Mending Families Podcast
Mending Families Podcast
Mending Families is hosted by Melissa Pemberton and she brings you weekly content that is a mix of trauma aware interviews, parenting tips for those caring for kids from adversity, and stories from people just like you as they share their beautiful messy moments.
Melissa hopes that when you listen each week, you will feel encouraged, inspired and take a little something away to help you and your family move from broken to mended.
To help keep the podcast going, consider becoming a monthly donor to help cover the costs!
Introducing Mending Families - Trailer
Are you in the trenches of parenting kids from adversity and trauma? Do you find yourself wondering why the "typical parenting strategies" are not working for your family? That those strategies seem to make matters worse? Are you a friend or family member of someone parenting kids from hard and you just don't know how to help? In fact, maybe you don't even fully understand why the struggle is so real for them? Are you a professional, teacher, therapist, social worker, or advocate that wants to better understand how trauma is effecting the kids you are working with? Then this podcast is for you...for all of you!
We all have kids in our lives who have (or are going to) experienced trauma and the reality is, trauma does affect child development, emotional regulation, brain development and so much more. So let's dig in to better understanding trauma. Let's have real talk about how hard it is to parent kids who have experienced trauma, especially if we are still doing our own healing of trauma. Let's not be afraid to talk about trauma, parenting and the healing journey we are all on! Remember, trauma awareness is important for our future generations and it starts with you!
Episode 82 - Nicole Barlow
In this episode, Nicole shares about her journey into foster care and adoption, and her experiences as a foster parent and foster parent trainer. She also discussed the importance of self-care and trauma-informed practices for foster and adoptive parents, with Nicole emphasizing the need for parents to prioritize their well-being to better support their children.
Episode 81 - Mindful Mondays, Grounding Breath Exercise
On today’s episode, Melissa brings you a Mindful Monday all about grounding ourselves for just a few moments. In the spirit of grounding ourselves, today’s guided meditation is called “Grounding Breath”. Find a comfy, quiet place and 7 minutes while Melissa guides you through a grounding breath exercise.
Episode 80 - Kelly Biltz
In today’s episode, Kelly, a life coach for teens with ADHD, talks about ways to help teenagers boost their confidence and deals with common challenges they face, such as managing emotions, time, and schoolwork. She discusses how ADHD can be managed through diagnosis, medication, and other methods, highlighting the need for a supportive lifestyle that includes good sleep, nutrition, exercise, and community support. Kelly gives parents strategies to assist their teens and stresses the importance of understanding neurodivergence, along with sharing resources for additional help.
Episode 79 - Mindful Monday
On today’s episode, Melissa brings you a new monthly series, Mindful Mondays. Because it is the month of love, today’s guided mindful meditation is called “Loving Kindness”. Find a comfy, quiet place and 10 minutes while Melissa guides you through a loving kindness exercise.
Episode 78 - Robyn Gutierrez
On today’s episode, Robyn talks about her healing journey and how she went from being a behavioral analyst to now a self-compassion coach on her path to being certified as a Reiki practitioner. She goes back to share about her childhood trauma, an unhealthy marriage, and how she got to where she is today. From hiring her own nutrition coach and career coach, to now coaching others using self-compassion, breathwork, energy, and Reiki she loves helping others find their way through healing.
Episode 77 - Angela Masciulli
In today’s episode, Angela talks about what brought her to find Reiki and energy healing and shares with the audience how she uses these tools to help others find healing. Angela opens up about her trauma history and how she continues to do her healing. She gives us some good insight into Reiki and helps direct the audience to find more tools for their journey.
Episode 75 - Allison Ezell
On today’s episode, Allison shared about her journey into sleep consulting and the services she offers to families dealing with sleep issues. She talks about understanding sleep pressure and sleep onset associations as a crucial part of addressing sleep issues in children. Allison believes trauma-informed approaches are essential, as typical sleep training methods may not be effective for children with trauma backgrounds and she gives us examples of why this is and how we can start making minor adjustments today. If you have a kiddo who struggles with sleep, this episode is for you! Enjoy!
Episode 74 - Erin Peterson
On today’s episode, Erin opens up about mental health struggles within her immediate family and how this came to a head this past year. Erin’s three boys all have their diagnosis and with their permission, Erin shares some of the hard and good about raising her three boys. Listen in as Erin gives us good things to consider, including encouragement for those of us on similar journeys.