Before we dive in, just a quick note: in the future all Yes Collective on the go episodes will be available exclusively on our members-only feed, so if you’re not a member of Yes Collective head on over to yescollective.co and sign up today!

This episode of Yes Collective on the go is an audio version of our expert team’s article for 5 Things Friday, entitled five tips for a super dope date night. This and tons of other amazing mental and emotional wellness content is available in the Yes Collective app. 

This week, we have the always amazing, wise, and wonderful Jenny Walters, licensed marriage and family therapist, founder & clinical director of Highland Park Holistic Psychotherapy, and creator at www.jennywalters.com. Jenny answer parents questions about the balance they have to make between caring about their children's health and falling into anxious, over-controlling behavior; parent sleep and insomnia; how working parents can bring more energy home at the end of the day; and what to do when two parents have an irresolvable difference. So many amazing practices, tips, and nuggets of wisdom were dropped! 

Starting next month, these sessions will be available exclusively on our members-only podcast feed. If you're a member in the Yes Collective app and want the private podcast feed, head into the app and message us at "Audra & Justin at the Yes Collective." If you're not a member yet, then sign up today and we'll send you a link when our private feed goes live!

We dove into Jayson's journey to becoming a relationship expert (a title that he rejects, but we're giving it him anyway!), how his relationships with his partner and kids have blossomed because of his work, how conflict in any relationship is inevitable, and how repair and growth are always possible. 

We also get some amazing tools and strategies from his new book Getting to Zero: How to Work Through Conflict in Your High Stakes Relationships. We talk about practices that can help anyone repair relationships and achieve deep connection amidst any conflict. If you have a high-stakes relationship in your life, whether it's your marriage, your kids, at work, or a friendship, then you'll absolutely want to tune in. 

So without further ado, here's our conversation with the wise and amazing Jayson Gaddis.

We met Melissa several years ago after our son Max went on the Jimmy Kimmel Show, which is a whole story in itself. It led to Melissa’s oldest son rainbow looming for Max and them supporting a fundraiser for our nonprofit, MaxLove Project. Melissa has stayed in touch over the years, continuing to support Maxlove Project, and now The Family Thrive.

We had an absolute blast talking with Melissa. We dug into her childhood, her upbringing, her career, but most of all we talked about real parenting issues: The shock of finally becoming a mother, the struggle to raise authentic, caring kids in this age of smart phones and social media, getting kids to do chores, coping with the last tooth lost, the last kindergarten graduation, and who would her kids choose to save in a burning car: her or her husband, Mark?

This was a super fun episode, so buckle up!

Along the way she lived her best life, working as an actress in Hollywood, falling in love with and marrying Saro, a Sicilian chef, coping with his later cancer diagnosis, adopting a daughter, and then eventually caring for Saro and their daughter as he passed away in 2012. 

Her journey then turned toward understanding and living through grief, the lessons of which she turned into a 2019 memoir called From Scratch: A Memoir of Love, Sicily, and Finding Home. The book has been adapted into a series by Netflix, produced by Reese Witherspoon, coming out next year.

We met Tembi way back when she started doing work around grief and caregiving after her husband passed away. Our work with childhood cancer families in MaxLove Project provided a lot for us to connect over. Now all these years later we get to connect over parenting, growing through grief, finding resilience in the face of tragedy, and planting roots and choosing love no matter what life throws our way.

We get deep and vulnerable in this episode. Jenny shares some really intense and amazingly healing stuff about her own marriage, and Audra and I do the same, and we basically just lay it all out there. We talk about a saying that goes something like, "If you don't face your deep childhood emotional wounds, then your marriage will force you to." And there's another saying we discuss, "Our wounds happen in relationships, but we are also healed in relationships."

If you're ready to dig deep with us and get real about the pain and frustration of marriage, but also the joyful connection that comes from doing the hard work, then buckle up. This episode is for you.

In her book, This Will Only Hurt a Little, Busy describes herself as a sparkly person and not in a self-important way. It's actually unassuming in matter of fact, when she describes it, and the thing is, it's a perfect description. She's always had that sparkle, even back in high school, and now we get the chance to bring that sparkle on The Family Thrive Podcast. 

We cannot express to you how much we loved talking with Busy. We covered childhood trauma, becoming a better parent, doing the deep inner work of healing our emotional wounds, showing up as an authentic, connected parent and human in the world, and we covered way more than that. We'll just stop this intro now so you can hear our conversation with the wise and talented and truly sparkly, Busy Philipps.

So we take sleep pretty seriously, which is why we couldn’t wait to have on this week’s guest, Kate Simon, a sleep scientist and a mom who studies how sleep affects kids of all ages. In this episode we get all the latest science and wisdom on optimal sleep not only for kids but for adults as well. If you care about the health benefits of good sleep as much as we do, then you’re going to love this episode. So, get a cozy blanket and some chamomile tea, and settle in for a conversation that will change the way you think about your family's sleep.

Kate Simon is a postdoctoral fellow at University of California, Irvine who studies sleep — specifically how it can affect people of all ages, including kids. She’s been a part of multiple sleep studies, so be sure to check those out!

We invited her on the show this week to talk about the real stuff: what happens when motherhood isn’t the cakewalk we dream it to be, how Christina realized she was experiencing postpartum mood disorder after her first baby was born, what tools have helped her most in flourishing, and how we can help our kids (and ourselves) set healthy boundaries in life. At the end we talk about Christina’s newest work around anxiety, positive self-talk, and growth mindset. So, you’ll want to stick around for the entire episode!

They’re just two of eight amazing experts we’ve collected at The Family Thrive to create a groundbreaking workshop called Thriving Through the Teen Years: Building and Keeping a Deep, Loving Relationship With Your Teenager.

In this episode we talk about Jena and Vanessa’s experience as parents of teenagers - they have parented 7 teens between them! - we talk about their experience as professionals working with teens and young adults, we cover some common problems that parents run into with teens, and we finish by discussing how parenting a teenager is an amazing opportunity for personal growth for parents.

Your’re going to love this conversation, we guarantee it. So, without further ado, here’s the always wise and insightful Jena Curtis and Vanessa Baker.

Kristen grew up in a conservative Christian home in Florida and went off to a bible college where she fell in love with a boy who was destined to become a pastor. Next thing you know he’s a new pastor in Orange County, California and she’s trying to live the life of a pastor’s wife. After several heart-breaking miscarriages, she and her then husband were able to adopt two boys, one from Los Angeles, and one from Haiti, and quickly learned about the challenges facing two white parents raising two black sons in America. She then went on to naturally give birth to two girls. So if you’re counting that’s 4 kids in all. And today they’re all in their teens.

Along the way there is a harrowing trip to adopt their second son in Haiti right when the devastating 7.0 magnitude earthquake hit the island in 2010, a transition in her faith, a divorce, and a truly inspiring journey to discover what it means to parent with love and authenticity.

This one's a must-listen. So, buckle-up!

In this episode, we also keep it super real. Audra shares how hard things have been this year with our big MaxLove Project Farm to Fork fundraiser and how sometimes even super meaningful work can feel exhausting and overwhelming. Justin shares his uncertainties and insecurities around starting a new company and leaving academia as well. But we also tap into and share the core vision that inspires us both to get up everyday and join forces with an amazing team of experts to help families, just like ours, thrive against the odds. 

We asked Josh to come on to answer all our questions about what goes into supposedly healthy packaged food products. We talk proteins, fats, fibers, and artificial sweeteners, and we get to find out how all this stuff gets made and what we as parents should be looking out for. There's a lot of information in this episode, and so you'll definitely want to check out the show notes where we'll provide links, definitions, and a whole lot more. All right. Buckle up, here we go with food industry insider Josh Field.

We met Lucky and Alisha way back after our son Max was first diagnosed. They were the real deal from the get-go: loving, honest, kind, and amazingly creative. Through MaxLove Project, we were able to get them into children's hospitals to perform for the kids and they just lit up the place.

We've stayed in touch and followed them over the years as they won award after award and branched out to write books, TV shows, and movies. In this interview, we dive deep into what it means to be creative parents and partners, how they take care of themselves so they can show up as their best selves with their kids and in their work, how their art affects their parenting, and parenting affects their art and so much more. 

You're not going to want to miss a second of this episode, so grab some tea or if you're listening to this on a walk or in your car, settle in for the wonderful Lucky Diaz and Alisha Gaddis.

We wish to god we had a Bridget when our kids were born 14 and 11 years ago. Bringing a new life into this world is a joyous moment and we all see the pictures on social media of a happy but tired mom and dad with the brand new baby. But what we don’t see is the numbness, anxiety, marital conflict, rage, and overwhelm that is also a very real part of the parenting journey. 

In this episode, Bridget talks with us about the mental and emotional challenges new parents face, the role of shame in motherhood, the role of avoidance in fatherhood, the stress of this new school year and sooo much more. 

This episode is a must-listen for anyone who is a new parent, an old parent, maybe a parent someday, or has a parent in their life—so basically, everyone! 

We had an amazing AMA, where parents asked questions about how to repair relationships when "the talk" doesn't go well, where to find the best resources for sexuality and gender for yourself and your kids, and how to communicate honestly, lovingly, and clearly when the topic might be super uncomfortable. 

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If you like what you hear, be sure to sign up for our email list at www.thefamilythrive.com to be notified when the app subscription goes live. Thanks for joining us!

In addition to his clinical work, Colin has a massively popular and totally free newsletter where he keeps his patients and the general public up to date on the latest health science. On top of all this, he’s also the Chair of The Family Thrive’s Scientific Advisory Board. You’re going to want to tune into this one as Justin connects with Colin (FKA the Caveman Doctor) to discuss fatherhood, medical research, and ancestral approaches to health and wellness.