As a highly sensitive mom, you may naturally want to have peace in the house and not cause conflict in your life. To achieve this, you end up saying yes to others and do things you don't want to do so that other people don't judge you.

But what would happen if you stopped worrying what others thought (hello: your mom) or what others were doing (i.e. the neighbors) and instead listened to your intuition? What would it be like to create the family life that works best for YOU and YOUR family, no matter how counterculture? Would you be less burned out? Less exhausted? Happier?

Well, we certainly think so, but it's so hard to do!

You're in luck though! Help is here!

In this episode, Leah and Adrienne sit down with Trina Stutzman, a recovering people pleaser, wellness coach, and author of 12 Steps to Overcome People-Pleasing, for a conversation about why so many women struggle to put themselves first.

Trina breaks down what people pleasing really looks like, where it comes from, and why highly sensitive women are especially prone to it.

We also explore the important connections between people pleasing and hormonal shifts, trauma responses, and the "shoulds" we absorb from culture, religion, and family and why it's so hard to listen to our instincts and do what is best for us and our families, no matter what everyone else is doing.

From parenting boundaries to birthday party logistics, we get real about the guilt that keeps us stuck, the resentment that builds when we stay silent, and the small but powerful shifts that can help us start choosing ourselves, without adding yet another thing to the to-do list.

Whether you're a burnt-out mom, a chronic over-giver, or someone who just can't seem to say no, this episode is your permission slip to stop performing and start living as your actual self.

Topics covered:

• The 20 signs you might be a people pleaser
• Why sensitivity and people pleasing so often go hand in hand
• How hormones (hello, perimenopause) can shift your tolerance for self-sacrifice
• The role guilt plays in keeping us stuck
• Practical first steps from Trina's 12-step framework
• Why being "the world's okayest mom" might be a compliment
• How to live counter culture and have the family life YOU want.

Find Trina at TrinaStutzman.com and grab her book 12 Steps to Overcome People Pleasing on Amazon or wherever books are sold.

If you’ve ever found yourself spiraling trying to figure out…
Is this ADHD? Anxiety? High sensitivity? Sensory issues? Something else? — you are so not alone.

In this episode, we sit down with Alane Freund and walk through real parent scenarios that will probably feel very familiar.

We talk about a 4-year-old with intense, daily meltdowns that seem to come out of nowhere…
An 18-month-old who won’t separate or engage socially…
A teen dealing with anxiety, OCD, and school refusal…
And even what “inattentive ADHD” can look like in a highly sensitive kid who’s constantly in their own world.

This is one of those conversations where you start to realize…it’s not as clear-cut as we’ve been told.

Inside the episode, we get into:

• Why highly sensitive kids can look like they have ADHD (even when they don’t)
• How anxiety shows up in the body (nausea, headaches, shutdowns) and why it’s often misunderstood
• The concept of kids being “half their age” when they’re overwhelmed and how that changes how you respond
• Why tantrums aren’t something you fix in the moment (and what actually helps instead)
• What to do when your child refuses school, including options most parents don’t even realize they have
• The difference between temperament vs. diagnosis (and why that matters so much)

We also talk a lot about you as the parent, your nervous system, your triggers, and why your regulation matters more than any strategy.

Because the truth is…these kids can feel confusing, intense, and honestly overwhelming at times.

But they’re also incredibly perceptive, thoughtful, and capable of so much when we understand how to support them.

This episode will help you feel more clear, more grounded, and less like you’re guessing your way through every hard moment.

Get Alane's FREE GIFT here: 10 Pillars of Resilience

https://alane-freund.mykajabi.com/10-pillars-of-resilience 

Find Alane here:

Alane Freund | Are You Highly Sensitive
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Clutter stresses me out, but getting my kids to actually help clean it up? That's a whole other battle. And if you've ever resorted to threatening screen time or bribing with dessert just to get the toys off the floor, first of all, same. But also, this episode is going to change the way you think about all of it.

Leah and I sat down with Ann Dooley, founder of Simple Joy with Ann and creator of the Dooley Method, and I genuinely walked away from this conversation seeing things differently.

Ann is a certified master level KonMari consultant, a parenting coach, and author, and her whole approach is about connection first, which honestly fits in perfectly with everything we talk about on this show.

We get into why threats and bribes actually backfire, like, they're literally triggering your kid's fight or flight response, which explains so much. We also talk about how the home you grew up in shaped the way you deal with clutter today, whether you're the person who keeps everything or the person who throws it all away. Both extremes come with a lot of baggage, and a lot of us are just on autopilot repeating patterns we never even chose.

Ann walks us through her SHINE framework — Seen, Heard, Independent, Nurtured, Engaged — and how using it helps kids actually build internal motivation to help around the house instead of just avoiding it. And she closes the episode with a guided meditation that I genuinely did not see coming but absolutely needed.

If you've ever just done it all yourself because it felt easier than dealing with the meltdown, this episode is for you. It's one of those conversations that sticks with you.

Guest: Anne Dooley | simplejoywithann.com | @simplejoywithann

You may have heard that in order to feel better and regulate your nervous system you need to "process" your emotions.

But how the heck do you do that? 

Enter TAPPING - the easy, accessible tool that will help you process and release emotions, and feel better fast - and your kids can use it too!

In this podcast episode we are talking with Nicole Sabella — dancer, wellness coach, and founder of The Nourished Dancer — to explore the transformative practice of EFT (Emotional Freedom Techniques), also known as tapping.

Nicole breaks down how tapping works using the body’s acupressure points to calm the amygdala, reduce cortisol, and help us process tough emotions — from anxiety and overthinking to parenting frustrations and performance stress. Whether you're a busy mom, a sensitive soul, or just navigating life’s daily overwhelm, tapping offers a simple, science-backed tool you can use anytime, anywhere.

You’ll hear:

- A step-by-step walkthrough of a tapping session (perfect for beginners!)

- How tapping differs from talk therapy, mindfulness, and CBT

- Real-life applications for moms and kids — from bedtime worries to sibling squabbles

- Why it’s not about “fixing” emotions, but moving through them with self-compassion

- Tips for introducing tapping to neurodivergent children and teens

- And a powerful reminder: "The only way out is through."

Nicole also shares how tapping supports emotional regulation, nervous system balance, and confidence — whether you're facing a big presentation, a tough conversation, or just the chaos of a school morning.

Plus: practical advice for building a 5-minute tapping habit, when to work with a certified practitioner, and how to start small (even if you're skeptical!).

👉 Learn more about Nicole at https://thenourisheddancer.com or connect on Instagram @nicole.e.sabella.

In this episode, Leah and Adrienne dive deep into the invisible burden so many women carry, the mental load.

From remembering school schedules to managing emotional climates at home, they unpack how women, especially highly sensitive and empathic moms, end up as the "default parent," often at the cost of their own well-being.

They explore how hormonal changes during perimenopause, like declining estrogen and oxytocin, can make caretaking feel suddenly overwhelming, even impossible. When your brain fog thickens and your patience thins, it’s not failure, it’s biology. And yet, cultural expectations haven’t caught up.

Why are we still told to “do it all” when our bodies and minds are signaling it’s time to share?

Leah and Adrienne discuss:

- The difference between helping and truly owning responsibilities (spoiler: your partner isn’t “helping”—they’re co-parenting)

- Practical ways to redistribute the mental and emotional labor in your relationship

- How burnout shows up, from irritability to “hospital fantasies”, and why naming it reduces shame

- Strategies for raising boys who grow into emotionally attuned, capable men who co-create family life instead of just “pitching in”

They offer actionable steps for couples, like weekly check-ins, assigning full ownership of tasks, and modeling shared care, to build a more balanced, sustainable family dynamic.

Whether you're in the thick of parenting, entering perimenopause, or raising the next generation of caregivers, this conversation is a lifeline. It’s time to stop carrying it all, and start sharing it all.

💬 We’d love to hear from you! Share your thoughts with us on Instagram @adriennebishopcoaching or @risingsuntherapy

🔔 Don’t forget to subscribe and join us in two weeks for our next episode.

Perimenopause doesn’t just bring hot flashes, it can quietly reshape everything about how you show up as a mom, partner, and person. And for highly sensitive moms, the emotional intensity, brain fog, and shifting energy levels can feel especially overwhelming.

In this honest, empowering conversation, Ashley Basilio, midlife wellness advocate, talks with Adrienne and Leah about her own perimenopause journey and how it collided with parenting teens, burnout, and identity shifts. As a certified menopause health coach and founder of the Strong Her Together community, Ashley blends science, warmth, and lived experience to help women understand what’s really happening, and how to respond with kindness, not guilt.

We dive into:

• What perimenopause actually is (and why it’s not just about reproduction)
• How hormonal shifts impact mood, memory, and parenting capacity
• Why highly sensitive women may feel these changes more deeply
• The surprising upsides of this life stage
• Practical tools for self-care, boundary-setting, and hormone support

Whether you're in perimenopause or preparing for it, this episode is a lifeline for any HS mom navigating change with grace and strength.

🧠 Recommended Resources

• 📘 The Menopause Brain by Dr. Lisa Mosconi
• 🌐 menopause.org – Find a certified menopause provider near you

🙋‍♀️ Where to Find Ashley

• Website: getfitwithashley.com
• Community: Strong Her Together
• Podcast: Stronger Voices (on all platforms)
• Instagram: @getfitwithashley

We love to hear feedback about the show! Send us a text!

📲 Share this episode with another sensitive parent 🌐 Visit www.adriennebishopcoaching.com or risingsuntherapy.com for more support.

*DISCLAIMER: This podcast is for educational purposes only. It is not to be used for therapeutic or medical advice.

Anxiety is incredibly common for highly sensitive moms, especially after becoming a parent. In this episode, Adrienne and Leah have an honest, grounded conversation about how anxiety actually shows up in sensitive motherhood and why parenting can intensify it so much.

They explore how anxiety often lives in the body, not just the mind, and how it can look like hypervigilance, overthinking, people pleasing, perfectionism, difficulty resting, and feeling responsible for everyone else’s emotions. They also talk about how overstimulation, lack of solitude, and constant emotional attunement to kids can keep sensitive moms stuck in survival mode.

This episode goes beyond awareness and into support. Adrienne and Leah share practical, nervous-system-based tools to help regulate anxiety, including grounding, breathing, co-regulation, somatic practices, temperature regulation, tapping (EFT), and hypnosis techniques designed to interrupt anxious patterns and create new neural pathways.

You’ll also hear a live hypnosis example that shows how anxiety can shift when you work with the body instead of against it.

DOWNLOAD the FREE Hypnosis tools Cheat Sheet here!

We love to hear feedback about the show! Send us a text!

📲 Share this episode with another sensitive parent 🌐 Visit www.adriennebishopcoaching.com or risingsuntherapy.com for more support.

*DISCLAIMER: This podcast is for educational purposes only. It is not to be used for therapeutic or medical advice.

Have you ever found yourself snapping at your kids and then feeling awful about it afterward? You’re not alone.

In this episode of Real Parenting for the Sensitive Mom, we talk with perinatal mental health therapist and researcher Nicole McNellis about mom rage — what it is, why it happens, and why it doesn’t mean you’re a bad mom.

We explore how overwhelm, resentment, unrealistic expectations, and nervous system overload can build up and spill over, especially for sensitive, deeply caring moms. You’ll also learn simple ways to understand what your anger is trying to tell you and how to respond with more compassion for yourself.

We unpack:

• The build-up → explosion → guilt cycle so many moms experience
• How resentment, overload, and unrealistic expectations fuel rage
• Why highly sensitive, perfectionistic, and people-pleasing moms are especially vulnerable
• The difference between outward explosions and internalized rage
• And what your anger is trying to tell you about your needs, boundaries, and support
• what coping skills work to help you feel better

Contact Nicole McNelis: nicolemacnellis.com and on Instagram @therapistmomcollective

We love to hear feedback about the show! Send us a text!

📲 Share this episode with another sensitive parent 🌐 Visit www.adriennebishopcoaching.com or risingsuntherapy.com for more support.

*DISCLAIMER: This podcast is for educational purposes only. It is not to be used for therapeutic or medical advice.

What if the overwhelm you’ve always blamed on anxiety or “being too sensitive” is actually ADHD… or both?

In this episode of Real Parenting for the Sensitive Mom, Adrienne Bishop and Leah Andeoni sit down with licensed, trauma-informed therapist Avery Wasmanski to unpack the complex and often confusing overlap between high sensitivity, ADHD, anxiety, and trauma in motherhood.  

With both professional expertise and lived experience as a mom with ADHD, Avery helps us explore why so many women are diagnosed late (or not at all), how ADHD shows up differently in moms, and why executive functioning, emotional regulation, and rejection-sensitive dysphoria can make parenting feel impossibly hard.

Together, we talk about:

• The key differences and overlaps between high sensitivity and ADHD
• Why anxiety and burnout are so common in undiagnosed moms
• Executive functioning struggles vs. sensory overwhelm
• Emotional reactivity, impulse control, and parenting under stress
• Rejection-sensitive dysphoria and how it impacts moms and kids
• The role of trauma in amplifying ADHD symptoms
• Why self-compassion and understanding your brain are essential (not optional)
• Small, realistic steps to feel more empowered and less overwhelmed

If you’re a mom who feels like your brain never shuts off, you’re exhausted from masking, or you’re wondering whether ADHD might be part of your story, this conversation will help you feel seen, validated, and less alone.

Avery's contact information: https://averywasmanskilpctherapy.com/

📲 Share this episode with another sensitive parent 🌐 Visit adriennebishopcoaching.com or risingsuntherapy.com for more support.

We love to hear feedback about the show! Send us a text!

📲 Share this episode with another sensitive parent 🌐 Visit www.adriennebishopcoaching.com or risingsuntherapy.com for more support.

*DISCLAIMER: This podcast is for educational purposes only. It is not to be used for therapeutic or medical advice.

Connection Before Correction - GET YOUR FREE POSITIVE DISCIPLINE CHEAT SHEET HERE!

Parenting a highly sensitive child while being a sensitive parent yourself? We see you. In this episode, Leah and Adrienne dive deep into how Positive Discipline can transform your parenting journey — especially when traditional methods just don’t work.

What You’ll Hear:

• Why sticker charts, timeouts, and yelling backfire with sensitive kids
• What makes highly sensitive kids tick (hint: their nervous systems are wired for depth)
• Real-life examples of how connection calms the chaos
• Tools you can use TODAY to build cooperation without shame

Why Traditional Discipline Fails

• Sensitive kids experience correction as threat
• Their brains flip into fight/flight/freeze — no learning happens
• Punishment = shutdown. Safety = growth.

What Positive Discipline Offers Instead

• Connection before correction
• Teaching through empathy, not control
• Emotional safety that leads to real cooperation

Tools We Talk About:

• Connection First: “You’re upset the tower broke. You were so upset that happened. What can you do to make things better?"
• Curiosity Questions: “What’s your plan for finishing homework?”
• Choices Within Limits: “Do you want to brush your teeth before or after pajamas?”
• Natural & Logical Consequences: “You spilled juice — let’s clean it up together.”
• Encouragement Over Praise: “You must feel proud of how hard you worked.”
• Modeling Repair: “I yelled earlier. I’m sorry. I was overwhelmed.”

“When you choose curiosity over control, you teach connection over fear.”

FREE CHEAT SHEET! GET YOUR FREE POSITIVE DISCIPLINE CHEAT SHEET HERE!

🎧 Listen now and ask yourself: 👉 Which tool do I want to try this week?

📲 Share this episode with another sensitive parent 🌐 Visit www.adriennebishopcoaching.com or risingsuntherapy.com for more support.

We love to hear feedback about the show! Send us a text!

📲 Share this episode with another sensitive parent 🌐 Visit www.adriennebishopcoaching.com or risingsuntherapy.com for more support.

*DISCLAIMER: This podcast is for educational purposes only. It is not to be used for therapeutic or medical advice.