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Dr. Linda Shanti’s interview for her It’s Not About the Baby Weight Summit!

Dr. Linda Shanti’s interview for her It’s Not About the Baby Weight Summit!

It’s Not About the Baby Weight Online Summit from Lindsay Stenovec on Vimeo.

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IT’S NOT ABOUT THE BABY WEIGHT – RECOVERY MAMA SUMMIT

During pregnancy and postpartum, your relationship with food changes and your body transforms. This shift is challenging for nearly all new moms, but if you have a history of anxiety, depression, or an eating disorder, that adds another layer of complexity to an already difficult process. So, what kind of support do you need if you are in recovery as you transition into motherhood?

Dr. Linda Shanti is a licensed clinical psychologist in private practice in San Francisco. She specializes in recovery from eating disorders, body image challenges, anxiety, postpartum depression, and new mom support. Linda is also a well-known speaker and author of the book The Recovery Mama Guide to Your Eating Disorder Recovery in Pregnancy and Postpartum. With 20 years of experience in the realm of compulsive eating, emotional eating, binge eating, bulimia, and anorexia, she is committed to helping women leverage expressive arts, mindfulness, and compassionate mirroring to support recovery in pregnancy and postpartum.

On this episode of The Embodied & Well Mom Show, Linda joins us to explain the proactive approach she took to get support during her own pregnancy, discussing the way her anxiety presented as irritability, anger, and hypervigilance. She shares her experience with both food and body image during pregnancy and postpartum and describes how she supports women in decoding the myths around ‘getting your body back.’ Listen in to understand Linda’s approach to working with new moms in recovery—and learn to quiet your overdeveloped self-critic in favor of self-compassion!

Key Takeaways

 

Linda’s proactive approach to getting support during her own pregnancy

  • Brought up history of anxiety, eating disorder at first appointment
  • Surprised by irritable depression, rage and hypervigilance

The challenge of supporting a partner with irritable depression

  • Looks like pushing away, want to be alone

Linda’s experience with food during pregnancy and postpartum

  • Disconcerting ravenous hunger
  • Nausea in first trimester (calmed by eating)

Linda’s experience with body image during pregnancy

  • Drastic hormonal shifts led to BIG feelings
  • Fun to have baby bump in middle of process
  • Very rough at end, ‘carting around boulder’

How Linda supports clients around postpartum body image

  • Work through grief process
  • Decode myths re: diet culture, getting body back

How Linda works with moms in recovery from eating disorders

  • Reframe independence as interdependence
  • Address overdeveloped self-critic
  • Reassess schedule, lower the bar on expectations

Linda’s advice for overachieving first-time moms

  • You will come back, have time to self again

Connect with Linda

 

Linda’s Website

Recovery Mama on Instagram

Recovery Mam on Facebook

 

Connect with Lindsay

 

Intuitive Eating Moms

Embodied & Well Mom Show on Facebook

Lindsay on Instagram

Lindsay on Pinterest

Lindsay on Twitter

Lindsay on LinkedIn

 

Resources

 

The Recovery Mama Guide to Your Eating Disorder Recovery in Pregnancy and Postpartum by Linda Shanti McCabe

 

How to Be a Good Enough Mother with Corinne Crossley, LMHC and Jessica Foley, LMHC, LPCC

How to Be a Good Enough Mother with Corinne Crossley, LMHC and Jessica Foley, LMHC, LPCC

We all want to be good moms, so we set the bar high. In fact, our expectations are SO elevated that we end up neglecting ourselves in order to put the baby first. But what if the moments we think of as mom fails are actually beneficial to our kiddos? What if ‘good enough mothering’ is a good thing for our families? What if—sometimes—it’s okay just to show up?

Corinne Crossley is a psychotherapist and mother of two whose practice focuses on helping people heal their relationships with their bodies. She holds a master’s in Counseling Psychology from Lesley University. Jessica Foley is a licensed mental health and professional clinical counselor whose practice centers around supporting women in developing a healthy relationship with their bodies. She earned her master’s in Clinical Mental Health Counseling from Lesley University. Together, Jessica and Corinne host the Momma Bites! Podcast to help moms eat mindfully ‘one animal cracker at a time.’

 

Today, Jessica and Corinne join us to explain how they came to work with moms and share the common struggles among their client base. They discuss how guilt and perfectionism lead moms to neglect themselves—especially when it comes to eating. Jessica introduces the concept of ‘good enough mothering’ and Corinne offers insight around giving yourself permission to do less. Listen in for advice on reassessing your basic needs and learn how failing in manageable ways can actually benefit your kids!

 

Key Takeaways

 

Jessica’s path to working with moms

  • Focus on women (mental, reproductive health)
  • First mom client struggled with mood disruption
  • Trained with The Postpartum Stress Center

 

Corinne’s path to working with moms

  • First client struggled with binge eating disorder
  • Becoming mom changed experience of work
  • Focus on how take care of bodies as parents

 

What issues moms are struggling with most

  • Guilt and perfectionism
  • Postpartum anxiety
  • Body image

 

How these common struggles show up

  • Moms neglect selves (eating first to go)
  • See eating as something we must earn
  • Use food to supplement other needs

 

Jessica & Corrine’s advice for moms with self-care challenges

  • Reassess basics and get support
  • Cultivate self-compassion
  • Set intention for self-care
  • Give self permission to do LESS

 

The idea of ‘good enough mothering’

  • Coined by researcher DW Winnicott
  • Benefits to manageable failure
  • Sometimes okay to just show up

 

How to adjust your expectations based on the circumstances

  • What’s good enough in this moment?
  • No ‘perfect,’ just what’s right for you
  • Foster flexibility in thinking
  • Pay attention to what’s good

 

The benefits around failing in manageable ways

  • Promotes independence and trust
  • Kids have different perception of ‘failure’

 

Check out Momma Bites!

Show Notes

Intuitive Eating Moms Club

 

Connect with Jessica & Corinne

Momma Bites!

Mindful Eating Moms on Twitter

Mindful Eating Moms on Instagram

Mindful Eating Moms on Facebook

Corinne’s Website

Jessica’s Website

Jessica on Twitter

Jessica on Facebook

Jessica on Instagram

 

Connect with Lindsay

 

Intuitive Eating Moms

Embodied & Well Mom Show on Facebook

Lindsay on Instagram

Lindsay on Pinterest

Lindsay on Twitter

Lindsay on LinkedIn

 

Resources

 

Lindsay on Momma Bites

Karen Kleiman

Postpartum Stress Center

Boston OBGYN

Dr. Linda Shanti

Winnicott Research Study

Harlow Monkey Study

Present Over Perfect: Leaving Behind Frantic for a Simpler, More Soulful Way of Living by Shauna Niequist

‘A Normal Day’ Video

 

How to Use Yoga to Support your Motherhood Journey (without studios or expensive pants)

How to Use Yoga to Support your Motherhood Journey (without studios or expensive pants)


Listen + Subscribe on ITUNES or STITCHER

We’d greatly appreciate a podcast rating and review so that we can reach more mamas and families!
Every mom needs more help than we get. But if you’re a new mom struggling with anxiety and depression, it can be difficult to reach out for support. With or without a diagnosis of PMADs, you deserve help—and yoga therapy may provide just the tools you need to address any physical or emotional imbalances you are experiencing. The best part? Much of it can be done while you’re holding a baby or lying down. No mat required.

Suzannah Neufeld is a licensed psychotherapist and certified yoga therapist in private practice out of the Bay Area. She has 15 years of experience supporting people coping with eating disorders, body image concerns, anxiety, and pregnancy and early parenthood. Suzannah speaks regularly on the topics of eating disorders, body image, perinatal mood disorders, and yoga therapy for organizations like the California Association of Marriage and Family Therapists, Postpartum Support International, and About-Face. Her first book, Awake at 3 a.m.: Yoga Therapy for Anxiety and Depression in Pregnancy and Early Motherhood, was published in 2018.

 

Today, Suzannah joins us to share her definition of yoga, discussing the difference between its true intention and how it’s been marketed in Western culture. She offers her take on the idea of self-care and explains why she advocates for responsiveness to your body instead. Suzannah also addresses what she calls the ‘all-natural mandate’ and the judgement and shame pregnant women and new moms feel around food. Listen in for Suzannah’s insight on the distinction between PMADs and the baby blues, the value in researching therapists before the baby comes, and how she leverages yoga therapy to help moms with anxiety and depression.

 

Key Takeaways

 

Suzannah’s definition of yoga

  • Practices to connect body, heart and mind
  • Provide clarity and meaningful existence

 

The 3 key components of Suzannah’s practice

  1. Breathing techniques—pranayama
  2. Movement/postures—asanas
  3. Philosophical tools (e.g.: inward focus, compassion)

 

The true intention of yoga

  • Not about certain body type, structure
  • Dropping into body to access freedom

 

Suzannah’s take on the idea of self-care

  • Focus on self disregards community as source
  • Activities often require time or money

 

Why Suzannah advocates for responsiveness to your body

  • Act on need to rest, relationship with food
  • Yoga affords opportunity to learn to listen

 

The difference between PMADs and the baby blues

  • Distinction in duration, severity of symptoms
  • Emotional, behavioral and thought indicators

 

Suzannah’s insight on creating a postpartum plan

  • Deserve help with or without diagnosis
  • Interview therapists while pregnant

 

How PMADs might show up in unexpected ways

  • Anxiety (normal vs. interfering)
  • Rage that makes you ashamed

 

How Suzannah uses yoga to help moms with PMADs

  • Get present in body, notice areas of tension
  • Address imbalances with poses or practices
  • Many can be done holding baby, lying down

 

Suzannah’s view of the ‘all-natural mandate’

  • Perception that yoga means eating clean
  • Judgement that hurting baby if don’t
  • Another way of policing women’s bodies

 

How to recover from shame around food

  • Do what’s right for you, find support
  • Know people will say unhelpful things

 

Suzannah’s top advice around yoga and mental health

  • Medication can be helpful (not ‘easy way out’)
  • Yoga won’t fix, but will provide solace

 

 

 

Connect with Suzannah

Suzannah’s Website

Suzannah on Facebook

Suzannah on Twitter

Suzannah on Instagram

SPONSOR:

Intuitive Eating Moms Club

Non-diet wellness made simple for moms.

December’s Topic:

A Mindful You!

A month dedicated to establishing a mindfulness practice and using it to support your eating (and life) experiences.

LEARN MORE

 

Resources Mentioned in the Episode:

 

Awake at 3 a.m.: Yoga Therapy for Anxiety and Depression in Pregnancy and Early Motherhood by Suzannah Neufeld

Body Full of Stars: Female Rage and My Passage into Motherhood by Molly Caro May

Nancy Bardacke

Mindful Birthing: Training the Mind, Body, and Heart for Childbirth and Beyond by Nancy Bardacke

Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction

Jon Kabat-Zinn

Yoga Rising: 30 Empowering Stories from Yoga Renegades for Every Body by Melanie C. Klein

Yoga and Body Image Coalition

Yoga and Body Image: 25 Personal Stories About Beauty, Bravery & Loving Your Body by Melanie C. Klein

Stepping Out of Overwhelm and Into Alignment with Valerie Friedlander

Stepping Out of Overwhelm and Into Alignment with Valerie Friedlander

Busy Mom's Starter Guide to Making Peace with Food
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Valerie Friedlander Embodied and Well Show graphic

 

Listen + Subscribe on ITUNES or STITCHER 

We’d greatly appreciate a podcast rating and review so that we can reach more mamas and families!

MEET THE GUEST:

Valerie is a Mom, Certified Professional Coach, Core Energy practitioner, and Founder of The Unlimited Mom. Her work focuses on helping entrepreneurial Moms gain the clarity, confidence, and self-connection to create the fulfilling, abundant & harmonious life they’re striving for.
She is passionate about creativity, coffee, and connecting Moms to their unique and unlimited self. She believes Moms deserve to live a vibrant life and that by doing so, they set the foundation for the healthy and successful life that they want for their child.

 

WHERE TO FIND VALERIE ONLINE:

Website: www.theunlimitedmom.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheUnlimitedMom/

Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/TheUnlimitedMom/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheUnlimitedMom/
Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/TheUnlimitedMom/

Freebie! The Mommy Pacifier – 5 Simple Steps to Create More Calm http://theunlimitedmom.pages.ontraport.net/mommypacifier

EPISODE SUMMARY:

  • In this episode, Valerie shares about her transition into motherhood, learning how to seek help and support and how her professional journey supported her transition into parenthood.
  • Valerie talks about how oftentimes the lens we see our experiences through are what define our experiences and impact our decisions. She encourages moms to get in touch with their values, step out of overwhelm and define what their lives will look like when they’re living in alignment with their values.

 

 

 

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