The Perfect Child Podcast

I gotta tell ya, I love me some visionaries! And that is exactly what Annie Cleary and Heidi Smidgell are. In this week's episode, Annie and Heidi of Kindred Gardens, a community gathering space here in Portland, OR share their journey and their dreams of creating a more beautiful world for our children - a childhood rooted in connection and community with hands in the soil. Their belief is that a...

Naima Dutton is a birth keeper. She describes her three years of working within the NHS as a student as "slowly but surely broke my heart into many tiny pieces with each woman I witnessed being stripped of the rite of passage that belonged to her. I deeply wished that I could do my part to change these experiences and even the system itself." In this conversation, we share all the ways the industr...

I am always amazed at the breadth and depth of conversations that mothers share. In this conversation with Tazeen Dutton, a Root Cause and Body Stress Reduction Practitioner and mother of five, she shares about the root cause of her own illness and then we touch upon so much more - modeling resiliency, self-reflection as a tool for optimal health, the insidiousness of the Medical Industrial Comple...

Imagine an education where your child feels empowered. Where your child gets to feel like they matter and they have something worthy to contribute to the world. Where your child makes friends (online) that celebrate all his/her accomplishments. Where your child has access to world-renowned wisdom keepers such as Lynne McTaggert, Bruce Lipton, Gregg Braeden and more. Where, sometimes, you, too, as...

Does the universe conspire with us as we parent? I'm sure it does. When Iris Chen, author of "Untigering: Peaceful Parenting for the Deconstructing Tiger Parent", was invited to a talk given by a friend, the message clicked and Untigering was born. And, she and her children are much better off because of it. Perhaps Iris' story will resonate with you and give you courage to see the ways that Spiri...

Ooh, there are so many juicy nuggets in this conversation that I share with Karissa Dean, founder of Life, Business and Beyond. As a coach, she has formulated the A.R.C approach to living a more abundant life. This is gold. Listen in for some true mastery tips. References and resources: Karissa Dean can be found at www.karissadean.com Perfect Child is a resource for empowered parenting.&...

In this conversation, Molly Bennett, an apprentice of the Fajardo Method of Holistic Biomechanics, shares an overview of what the Fajardo Method is, how it helps heal the body at the root level and how she reversed her Ehlers Danlos Syndrome symptoms practicing the Fajardo Method. She also shares how the Fajardo Method informs how she supports her baby's development in a way that maintains his bod...

This conversation is FIRE!! Warning - it might be a bit triggering because Susan McNamara, a mama bear who accepts no excuses for passive parenting, does not mince words when it comes to living a life that models our values every single day. Honestly, do we ever take the time to sink into "remembering" what matters most? If you're like me, you entered into parenting feeling "in the weeds" and the...

Home education is not weird. It's empowering. Christopher Bates is a Consulting Director at a large global technology consulting firm who was partially homeschooled and is a huge advocate of home education. He has and is home educating his five children aged 13 to 23 and is also currently supporting his partner in home educating two of her children. All are thriving! Christopher is also the author...

Deedee Hoover of Kids First 4ever is definitely a tool to keep in our toolbox for living a life rooted in our sense of Self. As a wellness coach, she shows up with a genuine curiosity for meeting every person exactly where they are at without any pre-conceived notions and definitely without the pretense of being an "expert". This perspective is what is needed for our teens of today. There is so mu...

This conversation is a MUST listen if you have a child who's been diagnosed with any of the alphabet soup of labels that the systems have created to pathologize our children. Beth Lambert, of Documenting Hope, has created an extraordinary resource to give parents research-backed tools to overcome almost all diagnoses. Your child is perfect and you are the perfect adult to support their wellness. W...

A parent's most important work is Self Work which is why here at the Perfect Child Podcast, we cover a lot of tools to help us meet our own traumas, tenderly care for our own inner child and learn to love ourselves so that we feel safe loving our physical child unconditionally. Holly Marie Cook is a shamanic healer. In her work, she focuses on inner child work, past-lives, entity extraction, soul...

Babies are not empty vessels just waiting to be filled. They aren't a sack of potatoes that we drag around with us until they "acquire the knowledge and the skills" to communicate. Babies are actually always communicating...their bodies are communicating with us. It's US, the adults in the room, that need to acquire the skills to understand them. What a blessing to have come across Dr. Emily's wor...

The Vagus Nerve, aka "the wandering nerve" is the most important nerve in the body. It is seen as a crucial link between the mind and body as it serves as a communication pathway, transmitting signals between the brain and various organs, influencing both physical and mental well-being. And, what we will learn from Carrie is that it receives signals from the heart-center first! It plays a major pa...

Ayurveda is a centuries-old system of healing that utilizes nutrition, herbal medicine, daily practices, seasonal living, yoga, meditation and body therapies, as well as light, sound and color therapies to bring a person into their highest healthy state of being. As we learn in this interview, one can sometimes experience some beneficial unintended side effects from t...

In this special episode, I'm excited to be part of Podcasthon 2026, an initiative to showcase charities around the world through podcasting. Joining over 1200+ global podcasts each featuring our favorite charitable organization to encourage fundraising and awareness for their good work. Today, I'm with Carla Manuel of Growing Gardens to share their Youth Grow program that is currently impleme...

Sometimes, you get a winner in conventional school...David Higbee, a father of five, shares how Ashland Middle School is doing things right! No wonder Ashland Middle School's tagline is "Inspiring learning for life..." There are a myriad of ways that the school helped his children feel welcome but what stands out most is that they help each child feel seen, heard and valued. Don't we all want that...

I met Vinicius Isola, a father of a young child, in an online conference. I was intrigued by the fact that he shared that while he was going through a deprogramming from the expectations and conventional "norms" in which he was raised, it began to open up in him a curiosity as to why he expected his child to be a certain way. He also started questioning his own very authoritative way of parenting....

What is true developmental sovereignty? As a parent, it is to encourage the healthy expression of the child as he/she develops. As we learn in this interview with Jennifer Jeffcoat, founder of The Awakened Method, the key to opening up to your child's full expression is Pausing and Observing. In the course of human development, there are seven developmental layers that unfold from pre-conception i...

What a blessing to connect with Brad Korpalski of New Earth Pathways , a program that offers Rites of Passage for boys of all ages. Brad embodies a willingness to show up in unconditional love for all beings in his presence. In this luminous conversation, Brad shares his intention and dreams for New Earth Pathways and how we can continue to encourage boys to remember their brilliance and "meet the...

Shea Bodine of Rooted Resilience has been working within the tween/teen space for a long time and she shares with me what she senses is most important for the teens of our time - a sense of belonging, learning self regulation and becoming rooted in their intuition through a deep connection with their bodies. This is stuff they don't teach in schools, y'all! Shea offers one-on-one counseling/coachi...

In this conversation, Anne Underwood, a mom friend of mine, shares how knowing her children's Human Design types has really helped her to recognize the gifts in her children. And, in doing so, it also allowed her to see where cultural/societal programming and conditioning sometimes clouded her perceptions of "expectations" versus her child's natural tendencies. Knowing how her children are suppose...

In this fun conversation, Sunny Gault, a mom of four, shares how her intuition led her to want to step into self-directed learning for her two twin daughters. 2024 was their first year and they would consider it a success! As a parent, Sunny is always mindful to allow her children sovereignty over their own decisions so her two older boys have chosen to remain in conventional school. References an...

It is time...in fact, it is far past time to change the paradigm of education. In this conversation that I share with Leah McDermott, founder of Bridge Academy , she talks about how the fullness of just living life offers a rich array of experiences that enlivens the soul and offers the individual the inspiration and courage to invent and create. That is the essence of humanity. Have you ever wond...

Your child is unique and so too will be their developmental milestones. How do we tune in? In this episode, Alison Elsberry of Embodied Brilliance shares a glimpse into her new guide, "The Truth About Developmental Milestones: A New Earth Guide to Nurture Your Child’s Bodily Freedom and Brilliance". This is a guide based on honoring individualized developmental milestones versus generalized timeli...