UnMuted Love with Ce Eshelman

Ce sits down with Melanie Zwyghuizen, parent coach, longtime educator, and creator of Gen 1 Parenting, to unravel one of the most exhausting parenting traps on earth: being the full-time referee of your children’s endless battles. Perfect parenting is not the goal, of course. Being the parent they need in the moment is. Melanie offers support for parents who want guidance, grounding, and a practic...

New Year’s advice is loud. Change everything. Fix yourself. Fix your kids. Try harder. Do more. But if you’re parenting a child from difficult beginnings, that messaging doesn’t inspire, does it? I think it overwhelms. In this episode of Unmuted Love, Ce is offering a radically different way to approach the New Year. This is not a resolution episode. Those have been done before, but not this...

In this fundamental teaching episode, Ce Eshelman, LMFT, unpacks what Terry Levy’s concept of “experiential healing” really means for parents raising children from difficult beginnings. Drawing from neuroscience, attachment theory, and real stories from families in her practice, Ce supports parents in understanding how to rewire a child’s survival brain through safety, repetition, and relationship...

In this joyful and restorative conversation, Ce sits down with somatic therapist and Life Balance founder, Layne Burkette, to talk about what happens when life moves faster than our ability to keep up—and how to gently find our way back to our safe center. Layne shares her approach to healing through Somatic Skills and demonstrates some quick and easy somatic neuro-hacks for soothing your weary pa...

In this episode, Ce chats with Sheryl Ang, therapeutic coach, bestselling co-author, and global worldschooling mother of three. If you’ve ever wondered what it looks like to ditch the traditional script, follow curiosity, and let the world itself become the classroom, Sheryl is living it. Sheryl, her husband, and her three boys travel the globe as “worldschoolers,” turning living into learning.&nb...

Ce Eshelman, LMFT, dives into the myth of “high self-esteem” and unpacks why praise alone can’t heal a child’s wounded sense of worth. For children from difficult beginnings, those who learned love was conditional or it was non-existent even, constant praise builds dependence, not resilience. Ce offers a roadmap to build genuine self-esteem through reflection, purposeful feedback, and honesty. You...

Ce interviews Susan Notis, founder of  In Balance Parent Coaching  and co-author of  The Perfectly Imperfect Family. Susan shares her integrative coaching approach to guiding family from exhaustion and chaos to connection and balance. Susan and Ce explore the differences between secure attachment and enmeshment and the importance of creating balance in your parenting life to su...

In this Episode, Ce breaks open the truth about holiday stress for parents of children from difficult beginnings--those navigating trauma, adoption, foster care, neglect, abuse, and attachment wounds. While Target and Walmart sell sparkle and matching pajamas, the reality for trauma-impacted families is sensory overload, routine disruption, meltdowns, and extended relatives offering loud (and some...

In this eye-opening episode, Ce shares what’s really happening when a trauma-impacted child’s behavior looks calculated, controlling, or manipulative. It’s not evil genius (or other automatic fears)—it’s learned survival logic. Using clear neuroscience, Ce explains how negative reinforcement wires the brain to seek relief from shame, fear, and powerlessness. You’ll learn why your child’s brain som...

In this heartfelt guest episode of Unmuted Love, Ce Eshelman, LMFT, sits down with Kristina Nation, a parent coach and mother who walked her own teen daughter through the stormy, unpredictable seas of teen depression. Kristina opens up about the fear, helplessness, and quiet courage it took to stay connected when her daughter struggled to find her way. Together, Ce and Kristina unpack what depress...

In this deeply personal and luminous conversation, Ce interviews Arleen Tyndall who opens her heart about the journey from performing perfection to embracing her humanness. From the outside, Arleen’s life looked polished and put-together, but underneath, she was carrying the weight of generations of pain, silence, and emotional disconnection. Her awakening began in Bali, where she went to explore...

In this episode, Ce Eshelman, LMFT, takes us on a heartfelt, humorous, and deeply healing journey through why play is the nervous system’s first language—and why adults need to learn it, too. Drawing on the wisdom of some of the great attachment thinkers and healers of our time--Dan Hughes, Bruce Perry, Dan Siegel, Kim Goulding, and Robyn Gobbel--Ce explores neuroscience, attachment wisdom, a...

Shame is sneaky. It hides in our nervous systems, whispers in our parenting ears, and if we’re not careful, it quietly (or not so quietly ) repeats from one generation to the next. In this episode of Unmuted Love, Ce shares some of her personal story about how shame gets passed down from our parents, through us, and into our kids from difficult beginnings—kids who are already extra-sensitive to sh...

Parenting a child from a difficult beginning is not for the faint of heart. And when the weight of blocked care, compassion fatigue, and plain old burnout slaps you down, it’s not because you’re weak or unloving—it’s because your nervous system is crispy. In this episode, Ce breaks down daily micro-moments of self-compassion—tiny pauses that keep your love alive in the middle of chaos. T...

You already know the five senses. Maybe even the sixth (proprioception) and seventh (vestibular). But what most parents never hear about until they’re tearing their hair out: the  eighth sense—interoception. In this episode, Ce takes you through   real-life examples of interoception struggles (yep, you’ll be nodding along), explains  why  kids from difficult beginnings struggle...

Does your child’s rage or rejection feel like it slices right through your chest? You’re not imagining it—it really does hurt. But often, that pain isn’t just about what’s happening in the moment. It’s an old wound—your wound—being reactivated. In this episode of  Unmuted Love , Ce unpacks the sneaky way your child’s trauma behaviors can poke at your deepest places of shame, rejection, and un...

In most cases, your child from difficult beginnings voice was silenced long before you ever met them. Their early cries for food, safety, and comfort went unanswered, wiring their nervous system to believe they were unwanted, unloved, and unimportant. Now, those silenced beginnings echo in your home—through endless chatter, meltdowns, shutdowns, or explosive behaviors—and through your ow...

In this episode, presented at the Siskiyou County Office of Education Symposium in Weed, California, Ce gives a quick, brain-based “why” behind Reactive Attachment Disorder (RAD), better described as Complex Developmental Trauma, and how it plays out in real-life classroom dynamics. Teachers will want to listen to this. Children who have experienced early trauma don’t walk into the classroom...

In this episode of Unmuted Love, Ce Eshelman, LMFT, delves into the complexities of back-to-school anxiety, offering practical neuro hacks and strategies for parents and children alike. Learn effective techniques to help your child navigate their emotions. From exposure therapy to calming mantras, Ce provides a toolkit for fostering resilience and emotional strength. Tune in to empower your parent...

Why do kids from difficult beginnings lie—sometimes all the time? Why does it feel so personal? And how can we as parents respond in ways that build connection and trust? In this episode of Unmuted Love , Ce unpacks the survival-brain reasons behind lying, shares common patterns of trauma-driven lying, and gives practical scripts to help you respond with compassion and calm—even when your child’s...

We’re picking up right where we left off last episode on Reactive Attachment Disorder—because once you’ve embraced the P.A.C.E. approach, the next step is building a family culture that can actually hold it all . In this episode, Ce gets practical about what it really takes to raise a child with a severe attachment injury: structure, supervision, belonging, and relentless compassion. You’ll learn...

Parenting a child with Reactive Attachment Disorder isn’t about trying harder—it’s about parenting differently . In this episode, Ce dives into what it truly means to be a secure base for children from very difficult beginnings. You’ll learn Dan Hughes' P.A.C.E. framework—Playfulness, Acceptance, Curiosity, Empathy—and why it’s the heart of healing. Ce will unpack how attunement, emotional connect...

So your child got a RAD diagnosis—now what? In this follow-up episode, we move beyond understanding and dive into the real-life strategies that make a difference. Ce shares practical, brain-savvy tools for parenting kids who push love away, challenge every limit, and need you most when they act like they don’t. We’ll talk about attachment-focused, brain-based behavior management, daily routines th...

When kids don’t get the consistent, nurturing care they need early in life, their ability to form healthy relationships can get wired all wrong. In this episode, we’re unpacking Reactive Attachment Disorder—what it is, what causes it, how it's diagnosed, and why early recognition can make all the difference. If you're raising a child through adoption, foster care, or trauma, this is a must-listen...

Today's episode is all about stepping out of the drama of playing various unhealthy roles inside ourselves and within our families. Ce briefly shares parts of the Karpman Drama Triangle and how replacing it with the Empowerment Triangle can save you from Victim, Persecutor, and Rescuer behaviors in your family interactions. Stop the chaos by stepping out of the drama. From Ce Eshelm...