In this episode I have a conversation with Marion Rose about her wonderful new best selling book Sound Sleep and Secure Attachment with Aware Parenting. Marion, who is a Level 2 Aware Parenting Instructor and the regional coordinator for Australia, New Zealand and Indonesia, shares so much wisdom. She shares how to bring ourselves more compassion. She describes how we can interpret what their behaviour is telling us about how they are feeling and what they are needing. Marion shares the 3 ingredients that babies and children need for restful restorative sleep without having to dissociate; to feel tired, to feel safety (through connection and closeness) and to feel relaxed (through utilising their innate mechanisms to feel, express and release painful feelings). We talk about learning to deeply trust the innate wisdom of our children and their knowing of how to relax and what they need in order to feel safe. We talk about the immense value of doing our own inner work in order to be able to support our children. Marion also shares 2 of the beautiful stories from her book of what it feels like for a baby and for a teenager to experience our loving support. I highly recommend buying Marion’s new book, available in paperback or on Kindle from Amazon. Her new course by the same name is on her website www.marionrose.net If you would like support with sleep or any other aspect of your parenting journey, I am here for you and I encourage you to get in touch by emailing me at support@awareparenting.com.au or to visit my website www.awareparenting.com.au/parenting-coaching/

Welcome to the 100th episode of the Aware Parenting Stories podcast! I am so excited to share this celebration of Aware Parenting. I invited anyone who felt called to share, to come and have a conversation about what Aware Parenting means to them and the effect practising Aware Parenting has had on their family. I am so grateful to Lucy, Sarah, Belinda, Vicki, and Vivian for taking the time to join this conversation and share some of what they love about Aware Parenting. I hope you find their stories and reflections to be inspiring and helpful. Thank you to everyone who has given up their time to come on my podcast over the last 100 episodes and to everyone who has listened and shared the podcast, and messaged me about it. And a huge thank you to Dr. Aletha Solter for her amazing work, research and expertise about humans. Thank you also to Marion Rose for the wonderful way that she has supported me and hundreds of other parents to understand and embody this beautiful approach. If you would like support on your parenting journey, I am here for you and I encourage you to get in touch support@awareparenting.com.au Or visit my website www.awareparenting.com.au/parenting-coaching/

In this episode I respond to a question from a listener who is thinking about taking her child out of school and wanting to know more about the connection between aware parenting and natural learning/homeschooling. I share some of the ways that I see aware parenting and homeschooling fitting together so well and some of the advantages that I perceive of not sending our children to school. If you want to learn more about my Aware Parenting and Natural Learning monthly online circle, please visit https://awareparenting.com.au/circles/ If you want to read my articles about homeschooling and aware parenting please visit https://awareparenting.com.au/articles/?_select_a_category=homeschoolingandnaturallearning If you want to listen to the Aware Parenting and Natural Learning podcast with Marion Rose and myself, please visit https://soundcloud.com/awp-and-nl-podcast?utm_source=clipboard&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=social_sharing To listen to other podcasts where I share about my journey with homeschooling, here’s the resources page link https://awareparenting.com.au/certified-parent-coach/resources/ Aletha Solter’s Principles of Learning can be found here http://www.awareparenting.com/learning.htm

This episode I talk about how to offer the balance of attention to our children and why this is necessary in order for them to release and heal from stress and trauma. I describe what the balance of attention is and how it works. I then offer lots of suggestions about how to give our children an embodied experience of safety and connection on the one hand, and connection to the past feelings of distress on the other in a way that then supports them to use their powerful natural recovery processes to heal. If you would like support on your parenting journey, I am here for you and I encourage you to get in touch support@awareparenting.com.au or visit my website www.awareparenting.com.au/parenting-coaching/ To read Aletha Solter’s book Healing your Traumatized Child, the link is here To read Marion Rose’s book I’m Here and I’m Listenting, the link is here

This episode is a response to a request from a listener to talk about the times when we can’t parent the way we want to, when we feel overwhelmed or in really big feelings ourselves. It is always such a pleasure to share these conversations with Danni Willow. Danni is an aware parenting instructor and has 2 children. In this conversation we talk about overwhelm in parenting. We share some of the reasons why it can feel overwhelming for us all to be practising Aware Parenting. We share how important it is to learn to offer ourselves compassion in the challenging times and to be receiving that from others too. We talking about finding ways to meet our own needs and how to support ourselves through the tough times. To learn more about Danni’s work, please visit www.thewayofthewoman.com or follow her on social media at Danni Willow. If you would like support on your parenting journey, I am here for you and I encourage you to get in touch support@awareparenting.com.au Or visit my website www.awareparenting.com.au/parenting-coaching/

In this episode I welcome Kirsty Fernandes back to the show. Kirsty joined me in episode 44. Kirsty is an Aware Parenting Instructor in New Zealand and is passionate about supporting mothers in the post-partum period and offering birth debriefing. She is the mother of 2 children and shares her work supporting mothers through her business Honouring Māmā. In this conversation we share our own experiences of trauma in giving birth. We talk about what birth trauma is and some of the ways in which the current system often results in trauma for parents. We talk about how birth trauma can affect birthing women, their partners and children and share the profoundly transformative experience of receiving support to process and heal, by sharing our stories and having all our complex, layered feelings about our births welcomed, witnessed and validated. To learn more about Kirsty’s work, including her birth debriefing, please visit https://www.honouringmama.com and follow Kirsty on Instagram and Facebook at Kirsty Fernandes Honouring Mama. If you would like support on your parenting journey, in relation to birth trauma or any other aspect of aware parenting, I am here for you and I encourage you to get in touch support@awareparenting.com.au Or visit my website www.awareparenting.com.au/parenting-coaching/

This episode dives into why children so often need to cry. I talk about many of the different challenging and stressful experiences that children face, from their time in utero all the way through childhood and share some of the painful feeling they then experience. I offer compassion and support to parents listening so that they can offer compassionate understanding and support to their children. I normalise frequent big feelings for all children and remind parents how important it is to be taking care of ourselves and finding ways to try to meet our own needs in order to be able to take care of our children. If you would like support on your parenting journey, I am here for you and I encourage you to get in touch support@awareparenting.com.au or visit my website www.awareparenting.com.au/parent-coaching/ To learn more about needs and feelings, please visit www.cnvc.com

This episode dives into how we can support our children when they suck their thumbs or fingers. Often in sessions parents express their concern and frustration about these behaviours so if this is happening in your family, you are not alone. I talk about why children suck their thumbs/fingers, how we can support ourselves and how we can support them to not need to do this anymore. To learn more about the Exploring Aware Parenting Community with Danni and Joss, please visit www.awareparenting.com.au/community To learn more about my new Aware Parenting Workshop, please visit https://awareparenting.com.au/my-courses/parenting-workshops/

In this episode I have a conversation with Lavinia Brown. Lavinia is a trauma-informed psychodynamic coach who supports mamas to become the conscious parents they want to be through healing their inner child. Through acknowledging and integrating unprocessed pain from the past, overcoming unconscious patterns and learning how to accept, love themselves and assert healthy boundaries, mamas stop feeling ashamed, anxious, guilty and angry, and can show up as the authentic parent, partner and woman that they want to be, instead of who their primary caregivers thought they should be. Lavinia lives with her partner and 3 children in the UK. In this episode Lavinia shares how she came to do this work after feeling overwhelmed and desperate as a parent herself. She explains what an inner child is and how these younger parts of us show up during the course of our day-to-day life as parents, as partners and in many of the interactions and experiences that we have. We talk about how to connect with our inner child and explore what is coming up for us, going towards the feelings and then supporting the integration of those painful experiences so we can become freer from the activations of our inner child wounding. To learn more about Lavina, please visit www.laviniabrown.com and follow her on social media at the.innerchild.healing.expert. The link to her podcast is here https://open.spotify.com/show/0NvSnxZWCG4uVTAUR4WRdc. Her partner’s work with fathers can be found here www.andrewlynn.net and https://www.instagram.com/life_coach_for_dads/ To learn more about Marion Rose’s Inner Loving Presence Process course, please visit https://innerlovingpresenceprocess.com To learn more about the Exploring Aware Parenting Community with Danni and Joss, please visit www.awareparenting.com.au/community

Episode 92 - Parenting our Children and Reparenting Ourselves by Aware Parenting Stories with Joss Goulden

This episode is in response to a question from a listener about how she can explain Aware Parenting to her parents. I talk about how important it is for us all to keep learning more, getting clearer and deepening our understanding of Aware Parenting in order to be able to explain it to others. I describe the key assumptions of Aware Parenting and outline the main aspects in a way that is easy to share with others. I talk about why it can be hard to explain this to our families and friends and how we can support ourselves when we are wanting to have these conversations with others so that it feels empowering and enjoyable. If you would like to access my free introductory course, my attachment play ebook or any of my articles or previous episodes, please visit my website www.awareparenting.com.au. If you would like more support, with this or any other aspect of aware parenting, I invite you to get in touch.

Episode 90 -Understanding & Supporting Children's Behaviour by Aware Parenting Stories with Joss Goulden

In this episode I talk with Raluca Stefan. Raluca is mom of two beautiful children, a certified Peaceful Parenting coach, an Aware Parenting instructor, and the founder of Peacefully Parenting. She helps families to find more balance, peace, and joy in their lives, running support groups for mothers, webinars, and offering 1-1 coaching for parents. She says “The first step into peaceful parenting is more compassion for our children and us. Our children can change the world if we raise them with respect, love, and compassion”. English is Raluca’s third language and yet she shares so beautifully her Aware Parenting story. In this conversation, Raluca describes how she found aware parenting and how she supported herself to be able to listen to her children’s feelings. She shares how raising our children in this way gives such profound learning for us as parents too and supports our children to have deep emotional awareness and self-connection. We talk about the power of journalling regularly to support ourselves to stay connected to our thoughts and feelings and internal world. Raluca shares how she supports her children with control patterns and with attachment play as well as bring joy, laughter and playfulness to herself. We talk of the effect of Aware Parenting on the world. If you want to learn more about Raluca, please follow her on Instagram at peacefully_parenting or visit her website www.yogalifeparenting.com

In this episode I talk with Kirsten Cobabe. Kirsten is a former therapist turned coach, teen and parent whisperer and artist, and specialises in supporting families navigate the waves of adolescence. For over two decades, she has guided parents in learning how to listen to, and talk with, their teens. She engages parents in personal reflection, embracing their evolving role, understanding the teen brain and restoring harmony in the home. In recognizing this unique stage of development, her hope is to bridge the widening gap between parents and their children, creating conscious, stronger bonds. Through compassionate guidance, intentional, sound strategies and tailored techniques, Kirsten empowers families to pilot these pivotal years with deeper awareness. Her work is not just about addressing immediate concerns, but about lighting the path to a more empowered future, ensuring that today's challenges become the foundation for tomorrow's brighter relationships. Her work aligns closely with Aware Parenting. In this conversation Kirsten and I talk about some of the stresses and challenges that our teenage children face as they are growing up. She shares how we can communicate with our teenagers in ways that support a strong, respectful relationship, whilst also guiding and modelling to them. We talk about some of the different ways parents need support and community in raising teens whilst also doing their own re-parenting work. Kirsten shares how she brings more care and joy to herself and encourages the parents she works with to do the same. We talk about how to bring more connection to our teenagers in ways that also respect their needs for privacy and individuation. We talk about cultivating trust in our families and the results of raising our teenagers in this way. If you want to learn more about Kirsten, please visit her website www.kirstencobabe.com and follow her on Instagram at kirstencobabe. If you want to know more about my Parenting Teenagers Course, please visit www.awareparenting.com.au/my-courses/aware-parenting-teenagers/

Episode 87 - Heard, Held & Honoured with Aware Parenting - Meg Rankin by Aware Parenting Stories with Joss Goulden

This episode explores death, loss and grief and how Aware Parenting can support us in the deeply painful process of grief. It is another conversation with my wonderful friend and colleague Danni Willow. Danni is an aware parenting instructor and mother to 2 girls. If you are currently experiencing grief, we are sending so much love to you and encourage you to reach out for support. In this conversation, we share some of the ways that we experience grief in our lives and some of the many intense, mixed feelings that we often experience in response. We talk about how our imprints around grief were not very supportive and we therefore often have a lot of accumulated unexpressed feelings about loss and death. We talk about the on-going, individual journey of grief and how Aware Parenting is so helpful in grief because it validates and welcomes all feelings. We share how grief can be a portal to access and release lots of other intense painful feelings. We share some of our own experiences of grief and how aware parenting helps us to support our children to process and integrate their grief. And we talk about bringing ceremony and ritual to support the on-going grieving process. Here are the resources that Danni has found helpful for her and her children on their on-going journey through grief. For kids: The invisible string and the invisible leash by Patrice Karst The Memory Tree -Britta Teckentrup Beginnings and Endings with Lifetimes in Between – Bryan Mellonie & Robert Ingpen Let’s Talk About When Someone Dies – Molly Potter & Sarah Jennings Adult books: The wild edge of sorrow by Francis Weller The grief deck by Adriene Jenik Bearing the unbearable by Joanne Cacciatore If you want to know more about Danni’s work, please visit her website https://www.thewayofthewoman.com.au and follow her on social media at Danni Willow, The Way of the Woman.

Carly Facius is mother to three beautiful children, who are her greatest teachers on this journey. She is a Registered Midwife, International Board Certified Lactation Consultant (IBCLC), Aware Parenting Instructor and hold a Master of Primary Maternity Care. For more than a decade, she has supported parents from conception throughout the childbearing journey and into parenthood. She believes that people's intuition can be their greatest asset, and is passionate about offering a space where people can feel held and deeply seen, and know that they are not alone. In this conversation, Carly shares how she discovered Aware Parenting from a place of depletion and exhaustion and understanding how crucial it is for us to be finding ways to meet our needs as parents too. We talk about supporting our children’s big feelings, in particular how to respond when they are being aggressive in a way that bring us back to compassion and connection. We talk about the importance of us getting listening and care in order to us to be able to offer aware parenting and the profound shifts we see in our children’s behaviour after we have been supported ourselves. We talk about the power of moments of intentional presence and self-connection in parenting. To learn more about Carly please visit www.seedpodfamilies.com or find her on Instagram at seed_pod_ To learn more about Marion Rose’s Inner loving presence course, the link is here https://innerlovingpresenceprocess.com

In this episode I talk with Sarah Martin. Sarah is a mother to 2 now grown up children. She has taught handcrafts at the local Steiner school, worked as a birth doula, is a Hakomi Somatic Psychotherapist, and worked as a child and family practitioner for Relationships Australia, offering parenting support and child directed play therapy for children and various support processes for teens facing life challenges. She has also developed and run Rite of Passage Camps for mothers and their teen daughters. She is now taking her birth support role to the next level as a midwifery student working towards being a home-birth midwife for our local town alongside her women's rite of passage work. In this episode we talk about our own on-going journeys with body image and how the messages and imprints we received as children have affected us as adults. We share how we have supported ourselves (and continue to do so) as we have tried to create an accepting relationship with our body. We talk about how we have tried to support our children to have different experiences about body image, in the face of immense pressures of social media and global marketing. We talk about how Aware Parenting can support our children with this and how we can encourage a deeper spiritual connection with our bodies for us and our children, full of wonder, celebration, self-acceptance and compassion. To learn more about Sarah, please visit her website www.redtempletherapy.com.au and follow her on Facebook and Instagram at Red Temple Therapy.

This episode explores what we can do when the feelings aren’t flowing for our children. This comes up so often in sessions with many clients and something that we all struggle with at times. I share some thoughts about why it is hard to truly welcome our children’s feelings, how we can support our children when their feelings and behaviour seems stuck and how we can support ourselves to shift what is there for us. I share some ideas for how we can come back to trusting the journey for ourselves and our children. If you are finding this challenging in your family, I am here to support you. If you want to connect with me please visit www.awareparenting.com.au If you would like a copy of my free Introduction to Attachment Play eBook, please email me support@awareparenting.com.au

In this episode I talk with Candice Morse. Candice started working with children and parents in 2012. She has crossed through many different rolls from face painter to art therapist. Having always been driven to inspire a deeper sense of wellbeing to the littlest members of our world, she is now a deeply loving mother of two. Since becoming a mother she has become passionate about the natural process of birth and devoted to cultivating and inspiring healthy and respectful relationships with children. In this episode Candice shares how she found Aware Parenting and how quickly she noticed big changes for her daughter and for a deeper connection to her authentic self too. She shares the stories of her births, what supported her and how she came to have a very empowering birthing experience for her second child. She shares the support in birth of aware parenting teaching her how to sit in the discomfort of big feelings and how to deeply listen in times of intensity, as well as bringing her back to connection and trust. Candice shares some of her own healing journey in motherhood and the power of aware parenting in that work. We talk about the benefit of rewind and repair and attachment play in parenting and the power of aware parenting to change the world. Here are the resources that we recommended in this conversation to support women in preparation for birth: Birthing from Within: An Extra-Ordinary Guide to Childbirth Preparation by Pam England and Rob Horowitz Face to face with Childbirth by Julia Sundin Reclaiming Childbirth as a Rite of Passage by Rachel Reed The Art of Giving Birth: With Chanting, Breathing, and Movement by Frédérick Leboyer The Orgasmic Birth Podcast by Debra Pascali Bonaro Attachment Play by Aletha Solter Playful Parenting by Lawrence Cohen If you want to connect with Candice or learn more about her, please visit tending.the.temple on Instagram. If you want to connect and get support from me, please visit www.awareparenting.com.au or follow me on social media at Aware Parenting with Joss