Your Calm Parenting Path
Welcome to Your Calm Parenting Path—guiding you toward a more peaceful, connected, and confident approach to parenting.
Motherhood wasn’t supposed to feel this hard. If you’re tired of yelling, overwhelmed by the mental load, and wondering why you can’t just enjoy time with your kids like other mums seem to, you’re not alone. You love your children fiercely, but somewhere between school drop-offs, tantrums, and endless to-do lists, you’ve lost a piece of yourself.
I’m Nina, a mindful parenting coach and mum who gets it. I’ve been where you are - stuck, frustrated, and exhausted by constant feelings of inadequacy and overwhelm.
This podcast is for mums like you -women who want to parent with more patience, less stress, and a whole lot more joy. It’s about making small shifts that create a big impact, helping you build the parenting life you’ve always wanted.
In short, practical episodes, you'll discover actionable tips for calmer parenting, expert insights from those who work with children, real stories from parents who've made meaningful changes, and inspiration to reconnect with yourself while showing up as the mum you want to be.
Whether you're feeling overwhelmed by daily struggles or simply looking for a more mindful approach, each episode offers practical tools and insights to help you feel calmer, more confident, and more connected with your children.
Follow us on Instagram @mindful_parenting_lifestyle, or join our mailing list at www.mindfulparentinglifestyle.com.au
Your Calm Parenting Path
61. Bringing Dads into the Conversation, with Alison D'Vine
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
Today we're widening the lens beyond mums. Alison D'Vine of Sagency WA shares what years of working with men has taught her about why partners struggle to regulate, and what that does to the family when they don't.
This isn't about excusing anything, it's about understanding what's underneath so we're not carrying it alone. Alison brings both her professional insight and her own lived experience to this one, and it's a genuinely honest look at the other side of the family system.
You'll Learn
- Why "ghosts in the nursery" show up once unresolved trauma meets new parenthood
- The Angels in the Nursery study: how one person who truly saw you changes everything
- Quiet signs a partner might be struggling to self-regulate
- Why epigenetics shows trauma patterns can be interrupted, not just inherited
- Why trying to fix your partner backfires, and what helps instead
Why This Episode Matters
So much of this podcast is about our own regulation as mums, but our partners' emotional world shapes the household too. This conversation names what a lot of us feel but rarely say, the grimace instead of the smile, the plans that never happen, the eggshells, and gives language to what might be going on underneath.
Small Shift for Big Impact
Alison's small shift: you can't fix, cure or regulate your partner, but you can be the role model. As she puts it, quoting Abraham Lincoln, "point your feet in the right direction and stand firm." Get clear on your own regulation and boundaries, and hold that steady.
Take the Next Step
If this conversation brought something up about your partner or someone you love, Alison and her team at Sagency WA work with men directly, in person and online, Australia wide. Reach out through her website to point them in the right direction. Get this small shift started today.
Got a Question for Alison?
Alison's offered to come back for a Q&A on supporting a partner's self-regulation. If you've got a question you'd like her to answer, send it through to nina@mindfulparentinglifestyle.com.au.
Links and Resources
- Visit Sagency WA's website: sagencywa.com.au
- Related Podcast Episodes
- Episdode 44 - Awareness in Parenting (Part 1: Understanding Your Reactions) - noticing what's happening in your own body and mind before you react
- Episode 38 - When My Calm Slipped (And How I'm Coming Back) - Nina's own honest account of her regulation slipping and the steps bac
Let's Connect
Want more support? Follow Nina on Instagram, or sign up for tips and updates at mindfulparentinglifestyle.com.au.
Have a question or parenting challenge you'd like addressed on the podcast? Send a DM or an email.
- Follow Nina on Instagram
- Website: mindfulparentinglifestyle.com.au
- Email: nina@mindfulparentinglifestyle.com.au
About the Host/s
Nina Visic is a mindful parenting coach and mum, and the host of Your Calm Parenting Path. She helps overwhelmed parents move from reactive to calm, confident and connected with their kids, through one-on-one coaching, group programmes and this podcast.
Alison D'Vine is the founding director and principal practitioner at Sagency WA, where she runs men's behaviour change programmes covering therapy, case management and accountability, work she built after years in the sector left her wanting a more holistic model. She's neurodivergent, a single mum of four, and brings her own lived experience of separation and self-regulation into the men's groups she facilitates five days a week.