Beautifully Complex
Penny Williams
Join parenting coach and mom-in-the-trenches, Penny Williams, as she helps parents, caregivers, and educators harness the realization that we are all beautifully complex and marvelously imperfect. Each week she delivers insights and actionable strategies on parenting and educating neurodivergent kids — those with ADHD, autism, anxiety, learning disabilities... Her approach to decoding behavior while honoring neurodiversity, and parenting the individual child you have will provide you with the tools to help you understand and transform behavior, reduce your own stress, increase parenting confidence, and create the joyful family life you crave. Penny has helped thousands of families worldwide to help their kids feel good so they can do good.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/beautifully-complex--6137613/support.
Episodes
Mentioned books
Dec 8, 2022 • 30min
199: Internal Self-Care, with Sarah Sanders, MA, MFT
There’s a cultural misconception that self-care is treating yourself to something, like a spa day or a weekend away with friends. While that is a type of self-care, it doesn’t sustain you through the day-to-day like internal self-care does, managing our stress, our mindset, and our thoughts and emotions. Don’t discount internal self-care as “fluff” — I can personally attest that it’s life-changing, as can my guest for this episode, licensed psychotherapist, Sarah Sanders, MFT. Sarah outlines the three main areas of internal self-care and teaches us how to go about internal self-care and why it matters so much. Making internal self-care a priority is a key ingredient to being the parent you want to be.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/beautifully-complex--6137613/support.
Dec 1, 2022 • 33min
198: Setting Learning Priorities for Your Child, with Beth Liesenfeld
It can be difficult to secure accommodations and services for your child at school. It requires that many people agree on a shared vision and how to make that student’s vision for their education a reality through necessary support. Getting everyone on the same page is key, along with focusing on a few priorities in the here and now. In this episode of Beautifully Complex, I’m joined by Beth Liesenfeld of The IEP Lab. Beth shares her 3-part process to setting priorities for your child around school/education. She walks us through taking those priorities and creating a vision statement to share with your child’s school team to help everyone collaborate for a common goal.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/beautifully-complex--6137613/support.
Nov 17, 2022 • 27min
197: Breaking Free from Reactive Parenting, with Laura Linn Knight
Did you know that we are reactive by nature? That’s right! Our brains are wired to respond in kind for protection. But responding in kind — like yelling at your child after they yelled at you — is rarely needed in today’s modern world. And it’s never helpful, which is why we need to reduce our reactivity with our kids and parent from a place of calm intention. My guest on this episode of the Beautifully Complex podcast is parenting and mental health educator, Laura Linn Knight. Laura shares her insights and strategies on reacting less, addressing behavior and struggle with intention a lot more, and giving ourselves grace and amending our own behavior when we make mistakes. The calmer you are, the more power you actually have.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/beautifully-complex--6137613/support.
Nov 10, 2022 • 22min
196 Anxiety & Depression in Children, with Gregory Jantz, Ph.D.
Recent data shows us that anxiety and depression have spiked tremendously in kids since the pandemic. Kids are struggling more than ever and they need our help (adults too, by the way). But what does that help look like? In this episode of the Beautifully Complex podcast, psychologist and author of several books on anxiety and depression, Dr. Gregory Jantz explains the signs of anxiety and depression in children, what we can do as parents and educators to help them, and when and how to seek professional help.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/beautifully-complex--6137613/support.
Nov 3, 2022 • 31min
195: Supporting vs. Enabling with The Behavior Revolution,
The difference between supporting a child and enabling a child is often a very fine line when you’re talking about neurodivergent kids, who need extra support. Plus, busy, overwhelmed parents often default to enabling because it’s just easier to do it yourself a lot of the time and you’re on auto-pilot in survival mode yourself. So how do you parent more intentionally and as a supporter? In this episode of the Beautifully Complex Podcast, Sarah Wayland, Ph.D. and I discuss the difference between supporting and enabling, when enabling is ok, how to be intentional about defaulting to supporting, and the consequences of enabling too much.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/beautifully-complex--6137613/support.
Oct 27, 2022 • 29min
194: Helping Your Child Discover Their Greatness, with Cathy Domoney
I truly believe that we all have greatness within us. Each and every one of us. My guest for this episode, Cathay Domoney, believes this wholeheartedly as well, and it’s one of the core tenets of her work with children and families. Listen in as Cathy shares her process to help kids discover their own individual greatness. We talk about the mindset and “pure filter of love and curiosity” required to truly allow our kids to discover their authentic selves and shine, which starts by stripping away the expectations of culture and others. You’ll learn how to build a relationship with your child that provides sacred space for exploration (and mistakes) so they can discover themselves… and their greatness.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/beautifully-complex--6137613/support.
Oct 20, 2022 • 32min
193: Keeping Your Child Safe Online with Titania Jordan
Parenting is hard. Parenting kids in this generation is even harder. Our kids today have a lot more potential pitfalls — and risks — to navigate with the internet and social media. And we parents have that whole additional world of risk to help our kids navigate. It’s vast, it’s tricky, and it’s scary. In this episode of the Beautifully Complex podcast, I’m talking with Titania Jordan with Bark Technologies. Listen in to learn all the dangers our kids face online as well as important conversations to have with your kids about these risks and tools and strategies to keep them safe. This is a very difficult but important topic and a must-listen for all parents.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/beautifully-complex--6137613/support.
Oct 13, 2022 • 34min
192: Are You Applying Too Much Pressure? With Penny Williams
Are you pressuring your child? You may not realize when you’re adding pressure, but you are very likely doing it often and not recognizing it. Neurodivergent kids don’t do well under pressure. It’s dysregulating and actually makes them less capable of actually doing the thing you’re pressuring them to do. In this episode of the Beautifully Complex podcast, I outline how we pressure our kids, what the pressure does to them and why we should stop, and what to do instead.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/beautifully-complex--6137613/support.
Oct 6, 2022 • 57min
191: Discovering How Your Child Thinks and Feels, with Dawn K. Brown, MD
When you don’t have ADHD yourself, it’s really how to know how your child with ADHD thinks and feels. Even if you do have ADHD too, the experience is different for each individual with ADHD, meaning it’s different for your child than it was and is for you. Yet, it’s important for parents to know what life is like for your kids so we can help them thrive. In this episode of the Parenting ADHD Podcast, I’m talking with Dr. Dawn Brown of the ADHD wellness center about how to discover how your child thinks and feels. We cover a variety of perspectives and topics including development, intense feelings and big emotions, sensitivity and rejection sensitive dysphoria, dysregulation, meeting your child where they are, and more… Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/beautifully-complex--6137613/support.
Sep 29, 2022 • 21min
190: Calming Techniques for Kids (and Parents)
If there’s one tool we all need for life in this world — kids and parents — it’s calming techniques. In this episode of the Parenting ADHD Podcast I explain the role of the vagus nerve and our autonomic nervous system in getting us activated and feeling unsafe, and then list more than 20 tools and techniques to use for calming yourself or your child, by stimulating the vagus nerve to calm the nervous system. Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/beautifully-complex--6137613/support.
