Aware Parenting Stories with Joss Goulden

Welcome back to another episode and the next instalment in my series on embracing our imperfection in Aware Parenting, in conversation this time with Rebecca Sheikh who is a level 2 Aware Parenting Instructor and the regional coordinator for the UK, Ireland and Sub-Saharan Africa. In this episode we talk about how parenting invites us to tend to the hurt places within us from our childhoods and how adversity in childhood shapes who we are. We talk about how normal it is for parents to need support and Rebecca shares some of the ways that she has found most effective in her own healing. She shares some resources and processes for parents to support themselves in parenting and her own journey of learning to embrace imperfection. She ends with a poem that she finds particularly touching called Everything is Beautiful by Mark Nepo. To learn more about Rebecca and her offerings please visit www.flourishingchildhood.com/ To get support with this or any other aspect of aware parenting, I invite you to get in touch support@awareparenting.com.au

Welcome back to another episode and the next instalment in my series on embracing our imperfection in Aware Parenting, in conversation this time with Katie Fusco who is an Aware Parenting Instructor and a specialist perinatal and infant mental health practitioner in the UK. In this episode Katie shares with beautiful vulnerability her journey with embracing imperfection following a profoundly difficult and traumatic birth and post-partum period. She shares how she has moved from an internal dialogue that was scathing and excrutiatingly harsh, full of guilt and self-judgment, to an inner voice of compassion and care. We talk about the devastating impact of the rewards and praise she experienced in the education system in setting up perfectionistic pressure on herself. We talk about the huge benefit of finding support to be in the discomfort of our deeply painful but sacred feelings in order to be able to embrace our imperfection and re-find compassion for ourselves. Katie shares some of the hardest moments in her parenting and how she has found compassion and acceptance of herself. To learn more about Katie, she will be sharing on Instragram at thecryingclinic. To learn more about the Exploring Motherhood & Aware Parenting Community with Danni Willow and myself, please visit https://awareparenting.com.au/community-sign-up/ To get support with this or any other aspect of aware parenting, I invite you to get in touch support@awareparenting.com.au

In this episode, Danni Willow joins me for a beautiful conversation about trust in parenting. We talk about how trust is such a central aspect of Aware Parenting and why it is hard for many of us to trust. We discuss what we need in order to cultivate trust and share the effect on our children and who they grow up to be of us getting support to be more trusting of them and of ourselves. We share the importance of connection and community with others in order to be able to come back to trusting the unfolding of our motherhood journey. If you want to learn more about the Exploring Motherhood and Aware Parenting Community, where we explore this in depth, please visit https://awareparenting.com.au/parenting-coaching/community/ The doors for the next year of this community are open now and will close on 22nd September 2025.

It was such a pleasure to invite Lael Stone back onto the podcast, this time to talk about her new book Own Your Story. Lael shared her journey coming to write this book about supporting adults to explore their imprints, understand where they have come from and then make shifts and changes to free themselves from limiting beliefs and heal past wounds. In this conversation Lael talks about some of the common imprints, including perfectionism and how to bring ourselves more acceptance and compassion. We talk about trust, self-care, boundaries and anger and much more. Lael shares lots of wisdom on how to support ourselves in day to day life in the challenges of parenting to find more compassion and healing. Own Your Story is available in all bookshops in Australia. If you not in Australia and want to buy this book, please visit https://www.readings.com.au/product/9781761269424/own-your-story--lael-stone--2025--9781761269424 The Audiobook version will be available at the end of August 2025.

Welcome back to another episode and the next instalment in my series on embracing our imperfection in Aware Parenting, in conversation this time with Belinda Isbister. Belinda is an Aware Parenting Instructor from Western Australia with 2 boys aged 5 and 2. In this episode Belinda shares more of her journey with Aware Parenting and with embracing imperfection in her parenting. She shares some of the ways that she brings herself compassion and we talk about the parallel journey of learning to offer ourselves unconditional love and acceptance, whilst offering that to our children too. She shares some examples of difficult times in her parenting journey and how she has come back to compassion, connection and trust. To learn more about Belinda please follow her on Instagram at belinda_marie_parenting. To get support with this or any other aspect of aware parenting, I invite you to get in touch support@awareparenting.com.au

In this episode I talk with Kanika Vasudeva , who is a parenting coach, energy healer and Akashic Records reader from the Art of Life Center. She supports parents to explore the record of their soul's journey across lifetimes and to heal. She blends spiritual tools with grounded support to help parents feel more whole themselves, and raise empowered children. Please note that Kanika is not an Aware Parenting Instructor. Aware parenting does not incorporate or endorse any particular spiritual beliefs, so today's conversation extends beyond aware parenting. In this episode we talk about pregnancy loss and grief so I invite you to check in with yourself to see if you want to listen if this has been part of your story too. Kanika shares her awakening into conscious parenting and emotional healing that began after the stillbirth of her daughter at 31 weeks pregnant. She shares her experience with Akashic records and how she sees that exploring past lives and ancestral trauma can support parents through parenting, loss and healing. We talk about parenting as a spiritual practice and how we can support our children to stay connected to their unique soul and inherent wisdom by doing our own healing work. We talk about self-compassion, self care and embracing imperfection. Kanika shares some simple but powerful practices we can use to support ourselves in moments of stress and overwhelm. To learn more about Kanika's work please visit her website www.artoflifecentre.com and follow her on Instragram at kanikaenergycoach. If you want help with embracing imperfection or any other aspect of Aware Parenting, I invite you to get in touch with me support@awareparenting.com.au

Welcome back to the Aware Parenting Stories podcast. In today's episode I’m thrilled to be joined once again by Dr. Aletha Solter, the founder of Aware Parenting, to talk about her inspiring and thought-provoking new book, Raising Joyful Lifelong Learners. Her latest book explores how we can best nurture children's intrinsic love of learning through connection, emotional safety, trust and play. Dr Solter explores some of the main misunderstandings in our education systems about learning that are ineffective, stressful and harmful for children and shares how children learn, what motivates children to learn and how we can evaluate children's learning in ways that are not stressful for children. She shares some of the ways that school can be stressful and traumatic for children, and how stress and trauma affect children's behaviour and learning. We talk about the role of play in both learning and healing from stress and trauma and she shares ways to support children to heal. She shares why punishments and rewards have a detrimental impact on learning and what to do instead of praise and criticism. We discuss some of the ways that our own trauma is often triggered in parenting and how to support ourselves to heal so we are better able to support our children. She clarifies the aware parenting perspective on the term neurodiversity and explains some of the possible causes of behaviours that often lead to a diagnosis of ADHD. We talk about her 12 Principles of Learning and how we can trust our children in learning and support them to love learning throughout their life. I highly recommend this book for parents, educators and anyone who cares about children and their future. I truly hope it helps inspire a shift in how we approach education and learning, so that parents, schools, education policy makers and those who choose to homeschool can all better meet the emotional and developmental needs of children, and truly support their natural joy, curiousity and love of learning. To learn more about Aletha Solter and Aware Parenting, please visit www.awareparenting.com If you would like support with this or any other aspect of Aware Parenting, I invite you to get in touch support@awareparenting.com.au

Welcome back to another episode and the next instalment in my series on embracing our imperfection in Aware Parenting. I really enjoyed this second conversation with Linde lambrechts, was on episode 49. She is an Aware Parenting instrutor, psychologist and psychotherapist with 2 boys and lives in Belgium . In this episode Linde shares more of her journey with Aware Parenting, learning to create a life of connection and meeting needs in her family. We discuss some of the causes of our tendency to strive for perfection in our culture. Linde shares her own journey of learning to embrace imperfection in herself and in her children. She shares some painful moments in her parenting and how she support herself back to connection and compassion. We discuss the difference between Aware Parenting in theory and how we are able to practise it. To learn more about Linde, please visit her website www.lindelambrechts.be and follow her on Instagram at lovinglimits. To get support with this or any other aspect of aware parenting, I invite you to get in touch support@awareparenting.com.au

Welcome back to another episode in the series about embracing imperfection in Aware Parenting. In this episode I talk with Helena Mooney who is an Aware Parenting Instructor and a Hand in Hand Instructor with 2 children. She share her journey with learning to embrace her imperfection in parenting and learning to accept her children's imperfection too. We talk about self-criticism and learning a more compassionate inner dialogue. Helena shares the power of receiving her own listening and honouring her own feelings to be able to come back to acceptance, compassion and trust. We talk about the difference between Aware Parenting in theory and how we put it into practice. To learn more about Helena and her work, please visit www.helenamooney.com and follow her on social media at helenamooney_parentingwithplay. Her podcast is Parenting with Play. If you would like support with this or any other aspect of Aware Parenting, please contact me at support@awareparenting.com.au

Welcome back to another episode in the series about embracing imperfection in Aware Parenting. In this powerful episode, Danni Willow and I share some reflections from our recent extraordinary Aware Parenting Retreat about the truths of motherhood and how embracing imperfection as mothers can be both liberating and deeply healing. We talk about the mother wound and sisterhood wound, two often unspoken pains that show up in our longing for connection, in our guilt, and in the quiet ache for holding and unconditional love. Whether it’s the absence of nurturing we craved from our own mothers or the comparison, competition, hurt and disconnection that can arise between women, these wounds carry a weight that many mothers silently bear and that make embracing our imperfection harder. We share the transformative power of what unfolded on our retreat and how being vulnerable together with other women, and being deeply held supports transformation and healing. If you’ve ever felt like you’re not enough, or if you’ve longed for a kind of mothering or sisterhood that you didn’t receive, this episode will speak to your heart. It’s an invitation to step into compassion, find connection and holding and offer yourself radical acceptance. We talk about the power of receiving deep support to bring more closeness, connection and capacity within our families and the need for mothers to be held in order to mother. To learn more about Danni's work, please visit her website and follow her on social media at Danni Willow https://www.thewayofthewoman.com.au To learn more about my upcoming Aware Parenting Workshop, please visit https://awareparenting.com.au/my-courses/parenting-workshops/ To join the waitlist for our next Aware Parenting Retreat, I invite you to get in touch and if you would like support with this or any other aspect of Aware Parenting, please contact me at support@awareparenting.com.au

Welcome back to another episode in the series about embracing imperfection in Aware Parenting. In today's episode I am offering a guided meditation to support listeners to learn to embrace their imperfection in parenting and to bring themselves more acceptance, more ease, more self-compassion. If you would like support with this or any other aspect of Aware Parenting, please contact me at support@awareparenting.com.au

Today's episode is a short acknowledgement, celebration and honouring of all Aware Parenting mothers in the run up to Mother's Day. It is a message of love to all mothers doing the often invisible work of offering Aware Parenting in their families. For everything that you are doing for your child/ren, for yourself, for your families and for the world, you deserve appreciation and support. I am sending you all lots of love and wishing you a happy Mother's Day.

Welcome back to another episode in the series about embracing imperfection in Aware Parenting. In today's episode I am talking with Gwen Dunlop from Ontario Canada. Gwen is mother of an adult daughter, a violinist, a yoga teacher, an animal advocate, a qualified and experienced ESL teacher, a certified Facilitator of Self-Healing, a certified Aware Parenting Instructor for a long time. She lives off grid and is passionate about sustainability. In this episode Gwen shares how she found Aware Parenting and how motherhood was a portal to start the painful process of releasing and healing her own childhood trauma. She shares how powerful Aware Parenting has been, both in her family and in her wider work and connections in her community to bring more emotional safety. She shares the challenges of coming to Aware Parenting later and how she has supported herself to deeply understand that any mistakes can be healed. We talk about the power of attunement, connection and contingency play. Gwen shares some of the ways that she supports herself and we discuss the power of Aletha Solter's amazing work to change the world. If you would like to connect with Gwen, her website is www.gwendunlop.ca If you would like support with this or any other aspect of Aware Parenting, please contact me at support@awareparenting.com.au

Welcome back to another episode in the series about embracing imperfection in aware parenting. In this episode I talk about how normal it is for us all to have painful moments of rupture in our families and how to come back to connection again. I talk about how important it is for us to tend to the source of our behaviour at times of rupture, to support ourselves and make it less likely in future. I share ways we can support ourselves with our thoughts, our needs and our feelings so we can offer authentic apology. I offer a description of what rewind and repair might look like and I share why doing this with our children is so powerful for them, for us and for our relationship. If you would like support with this or any other aspect of Aware Parenting, please contact me at support@awareparenting.com.au

Welcome back to another episode in the series about embracing imperfection in Aware Parenting. In this episode I am delighted to welcome back Maru Rojas, who was previously on Episode 10. Maru is an Aware Parenting Instructor originally from Mexico now based in London. She is particularly passionate about supporting families with potty learning and elimination communication. supporting families with children from 0 to 6. Maru shares her journey with embracing imperfection. She shares some of her own experiences in childhood that have contributed to her perfectionism and the power of offering her children unconditional acceptance. We talk about the power of repair and Maru shares her understanding that repair matters more than rupture and what that looks like in her family. She shares how she has supported herself at difficult times and we normalise that we all need support at times in parenting. We talk about the affect on the world of practising aware parenting. To learn more about Maru, please visit www.parenttogether.co.uk and follow her on Instagram at _maru.rojas_ If you would like support with this or any other aspect of Aware Parenting, please contact me at support@awareparenting.com.au

Welcome back to another episode in the series about embracing imperfection in aware parenting. In this episode I talk about why it is so hard to be trying to shift so much in parenting in just one generation. I talk about how our own childhood experiences and cultural conditioning effect who we are as parents and how we feel about ourselves. I talk about what we would have needed to receive as children ourselves in order to be able to be "perfectly" parenting now. I talk about some of the things that we need to be receiving and experiencing now as parents in order to be find it easier to offer aware parenting. I offer lots of phrases that you might find helpful to bring more compassion and acceptance of yourself. I offer words of celebration and acknowledgement for all the things you ARE doing to support your child with more awareness and love and why they are all so powerful for your child, yourself, your family and the world. If you would like support with this or any other aspect of Aware Parenting, please contact me at support@awareparenting.com.au

Welcome back to another episode in the series about embracing imperfection in aware parenting. In this episode I talk with Shelley Clarke. Shelley is a Physiotherapist, CranioSacral Therapist, Aware Parenting Instructor and Parent Mentor. She is the mother to three beautiful children and is passionate about the nervous system, human body and helping families thrive. She is the host of the Mind Body Parenting Podcast lives and works in Adelaide. In this episode, Shelley shares her journey with learning to embrace imperfection in her parenting, learning to support herself at the challenging times and how she has come to see that getting support and listening for herself has transformed her ability to offer compassion, support and repair with her children. We share some painful moments in our parenting and Shelley shares the practices and phrases she offers herself to bring more compassion and acceptance to her parenting. To learn more about Shelley please visit www.shelleyclarke.com and follow her on instagram at _shelleyclarke_ and Facebook at Shelley Clarke Mind Body Parenting. If you would like support with this or any other aspect of Aware Parenting, please contact me at support@awareparenting.com.au

I am delighted to share another episode in the series of conversations I am having with Aware Parenting instructors about embracing Imperfection. This is a powerful conversation with Belynda Smith, who was on episode 75 of my podcast. Belynda has been a hand in hand instructor since 2017 and an Aware Parenting instructor since 2023. She lives in WA with her 2 boys. In this conversation Belynda shares her painful experiences of starting parenthood wanting to be perfect and the shame, judgement and hurt that she experienced when she realised that was not possible. We talk about the power of listening partnerships to receive validation, safety and unconditional acceptance to enable us to offer compassion to ourselves and our children. She shares some of her favourite phrases to increasing self-compassion and shares some examples of difficult and painful moments in her family and how she has found her way back to connection and love. To learn more about Belynda, please visit her website https://belyndasmith.com.au and follow her on social media at belyndasmithparenting. To learn more about The Aware Parenting Retreat with Danni Willow and Joss Goulden, please visit https://awareparenting.com.au/aware-parenting-retreat/ To learn more about my Aware Parenting Teenagers Course that Belynda mentions, please visit https://awareparenting.com.au/my-courses/aware-parenting-teenagers/ If you would like support with this or any other aspect of Aware Parenting, I am here for you.

Welcome back to another episode in this series of conversations about embracing imperfection in aware parenting. In this episode I have the absolute pleasure of talking with Mary Walker. Mary is a writer and poet from Aoteroa New Zealand and she lives in the countryside with her husband, 3 teenagers and 5 cats. She discovered Aware Parenting in 2015 when her children were 7, 5 and 3. She has been writing and sharing her poetry since 2017. Her first book of poetry Lullaby for Mothers came out in 2019. Her book of nature poems, called The Land Will Hold You, was published in 2022. Mary’s third poetry collection is about to be released, and it is called Home: poems for becoming who you are and releasing who you are not. In this conversation, Mary shares some of her journey with Aware Parenting and how she has learnt to bring more compassion, connection and healing for her children and herself. We talk about the challenge of discovering Aware Parenting later and power of trust and repair. Mary shares some of her exquisite poems to inspire and support listeners on their own aware parenting journey. We talk about learning to see the gift of crying with loving support. If you love poetry and Aware Parenting, this episode is for you. And if you have never enjoyed poetry before, hearing Mary's profoundly beautiful words will enrich your aware parenting experience and invite more self-compassion and trust. To learn more about her work, please visit www.marywalker.co.nz and follow her on Instagram at Mary Walker Writer. If you would like to sign up for her free email poetry subscription called A Beautiful Beginning, inviting readers to start each week with a poem and a moment of quiet reflection, the link is on her website. If you want to learn more about the Aware Parenting Teenagers Course that Mary mentions in this episode, please visit https://awareparenting.com.au/my-courses/aware-parenting-teenagers/ And if you want support with this or any other aspect of Aware Parenting, please get in touch support@awareparenting.com.au

Welcome back to another episode in this series of conversations about embracing imperfection in aware parenting. In this episode I have the pleasure of talking with Nic Wilson from Peaceful Parenting. Nic is an aware parenting instructor, Marion Method mentor and mother to an 11 year old girl. In this episode Nic shares her journey in moving from an internal dialogue of telling herself she was not good enough, to being more compassionate and accepting of herself. We talk about embracing imperfection in ourselves and in our children. Nic shares some practices she uses to support herself in challenging moments. Nic also shares really vulnerably a recent very challenging time in her family and how she found her way back to connection with herself and her daughter. To learn more about Nic, please visit www.peacefulparenting.com.au or follow her on social media at Peaceful Parenting.