This is Episode Five of conversations with stoic mamas along the way, part of a series of conversations with moms who’ve consciously chosen to shift the way they’re relating to this circumstance; using the context of parenting a trans-identified child to inspire personal healing and growth. This episode is sponsored by Dream School. Brought to you by the creators of This Jungian Life, Dream School is a year-long dream interpretation course designed to teach you how to “decode the language of metaphor and symbol, and harness the power of your unconscious wisdom.” Stoicmom subscribers can get 15% off tuition with the coupon code: STOICMOM15 Go to https://thisjungianlife.com/join-dream-school/ to learn more and enroll.
It was such a pleasure to invite on Rachel (pseudonym) to discuss what it’s like to parent “interesting, complicated” children in today’s world and the unexpected outcomes of being a highly deliberate and invested mother. She mentions “counterwill",” which is a term I use often in my writing and with my clients to describe what Dr. Gordon Neufeld asserts is a human instinct to resist perceived control. Follow this link to learn more about counterwill. Rachel and I also discuss an exercise she created and recently facilitated for a support group she’s part of for parents of trans-identified young people. If you’re interested in doing this exercise yourself or facilitating it for a support group, you’ll find a link below to the activity that Rachel created. (Includes the questions and tips we discussed as well as SMP article excerpts that Rachel used to provoke different ways of thinking about the circumstance.) This ended up being a very long conversation that required some difficult editing decisions. There’s a bonus track that contains more discussion of this support group activity that she designed and her tips for navigating this in a way that feels better:
Activity for Parent Support Groups by Rachel (Thank you, Rachel!!)
Taking the Oxygen out of this -with Rachel