, disease and recovery. It's an extraordinary resource wi...

Julie Lythcott-Haims believes in humans and is deeply interested in what gets in our way. Her work encompasses writing, speaking, mentoring, and activism. She is the New York Times bestselling author of the anti-helicopter parenting manifesto How to Raise an Adult which gave rise to a popular TED Talk. Her second book is the critically-acclaimed and award-winning prose poetry memoir Real American,...

Today's episode is a compilation episode. I have put together short clips from some of your favorite conversations to remind you of what's important in parenting, to give you a boost of inspiration and positivity. in the new year.  I created this compilation episode so that you can start the new year with renewed energy and intention, a sense of hope and possibility, unshakable confidence that you...

Hello and welcome to the final episode of the year. I'm joined with my dear friend Kristy Lauricella from episode 300. And today we are going to reflect on the past year: lessons we learned, hardships we went through, challenges we overcame, habits we started, things we enjoyed, how we had fun, as well as we will share the top 10 episodes of the year, the most downloaded and listened to episodes o...

Jessica Lahey talks about her own experience with alcohol, the role of genetics and other risk factors, and how parents can "inoculate" their children from a life of substance abuse.  Who get addicted and why Genetics and personality traits Epigenetics The role of Adverse Childhood Experiences and trauma Why is it important to delay use? How to talk about it with kids How we can improve prevention...

Welcome to episode 300.  What an accomplishment!  6 years!  300 episodes.  Hundreds of amazing guests.  Global, diverse and phenomenal community! And one passionate host!  Thank you from the bottom of my heart for being a listener. It's because of you that I'm here and that the podcast exists.  Now let's begin this milestone episode hosted by my lovely friend, former guest of the podcast and a fac...

For the past 25 years Marc Brackett, Ph. D has been researching and writing about emotions and running around the world talking to people about their feelings.  Marc Brackett, Ph. D., is the founding director of the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence and a professor in the Child Study Center, Yale School of Medicine at Yale University. "Our emotional state is one of the most important aspects...

A thirteen year old Laney and her mom Julie are here to talk about how they transformed their relationship. They went from fighting daily into a more peaceful, positive and connected place. Julie is an active member of the Authentic Parenting community and has appeared on the podcast before.  Julie has made some big strides and major shifts in her parenting. She has been consistently learning and...

The core struggle for most of us is we want things to be different than they are. How can we free ourselves from unnecessary suffering and experience freedom that is already present in our lives.  Ask yourself, what am I feeling right now that I don't want to feel? And is that a problem?  Often we look outside ourselves either for problems or solutions. Couples blame one another-you should change...

We all have an inner voice and how it manifests differs from person to person. How well do you know your inner voice? Rather than silencing the negative self-talk-the chatter, we need to learn how to harness it. This is the central question of my guest's brand new book Chatter: The Voice In Our Head, Why It Matters and How To Harness It. Ethan Kross, Ph. D  is an award-winning professor and bestse...

In this Special Episode, my freind and colleague Laura Froyen and I answer some of listener questions about siblings.  Questions range from keeping the older sibling from parenting the younger, parent's worry about bringing home a new sibling, coming up with win-win activities to do when kids have opposite preferences, as well as how to respond when your child says they "hate" their sibling and ho...

There are so many therapeutic methods and healing modalities available these days.   One of them is IFS, or parts work. I have the honor of  speaking with the creator of IFS, Dr. Rick Schwartz. He's the creator of Internal Family Systems, IFS, a highly effective evidence-based therapeutic model. It provides a non-pathologizing, optimistic, and empowering perspective and a practical and effective s...

Did you know that when we name our feelings the activity in the amygdala decreases? My guest Sarah Peyton and I start today's conversation with this topic. She mentions Matthew Liberman's research She talks about the panic-grief circuit of the mammalian brain and explains the phenomenon of alarmed aloneness.  Why she prefers the expression alarmed loneliness as opposed to separation anxiety and ab...

The mother-daughter relationship is one of the most important—and complicated in the lives of most adult women. Helping my patients understand their mothers has helped me become familiar with parts of myself - and my mother - I might have never known if not for the stories I've heard, says Judith Rabinor, PhD,  We don't choose our mothers but as an adult you always have an opportunity to choose ne...