Welcome to episode 85 of the Therapy Chat Podcast with host Laura Reagan, LCSW-C. In this week's episode, I’m delighted to welcome back the first ever guest of the podcast; Mercedes Samudio who speaks to me about parent shaming, how culture plays into what we view is ok and not ok and the need to help parents and not label them as bad people. Mercedes Samudio is a parent coach who supports parents and children to communicate with each other, manage emotional trauma, navigate social media and technology together, and develop healthy parent-child relationships. As a Licensed Clinical Social Worker with a private parent coaching practice, Mercedes has worked with adoptive families, foster families, teen parents, parents navigating the child protective services system, and children living with mental illness. Mercedes seeks to empower parents to believe that they are already great guides for raising healthy and happy children. Being raised by someone who was not her biological mother (but who she called mom) really shaped how she saw myself, how she saw families, and how she saw parenting. And, it also put her on the path to figuring out how to support and heal families. Whether you are a biological parent or not, being in a family system is complicated. As she healed her own relationship with her mother (a relationship she talks about in her book), and as she began to work with more and more families professionally, she realized that so many parents crumble under the pressure of being shamed, not knowing if they’re doing this parenting thing right, and struggling to connect with themselves and their children. Resources https://shameproofparenting.com https://shameproofparenting.com/buybook Visit Therapy Chat website at Http://therapychatpodcast.com and send host Laura Reagan a voice message letting her know what you think of Therapy Chat! Did you like this episode? Did you dislike it? Let her know! Thank you for listening to Therapy Chat! Please be sure to go to iTunes and leave a rating and review, subscribe and download episodes.