Aware Parenting Stories with Joss Goulden

This episode is another beautiful conversation with Danni Willow. We talk about our imprints around belonging and sisterhood from our childhood and how they can shape our relationships with other women as adults. We share how we have supported ourselves to find safety, trust and authentic connection in friendship now as women. We discuss learning how to navigate rupture and repair in friendship just as we do with our children after times of disconnection. We share the power of Aware Parenting supporting us to be willing to listen to another's feelings without judgement and understanding what is underneath behaviour rather than taking it personally. We validate the deep painful feelings that come when friendships end. We discuss the journey of Motherhood and the essential importance of connection with other mothers, sharing the journey and learning how to be vulnerable and how to celebrate together. We discuss the healing power being in spaces with other mothers, offering and receiving unconditional love and acceptance.

To learn more about joining the 5th year of the Exploring Motherhood & Aware Parenting Community - a year long online village exploring all aspects of the motherhood journey, then please visit https://awareparenting.com.au/parenting-coaching/community/ The doors are now open until 30th October 2026 and the community re-starts on 2nd November.

Welcome back to another episode in the series of conversations about Attachment Play, this time in conversation with Linde Lambrechts, mother of 2 boys, psychologist and Aware Parenting Instructor in Belgium

In this conversation, Linde shares her journey with Attachment Play and how she has found ways to support her own needs in play, whilst also meeting her children's needs, in order to find more willingness to be playful. She talks about using Attachment Play to bring healing and connection around school and other challenges. She shares how effective play is for discipine to support children back to their naturally loving and cooperative selves.

To learn more about Linde's work, please follow her on social media at lovinglimits.

To learn more about joining the 5th year of the Exploring Motherhood & Aware Parenting Community - a year long online village exploring all aspects of the motherhood journey, then please visit https://awareparenting.com.au/parenting-coaching/community/ The doors are now open until 30th October 2026 and the community re-starts on 2nd November.

For support with Attachment Play 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]

I am so happy to share another episode in the series of conversations about Attachment Play, this time in conversation with Vivian Viester. Vivian is a level 2 Aware parenting Instructor in the Netherlands and has a 15 year old son.

In this conversation, Vivian shares how she has learnt to incorporate her own big painful feelings into attachment play with her son and gives lots of examples of how she has done this. We talk about bringing attachment play to prepare our children for stressful events and to support their healing after experiencing stress and trauma. We talk about the importance of getting support and listening for ourselves in order to have capacity to play.

To learn more about Vivian's new immersion starting on 4th October Attachment Play with Vivian, please visit https://www.vivianviester.com

To learn more about joining the 5th year of the Exploring Motherhood & Aware Parenting Community - a year long online village exploring all aspects of the motherhood journey, then please visit https://awareparenting.com.au/parenting-coaching/community/ The doors re-open on 1st October 2026 and the community re-starts on 2nd November.

For support with Attachment Play 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]

I am so happy to share another episode in the series of conversations about Attachment Play, this time all about Contingency Play. I talk about why this type of play is so beneficial for children and how to offer these games. I share lots of examples of contingency games. I talk about why it can be hard for us to play in this way and share some ideas of how you might support yourself to have more capacity for contingency games.

To learn more about joining the 5th year of the Exploring Motherhood & Aware Parenting Community - a year long online village exploring all aspects of the motherhood journey, then please visit https://awareparenting.com.au/parenting-coaching/community/ The doors re-open on 1st October 2026 and the community re-starts on 2nd November.

For support with Attachment Play 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, Danni Willow and I share vulnerably some of our own healing journey through motherhood in this last year. We talk about the importance of finding support and safety in order to bring transformation to ourselves through hard times, especially as Aware Parenting mothers giving so much to our children. We discuss finding love, care, tenderness and understanding to hold us in this work. We share the process of bringing more self-care and self-connection in the bigness of motherhood. We share some reflections and learnings for us from the Exploring Motherhood & Aware Parenting Community and our excitement about the 5th year of this community starting soon.

To learn more about the community, please visit www.awareparenting.com.au/parenting-coaching/community/. To learn more about our Aware Parenting Retreat please visit www.awareparenting.com.au/aware-parenting-retreat/

For support with this or any other aspect of Aware Parenting, please message me [email protected]

Welcome back to another episode in the series of conversations about Attachment Play, this time with Ayla Dewilt. Ayla is the mother of 2 daughters and is an Aware Parenting Instructor and homeschool mom, with a love of psychology and emotional hygiene.

In this episode Ayla shares how she discovered Aware Parenting. She shares some of her own reparenting journey in the early years of parenting and we talk about how Aware Parenting supported her to understand how to be with painful feelings for herself as well as how to support her children. She shares a beautiful process to check in and bring a few moments of self-connection before we then offer attachment play to our children. Ayla shares some games that she has found to be very supportive in challenging times, including play to support children after times of rupture between parents and the power of play for learning, sharing some games that she uses as part of her children's homeschooling learning. We talk about the need for community in parenting and how to support ourselves when we are not feeling able to play.

To learn more about Ayla, please follow her on Instagram and Facebook at Awareayla.

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 the series of conversations about Attachment Play, this time with Sanne Greuter. Sanne is the mother of a 4 year old daughter in The Netherlands. She is an aware parenting instructor, psychologist and a mental health professional, trained in Emotion Focused Therapy, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, Nonviolent Communication, and Stress and Burn-out Coaching. She offers one-on-one sessions and leads a group education session for stress and burn-out.

In this episode, Sanne shares how she found Aware Parenting and how she supported herself to move from feeling very insecure and unskilled in play to feeling excited and joyful and capable to offer attachment play to her daughter. We talk about how healing attachment play can be for us as well as our children. We talk about separation play in depth and Sanne shares lots of beautiful games that she has played with her daughter to support healing in relation to separation. We talk about seeing our children's behaviour as an invitation to play and responding to that, rather than reacting to behaviour and she shares other games that she has found helpful for everyday difficulties in parenting.

To learn more about Sanne, please email her [email protected]

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]

To celebrate World Breastfeeding Week, I am so happy to share this episode in conversation with Carly Facius about ending the breast feeding journey. Carly is mother to three beautiful children, She is a Registered Midwife, International Board Certified Lactation Consultant (IBCLC), Aware Parenting Instructor and hold a Master of Primary Maternity Care.

In this episode, we talk about the pressures and challenges that women can face in the breastfeeding journey. We share some of what we have found supportive to get clarity and to feel empowered in ending our breast-feeding journeys. We talk about coming back to connection, self-compassion, listening to feelings and attachment play. We share how essential it is for us to be getting listening and holding, and meeting our own needs in order to support our unique weaning processes. We talk about the role of partners in the journey and all the feelings that can come up for us all in relation to them offering more presence and listening. We share some ideas for rituals to incorporate with our children when ending breastfeeding.

To learn more about Carly or to find her course on Ending your Breastfeeding Journey, please follow her on instagram at seed_pod_ and visit her website here. If you are in Perth next weekend, she is running a live workshop on this topic on Saturday 15th August.

For support with this or any other aspect of Aware Parenting, I invite you to email me [email protected]

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]