Aware Parenting Stories with Joss Goulden

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/

In this episode I speak with Hannah Mushit who is the mother of 4 children, a registered play therapist and an Aware Parenting Instructor in Fremantle in Western Australia. She shares her journey with Aware Parenting and offers some examples of using Attachment Play to support her family. We discuss how to help ourselves in the moments where we "should" ourselves about play and how to support ourselves when we don't have the capacity to play, with compassion and acceptance. We talk about how our own childhood experiences of play can come up in our parenting and make it hard to be playful with our children at times. Hannah talks about Play Therapy and Filial Therapy for healing stress and trauma. We explore how to use play to offer the Balance of Attention and how to cultivate trust. To learn more about Hannah's work, please visit https://childhoodrising.com.au and follow her on social media at childhood.rising. If you would like support with attachment play or any other aspect of Aware Parenting, I am here for you and I invite you to get in touch https://awareparenting.com.au/contact-me/

This episode of my podcast is all about non-directive child centred play, also often known as Special Time. I describe what this kind of play is and how it is so therapeutic and helpful for our children. I explore how we can offer it, when it's particularly helpful for our children, what can happen when we offer this type of play, as well as why this can be hard for us to do. I talk about how to support ourselves to be able to offer this play regularly. I end with some words of compassion to support ourselves in the moments when it feels really hard to play and to build capacity so that our children can enjoy these powerful moments of togetherness. 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.

This episode is the first in my new series of conversations about Attachment Play. I describe what Attachment Play is and the benefits of this for our children. I talk about how this type of play supports us in the practice of all the aspects and principles of Aware Parenting. and share how we offer it to our children. I explain the 9 different types of play and discuss why it can be hard for us as parents to be playful in these ways and how we can be more playful. I end by sharing some of my favourite attachment play games that I have played with my children over the years. To learn more about attachment play or to get in touch for a session to support you with this aspect of aware parenting, please get in touch via my website www.awareparenting.com.au

Welcome back to another episode of the Aware Parenting Stories podcast. After having a few weeks off, I am back with the final episode for this year and the last episode in the series of conversations I have been having about Embracing Imperfection. In this episode I share some final reflections on where perfectionism comes from, the effect of our childhood experiences and the socio-cultural factors that play into this for many mothers. I share more about how to support ourselves with compassion, acknowledgement, finding safety for ourselves, bringing more play and laughter, meeting our own needs and offering ourselves reassurance, care and love. To get support with this or any other aspect of aware parenting, I invite you to get in touch support@awareparenting.com.au

This latest episode of my podcast about embracing imperfection is all about the journey of self-acceptance in fatherhood. I am really excited to be having a conversation with Mark Gee, who is a counsellor, a mental health first aid instructor, a Rites of Passage leader and an online Circle Work Facilitator. He is a father and supports other fathers through his 6 week online Dad's Journey Workshops. In this conversation Mark shares his journey from tradesman to men's mental health specialist and counsellor. He shares how he has supported himself and other fathers to be more vulnerable and self-connected and to move from being isolated in parenting and instead find new powerful ways to role model what it is to be a man supporting himself and his family. Mark shares some of the most common struggles for fathers and describes some way that fathers can learn self-compassion, self-acceptance, presence and repair after rupture. We talk about unconditional love and cultivating resilience. Mark shares the relief and power that comes from connecting with other fathers in groups, to share and be vulnerable together. To learn more about Mark's work or to sign up for his next 6 week workshop which starts on the 9th October 2025, please visit www.markgee.com.au or follow him on Instragram at markgeewellbeing. To learn more about The Aware Parenting Retreat, please visit https://awareparenting.com.au/aware-parenting-retreat/

Welcome back to another episode and the next instalment in my series on embracing our imperfection in Aware Parenting, in conversation this time with Rebecca Sheikh who is a level 2 Aware Parenting Instructor and the regional coordinator for the UK, Ireland and Sub-Saharan Africa. In this episode we talk about how parenting invites us to tend to the hurt places within us from our childhoods and how adversity in childhood shapes who we are. We talk about how normal it is for parents to need support and Rebecca shares some of the ways that she has found most effective in her own healing. She shares some resources and processes for parents to support themselves in parenting and her own journey of learning to embrace imperfection. She ends with a poem that she finds particularly touching called Everything is Beautiful by Mark Nepo. To learn more about Rebecca and her offerings please visit www.flourishingchildhood.com/ To get support with this or any other aspect of aware parenting, I invite you to get in touch support@awareparenting.com.au

Welcome back to another episode and the next instalment in my series on embracing our imperfection in Aware Parenting, in conversation this time with Katie Fusco who is an Aware Parenting Instructor and a specialist perinatal and infant mental health practitioner in the UK. In this episode Katie shares with beautiful vulnerability her journey with embracing imperfection following a profoundly difficult and traumatic birth and post-partum period. She shares how she has moved from an internal dialogue that was scathing and excrutiatingly harsh, full of guilt and self-judgment, to an inner voice of compassion and care. We talk about the devastating impact of the rewards and praise she experienced in the education system in setting up perfectionistic pressure on herself. We talk about the huge benefit of finding support to be in the discomfort of our deeply painful but sacred feelings in order to be able to embrace our imperfection and re-find compassion for ourselves. Katie shares some of the hardest moments in her parenting and how she has found compassion and acceptance of herself. To learn more about Katie, she will be sharing on Instragram at thecryingclinic. To learn more about the Exploring Motherhood & Aware Parenting Community with Danni Willow and myself, please visit https://awareparenting.com.au/community-sign-up/ To get support with this or any other aspect of aware parenting, I invite you to get in touch support@awareparenting.com.au

In this episode, Danni Willow joins me for a beautiful conversation about trust in parenting. We talk about how trust is such a central aspect of Aware Parenting and why it is hard for many of us to trust. We discuss what we need in order to cultivate trust and share the effect on our children and who they grow up to be of us getting support to be more trusting of them and of ourselves. We share the importance of connection and community with others in order to be able to come back to trusting the unfolding of our motherhood journey. If you want to learn more about the Exploring Motherhood and Aware Parenting Community, where we explore this in depth, please visit https://awareparenting.com.au/parenting-coaching/community/ The doors for the next year of this community are open now and will close on 22nd September 2025.