Reflective Parenting Podcast

Send us Fan Mail As parents, we often step in to help our children because we love them and want to make life easier for them. However, when we constantly solve their problems, prevent frustration, or take over tasks they could learn to manage, we may unintentionally limit their opportunities to develop emotional regulation, resilience, problem-solving skills, and confidence. In this episode, I ex...

Send us Fan Mail I'm joined by occupational therapist and author Laura Petix to celebrate the launch of her new book, The Sensory Code . Laura shares the moment she took her own daughter to the ER because of daily meltdowns, and how that experience shaped her work with parents. In this episode, we talk about: The difference between a tantrum and a meltdown, and why length and recovery time ma...

Send us Fan Mail As parents, many of us want our children to do well in school, but what if one of the most important skills they need is not memorizing information, but learning how to question it? In this episode, you and I reflect on what it means to raise critical thinkers in a world filled with headlines, social media experts, AI-generated information, and endless opinions. Together, we explo...

Send us Fan Mail I'm back with part two of the conversation sparked by my episode with Georgiana but this time digging into one of the most misunderstood words in parenting: discipline. Pulling from Dan Siegel and Tina Payne Bryson's No-Drama Discipline , I challenge how most of us were taught to think about the word — punishment, stopping a behavior that's annoying us — versus what...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode, I sit down with Georgianna Karamitos — a lawyer, educator, trauma-informed conflict resolution practitioner, and children's book author — to unpack the real difference between discipline and punishment. We dig into why repeating yourself doesn't work until a child feels heard, how power struggles hijack parent-child relationships, why "relational sa...

Send us Fan Mail Hi Reflective Parents, Ever feel stuck arguing about the same thing over and over with your partner? In this episode, I break down a key concept from the Gottmans' book Fight Right : that perpetual conflict often hides a deeper "dream" underneath it, and naming that dream can turn conflict into a chance for real intimacy.  I also reflect on what this means for paren...

Send us Fan Mail Hi Reflective Parents! As we jump into a new school year, I wanted to take some time to pause with you and reflect on how we can make this year feel a little less stressful and a lot more connected. This episode was inspired by a question from a mom that emailed me and I'm bringing in some unexpected inspiration — including a quote from a romance novel (Yours Truly) that  cha...

Send us Fan Mail Hi Reflective Parents,  In today's episode, I share my honest thoughts about mental health care and honestly, they are not that positive.  It's been feeling a little heavy these days with the Lindsay Clancy trial, a father that reached out who is struggle with depression and my own mental health from not having been in our home since January.  I share my thought and as a...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode, I reflect on what it really means to teach children how to handle conflict. Drawing from my own experience coaching my seven- and nine-year-old sons through months of sibling conflict, I share practical ways to help children slow down, communicate their needs, listen to one another, and take responsibility for their part. Here are the 3 reflections you can discuss...

Send us Fan Mail What if conflict isn't something we need to avoid—but something we need to learn how to do? In this episode, I reflect on Brené Brown's idea of “rumbling” from Dare to Lead and what it can teach us about conflict at home. Instead of trying to win an argument, what if the goal was to unravel —to get curious, understand each other's perspectives, own our part, and wor...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode, I reflect on Brené Brown’s Dare to Lead and what it means to bring the principles of daring leadership into parenting. I explore how courage, vulnerability, self-awareness, and connection show up in our homes and in the way we lead our children. In this episode we reflect on: What it means to be a leader for our children and how parenting and leadership work overl...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode, I reflect on In Order to Live by Yeonmi Park and the deep questions it raised for me about freedom, identity, resilience, and what it means to think for ourselves. The book prompted powerful reflections on how we understand our own stories, how we support our children’s sense of self, and how freedom can feel both expansive and exhausting. I also connect the book’...

Send us Fan Mail This week, I'm sharing six simple mantras from the book How to Love that made me stop, reflect, and think differently about the way I show up as a parent, partner, and person. Together, we'll explore what it really means to be present, to recognize when someone we love is struggling, to ask for help when we're suffering, to notice the happy moments that are easy to...

Send us Fan Mail What does Toy Story 5 have to do with raising emotionally healthy kids?  Trigger warning: masturbation is mentioned in this episode.  Much more than I expected. After watching the movie with my children, I found myself reflecting on something far bigger than screen time: the conversations we're not having about friendship, group chats, and cyberbullying.  In this episode, I s...

Send us Fan Mail Why do so many parents feel like they don't have time to take care of themselves? The answer isn't as simple as being busy. This week, we're reflecting on a passage from the book How to Love by Thich Nhat Hanh and exploring why our own needs slowly disappear after becoming parents. I'll also share a simple reflection exercise that helped me reconnect with the t...

Send us Fan Mail When we hear the word radicalization , we often think, "That could never happen to my family." But what if radicalization begins with something much more human—a need to belong, to feel understood, or to make sense of emotional pain? In this episode, I sit down with men's coach and former counterterrorism professional James Stamatelos to explore why some young peopl...

Send us Fan Mail How do you allow yourself to feel, experience and move past unpleasant emotions?  In this episode, I share how unpleasant emotions like worry, sadness, or even boredom can lead to some behaviours we might want to be more aware of.  If you notice that you often get stuck in unpleasant emotions or that your anger or frustration leads to harder moments with loved ones, then this epis...

Send us Fan Mail This was a hard episode for me to record but I needed to honour my grandmother who passed away yesterday.  Today's reflections are:  Does my child feel loved and respected by me? Does my child feel like they belong? Do I help my child build their confidence by letting them fail or giving them opportunities to prove to themselves that they can do it  I hope you enjoy this epis...

Send us Fan Mail This week, we are reflecting on our self-love. This week's reflections are: How do I nourish my happiness? Do I see my body and mind as my home? How do you feed your mind and body? As parents I think we need to remember to pause, reflect, and reconnect with what truly nourishes us. This reminds us that we matter and that we do love ourselves. These reflections are inspired by...

Send us Fan Mail I'm Back!  After five months away from the microphone, I'm finally back. If you've been wondering where I've been, thank you for checking in. Your emails, messages, and support meant more to me than you know. I explain what happened in this episode and share how this time away also gave me space to reflect. In also share what I've been learning about capac...

Send us Fan Mail Family dynamics can feel especially intense around the holidays and one of the most challenging patterns many parents face is the triangle between you, your partner, and your mother-in-law . In today’s episode, Dr. Tracy Dalgleish returns to the podcast to help us make sense of this dynamic with compassion, clarity, and evidence-based tools. In this conversation, I sit down with D...

Send us Fan Mail If you’ve ever ended a night thinking, “Why did I snap again?” — this episode is for you. Today, we’re diving into what’s really happening in your brain and body when your child pushes your buttons. Because those intense reactions? They aren’t proof that you’re a bad parent. They’re signals from a nervous system in overdrive — and once you can recognize those signals, you can chan...

Send us Fan Mail Hi Reflective Parents! This week, we are talking about something I keep hearing from parents which is snapping at our kids even when we are working on ourselves by learning about parenting or even going to therapy.  You are not failing your child. You are still learning many skills that lead to you becoming more aware of your own state before you snap. In this episode, I walk you...

Send us Fan Mail If you keep snapping, shutting down, or feeling guilty, even though you “know” what to do... this episode will finally make it make sense. After speaking with more than 200 parents, I’ve noticed the same pattern: We are drowning in parenting advice, but no one is teaching parents the one skill that actually changes everything, how your nervous system works. In this episode, I talk...

Send us Fan Mail Today on the Reflective Parenting Podcast, I’m sitting down with Dr. Brendan Kwiatkowski-Hartman to talk about something many parents quietly wonder about: Why do boys sometimes pull away emotionally and how can we support them without pushing too hard? Brendan is a researcher who has spent years studying boys, masculinity, and emotional expression. What he learned in his PhD work...