Aware Parenting Stories with Joss Goulden

In this episode of the podcast I have the pleasure of speaking with Lainie Liberti. Lainie is a mother to her 24 year old son, Miro. She is an author, international speaker, alternative education advocate and spearhead of the World Schooling Movement. She is the founder of the Teen Mentoring Program, a TEDx speaker and the author of “Seen, Heard and Understood – Parenting and Partnership with Teens for Greater Mental Health”. Please note that this episode is not a conversation about aware parenting, but rather Lainie’s approach of partnership parenting. In this episode Lainie shares her extraordinary story of conscious partnership parenting and supporting her child’s learning outside of school through adventure and exploration. We discuss what it means to raise children with consciousness and in partnership. She shares how she designed with Miro an intentional family culture. We talk about how we can do our own healing work in parenting. She shares what their world-schooled, self-directed education was like and how they created community for their family. Please note this episode is not specifically about Aware Parenting. To learn more about Lainie’s work, please visit www.partnershipparent.com, www.projectworldschool.com, www.weareworldschoolers.org, www.worldschoolfamilysummit.com. Her book is available here1. If you would like to learn more from me please use this link to sign up for my mailing list https://awareparenting.us14.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=b0f3fda38d97c32be4d00a4aa&id=0c0521fedd

In this episode I have the pleasure of talking with Genevieve Simperingham. Genevieve is a psychosynthesis counsellor, the founder of the Peaceful Parent Institute, a Parenting Educator, writer and was an Aware Parenting Instructor for 14 years. She regularly contributes articles to publications and is a feature contributor to the Natural Parent Magazine. She offers workshops and courses in parenting, relationships, self-healing, meditation and personal development. In this episode, we talk about how she discovered Aware Parenting and the dual process of our continued healing journey and the journey of supporting our children to heal, with connection and compassion for us all. She describes in detail how we can bring the tools of Aware Parenting to repair with our children. We discuss listening to feelings, both with young children and our adult children and we describe the impact of raising our children this way on who they become as adults. If you would like to learn more about Genevieve, her website is www.peacefulparent.com or follow her on Instagram at Peaceful Parent Institute or Facebook at The way of the peaceful parent. If you would like to learn more from me please use this link to sign up for my mailing list https://awareparenting.us14.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=b0f3fda38d97c32be4d00a4aa&id=0c0521fedd or visit my website www.awareparenting.com.au and follow me on social media at Aware Parenting with Joss.

In this episode I have the pleasure of talking with Kirsty Fernandes. Kirsty is mother to 2 children and is an Aware Parenting Instructor from New Zealand. She is passionate about supporting mothers in the post-partum period and is a certified Sacred Mother Roaster, and a certified Sacred Pregnancy Instructor. Her business to support mothers is Honouring Māmā. In this conversation, Kirsty shares how she found Aware Parenting how she learnt to listen to feelings and build capacity to hold space. We talk about the opportunities that parenting brings for our own healing. She shares how she has developed a deep trust for the process and timing of her healing and her children’s healing too. We discuss the power of attachment play and the challenges of practising Aware Parenting. If you would like to learn more about Kirsty, please follow her on social media at Kirsty Fernandes Honouring Mama or visit her website www.honouringmama.com. If you would like to learn more from me please use this link to sign up for my mailing list https://awareparenting.us14.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=b0f3fda38d97c32be4d00a4aa&id=0c0521fedd or visit my website www.awareparenting.com.au and follow me on social media at Aware Parenting with Joss.

This episode is part 3 of a series of conversations that I am sharing with my wonderful friend and colleague Danni Willow. In this episode we continue our conversation that connects the theory to the practice. We talk about responding to painful feelings. We share the 3 responses that our children (and ourselves) can have when we have painful feelings – expression, repression and aggression. We also share the 3 things that we can focus on to support our children when they are upset. We give lots of examples of how we have done this to support our children’s healing and to support ourselves when we have big feelings too. If you would like to learn more about Danni, please follow her on social media at Danni Willow or visit her website www.thewayofthewoman.com.au. If you would like to learn. More from me please use this link to sign up for my mailing list https://awareparenting.us14.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=b0f3fda38d97c32be4d00a4aa&id=0c0521fedd or visit my website www.awareparenting.com.au and follow me on social media at Aware Parenting with Joss.

This episode is part 2 of a series of conversations that I will be sharing with my wonderful friend and colleague Danni Willow. In this episode we talk about connecting the theory of Aware Parenting to the practice. We discuss the 3 core aspects of Aware Parenting, the 3 things that are always underneath challenging behaviour. We also discuss the 3 main central nervous system states that our children (and ourselves) go into and how to support them back to balance. We talk about the uniqueness of each child and how aware parenting theory can be applied in practice for the individual needs of each child, and for us as adults too. If you would like to learn more about Danni, please follow her on social media at Danni Willow or visit her website www.thewayofthewoman.com.au. If you would like to learn more from me please use this link to sign up for my mailing list https://awareparenting.us14.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=b0f3fda38d97c32be4d00a4aa&id=0c0521fedd or visit my website www.awareparenting.com.au and follow me on social media at Aware Parenting with Joss.

This episode is part 1 of an exciting new series of conversations that I will be sharing with my wonderful friend and colleague Danni Willow. We co-run the Exploring Aware Parenting Community and work closely together in many spaces about Aware Parenting and felt called to share some of our many beautiful conversations about this paradigm, that we are both so passionate about. Danni is an Aware Parenting Instructor and mother to 2 gorgeous girls aged 6 and 4. She has been on the podcast before sharing her wisdom in episodes 5, 14 and 31. In this episode we talk about our backgrounds and lives before Aware Parenting and how these experiences have informed our understanding and practice of this approach. We describe the contrast between our early years and the early years of our children and some of the ways that we see the powerful impact on them of Aware Parenting them and re-parenting ourselves. We share honestly about some of the struggles from our past and how that shaped us in ways that were really challenging, both at the time and to unpack and heal from as adults. We talk about how grateful we are to Aletha Solter and to Marion Rose for this work and the impact it has on our children, on us and on the wider culture. If you would like to learn more about Danni, please follow her on social media at Danni Willow or visit her website www.thewayofthewoman.com.au. If you would like to learn. More from me please use this link to sign up for my mailing list https://awareparenting.us14.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=b0f3fda38d97c32be4d00a4aa&id=0c0521fedd or visit my website www.awareparenting.com.au and follow me on social media at Aware Parenting with Joss.

Welcome back to another episode. This podcast episode is in response to a request from a client and listener to share more about learning to speak the language of compassion. This often comes up in sessions with clients and is something that I also really struggled with when I started Aware Parenting. In this episode I talk about what compassion is and share the 5 levels of compassion that are described by Gabor Maté in his recent book The Myth of Normal. I give detailed suggestions about how we learn to offer ourselves and our children compassion. I talk about the impact on our children and ourselves of receiving compassion and how this then impacts the whole world. I really want to acknowledge the impact of the work of both Marion Rose and Gabor Maté and how so much of what I understand about compassion has been shaped by their powerful work. Marion Rose’s courses are available here https://marionrose.net/marion-method-courses/ and her book, co-written with Lael Stone, is available here https://www.booktopia.com.au/raising-resilient-and-compassionate-children-marion-rose/book/9780645551532.html. The Myth of Normal is available here https://www.booktopia.com.au/the-myth-of-normal-gabor-mat-/book/9781785042720.html. If you would like to learn more, please use this link to sign up for my mailing list https://awareparenting.us14.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=b0f3fda38d97c32be4d00a4aa&id=0c0521fedd . I also have articles on my website to explore this more. If you would like further support to bring more compassion to your family, I am here. Sending love and compassion to you all.

Welcome back to another episode. In this podcast episode, I talk all about Control Patterns. I describe what control patterns are and how we use these mechanisms to supress feelings in order to stay safe. I talk about some of the many things we can use as control patterns and how to distinguish between when our behaviour or our children’s behaviour is being used to dissociate and when it is simply meeting a need. I offer lots of compassion about control patterns and describe in detail how to support our children and ourselves when engaging in control patterns in a way that feels loving and gentle and is effective. I offer reflections that we can explore about this topic to get more clarity and compassion for us all. If you would like more information, I have an article on my website about this topic https://awareparenting.com.au/2022/07/09/control-patterns-and-aware-parenting/ If you would like further support about this topic, I am here. Sending love to you all.

In this episode of the podcast, I have the pleasure of talking with Vicki Plomer. Vicki is the mother to three boys and a step daughter, aged 16, 12 and 4 and 27. She came to aware parenting in 2020. She is a trained dancer, dance teacher and choreographer. She has completed level 3 training in person-centred counselling and is an aware parenting instructor. Vicki describes how she came to Aware Parenting when her children were 13, 9 and 1 and how she has learnt to trust the timing of when she discovered this approach. She shares how powerful it has been to bring true listening to her family and how she supports her children to release the backlog of accumulated feelings from not being parented this way earlier in their life. She shares what she loves about attachment play and how she uses it in her family for connection and healing. She shares the opportunities that Aware Parenting has provided for her to do her own healing. She shares what she has found challenging and how she has navigated that, bringing more self-care, compassion, trust and choice and agency to everyone in her family. To learn more about Vicki, please visit www.vickiplomer.com and follow her on social media at Vicki Plomer Aware Parenting.

In this episode of the podcast, I talk about Empathy Buddies. Aletha Solter, the founder of Aware Parenting recommends listening and support for parents in her books and I share the why and the how of this type of support. I discuss the 3 reasons for difficult behaviour in our parenting and how having an empathy buddy supports us to work through our thoughts and our feelings and to identify our unmet needs. I talk about how receiving and sharing compassionate listening with our EB increases our capacity to offer compassionate listening and play to our children and to practise all the other aspects of Aware Parenting. I share how to find an EB from the Aware Parenting community so there are shared and aligned values and understanding between you. I share the powerful value of having emergency EB’s to reach out to on the days in parenting that we all experience at times when things feel horrible, to get us back on track. I share the power of modelling this to our children so they grow up to be adults who normalise feelings and reach out for support when they need it. I share how to set up an EB partnership, the different types of EB’s, how to share and how to listen, so it is easier for us all to be the parent that we want to be. To learn more or to set up an EB please visit this group, set up by aware parenting instructor Carolina Valenica Coleman https://www.facebook.com/groups/2562318203992646/