Susan Stiffelman
108 episodes listed below
Steadier parents, fewer power struggles.
Parenting Without Power Struggles is a calm parenting show centered on connection, regulation, and repair. It turns ideas about resilience, self-compassion, independence, and anxiety into everyday family moments parents can recognize.
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Parenting Without Power Struggles is built around the small charged moments that shape family life. A child refuses a simple request. A parent understands regulation in theory, then reacts in a way they regret. A kid melts down over disappointment, a co-parenting situation feels impossible, or a family faces a crisis that no script can fix. The show meets those moments with warmth and patience rather than quick discipline formulas. Susan Stifelman frames parenting as a relationship practice, one that asks adults to become steadier so children can become more capable. The conversations are interview-led, but they rarely feel distant or abstract. Guests speak about self-compassion, co-parenting with a narcissist, resilience, autonomy, trauma, and raising children toward adulthood, while the show keeps pulling those ideas back into everyday scenes. There is a strong emphasis on the parent's inner life. Fear, shame, control, unfinished business, and protective reactions are treated as part of the work, not as proof that a parent has failed. That gives the show a distinct emotional texture. It can be tender. It can also be direct. In episodes about resilience and independence, it argues that children need chances to handle disappointment, take small risks, cross manageable thresholds, and discover their own competence. In heavier conversations, such as wildfire support or co-parenting with a narcissist, the tone slows down and focuses on safety, routine, empathy, and careful pacing. The advice is not flashy. It is often simple: stay consistent, name what is happening, let feelings move, offer repair, and give children real opportunities to practice. The show suits parents who are tired of power struggles but skeptical of permissiveness. It offers a gentler form of authority, rooted in presence, boundaries, and the adult's capacity to come back after getting thrown off course.
Made for: Parents and caregivers who want practical emotional guidance for meltdowns, conflict, anxiety, independence, and repair will feel at home here. It especially suits adults interested in attachment, mindfulness, self-compassion, and raising resilient children without harsh control.
What sets it apart: The show stands apart by treating parenting strategies and parent self-regulation as inseparable. Instead of offering only scripts, it looks at the adult's nervous system, fears, and patterns before turning toward the child in front of them.
Susan Stiffelman is a family therapist, parent coach, and one of the country's premiere parenting experts, and the author of Parenting Without Power Struggles and Parenting With Presence (an Eckhart Tolle edition.) Susan's podcasts feature conversations with guests including Dr. Dan Siegel, Janet Lansbury, Dr. Kristen Neff, Dr. Mona Delahooke, Glennon Doyle, Dr. Jane Goodall, Jack Kornfield, Martha Beck, and many others.
Based on 5 episodes we listened to · September 2026
Expert conversations connect a parent's inner patterns with practical ways to build children's confidence, emotional regulation, and independence.
Susan Stifelman brings family life back to the parent-child relationship, asking how adult fear, self-criticism, and unfinished business shape everyday responses.
A lost board game is a rehearsal for disappointment, and you don't have to rig it.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
Self-compassion is presented as something children pick up from how parents handle themselves.
The conversation treats self-compassion as something practical, not lofty. Susan Stifelman and Dr. Kristen Neff tie it to ordinary family moments: a parent snapping, a child noticing the mood, and the harder task of setting a boundary without turning the blame inward.
A grounded look at co-parenting with a narcissistic co-parent.
This episode sits with the hard reality of co-parenting with a narcissist and does not hurry past the grief in it. Susan Stifelman and Dr. Ramani keep the discussion grounded, with a steady focus on agency, practical workarounds, and how to respond to what is actually in front…
A gentle case for letting kids practice freedom before they feel ready.
Lenore Skenazy and Susan Stifelman make a steady case for childhood independence, linking it to confidence, resilience, flexibility, and the ability to solve problems from the inside out.
A calm, practical guide for parents helping children through sudden disaster.
The conversation stays with a simple, hard problem: what parents can say and do when children are scared, displaced, or starting to grasp the damage around them.
A steady reminder that parenting is about raising adults, not just managing behavior.
This conversation treats parenting as preparation for adulthood, not as a search for better behavior. Julie Lithcott-Hames, in conversation with Susan Stifelman, pushes parents to face their own fear, unfinished business, insecurity, and unconscious habits if they want their…
Susan Stifelman welcomes Dr.
Susan Stifelman welcomes Dr.
Host Susan Stifelman interviews psychologist Dr.
This episode explores how parents can help children build emotional resilience by allowing them to experience and process tough feelings like disappointment and frustration, rather than trying to fix or avoid them.
Susan Stifelman opens the conversation with her familiar focus on connection, confidence, and practical solutions.
Parents show up hurting.
Susan Stifelman welcomes Julie Lithcott-Hames for a conversation about raising resilient adults.
This episode explores the importance of honoring rest and recovery in parenting and personal well-being through an interview with Robyn Posin, PhD.
This episode features a coaching session with a parent struggling to help her children adjust to different rules and boundaries in their divorced parents' two homes.
This episode features a coaching session with a parent named Sam, where host Susan Stifelman helps address her daughter's resistance to discussing upcoming family travel plans.
This episode features a coaching session with a parent discussing the challenges of raising a young adult with ADHD while balancing their need for independence.