The Adult Chair Podcast with Michelle Chalfant

Some days, it just feels like the world is conspiring against you. These are the days that shake our confidence, our sense of peace, our ability to relate to others — they're the worst! The trick to living in The Adult Chair is not developing some magical skill to erase these days from your life. It's developing the skill to recognize when you've been knocked out of The Adult Chair, and to move yo...

It's February! With all the talk of love in the air leading into this Valentine's Day weekend, we thought it just the right time to share our own spin on romance: learning to date yourself! This is such an important concept, and it challenges one of the fundamental marketing messages of romantic partnership: the truth is, we don't find a partner to complete us! That's a trap! Don't fall for it! Th...

Envision Only Positive Outcomes So says Tony Burroughs this week as we continue our conversation on intentionality. Tony's work is all around intentions; he's co-founder of The Intenders of the Highest Good and one of his greatest gifts to all of us is the practice of the Intender's Circles, now a global community of people joining together to envision a better world, and find greater personal ali...

It's January! With the turn of the New Year come all sorts of promises we make to ourselves as we look to make change in our lives. From losing weight to desires of greater mindfulness, these resolutions are signposts that we've crossed another year off the calendar. Painful truth: Resolutions don't work! After 30 days, 75% of our resolutions have been long forgotten. In this podcast we discuss wh...

Want to learn how to de-stress and find balance in the holiday season or anytime throughout the year?  Meditation is a wonderful practice that can do this for you.  So many of us shy away from meditation as we don't know how, don't have time, etc. Pete and I have a discussion on these obstacles and others as well as the benefits and "How To's" of meditation. Included in the next podcast is a guide...

When we look outside of ourselves for validation for who we are, we become dependent on others for our sense of self and happiness. When we learn to self-validate, we become internally strong in knowing who we are. We easily access our faults, with little to no effort. When asked what's good about us or what our positive strengths are, we scramble and have to stretch our minds to muster up even on...

"If I don't learn to take care of myself, who will?" Boundaries and confrontations are two very different things. One teaches others how we want to be treated and the other is getting in someone's face to elicit change. Which one sounds better to you? In this podcast, we discuss the difference between the two and what, how and why it's important to learn how to set effective boundaries. Unfortunat...

Need help with a relationship? Whether it be your partner, family member, or friend, this information will shift how you interact in relationships. In today's podcast we discuss ways to improve relationships using techniques from the Adult Chair model. They are simple, easy to understand, empowering, and cultivate true connection. Join us for a conversation that will not only change your troubled...

We get triggered, feel painful emotions and go into "fix it mode." The answer to our triggers and pain is to find the core emotion and go into it. This is where true healing occurs. Bonding with our Inner Child is the only way to do this. In this episode, I have an excerpt from a session with "Sarah" who is learning about the chairs and how to bond with her inner child. It's the part of the sessio...

The concept of the Adult Chair is simple. We live in the moment, in fact and truth, set healthy boundaries, feel empowered and we become an observer of our lives (and not stuck in the drama) and make decisions for our lives. Sounds like a wonderful idea, right!? What happens when we get stuck? When we feel overwhelmed, not in our bodies, scared, can't think straight, afraid to make the wrong decis...

Walking the spiritual path is not easy. It's not instant. It takes practice and dedication. These are the truths of awakening that sometimes plague those on the hunt for instant gratification. More often than not, it's less a field of wildflowers than a pile of crap! But walking the spiritual path is a journey of reward! In spite of the work and attention required, in all the years I've been worki...

We are beings of energy. It's how we get up and out of bed in the morning, how we make it through our days, and how we recharge in sleep at night. Our state of being — and our ability to heal — is largely depended on the way we are able to channel and process our energy. That's why I'm so excited to have Sarah Weiss of the SpiritHeal Institute on the show with us today. With Sarah, I'd like to int...

Our guest today is J. Tamar Stone. I'm so excited to introduce Tamar's work to you today as she is not only capable of amazing things, her concept of Voice Dialogue and Body Dialogue fit absolutely perfectly into the work we're doing in The Adult Chair! Tamar walks us through her process of finding our primary and disowned selves and shows us how we uncover our sensitive inner child. Here's a bit...

This week on the show, we're taking on the Law of Attraction. You may have heard of the Law of Attraction as it was popularized in the book, "The Secret," just about a decade ago. There is a lot to like about this concept that like attracts like, but I have some problems with the author's handling of attraction that I believe limits us in the way we approach living a focused life, and putting our...

Timing is everything, right? And just in time for Mother's Day, we have an amazing conversation with an amazing woman and healer. Bethany Webster joins us on The Adult Chair to introduce us to the Mother Wound. Stemming from our early years — birth to 7 — the mother wound can dramatically impact our most important relationships, from our relationship with our selves to our partners and spouses to...

Karen Campion is one of my very favorite people. She's a holistic therapist and her inner child and alternative therapies have helped so many people find peace and freedom from pain in their lives. I've invited her to join us today to share her amazing story of recovery from a life of incredible pain, and her journey through her own inner child connection that lead her to physical recovery. My dee...

I had a conversation with my husband this week that got me thinking about connections. Human connections. So this week on the show I want to talk about how we support one another when we need it most, when we're reacting from our child or adolescent chair and we need to be heard and supported the most. This is also a discussion about how to support. That's a very different skill, learning when to...

I can't wait for you to hear this podcast—it may be the most fun I've had hearing Pete have his mind blown! This week, we're talking about EFT, or "Emotional Freedom Technique." You may have heard of it referred to as tapping for short, and it's one of my favorite tools for helping my clients break free from anxiety, depression, generalized stress — even physical pain and performance issues! It in...

We strive to be whole and complete but deny the parts of us that embarrass us, that we hate and try and hide. These are our shadow parts. It is impossible to feel whole without embracing the shadow parts inside us. This week on the show, Pete and I talk about the shadow, how to move into a mode of discovery, to unlock and embrace the secrets of our shadow, and work to become whole.

Over the last few weeks, we've addressed some powerful topics. From approaching anxiety, to codependency, and finally love addiction/love avoidance. In each of these areas, our approach has been to discern where our emotional response sits — our child or adolescent — and invite them to sit in the adult chair, to approach these challenges from a position of rationality and confidence. But accessing...

Love addiction and love avoidance define the relationship struggles for many of us as we enter deeper emotional connection throughout the course of our lives. These are damaging patterns and represent a long-running struggle to move from our adolescent to our adult chair as we learn to cultivate love with others in our lives. This week on the show, we're honored to have Sarah Bridge on the show. S...

Codependency represents a range of social and emotional behaviors generally described as an emotional or psychological reliance on another — a spouse, partner, teacher, friend, and so on — where the well-being of one is connected to the well-being of another. I'm only OK if you're OK. But codependency is a sign that we may not be living from our adult chair. This week, we take on codependent behav...

Anxiety is a demon. It is the state in which we live uncomfortably between a past we will never have again, and a future fraught with uncertainty. But growing a stronger relationship with our inner-adolescent can pay dividends far beyond casual nerves. This week on The Adult Chair, Michelle Chalfant and Pete Wright discuss anxiety and fear, demonstrated through the courage of "Lola" — a woman lear...

Addictions are subtle, insidious monsters, and they can take roost inside all of us. We're not just talking about the addictions we see in movies or television. We're not just talking about the addictions we sleight, either. We're talking about our broad human inability to deal with pain, and how that pain manifests in our lives in destructive ways. This week on the show, Michelle leads us through...

The strongest relationships in our lives come when we are able to communicate with our partner from our adult chair, and they are communicating with us from their own. This week on the show, Michelle teaches us how to approach our partner as a support rather than a cheerleader. We roll-play on the show this week, demonstrating and deconstructing a partner conversation and illustrate some key conce...