UnMuted Love with Ce Eshelman

For the 100th episode of UnMuted Love, Ce Eshelman, LMFT, steps back to name the conviction threaded through every conversation she's had on this show: a child's behavior is information, not an indictment. Behavior tells us what a nervous system is managing—it doesn't tell us who the child is or who they will become. Pulling from nearly four decades as an attachment specialist and her own years pa...

If you’ve ever thought, “We should have stayed home,” halfway through a celebration, Ce Eshelman made this episode of UnMuted Love just for you. She unpacks why fireworks and loud celebrations are especially hard for children with early trauma, attachment disruptions, and sensory sensitivity, and how parents can plan ahead, lower stress, and still create those life-long meaningful memories we are...

What if discipline isn't about compliance at all? In this thought-provoking conversation, Ce Eshelman sits down with parenting educator and founder of Non-Coercive, Collaborative Parenting, Vivek Patel, to explore one of the biggest questions parents face: How do you maintain boundaries, safety, and leadership without relying on control, punishment, or power struggles? Together, they unpack the di...

Neurodivergent children can be perplexing to a parent. In this episode of UnMuted Love, Ce Eshelman has a lively sit down with Mark Talaga, a neurodivergent therapist, for an enlightening conversation about parenting neurodivergent children through both lived experience and professional wisdom. Ce and Mark explore what it means to understand neurodivergent children from the inside out—not only thr...

Let’s be honest. Most of us didn’t get a real sex talk. We got silence, shame, or fierce warnings that left us more confused and worried than confident. Some of us got a single condom for our wallets as though that were all there was to navigating this adolescent developmental terrain. Now we’re raising teens in a world where everything is earlier, louder, and harder to negotiate, especially for k...

When your child is melting down, shutting down, or coming at you hard, it can feel like everything inside you wants to react, fix, or shut it down fast. Ce interviews guest Dajana Yoakley of Delight in Parenting fame to focus in on how to be the parent who does this with a steady heart. In this honest and deeply practical conversation, Dajana and Ce unpack what’s really happening during dysre...

In this episode of UnMuted Love, Ce explores with Abigail Wald of Mother Flipping Awesome about parenting strong-willed, highly sensitive, deeply reactive children—including children from difficult beginnings whose nervous systems do not respond well to traditional parenting advice. Together they really dive into what it takes to love a child who is strong willed and how to go about finding t...

“I’m so worried about my other kids. It isn’t fair that they have to live with all this chaos.”  –Mother of three children, one with trauma from early childhood trauma In families raising a child from difficult beginnings, there is often another child or children in the room quietly learning how to disappear into the background or loudly trying to figure out how to get seen. They learn to wai...

When your child from difficult beginnings turns 18, the story doesn’t suddenly resolve—it often intensifies. In this episode of UnMuted Love, Ce Eshelman gets the ball rolling on talking about one of the most disorienting transitions in therapeutic parenting: when your young adult wants independence… and space from you.  This is not traditional “empty nest” parenting. It is attachment, trauma...

In this engaging episode of Unmuted Love, Bonnie Harris—author of When Your Kids Push Your Buttons and Confident Parents, Remarkable Kids —joins Ce Eshelman for a candid, therapist-informed conversation about parenting, triggers, and what really happens when our kids bring us to our knees. Bonnie shares her personal journey as both a parent and therapist—raising one “easy” child and one deeply str...

What if one of the most powerful things we could give a child is a clear understanding of how their brain works? Too many neurodivergent kids grow up without understanding why attention is hard, why sensory overload happens, or why school sometimes feels exhausting. The pile-on is that they are often in trouble in school and at home, which leads them to think they are bad inside. Without an explan...

If your child’s reactions feel bigger, faster, and harder than expected… this episode will change how you see it. Ce explains what happens in a child’s brain when early life includes disruption, neglect, trauma, or loss—and why traditional parenting approaches often fall flat or actually make a spark a huge fire. This isn’t really about behavior at all. It’s about neurobiology. You’ll learn why yo...

In this episode of Unmuted Love , Ce sits down with peaceful parenting coach Sarah Rosensweet, founder of Reimagine Peaceful Parenting and host of The Peaceful Parenting Podcast. Sarah has spent more than a decade helping overwhelmed parents move from daily power struggles to calmer, more connected relationships with their children. Together, Ce and Sarah explore what peaceful parenting really mea...

In this validating conversation, Ce chats with neuropsychologist Dr. Gila Reckess to unpack what actually helps parents when parenting doesn’t follow the “normal” script. Together, they explore: Why parenting feels so hard (and why that makes sense)  The power of self-compassion for you and your child  How to shift from correction-heavy parenting to connection-based influence  What...

In this episode, Ce Eshelman has a “brain first” conversation with Kirstin Barchia, psychologist and parent coach in Sydney, Australia, who helps parents stay connected to teens (especially teens with trauma histories) without sliding into power struggles, panic, or “phone wars.” This is the anti-disconnection conversation parents need. If you want less combat, more connection, and a steadier way...

In this episode of UnMuted Love , Ce sits down with Mandy Jones-Fischer—Certified Theraplay® Practitioner, Trainer, and Supervisor—for a rich, grounded conversation about why play, attunement, and safe relational experiences are the missing links for so many children from difficult beginnings. Mandy brings decades of experience working almost exclusively with adoptive and foster families, along wi...

Ce meets with Katelyn Mabry, ADHD coach and mom of four neurodivergent children, to talk about what’s really happening beneath the busyness and how to parent through the side door instead of the front. Parenting a busy brain is not for the faint of heart. If you are raising a child with ADHD, especially one with early trauma or attachment ruptures, you already know: this isn’t just “high energy.”...

Your child isn’t “becoming a psychopath….” Their brain is doing exactly what injured brains do. In this episode, neuroscience researcher Dr. Jennifer Fraser, author of The Bullied Brain and The Gaslit Brain , and Ce talk about the thing parents are often too scared to say out loud: “It feels like I’m living with an abuser. What if this never changes? What if I’m raising someone dangerous to me and...

In this episode, Ce chats with Shelby Czarnick, licensed independent clinical social worker, ADHD-certified specialist, and founder of Essential Life Tools, a nature-based, multidisciplinary mental-health center serving neurodivergent families. This week, we explore: Why many neurodivergent brains carry trauma even without a single “big” traumatic event How ADHD, trauma, autism, and sensory proces...

Ce Eshelman shares her thoughts on connection, rupture, repair, and reconnection in this episode of Unmuted Love. Neuroscience is fun, but the practical is what Ce thinks brings this all together for you today. Polyvagal Theory in a nutshell. ▶️ Watch the video version here → https://youtu.be/veUTzsvmFM8 📗 Read this week's companion blog → https://www.lovemattersparenting.com/blog/ruptu...

In this episode, Ce unpacks one of the most misunderstood moments in therapeutic parenting: the full-body meltdown. Not the “typical” tantrum. Not the “they’re just being dramatic” moment. We’re talking trauma-quake, that explosion that happens when a child from difficult beginnings feels unsafe at the level of their nervous system. Ce breaks down why logic always fails, why control always backfir...

Emma Gleadhill and Ce sit down for a follow-up frank, unscripted, and unmuted conversation about becoming Hulk-like from teens’ and parents’ points of view. From dysregulation to shame to repair, these two clinicians--who are also moms--talk about their lived experience of accepting their own humanness. If you struggle with dysregulation while parenting and if your teen struggles, too, then t...

This week, Ce sits down with parent coach and emotional-health educator Emma Gleadhill to unpack one of the most misunderstood experiences in modern parenting: raising a teen who carries both complex developmental trauma and anxiety. If your teen’s anxiety shows up as anger, avoidance, refusal, perfectionism, shutdown, risky behavior, or Olympic-level control, this one’s for you. ▶️ Watch the vide...

Ce sits down with parenting coach Caroline Griswold to explore why joy and play can be so threatening for trauma-impacted children…and why reaching anyway becomes one of the most powerful healing tools we have. When you’re raising a child from difficult beginnings, play isn't always simple. Sometimes it’s chaotic. Sometimes it’s flat. Sometimes it's aggressive. Sometimes it feels like you’re reach...

In this episode of UnMuted Love , Ce Eshelman, LMFT, pulls back the curtain on one of the most confusing parenting dilemmas—especially for parents of children from difficult beginnings. What looks like entitlement on the surface is often nervous system dysregulation underneath. Through a trauma-informed, neuroscience-based lens, Ce helps parents learn how to tell the difference between entitlement...