Make It a Great One with Dr. Dan: #1 Podcast for Inspiring Conversations to Live and Lead On Purpose

In today’s episode Dr. Dan welcomes Summit Center colleague Dr. Paula Wilkes to discuss how to create well being for ourselves and our families. Dr. Dan and Dr. Wilkes discuss how we can help all children discover their true nature and find their inner peace. This episode also devotes time to the particular challenges of gifted and spiritually sensitive children.

Dr. Wilkes lives by deliberately making mindfulness and well being her daily goals as a result of her own personal journey with stress and pain. Her “morning workout” is easy to follow and transformative. She explains that by modeling wellness to our children they will begin to learn about the mind and body connection.

During the interview listeners will hear how we can all create calm and peace in our lives: by not rushing, by listening to calm music, by practicing meditation, by finding on-the-go mindful moments and much more.

Dr. Wilkes defines mindfulness as being in the moment as life is happening. And for our children because regulation and environment contribute to well being then as parents and educators we need to teach our children to practice self-kindness, self-awareness, and self-love so that they can learn to nourish a feeling of peace in themselves.

In one of the most memorable Parent Footprint moments, Paula beautifully recounts to Dr. Dan how her own lifelong evolution of self-awareness and well being profoundly influenced her own daughter’s career and life choices when she became a mother. Paula’s journey benefited her adult daughter in immeasurable ways.

Today’s episode proves how important the core value of Parent Footprint is: that we must take good care of ourselves so that we can take good care of our children and grandchildren.

Paula Wilkes, Ph.D has worked in gifted education for more than 35 years as a public school teacher, a university professor, and a gifted consultant. She is currently a coach for gifted children and adults at Summit Center in Los Angeles. Dr. Wilkes provides cognitive coaching, counseling, and consultation for children and their parents on gifted and “twice-exceptional” issues (including sensitivity and intensity). In addition, she is a coach for gifted and twice-exceptional adults who may be struggling with issues related to misdiagnosis, multi-potentiality, anxiety, work and/or relationship challenges, and a desire to make a stronger connection to their spiritual sensitivity. Dr. Wilkes is a mother and grandmother who focuses her attention on creating calm, loving environments for herself, her family, and her clients. She is available for face-to-face consultations in Los Angeles, and by Skype, with experience working with international clients. You can learn more about her at, http://summitcenter.us/about/professionals/drpaulawilkes/ and http://www.CoachingTheGifted.net/

Watch this free video to learn more about Dr. Dan and Parent Footprint Awareness Training®.

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Dr. Dan joyfully welcomes author and Rhodes Scholar Jessica Teich today (www.byjessicateich.com). Jessica’s memoir The Future Tense of Joy has been universally praised by many including Meryl Streep, Steve Martin, Daniel Silva, countless reviewers and a diverse group of bloggers for its honest, courageous, and real discussion of fear, suicide, violence against women, sexual abuse and rape.

Through her writing and her own harrowing story Jessica advocates for victims of violence and sexual abuse as well as anyone struggling with anxiety and mental illness. Ultimately, Jessica is a real life role model for purposeful parenting, facing fears, equality, philanthropy, and volunteerism. Her writing has built a community of connection and a safe place for truth telling. Jessica’s deeply personal take on how she is a survivor and how her own resilience is a daily process that she cultivates for herself and her daughters and family – by tuning into the noises and violence she experienced when she was sixteen she freed herself through the book and writing. It’s through her daily ritual of facing her own fears that she has found joy and is now passing that skill to her daughters.

Dr. Dan and Jessica Teich talk about real life parenting experiences during their conversation and all parents will relate to topics ranging from perfectionism to homework to the viral Netflix series “13 Reasons Why” and how as parents we need to model how to filter and how to help our teens sort through new -- and oftentimes -- frightening adolescent experiences. We are our children’s best and most influential resource -- we need to listen and really hear them.

Dr. Dan emphasizes how our children are always watching:  they see and hear what we are doing and then learn from our examples. This episode deeply connects to how Parent Footprint challenges us all to be our best for ourselves and our children. Dr. Dan asks Jessica about her one piece of advice to work through fear and to find joy – be present.

This thought-provoking episode wraps up with Jessica’s Parent Footprint moment about her own unfounded fear of a particular ice cream when her children were young and she poignantly describes how she had to push away this irrational fear in order to open up the whole wide world of joy to her children – ice cream and all!

Jessica Teich graduated summa cum laude from Yale and received an M.Phil degree from Oxford, where she was a Rhodes scholar. Her previous book, Trees Make The Best Mobiles: Simple Ways To Raise Your Child In A Complex World, appeared in Vanity Fair, People, Us, and The Chicago Tribune, and was featured on the Today Show. For almost a decade, Teich worked as a literary manager at the Mark Taper Forum, commissioning and developing plays. She subsequently received a grant to write and direct a movie for the Directing Workshop for Women at the American Film Institute. Teich served as head of the Biography committee for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, and her articles have appeared in The Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, and numerous other publications. She lives in Los Angeles with her husband, two daughters, and dog.

Praise for The Future Tense of Joy:

"A daring and intimate journey into the soul of motherhood. Compelling." —Steve Martin

"Intoxicating and deeply immersive. This elegant book has a cinematic immediacy. It’s a page turner and thriller in the best sense of both words." —Daniel Silva, New York Times bestselling author

"Jessica Teich's understanding of trauma is the infallible authority upon which her tale rests. But the delicacy and nuance with which she renders this story is that of a poet. This beautiful, compassionately imagined book will bring a pang of recognition to anyone who has traveled to young adulthood from a wounded adolescence via the quest for 'perfection.'" —Meryl Streep

For more information visit http://byjessicateich.com/

Watch this free video to learn more about Dr. Dan and Parent Footprint Awareness Training®.

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Dr. Dan welcomes Oprah Winfrey favorite, author, entrepreneur and parent Mary Carlomagno to this episode. Today’s interview will delight listeners because it is all about chasing your dreams, living in experiences (as opposed to buying materialistic things) and being present. www.marycarlomagno.com

Mary has a fresh approach to navigating parenting – she lives by the motto dream big (“Leap and the net will appear!”) and live fully (but with balance and passion)!  Just like in her organizing business, Mary teaches the daily practice of modeling behavior for and with her own family. Her deliberate ways of parenting will open up how listeners think about their own parenting. Dr. Dan agrees with Mary that modeling our best selves for our children is the most important thing we can do for our kids – and ourselves. Dr. Dan frames their lively conversation by talking about Parent Footprint’s main core value: when we are aware of our own goals and our own visions then we are successfully living in the moment and leaving the best footprints for our children to follow. 

Mary lives with purpose and passion – from her journey to live more simply with less to her deeper philosophy about rituals and good habits to her current dream of releasing her first novel -- BEST FRIEND FOR HIRE -- which will be published on June 20, 2017. 

Mary’s Parent Footprint moment relates back to her own lifelong love of books and reading. She poignantly describes one day this passion came full circle with her own children when she visited her son’s classroom as a mystery reader and for the first time he saw her not just as Mom but as a whole, happy, fulfilled person and a role model. 

As the founder and owner of Order www.orderperiod.com, Mary Carlomagno lives by a philosophy that is simple and can applied to all parts of our lives -- do not let clutter control your life. Her first book Give It Up! My Year of Learning to Live Better with Less is published by HarperCollins. Her second book, Secrets of Simplicity is published by Chronicle Books. Her third book Live More, Want Less is published by Storey Publishing.

Mary has appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show, the Today Show, Fox and Friends, CBS News and Good Housekeeping TV. She has been interviewed on National Public Radio, the Joan Hamburg Show, Martha Stewart Living and has been featured in Real Simple, Woman’s Day, Newsday and the New York Daily News. Mary writes frequently on the subject of getting organized for magazines and newspapers including the Washington Post, the Philadelphia Inquirer. For more information visit www.marycarlomagno.com

Watch this free video to learn more about Dr. Dan and Parent Footprint Awareness Training®.

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Dr. Dan is very excited about today’s episode with guest Kimberlee Anne King because the focus is on many of the core values of Parent Footprint.  The two discuss Kimberlee’s work with parents and families, her book and how she is revoltionizing modern parenting by telling parents to work on their own issues first and then their parenting will not only improve it will soar!

Kimberlee Anne King is a parent of four, stepparent of three, author, co-founder of Inspired Attention, Inc., educational consultant, speaker, mentor, and parent coach.   Her first-hand parenting experience over the last 20 years has given her a unique perspective on how to overcome the challenges and frustrations of parenting whether the children are gifted, challenged, or neurotypical.

In her book, Parenting is Hard. Suffering is Optional. A Handbook for Parents on the Brink, she gives the reader a peek into her own humorous and heart-wrenching and very personal journey as she discovered the key to becoming a better parent: Work on yourself and your children will follow. We cannot fix our children or eliminate chaos in life. We can, however, work on becoming the best version of ourselves, learning along the way to experience joy despite our circumstances. Suffering is truly optional.

Kimberlee Anne and Dr. Dan discuss many compelling topics in today’s including how to be happy despite chaos, judgement (don’t do it!), gratitude, radical self-acceptance, ego, present parenting, self-improvement, perfectionism, cutting the proverbial umbilical cord (especially if our kids have challenges) and so much more.

Intensely positive, Kimberlee shares the wisdom that suffering really is optional – you DO have a choice.  And she shares the ONE thing she always recommends to parents: dig into your own self and examine what work you can do on you and your own issues. When we as parents grow, when we shift into the positive so will our children.

The episode wraps up with Dr. Dan’s Parent Footprint Moment question. Since Kimberlee’s book (and life!) are full of Parent Footprint moments her answer will really stir listeners deeply:  how the decision to give herself the gift of radical self-care early in her own parenting journey transformed her parenting forever because of one simple sentence her son said.

Kimberlee has also lectured at universities, public and private schools, parent groups, and conferences; and she is a PhD candidate in Complementary, Alternative, and Integrative Medical Therapies.   More information is on her website and her blog.

Watch this free video to learn more about Dr. Dan and Parent Footprint Awareness Training®.

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Dr. Dan welcomes author/editor/expert Lisa Stiepock of ToughLove to the Parent Footprint podcast. Among other achievements Lisa Stiepock was the Editor of Disney’s award winning parenting magazine Wondertime and she is currently the editor of UCONN magazine.

Dr. Dan and Lisa discuss the new parenting anthology (Dan is a contributor) toughLOVE: Raising Confident, Kind, Resilient Kids (published by Simon & Schuster) and the companion online platform. Lisa’s vision as editor was to bring together amazing parenting experts in an advice book and online for tackling the many different parenting challenges.

In addition to a book ToughLove is also a thriving unique online community. Lisa explains that the book and community provide balanced, practical advice for parents from child psychology experts on how to handle almost everything - from picky eating to media consumption to the homework wars. Questions such as:

How do we set limits on what our children are exposed to without sheltering them too much? How do we raise them to be resilient, empathetic, upstanding adults?

How do we get them to put down their smartphones and have a conversation with us?

How do we spend time with our teenagers when it appears that they don’t want to be with us?

Dr. Dan and Lisa dive into several chapters in detail and discuss how the challenges of parenting evolve as the world becomes more complex. The book offers advice from professors at Ivy League medical schools, New York Times bestselling authors, and top parenting coaches who have appeared on the Today show, Good Morning America, TheOprah Winfrey Show, CBS Evening News, 20/20, CNN World News Tonight, and NPR. They address many issues, from the timeless (picky eating, homework battles, how to have The Talk) to the timely (social media safety, feelings of entitlement, ways to balance schedules). Their breadth of clinical expertise and years of coaching real families will help parents build a commonsense framework for approaching all kinds of dilemmas in a way that reflects their personal values and preferred parenting styles.

Lisa distills all of her own incredible experience and work and gives us some parenting advice that will work for every age – listen. She’s takes this one-word concept with her every day of her own parenting journey and Dr. Dan explains why.

Finally, the show ends with Lisa’s Parent Footprint moment – which is actually made up of many moments. As a Mom her favorite (and recent) moment was with her teen daughter participating in a local Women’s March movement and it represented the culmination of Lisa’s parenting by modeling the importance of giving back, taking a stand, and the importance of being part of social causes and the political community. And perhaps most of all Lisa reflects on how she taught her daughter about the importance of family.

Watch this free video to learn more about Dr. Dan and Parent Footprint Awareness Training®.

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Today Dr. Dan Peters welcomes expert Lisa Van Gemert the founder of Gifted Guru to discuss the important topic of Perfectionism. Both Dr. Dan and Lisa are recovering Perfectionists and today they define the condition (“unreasonable expectations with a lack of self-love”) and then teach us how to push through mistakes and discover a path to recovery based on managing perfectionism. The episodes opens with Lisa sharing a very personal story of her own struggle with perfectionism and how she organically came to this life-changing work.

Lisa’s new book, Perfectionism: Practical Strategies for Managing Never Good Enough, is the foundation for today’s important discussion about signs to look for in our children and students and how to manage perfectionism with several strategies.

Listeners will love Lisa’s Parent Footprint moment story at the end of the interview about her youngest son imitating her one day at home. This innocent playing led Lisa to an epiphany because she heard herself sounding like a teacher (which she was at the time) and not a parent. This life lesson shows us we sometimes don’t know how we sound to others – especially our children.

More on Lisa Van Gemert:

Lisa uses a combination of neuropsychology, pedagogy, experience, humor, technology, and sheer fun to share best practices in education with audiences around the world. She is an expert consultant to television shows including Lifetime’s "Child Genius," and a writer of award-winning lesson plans, as well numerous published articles on social psychology and pedagogy. A former teacher, school administrator, and Youth & Education Ambassador for Mensa, she shares resources for educators and parents on her website giftedguru.com and is co-founder of the Gifted Guild, a professional community for educators of the gifted. Lisa and her husband Steve are the parents of three sons and live in Arlington, Texas.

Watch this free video to learn more about Dr. Dan and Parent Footprint Awareness Training®.

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Dr. Dan welcomes the amazing educator, author, and co-founder of Challenge Success. Dr. Denise Pope on this episode. Today’s show focuses on helping our children and our schools (and ultimately our families) help our children find balance and deal with stress. This is a provocative topic and will challenge parents everywhere.

Dr. Pope explains success is not linear. Her work aims to turn our thinking about learning, education, and success upside down (just like her logo!). Dr. Pope believes success is measured over the course of a lifetime (*not one semester!) and believes that our society has become too focused on grades, test scores, and performance, leaving little time for kids to develop the necessary skills to become resilient, ethical, and motivated learners.

Dr. Dan and Dr. Pope dive deep into the topic of wellbeing and why she wants us all to move away from the narrow notion of success and expand our definition of it. Our children are suffering (as a result of sleep deprivation, depression, anxiety and more – all triggered by stress) and it has to stop. Dr. Pope share with Dr. Dan solutions and how Challenge Success provides families and schools with practical, research-based tools they need to create a more balanced and academically fulfilling life for their kids.

Finally Dr. Pope’s discussion about the topic of an engaged child and student is revolutionary. This concept applies to parents and students alike. The whole child matters!

Dr. Pope’s Parent Footprint moment is very insightful and also personal. The story about picking up her own daughter in first grade and always asking how she did on her spelling test was a light-bulb moment because it gave her insight into the stress her own child was experiencing as a result of this conversation. It became an important a-ha moment in her own parenting journey and of course in her work.

More about Dr. Pope: Denise Pope, Ph.D., is a Senior Lecturer at the Stanford University Graduate School of Education, where she specializes in student engagement, curriculum studies, qualitative research methods, and service learning. Challenge Success is an expanded version of the SOS: Stressed-Out Students project that Dr. Pope founded and directed from 2003-2008. She is the author of, “Doing School”: How We Are Creating a Generation of Stressed Out, Materialistic, and Miseducated Students (Yale University Press, 2001), which was awarded Notable Book in Education by the American School Board Journal, 2001, and co-author of Overloaded and Underprepared: Strategies for Stronger Schools and Healthy, Successful Kids (Jossey-Bass, 2015).

Watch this free video to learn more about Dr. Dan and Parent Footprint Awareness Training®.

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In today’s episode Dr. Dan discusses emotional regulation, co-regulation and neurodiversity with Dr. Mona Delahooke and hear her first person account of how her powerful viral blog post about Oppositional Defiance Disorder really struck a nerve with parents.

Dr. Mona Delahooke is a child psychologist, author, speaker, and expert who specializes in early childhood development and early intervention for children with special needs. Her practice, speaking engagements, blog, and new book SOCIAL AND EMOTIONAL DEVELOPMENT IN EARLY INTERVENTION as well as her forthcoming book THE VISIBLE PARENT all guide, orient, inform and help parents through the journey of raising a child with special needs. Her passion and focus includes neurodiversity and relationship building between parents and children of all ages, as well as educators and caregivers.   

In the of spirit helping all children Dr. Dan and Dr. Delahooke discuss empathy and compassion and how individual differences lead the way in her work because one size does not fit all. Dr. Delahooke uses a strength based, family centered, multidisciplinary approach in her work with young children and families. [Her philosophy is informed by the groundbreaking model of child development pioneered by Dr. Stanley Greenspan and Dr. Serena Wieder, known as the DIR® approach (Developmental, Individual-difference, Relationship-based).]

After discussing how deeply crucial it is for children to feel safe when her or she is in stress mode and they end the episode with Dr. Delahooke’s Parent Footprint moment about parenting her two young children and how finally recognizing a stress response in one of her children (rather than intentional volitional behavior) opened her eyes turned her parenting around in a profound way – altering how she practiced and parented forever.

Watch this free video to learn more about Dr. Dan and Parent Footprint Awareness Training®.

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Dr. Dan joyfully welcomes Annie Fox, M.Ed. to discuss friendship, feelings, and the social world with compassion and empathy.  Annie is an educator with over thirty years of experience -- specializing in working with tweens and teens. Since 1997, she’s received email questions from tweens, teens and parents and Annie’s books The Teen Survival Guide to Dating and Relating, Too Stressed to Think? And the Middle School Confidential Series™ and Teaching Kids to Be Good People have helped countless kids and parents navigate modern parenting challenges.  Her work in the area of relationships, friendships, and feelings will teach parents how to help their own children figure out the complexity of social situations and define what is a good friendship and friend.

Today’s show will teach everyone how to navigate friendship challenges and emphasizes how parents model their own challenges will help their children.

Annie Fox hosts her own popular podcast, “Family Confidential: Secrets of Successful Parenting” that focuses on 21st century parenting challenges and solutions.  Her show and work is a gift to parents of tweens and teens. Find more information about Annie and her podcast and books http://www.AnnieFox.com  and  http://familyconfidential.com/.

The show ends with Annie’s sweet and moving story about her Parent Footprint Moment with her own daughter and how she managed to learn a life lesson one morning getting ready for school.  It leaves parents with a very important message about how we see ourselves, our children, and about acceptance.

Watch this free video to learn more about Dr. Dan and Parent Footprint Awareness Training®.

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Dr. Dan welcomes life coach, business consultant, attorney, bestselling author and parent, Allison Carmen as his guest today.  Allison is inspiring and wise and she has developed the simple life philosophy of “Maybe” to help people deal with uncertainty. Her book The Gift of Maybe has changed countless lives -- parents, adults, families, and of course her own. Allison has successfully applied the philosophy to help her clients, who range from entrepreneurs and owners of multi-million dollar companies to artists, actors, writers, fashion designers, attorneys, health care workers, parents, nannies and the homeless. Allison has witnessed hundreds of people, regardless of present circumstances, who had the courage to step into the realm of Maybe improve their lives. Her conversation today with Dr. Dan will open your mind and change your life.

Why is Allison’s philosophy of Maybe so effective for parents?  Allison tells Dr. Dan the answer is that it gives us HOPE and offers us possibility.  Dr. Dan and Allison talk about how our need for certainty can cause us stress, create fear-based parenting and keeps us up at night. With Allison’s contagious concept of MAYBE we can all realize that there may be a way out of a situation, or a way forward, or just another way for us to exist right now in this moment.  The unknown does not have to create fear but rather create possibility.  Maybe is just one word and a small shift and change of perspective, but it’s one that changes everything.

The show wraps up with one of most profound Parent Footprint moments when Allison talks about her own family and “not knowing” as a parent and then she finds strength, hope and possibility in MAYBE.  Dr. Dan wraps up the interview by telling us all that Allison’s daily practice of MAYBE has the ability to transform a household and an entire family and closes the show by challenging us to all find our MAYBE.

Watch this free video to learn more about Dr. Dan and Parent Footprint Awareness Training®.

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