The Reflective Parent: Parenting Strategies to Improve Communication And Build a Strong Relationship With Your Teen and Family

The apps promising to keep your kiddo safe are doing something else underneath. Life360, Bark, mSpy, Qustodio, Norton Family, the whole category of parental surveillance technology sells you peace of mind and delivers a family system built on watching instead of connecting. This is the mirror of Season 2 Episode 2, Cheater Buster. Same business model. Same false promise. This time the kiddos are t...

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There's an app called Cheater Buster. It promises to tell you whether your partner is cheating. Hundreds of thousands of people use it. This week on The Reflective Parent Podcast I want to walk through it with you. I think there is a pattern under this app and a pattern under a lot of other products like it. I want to talk about what it does to the person who installs it. And what it teaches...

Season 1 was about how to show up for your kids. Season 2 asks a harder question: what's getting in the way? This season, we slow down and look at the content, the technology, and the silence that quietly erode connection — and what it's costing our families. Not by arguing politics. By counting the cost. There's a conversation you've probably stopped having out loud. Not becau...

Alright, I'm going to be straight with you. I've been watching this unfold for almost 20 years now, and I wanted to come in gently. I wanted to be cautious. But the time for that is done. It's time to raise the alarm about what smartphones and social media are doing to our kids. In this episode,  I'm talking about screens.   Smartphones, tablets, video games, the way we can doo...

Ever found yourself in a heated exchange with your teen, feeling the tension build, your voice rising, and your body bracing for battle?  What if I told you that there’s a way to dial back, find your calm, and show up as your best self, even if the conversation starts off on the wrong foot? In this episode, we’re diving deep into what happens inside us when your teen pushes back or refuses to foll...

Struggle can be a powerful catalyst for growth. I’ve witnessed this truth not only in my own life but also in the lives of countless teens while working in wilderness therapy, residential treatment, and transitional and sober living.  However, my time in wilderness therapy was particularly eye-opening. Seeing the immense challenges these teens faced made me realize just how fortunate I’ve been in...

“After a lot of attempts and a lot of failure, I did it.” - Jason Denham In this first episode, I’m peeling back the layers of my own journey—sharing the twists, turns, and tough moments that have shaped me into the person I am today. It’s a story of change, and as I’ve learned, change is a process, and it’s slow. Why am I sharing this? Because I see a little bit of myself in every struggling kidd...

This podcast is for parents who feel exhausted trying to reconnect with their child but are feeling stuck. Nothing you do seems to be working and you’re ready to dive deep, get vulnerable, and take on a different approach. Here, on the “The Reflective Parent” podcast, we start by looking at ourselves and begin to make small shifts for change. When we better understand ourselves, we are better equi...