144: Re-Parenting Ourselves in the Here and Now with Christine Dixon

For those of you who are working through Parenting from Within inside my BalancingU membership, this week's episode could not come at a better time! We are currently working through the process of uncovering our inner voices and children and starting the good (but hard) work of healing. If you're interested in this program you can learn more here. We have already started, but it's available as a self-study on its own or as a part of my membership. Let me know if you have any questions! ​ Ok, on to the episode. One of the things that have been the hardest for me in my respectful parenting journey, is swallowing the uncomfortable truth that I can't expect to become a more respectful parent to my children when I'm still using the same old negative tactics on myself, in my own mind. If we know that change and learning and growth for our kids don't happen via shame, blame, and guilt, why would it be any different for us right? And yet it is so hard to let those old patterns go, and start treating ourselves with the same love and compassion we show our children. ​ And that is where "re-parenting" comes in. Without it, respectful parenting can be quite a slog, because your inner narrative and approach is not aligned with the outer one you're attempting to use with your children. However, WITH IT, in my experience, there is so much healing and grace that it allows respectful parenting to flow through you much more easily. ​ Re-parenting is actually pretty straight forward and simple and I'm so excited to share with you a process that has been so helpful to me personally. In this week's episode, we will explore how we use Internal Family Systems (IFS- See this previous episode for an introduction!) to help us reparent ourselves and parent our children with compassion, grace, and curiosity. ​ To help me in this conversation, I brought in Christine Dixon, an IFS expert who I adore learning from. With more than 20 years as an Educational Therapist, Christine's own relational, religious, and medical trauma eventually resulted in panic attacks and bodily symptoms that left her incapacitated. In a desperate effort to heal herself, Christine discovered how integrated her mind and body truly are. After training with renowned Life Coach, Martha Beck, Christine fell in love with the modality of IFS - Internal Family Systems - which she found to be the most direct, effective, holistic, and compassionate inner healing method she had ever encountered. She is committed to sharing her learnings with those who need it. ​ If you want to know more and learn how to navigate your internal family systems, visit www.theordinarysacred.com (there are courses such as IFS 101 and Self-Compassion through an IFS Lens- which I loved and is a perfect complement to Parenting from Within) and follow Christine on IG @the_ordinary_ sacred.