Welcome back to another episode in the series of conversations about Attachment Play, this time with Nathalie Hendleman. Nathalie is a French-American mother of 2 children aged 5 and 3 who lives in France. She is a trained midwife, lactation consultant, Aware Parenting instructor, and is also trained in NVC and IFS. She blends all of these life experiences to support families in their transition to parenthood, and in feeling more comfortable with all of the feelings that having children bring up. In order to feel more connected to their children in the pleasant moments, but also the more uncomfortable ones! She is passionate about Aware Parenting and attachment play, and has found it profoundly liberating for both herself and her children.

In this episode, Nathalie shares how she found Aware Parenting and how important it is to slow down and gently find our way when first practising this approach. We talk about re-learning how to be playful and the healing power of laughter. She shares some of her favourite ways of offering attachment play to her children and how particularly helpful she has found this play to support her children with aggression and other challenging moments.

To learn more about Nathalie, to work with her 1:1 or to explore her programs and French podcast, please visit her website www.enpleineconfiance.com and follow her on Instagram @en_pleine_confiance

For support with this or any other aspect of Aware Parenting, I invite you to get in touch. If you would like to receive a free copy of my Introduction to Attachment Play eBook, please email me [email protected]

In this episode I talk about Nonsense Play, which is 1 of the 9 types of Attachment Play in Aware Parenting. I describe why is so helpful for our children and what it looks like. I give lots of examples of how to bring this type of play to some of the challenges we all face in parenting and offer inspiration to be more silly. I talk about why it can be hard to offer this and end with some words of compassion and acknowledgement for parents.

For support with this or any other aspect of Aware Parenting, I invite you to get in touch. If you would like to receive a free copy of my Introduction to Attachment Play eBook, please email me [email protected]

Welcome back to another episode in my series about Attachment Play, this time in conversation with Felicity Juhn. Felicity is mother to two boys, aged 6 and 8 and is an Aware Parenting Instructor. She runs an in-person parenting group called Wild Hearted Parents, which she co-facilitates with fellow Aware Parenting Instructor, Marisa Taylor and offers an in-person "Mums, Let's Chat" in her local playground.

In this beautiful conversation, Felicity shares her journey with Aware Parenting and Attachment Play. She explains how she has supported herself to reconnect with her playfulness and to build capacity for play in the many moments that she hasn't felt playful. We normalise that play can feel hard for us all at times. She shares lots of wonderful games that she has offered her family and all the ways that small moments of playful connection have been really powerful. We talk about how we find and reclaim play and fun for us.

To learn more about Felicity, please follow her on Instagram @felicitydinahjuhn

For support with this or any other aspect of Aware Parenting, I invite you to get in touch. If you would like to receive a free copy of my Introduction to Attachment Play eBook, please email me [email protected]

Welcome back to another episode in my series about Attachment Play, this time in conversation with Britt Ortmann-Wold. Britt is a Certified Aware Parenting Instructor living in Minnesota, USA. She has two young daughters, Sophie and Athena and shares a passion for Aware Parenting with her partner Ryan. Britt has spent nearly 15 years in the self-awareness and spiritual healing space. Her work has included working in community mental health, with adults navigating addiction, in the prison setting and most recently, working as an end of life chaplain providing grief and spiritual care in the hospital.

In this episode Britt shares her journey with Aware Parenting and bringing Attachment Play to her family and learning to trust the power of laughter and tears for processing emotions. We talk about the need to be doing our own inner work and taking care of what needs to be tended to in us, in order to then be able to truly support our children. She shares some ways she has brought play to the challenges in her family, including the birth of her second child and difficult behaviour. We talk about the power of Attachment Play at bedtime to bring more connection, joy and ease to what is often a really tough part of the day. She talks about bringing small moments of play and connection in response to what our children are doing and gives lots of examples of play that has been really helpful in her family. We talk about Attachment Play with 2 children at once.

To learn more about Britt, please follow her on Instagram at Groundedwithbritt. Her course for Supporting Bedtime for children up to 6 years old is available from her Instagram site.

For support with this or any other aspect of Aware Parenting, I invite you to get in touch.

Welcome back to another episode in my series about Attachment Play in Aware Parenting. This episode explore power-reversal play, what it is and why it is so important for children to feel powerful. I talk about how it helps children to move out of hyper-arousal or dissociation into releasing and healing. I give lots of examples of when these games can be effective and helpful for our children and lots of examples of how to offer this kind of play. I talk about why our own feelings about powerlessness often come up for us when we are playing in these ways and the importance of us getting our own support in order to be able, safe and willing to play in these ways. I end with some words of compassion and support.

If you would like support with this or any other aspect of Aware parenting, I invite you to get in touch.

To learn more about Attachment Play I highly recommend reading the book by Aletha Solter on this topic.

Welcome back to another episode in my series about Attachment Play, this time in conversations with Eliza Parker. Eliza is a certified Aware Parenting Instructor, Infant Developmental Movement Educator, Body-Mind Centering Practitioner, and trained Feldenkrais® practitioner. American sign language interpreter. She has special expertise in healing birth trauma, and parental attunement to non-verbal cues and crying.

In this episode we talk about how Aware Parenting and Attachment Play helps babies and toddlers to process their early experiences from conception, pregnancy, birth and the early post-partum period. She shares some of the ways that stress and trauma from early experiences present in babies and young children and describes how attachment play, specifically symbolic play and power-reversal play are so effective in the families she supports. We discuss the importance of giving information to babies and children to make sense of their experiences, as part of their healing. We talk about trusting the innate wisdom of babies and children to know and to communicate to us what they need in order to heal.

To learn more about Eliza, please visit www.consciousbaby.com or follow her on facebook or Instagram at Eliza Parker Conscious Baby.

For support with this or any other aspect of Aware Parenting, I invite you to get in touch at https://awareparenting.com.au/contact-me/

Welcome back to another episode in a series of conversations about Attachment Play. In this episode I am talking with Maru Rojas who is an aware parenting instructor in the UK with 2 children, aged 7 and 5 and she shares her journey with bringing the healing power of laughter and play to her family.

In this episode we talk about how to reconnect with our own innate playfulness and how to support ourselves at times when we are not feeling playful. Maru shares lots of games that she has enjoyed with her children over the years and still offers to bring joy to her family. We discuss how to bring play to some of the most common challenges in parenting, including toilet learning, food and sibling conflicts. She shares how she loves to bring playfulness and fun to herself and how to use play for non-punitive discipline.

To learn more about Maru, please follow her on Instagram at _maru.rojas_ and visit her website to find her course Attachment Play Magic https://parenttogether.co.uk

For support with this or any other aspect of Aware Parenting, I invite you to get in touch at https://awareparenting.com.au/contact-me/

This episode explores Symbolic Play, one of 9 forms of Attachment Play that are outlined by Aletha Solter in her book Attachment Play. I talk about how this type of play is helpful to support healing, connection, cooperation and non-punitive discipline. I describe how to offer Symbolic Play and share several examples of when it can be used to support our children with some of the most common sources of stress and trauma. I talk about why it can be hard to offer this type of play and share some words of compassion and support to help parents to build more capacity for play.

For support with this or any other aspect of Aware Parenting, I invite you to get in touch at https://awareparenting.com.au/contact-me/

Welcome back to another episode in a series of conversations about Attachment Play. In this episode I am talking with Rebecca Sheikh, who is a level 2 aware parenting instructor and the regional coordinator for aware parenting in UK, Ireland and Sub-Saharan Africa.

In this episode we talk about how to better understand children's behaviour so we can then use attachment play in order to support them to be their naturally cooperative selves. We share some of the ways we have used play in our families to support greater connection and healing. Rebecca shares a powerful activity to support our younger parts in relation to offering attachment play. She offers suggestions for how to find playfulness at times when we are feeling overwhelmed and not having capacity to play. We talk about the importance of laughter and fun for us as parents.

To learn more about Rebecca, please visit her website https://www.flourishingchildhood.com and follow her on social media at Flourishing childhood.

For support with this or any other aspect of Aware Parenting, I invite you to get in touch at https://awareparenting.com.au/contact-me/

This episode of my podcast is a beautiful conversation with Suzanne Thijs, from the Netherlands. Suzanne is an Aware Parenting Instructor and mother to two sons aged 4 and 7 and a stepdaughter aged 23. She offers training and courses for professionals working with children through her business Kinders Academie in Netherlands.

In this episode, Suzanne shares her journey with Aware Parenting and Attachment Play. She shares some of the many games she has found to be helpful with her boys for the challenges of parenting, for supporting them with fears and how to bring more connection through play. We talk about finding inspiration to play when we are feeling exhausted. She shares examples of how to support children through understanding their behaviour and then eliciting cooperation through play, in her home and her workplace. We talk about bringing play and fun to ourselves as parents.

To learn more about Suzanne, please visit https://kindersacademie.nl

For support with this or any other aspect of Aware Parenting, I invite you to get in touch at https://awareparenting.com.au/contact-me/