Episode 589: Raising Conscious Sons and Daughters with Dr. Shefali

Rebecca Greene (0:10)

Welcome to The Whinypalooza Podcast. I'm your host, Rebecca Greene. I'm a wife, mother of three, and licensed clinical social worker. I also have three fur babies at home too.

My passion has always been to help children and their families. I always dreamed of being a wife and a mother.

Parents are always learning through their struggles, failures, and successes and joys. I am no stranger to this wild ride of parenting, and I know behind every great parent lies a team of supportive friends and family. I want to be part of your support system. I want you to know that you are not alone. We are in this parenting world together. Join me every week for insightful discussions with experts on parenting and marriage, as well as other parents who have found the secret to successes in parenthood. You'll learn tips and tricks to make life with your family better than ever. I hope you will follow along with me while we dive into what it takes to achieve a happy family.

Hello, everyone. This is Rebecca Greene for The Whinypaluza Podcast, and I am beyond excited today because I get to bring you the amazing, the brilliant Dr. Shefali. Dr. Shefali, thank you so much for being here with me today.

Dr. Shefali (1:30)

I'm super excited to be with you. Thank you.

Rebecca Greene (1:33)

We are going to talk about so many things, and you're going to know why she's so fantastic and why I'm so excited. So let me tell you about her. She is a clinical psychologist, a New York Times bestselling author, and the founder of the Conscious Parenting Movement, redefining how families understand selfhood, connection, and the inner life of children. She works where psychology meets consciousness, tracing the hidden forces that shape identity, relationships, and the way we inhabit the world. She was trained at Columbia University and has spent decades guiding families to move beyond patterns of control and fear toward presence and authenticity. Her work brings Western psychology and Eastern wisdom into lived practice, creating a path for children and the adults who raise them to know themselves fully. So now everyone knows why I'm off the charts, excited to talk to you today.

I told Dr. Shefali I always have too many questions, I never get to them all. So let's start with Conscious Parenting.

I'm going to tell you that people listening don't know what that is, and I know you've created this amazing movement, so tell everyone about it.

Dr. Shefali (2:51)

Well, when I first started talking about Conscious Parenting back in 2010, my first book The Conscious Parent came out then.

No one knew about this concept of how the parent needs to look at themselves and stop focusing on fixing the child or creating the perfect child. And if anything, we parents were connecting with our children through our ego, wanting them to become who we needed them to become and not owning that. And so when I began challenging parents to own their ego and how they were puppeteering their children, as you can imagine, I got a lot of whiplash for that and I still do. But Conscious Parenting in a nutshell is making the parent aware that they have to raise themselves into a higher state of consciousness equally and as much as they raise their children. And when they do raise themselves into a higher state of wholeness, completeness, fullness, they will not need their children to complete their unfulfilled fantasies or expectations anymore. And that liberates the children to be authentic. It is a deep philosophy. It's not a strategy. It's not just a concept. It's a whole transformational way of living and connecting with your children. When parents join my Parent Coaching Institute for five months, they think that, oh, I'll just become a parent coach or I'll be a slightly better parent. They go through a revolution. So it's hard to teach in my books, but I'm writing books eight and nine and they're releasing right now.

It's because it takes so much of an inner paradigm shift to do what I'm saying. But if you do it, your children will be empowered, resilient, and worthy. I mean, it works every time.

Rebecca Greene (4:36)

Well, I'm finding it amazing. I was just telling her that, you know, we're the experts, but we're also moms. And we need all this. We need help.

Even Dr. Shefali and I need help. It's not just everyone listening. We all need this help.

Dr. Shefali (4:52)

Absolutely.

Rebecca Greene (4:54)

Tell everyone about this book, new book that's coming out.

SPEAKER_2 (4:59)

Well, there are two books.

Rebecca Greene (4:59)

September 15th. Yes.

SPEAKER_2 (5:01)