Listen, if you don’t have good role models for parenting, of course you’re going to struggle.
- You don't know how to balance your own needs with your kids' needs.
- People keep telling you to put on your own oxygen mask first and you don't even HAVE an oxygen mask.
- You lie awake at night worrying that you're screwing up your kids.
- You don't want to be shamed, blamed or criticized -- you got enough of that for a lifetime -- but you know you want help.
- You know you don't want to spank, yell or punish but then what ARE you supposed to do?
- You really really really really don't want to be your mother.
I understand. I’ve worked with hundreds of parents who felt just like you.
What you need — what you deserve — is a safe space to work it all out. A place where you can get in touch with your inner wisdom (I know you’ve got tons), where you can grow your personal AND parenting confidence, and where you can become the happy, healthy and effective parent you were meant to be.
That’s what I offer you in the You Are Not Your Mother membership.
Dawn Friedman MSEd
This membership program is not just about how to parent effectively (getting kids to bed, getting chores done, etc.) but about the potential for parenting to be transformative — to bring us to our best selves, our most loving selves, and our most contented and confident selves. This is big work and it’s hard work but you don’t have to do it alone. It is my passion and my privilege to work with struggling parents like you.
If you had parents who were overbearing...
you might worry about being overbearing or about swinging too far in the opposite direction to being neglectful.
If you had parents who were neglectful...
you might worry about fostering independence without making your kids feel abandoned.
If you had parents who were explosive or depressed or anxious...
you might worry about appropriately managing your own feelings of anger, sadness and anxiety.
If you secretly worry that everyone else knows how to be a parent and that you'll never figure it out then you are in the right place!
You don't have to repeat your parents' mistakes. It stops here, now, with YOU.
Here's how the membership supports you:
- You get clear guidance so you can handle tough times in new ways;
- No more parenting drama -- you'll learn to roll with the punches;
- You'll understand what's happening with your kids and not take things personally;
- You'll learn how to take care of YOURSELF, for real;
- Plus a supportive, private, NON-JUDGMENTAL community of like-minded, dedicated parents;
- And so much more!
The first 2 weeks of your membership are FREE
That’s right, I let you test drive the site 100% without any risk.
Sign-up and spend the next two weeks checking out the classes, chatting in the groups, and getting to know me. If you decide the site is not for you just go to your profile and click “cancel” within the first 14 days and your card will NOT be charged.
Join TODAY for lifetime legacy pricing!
The price goes up June 15th!
Note: Are you receiving Medicaid, Medicare, food stamps or WIC? Contact me by filling out this form to get a special sliding scale membership
My work has been featured in:
I am here for you. There are answers and support available to you, right now inside the membership!
In this episode we talk about the concept of Rest and the idea of doing Generative Work with Erin Upchurch MSSA LISW-S (she/her).
Erin wears many many hats. She is the executive director of Kaleidoscope Youth Center; a Community Lecturer and Field Instructor at Ohio State University’s College of Social Work; a leader and activist in the Central Ohio community. In 2017 she ran for the Columbus City School Board on the Yes, We Can Columbus and she has served on several boards including including TransOhio and the Ohio AIDS Coalition. Currently, she is on the board for the Central Ohio Fair Housing Association.
She is also the co-founder of the Ohio REST Collective along with her partner Karen Hewitt Med (ze/hir/she/her) and a single mom to two.
You might read all that and say, wait and she’s talking about rest?!? Don’t worry — we talk about that, too!
Erin’s interview is thoughtful, encouraging, and paradigm-bending. She has a special message to single parents and to those who are healing generational trauma and are working to attend to their own complex trauma.
I hope this episode will give you much inspiration to bring into 2022!
Harriet and I talk about her book, Shadow Daughter: A Memoir of Estrangement and discuss our own experiences of estrangement from our moms. We share the way estrangement ripples through families, how we cope with the pain of estrangement, and what we learned about ourselves in our relationships with our mothers.
You can learn more about Harriet at her website here: http://harriet-brown.squarespace.com
You can buy her memoir, Shadow Daughter, at Bookshop here (note: this is an affiliate link and any money I make from Bookshop is donated to Postpartum Support International).
I also encourage you to check out her other books Body of Truth: How Science, History, and Culture Drive Our Obsession with Weight — And What We Can Do About It andBrave Girl Eating: A Family’s Struggle with Anorexia.
In the episode we mention the UK organization Stand Alone, which you can find here: https://www.standalone.org.uk
As well as the work of Joshua Colman, whose book When Parents Hurt: Compassionate Strategies When You and Your Grown Child Don’t Get Along focuses on the experiences of parents of estranged children.
Finally, I mention my Get Yourself Grounded course, which is free until the end of the year. I would love for you to join and you can do so here.
Michelle Risser, a counselor specializing in perinatal mental health and a coach who works with moms who are therapists at JoyfulHappyMom.com, sits down to talk with me about burnout.
We discuss:
05:03 What made her decide to go beyond counseling to add coaching to her repetoire
07:58 The special challenges for working moms in the past pandemic year
09:42 How a breast cancer diagnosis was her wake up call
13:53 How mindfulness changed her life for the better
18:36 Easy tips to add mindfulness to your own life
25:59 Michelle’s epiphany about the “put your own oxygen mask on first” advice
29:31 The differences between stress, chronic stress, and burnout
I also talk a little about the DSM diagnosis of adjustment disorder and how knowing about it might make it easier for someone to reach out to a therapist
Learn more about Michelle at her counseling site here: http://michellerissercounseling.com and her coaching site here: http://joyfulhappymom.com
I had a great time talking to Deidre A. Prewitt MS LPCC of ReconnectingColumbus.com about the ways that our relationship with our parents helps shape our relationship with our partners and why it’s so important to set boundaries with our families of origin. Deidre had a lot of great things to say including:
@5:52 How to know when your “couple bubble” is being violated and what to do about it
@10:28 The difference between guilt and shame and what it has to say about the way we’re functioning
@13:54 Why you need to think about the legacy you’re building in your relationship with your partner
@16:18 The importance of finding a “guider couple” to inspire growth in your partnership
@23:24 On setting boundaries with your inlaws (even if your partner doesn’t want to)
@30:45 Why it can be so hard to let go of parenting our grown kids
@42:57 What you NEED to know if you decide to use your insurance for couples’ therapy
Learn more about Deirdre and her group practice at her web site ReconnectingColumbus.com
This year has been traumatic for ourselves and our kids but there are things we can do to help our children grow through it. I sit down to talk with Dr. Amy Marschall of ResiliencyMentalHealth.com to talk about parenting beyond the pandemic. Amy has a lot to share including:
@4:19 Tips to help kids express big feelings appropriately without stepping on those feelings
@13:18 Why you want your kids to be a challenge.
I sit down with Macall Gordon MA, a sleep coach at LittleLivewires.com, who specializes in supporting parents with temperamentally intense kids. We talk about why there’s no such thing as bad habits, why commonsense sleep wisdom doesn’t work for every child, and what the parenting books have wrong about getting kids to sleep.
I talk to Eve Hermann a licensed massage therapist and somatic experience practitioner about the concept of Presence. Eve and I discuss what presence is, why it’s important, and how we can bring it back into our lives