Brave Together Podcast: Support and Community for Caregiving Parents

What do you do when everything is going wrong? How do you zoom out enough to see things clearly - instead of reacting in fear or desperation? Jessica Patay and Yoga Instructor/Entrepreneur, D’Andre Clayton talk about the power of a regular breath practice to help develop clear-headedness and build peaceful foundations for our perspectives on the challenges of life. Find D’Andre on Instagram @dandr...

In a world where children and young people who have disabilities are at an increased risk of being abused compared with their non-disabled peers, how can a parent learn to manage their fears and protect their children? On this week’s episode of Brave Together, Jessica Patay and expert advisor Toby Stark discuss some of the most important questions parents need to ask of the organizations supportin...

Hello Brave Friends, you know we encourage sisterhood on this podcast but we don’t always talk about the unexpected community that can form around our children with unique needs, when we’re open to it. And sometimes that means having a broader idea about who that community may include. It might NOT be other mom’s, even care-giving mom’s with kids the same age because hey, they're BUSY! Instea...

Do I really need to cook dinner EVERY night? And if so, how can I find joy in it? Joy, you say? What would that look like? A glass of wine, maybe? Music? In the overwhelming lives of caregivers, it’s easy to feel like the days are full of “have to’s” but what if we isolated the actual necessities and found ways to make everything else in our busy lives easier and MORE FUN!  Today we help you strea...

Our lives as caregivers require WAY more help than we are willing to ask for, so what stops us? The intention for this episode is encouragement and maybe a nudge toward self-reflection as to WHY ON EARTH we of all people wouldn’t be able to ask for the help that we so badly need.  On this episode, host Jessica Patay, talks to Cheryl Ryan Chan, who does workshops on The Lost Skill of Asking for Hel...

Transitions are hard for everybody, but especially for our neurodiverse teens and their parents. Just when you’ve gotten used to middle school and all that is expected in that environment, your teen is ushered into the wilderness of high school and a fresh batch of unknowns. Wouldn’t it be nice to have a guide? Well, you’re in luck! On this practical episode, host Jessica Patay interviews Natalie...

Hello Brave Friends! Welcome to our practical episode with Katie Taylor, who not only has wonderful professional credentials, she is also our Connection Circle Leader for Austin, Texas, and we are so grateful for her leadership and her enthusiasm to serve and support caregiving moms. Katie Taylor is very impressive. She is the co-founder and CEO of Child Life On Call, a digital platform revolution...

Hello Brave Friends! Welcome to today's practical episode with April Rehrig. She's going to talk about strengths-based IEPs. Have you even heard of that? I don't think I'd ever heard of it until recently. It's an IEP that looks at abilities as well as weaknesses. It looks at what students CAN do, what the team wants them to do next, and how strengths might be used to set g...

Hello Brave Friends! Welcome to our Season 8 wrap up episode, #222.  The host of the 'Brave Together Parenting Podcast' addresses the 'Brave Mom Squad,' expressing gratitude and celebrating the podcast's five-year anniversary and 220+ episodes. Reflecting on Season 8, the host highlights top episodes and thanks sponsors Rise Educational Advocacy, Pediatric Minds, and Yoga...

Hello Brave Friends! Welcome to today's story episode, #221. These are true stories from a moment in the life of a caregiving parent. We hear a crafted story, and then have a conversation with our guests that goes deeper into their experience. In this heartfelt conversation, Chris and Jessica Patay reflect on their journey as parents of a child with Prader-Willi syndrome. They discuss the cha...

Hello Brave Friends! This is an Ask Us Anything episode in which YOU, the listener, get to write or call in and, you guessed it, ASK US ANYTHING!  In this Ask Us Anything episode, #220, we are responding to the question, What can I say to myself and what can others say to me in the midst of chronic hardship? In this final AUA episode of season eight, the hosts reflect on the challenges and unexpec...

Hello Brave Friends! Welcome to today's expert episode, #219. These are conversations with experts in fields relevant to caregiving parents.  On this episode we have Tammie Penta PD, a retired Police Sergeant and Brave Mom to an adult son with Prader-Willi syndrome who trains police departments all over the country to interact safely with adults living with PWS and other intellectual disabili...

Hello Brave Friends! Welcome to today's story episode, #218. These are true stories from a moment in the life of a caregiving parent. We hear a crafted story, and then have a conversation with our guests that goes deeper into their experience. This episode is VERY special because we have on the podcast today, not one, not two, but ALL THREE authors of the instant New York Times Bestseller, Au...

Hello Brave Friends! Welcome to today's expert episode, #217. These are conversations with experts in fields relevant to caregiving parents.  Today, Brave Together founder, Jessica Patay and author Kelley Coleman interview Tom Chiodo. Tom Chiodo is the Executive Producer Special Projects, National Productions at WETA, flagship PBS station in Washington D.C., developing primetime documentary f...

Hello Brave friends! May is Prader-Willi Syndrome Awareness Month and, as you probably know by now, my son Ryan has Prader-Willi Syndrome. He’s 21, almost 22, and today we are re-releasing episode number 100 from Season 3, in which I shared the story of how we told Ryan about his diagnosis. And after the story, I have the joy and the privilege of interviewing Ryan, but go grab a Kleenex because, a...

Hello Brave Friends! Welcome to today's story episode, #216. These are true stories from a moment in the life of a caregiving parent. We hear a crafted story, and then have a conversation with our guests that goes deeper into their experience. In this heartfelt conversation, Dr. Zoe Shaw interviews author and speaker, Kelly Lang, who shares her profound journey following a traumatic car accid...

Hello Brave Friends! On this episode, #215, we are hearing about the experience of another Thriving Disabled Adult, Kelly Pozil! Kelly was born with TAR syndrome that resulted in having no radius bone in both her arms.  In this conversation she shares about what it was like growing up in a very physically active family, how her parents instilled confidence in her, and how she coped with the big fe...

Hello Brave Friends! This is an Ask Us Anything episode in which YOU, the listener, get to write or call in and, you guessed it, ASK US ANYTHING!  In this Ask Us Anything episode, #214, we are responding to the question, What do we do with ALL THESE EMOTIONS when we don’t feel like we have time and space to process them? In this conversation, hosts, Jessica, Susanna and Dr. Zoe discuss the complex...

Hello Brave Friends! Welcome to today's story episode, #213. These are true stories from a moment in the life of a caregiving parent. We hear a crafted story, and then have a conversation with our guests that goes deeper into their experience. In this episode of the Brave Together Parenting Podcast, host Jessica Patay welcomes Jennifer Iannuzzi, LCSW, a mother and Connection Circle leader, to...

Hello Brave Friends! This is an Ask Us Anything episode in which YOU, the listener, get to write or call in and, you guessed it, ASK US ANYTHING!  In this Ask Us Anything episode, #212, we are responding to the question, How do I unplug from constant hyper-vigilance in my caregiving? In this conversation, Jessica, Zoe, and Susanna explore the theme of hypervigilance in parenting, particularly in t...

Hello Brave Friends! Welcome to today's expert episode, #211. These are conversations with experts in fields relevant to caregiving parents.  Our guest today is LMFT Amanda Griffith-Atkins, who is another Brave PWS mom as well as an author with a book coming out in June! Hooray! Her book is called How to Handle More Than You Can Handle: Caregiving for Yourself While Raising a Disabled Child....

Hello Brave Friends! Welcome to today's story episode, #210. These are true stories from a moment in the life of a caregiving parent. We hear a crafted story, and then have a conversation with our guests that goes deeper into their experience. Today we hear from one of our amazing connection circle leaders, Lindsay Hooten, whose son was diagnosed with autism in 2022. She opens up in this epis...

Hello Brave Friends! This is an Ask Us Anything episode in which YOU, the listener, get to write or call in and, you guessed it, ASK US ANYTHING!  In this Ask Us Anything episode, #209, we are responding to the question, How do we help our children feel empowered instead of defeated by their mental health diagnosis?  In this conversation co-hosts Jessica Patay, Susanna Peace Lovell and Dr. Zoe Sha...

Hello Brave Friends! On this Thriving Disabled Adults episode, #208, we are speaking to Thriving Disabled Adult, Nicole Demos. In this conversation, Susanna Peace Lovell interviews Nicole (Nix) Demos, who shares about her journey growing up in Greece in the 1970’s with cerebral palsy. She also generously shares her experiences being rejected and embraced by different cultures, living in various co...

Hello Brave Friends! Welcome to today's practical episode, #207. These are conversations with experts in fields relevant to caregiving parents.  Our guest today is Brian Altounian. He is an entrepreneur, executive, and financial educator. His background includes business development, finance, operations and administration, and he has applied his skills to a variety of startups, Fortune 100 co...