The Special Needs Parent Podcast

Summary In this episode, Marcia Nathai-Balkissoon interviews Angela O'Brien, a professional organizer, about back-to-school organization for parents of special needs children. They discuss the stress and anxiety that can come with the new school year and offer tips for managing it. Angela emphasizes the importance of approaching the new school year with a sense of wonder and excitement, rather tha...

In this episode, Dr. Marcia Nathai-Balkissoon interviews Tonya Wollum, a special needs parent and IEP Coach with extensive experience. They discuss the challenges and preparations involved when children with special needs transition to university. They also touch on topics such as guardianship, trust funds, and the importance of self-advocacy. In this conversation, Marcia and Tonya discuss the cha...

This episode continues our dive into perspectives about disability pride. Join us as we discuss what the varied experiences of our guests - from their observations of children's experiences, challenges, and motivators - led them to realise about living with disabilities, and promoting advocacy, personal pride, and professional pride in young persons with disabilities. Also, don't miss out on heari...

Join us to explore what disability pride means to parents who not only have children with disabilities, but have disabilities themselves. Three guests speak with me on the panel for this episode, sharing their thoughts and experiences about disability identity, navigating neurodivergence, breaking generational cycles, creating safe spaces for their children and themselves as parents, advocacy, and...

So often you know you want to add something - equipment, or space, or an experience, or a new learning, or even a rest - into your life or your family’s life and you’re overwhelmed by the realisation that there are a million reasons you can never fit it in. I get it, and I hope this episode brings validation for you and also helps with some bolstering or ideas that might support you. I’d love to s...

Sometimes life just feels like it’s crushing you or leaving you behind and you can’t find the extra will to keep going, trying, fighting, loving, hoping, believing. If that’s where you are, then this episode is just for you. You deserve to know that you are valuable and you matter. You matter, even if you feel isolated or uncared for right now, even if you’re beating yourself up (on top of everyth...

Kristina Mand-Lakhiani believes life is too important to be taken seriously and makes sure to bring fun into every one of her roles: as a teacher, mother, entrepreneur, philanthropist, and world traveller. Kristina helps her students to virtually hack happiness by taking them through her unique framework - “Hacking happiness” - a unique framework of balancing your life, taking in every moment, and...

**Explicit Episode - Some Adult content is included in this episode. Check out the Q&A for this episode. We can't wait to hear your answers! This episode is focused on giving you insights and tools to boost your intimacy with your romantic partner. It's the final episode in a 3-episode series I've been privileged to do with Kim Coffin, a certified Trauma-Informed, Somatic (body-bas...

**Explicit Episode - Some Adult content is included in this episode. Check out the Q&A and Poll for this episode. We can't wait to hear your answers! If you are one of the many women who are ready to enhance their intimacy, for their own sake, and to boost the quality of relationship that they have, then you'll want to tune in to this episode. Kim Coffin, a certified Trauma-Informed, S...

One of the first things to feel the fallout when you are racing around and handling a lot in your life, or you are facing big life overwhelm, is your relationships become impoverished. For most of us, though, it is the relationship with ourselves that suffers the most and that causes follow-on challenges in every other area of our lives. And guess what: we often don't even see that as a proble...

When was the last time you paused and looked at the way you’ve been living? In today’s episode, I prompt you to do just that by presenting some questions and reflections about all that you may focused on - plus what you may be ignoring - and how that could be limiting the quality of life you’ve been living. I urge you to take half an hour to tune in and to look honestly at your own situation and y...

Dre is the name he goes by, and his approach to life is a joy to take a look at in this episode. Dre has a physical disability that requires his use of a wheelchair, but when you speak with him, you forget about any disability, because of his powerful presence. As a child he insisted on walking despite his challenges for many years, before eventually allowing himself to lean into using a wheelchai...

In this video episode, I chat with Irene Martinez about how to take the complex world of baby development and simplify what we consider by focusing first on 3 areas. These areas, says Irene, tell us about foundational aspects of our baby's development. Better still, while the 3 areas are ideally to be focused on from as early in baby's life as possible (Irene recommends starting to build t...

Irene Martinez has had an unending string of labels and nicknames, including "Baby Whisperer", Neuro-Development Expert", "Sensory Integration Specialist", "Occupational Therapist", and "Feeding Guru". However, in her Early Intervention training, coaching and speaking, she prides herself on her ability to help parents free themselves of labels handed to them about their children. She says that thi...

Sensory overload can make haircutting a stressful time for child and parent alike. Joanna Cetaj used to be a hairdresser who not only attended to haircuts for special needs children, but found it natural to help them feel so safe, they would relax and initiate communication and other interaction with her. She has been recently diagnosed with special needs of her own, and she also is the parent of...

Many a special needs parent has concerns about whether they are doing right by the siblings of their special needs children. So many, including me, have had questions like: Have I left them to manage too much on their own? How can I provide what they need and want more reliably? I worry about their well-being. What do I need to see or know that I don’t right now? What aren’t they sharing with me t...

Perhaps you live a life that stacks more demands before you get done with the challenge you’re already all-in on. Perhaps you’re the kind of person who goes all-in on everything you do. Whatever your particular circumstance, it’s likely that you’re always racing - physically, mentally, and/or emotionally to tie up what’s currently on your plate and move straight into the next thing, and the next,...

I messed up. For the first time, I didn’t put out a podcast episode on Thursday. A lot of self-judgement flared up for me because I FAILED to meet the standard I have met for over 60 episodes. But the lesson lay in my failure. And that’s what I am sharing with you. So this is my short (and late) episode with a big message and a few embarrassing sounds that I decided to leave in as I share this com...

How does a child - severely brain-injured, bedridden, and non-verbal since she was 8 months old - teach someone? Certainly not in the usual ways. But my daughter, Emma, has taught me powerfully, and in marking her 11th birthday, I have decided to share some of the best lessons I’ve learned. In this episode, I reflect on things she has patiently taught me, simply by being herself, in a little over...

Did you know, Women, that tuning in to your menstrual cycle can attune you to fluctuations in not only your mood or emotions, but also the way your creativity, work competencies, and even inspiration may fluctuate during the course of your cycle? This is just the start of what Dinara Mukh shares in this interview. Tune in to learn about how we can better support our children who have menstrual cyc...

When you have a choice between traditional face-to-face and online speech therapy, what are some considerations to keep in mind? And what are some approaches almost any parent can practice, right at home, to encourage speech or more vocalisation from their child? Lenora Edwards, a speech therapist with many years of experience in multiple settings, answers these questions and more, in this podcast...

As a mom of 8 now-adult boys, one of whom was adopted and has a Foetal Alcohol Syndrome diagnosis, Tess Scott is well qualified to bring guidance on navigating great challenges with gumption, humour, and hope. Tess also describes herself as a spunky “Grami with a heart above the i” to a whole slew of adorable grandkids. Using both humour and vulnerability, Tess shares her life as a Christian speak...

In a life that is so full of demands and harsh judgments from others and from yourself, how do you calm yourself and connect to joy as a self-supporting start to the day? Join our special guest, Jenny Lee to understand her transformation of mind, heart, and lived practice. Jenny Lee is a life coach who focuses on building resilience in women by creating joyful morning routines. So many women wear...

People often make triggering statements about special needs-related matters. In this episode, the show’s host reads or recounts some such statements made personally to her, passed on to her by others, or found through online research. Tune in as she shares what she feels, believes, has read, and/or has experienced, about each statement in turn. After you listen, we want you to help widen our persp...

How challenging it is to plan for our child's future, given that it is difficult to predict how life will unfold for them and for you. Attorney, Special Needs Parent, and Advocate, Annette Hines, shares that planning is the way to reduce how out-of-control life becomes. In this first episode of a series of episodes she will do in the podcast, she leans on her 20+ years helping her clients to plan...