Are you constantly jumping in with advice only to feel more disconnected from the people you love?

Whether you're navigating hard conversations with your LGBTQ+ teen or sitting down at a tense holiday dinner, the urge to "fix" is often fear in disguise. In this calming and powerful solo episode, Heather Hester unpacks why real connection doesn’t come from solving but from seeing.

✔️ Learn a simple, science-backed practice to shift from reactivity to presence

✔️ Discover how to listen without rushing, rescuing, or retreating

✔️ Use Heather’s LISTEN method to guide any difficult conversation with love

✔️ Get grounded tools to calm your nervous system when tensions rise

Press play now to discover the one shift that builds trust, deepens relationships, and reclaims connection, no fixing required.

Key Takeaways:

• Fixing is often rooted in fear, not love
• Silence is not awkward, it’s sacred
• Listening without correcting builds psychological safety, the key to long-term trust
• “Do you want advice or just a listening ear?” can transform your relationships
• You don’t need the right answers, you just need presence

LISTEN Framework Recap:

• L – Leave space: Breathe before responding
• I – Inquire gently: Ask what kind of support is needed
• S – Stay curious: Reflect, don’t assume
• T – Trust the silence: Let quiet be part of connection
• E – Empathize, don’t evaluate: Say “That sounds really hard”
• N – Normalize not knowing: “I don’t have the answer, but I’m here.”

Hi, I’m Heather Hester, and I’m so glad you’re here!

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At the heart of my work is a deep commitment to compassion, authenticity, and transformative allyship, especially for those navigating the complexities of parenting LGBTQ+ kids. Through this podcast, speaking, my writing, and the spaces I create, I help people unlearn bias, embrace their full humanity, and foster courageous, compassionate connection.

If you’re in the thick of parenting, allyship, or pioneering a way to lead with love and kindness, I’m here with true, messy, and heart-warming stories, real tools, and grounding support to help you move from fear to fierce, informed action.

Whether you’re listening in, working with me directly, or quietly taking it all in—I see you. And I’m so glad you’re part of this journey.

More Human. More Kind. formerly Just Breathe: Parenting Your LGBTQ Teen is a safe and supportive podcast and space where a mom and mental health advocate offers guidance on parenting with empathy, inclusion, and open-minded allyship, fostering growth, healing, and empowerment within the LGBTQ community—including lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer individuals—while addressing grief, boundaries, education, diversity, human rights, gender identity, sexual orientation, social justice, and the power of human kindness through a lens of ally support and community engagement.

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