We had no idea when we started our podcast four years ago how much it would grow. What started out as the three of us sharing our honest conversations about our families has now been downloaded over 300,000 times! We love reading listener comments, emails, and reviews. We love meeting you at events and conferences [...]
You may laugh. You may cry. You may decide it's better than "Cats". No, Chris, Ryan, and Kayla aren't singing show tunes in this episode, but they are talking about memories. Implicit vs. explicit, exact reproduction vs. narrative, calm vs. aroused: how do these different types of memories affect our kids' beliefs and behaviors? [podbean [...]
Chris, Ryan, and Kayla talk about how being an empathetic listener to our children's stories can help with their healing, and why it's important for us to tell our own stories to others to help in our own healing. For when we learn to how to help heal ourselves, we can help our children in [...]
Some of our kids have big emotions. Chris talks with Ryan and Kayla about how we deal with drama when the emotions go from big to bigger to biggest. [podbean resource="episode=mjufj-97d457" type="audio-square" height="400" skin="8" fonts="Helvetica" auto="0" download="1" rtl="0"] Resources Mentioned in the Episode Harry Chapin - The Cat's in the Cradle One Big Happy Home [...]
Listener Jamie asks, how do we prepare the kids already in our home for the journey into foster care? This is something as parents we do not always consider, especially if the kids already in our home are very young. Chris talks with Ryan and Kayla about ways to help kids prepare for and deal [...]
Listener Jeremy wants to know about prepping kids from hard places for summer camps, so Ryan, Kayla, and Chris discuss the best ways to manage this. They also discuss how those working at these camps might be able to help out in that environment. Resources Mentioned in the Episode Sky Ranch @ Horn Creek Adoptive [...]
There are so many places where our unmet expectations get in the way of connection with our kids. Chris, Ryan, and Kayla are joined again by Allison Highton, and they talk about these various expectations, which begin even before our kids come home. [podbean resource="episode=hkyhg-9021bf" type="audio-square" height="400" skin="8" fonts="Helvetica" auto="0" download="1" rtl="0"] Resources Mentioned in [...]
[podbean resource="episode=aruwh-8ec05e" type="audio-square" height="400" skin="8" fonts="Helvetica" auto="0" download="1" rtl="0"] Chris, Ryan, and Kayla are joined by Allison Highton. Allison, along with her husband Russ, is an Empowered to Connect parent trainer in New Jersey. Allison works with Miriam's Heart, a non-profit adoption ministry that radically supports families who take action on behalf of adoptive and foster [...]
Chris is joined once again by Ryan and Kayla as the team talks about the need for mindfulness. As Curt Thompson says, "You need to pay attention to what you're paying attention to." They discuss why this is especially important with adoptive and foster children. [podbean resource="episode=h2jd9-795e3f" type="audio-square" height="400" skin="1" fonts="Helvetica" auto="0" download="1" rtl="1"] Star [...]
The 2017 Tapestry Conference will feature Curt Thompson, author of Anatomy of the Soul and The Soul of Shame. Dr. Thompson's work is an integral part of the Empowered to Connect Parent Training classes; Anatomy of the Soul is one of the books that parents read as part of the training. The 2017 Tapestry Conference [...]