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Power Your Parenting: Moms With Teens

Power Your Parenting: Moms With Teens

By: Colleen O'Grady LPC LMFT author speaker & C-Suite Radio
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About this listen

 Colleen O'Grady, MA. is a speaker, trainer and author of the award-winning and best-selling book Dial Down the Drama: Reduce Conflict and Reconnect with Your Teenage Daughter---A Guide for Mothers Everywhere. Colleen shares her wisdom from twenty-five years of experience as a licensed marriage and family therapist which translates into over 50,000 hours of working with parents and teens. Colleen, known as the parent-teen relationship expert helps you raise the bar of what's possible for the teenage years. Colleen not only knows this professionally she has been a mom in the trenches with her own teenage daughter. You really can improve your relationship with your teen and dial up the joy, peace, and delight at home and work. Every episode is geared to uplift you, give you practical parenting tips that you can apply right away and keep you current on the latest in teen research and trends. Career Success Economics
Episodes
  • # 360 Talking to Teens About Relationships

    # 360 Talking to Teens About Relationships
    Feb 16 2026
    How do we talk to our teens about friendships, dating, sex, and consent—without panicking, preaching, or pushing them away? In this powerful episode, I sit down with Dr. Bronwen Carroll, pediatric emergency medicine physician, mom of four, and child protection advocate. With over 20 years of frontline experience, she shares what she’s seen, what works, and how parents can build “conversational scaffolding” early—so hard conversations feel natural later. We talk about: Why healthy romantic relationships are built on early childhood friendships How to help teens recognize red flags in dating relationships The emotional and physical risks of teen dating violence Why welcoming your teen’s boyfriend or girlfriend may be smarter than banning them How to talk about consent in clear, practical ways Why honest conversations about sex don’t encourage early sexual activity (and what research from the Netherlands shows) How alcohol, vulnerability, and online spaces increase risk And most importantly—how to stay calm and connected when your teen is emotionally flooded Dr. Carroll reminds us that no topic should be off-limits—and that starting the conversation today can make all the difference. 💡 Key Takeaways Start Early with “Conversational Scaffolding.” The more we normalize discussions about friendship, feelings, and safety when kids are young, the easier it is to talk about dating and sexuality later. Focus on How Relationships Make Them Feel. Teach teens to ask: Do I feel supported? Do I feel relaxed and accepted? Or do I feel anxious, insecure, and like I’m walking on eggshells? Stay Calm and Stay Curious. Panic creates power struggles. Curiosity keeps communication open. Learn more at: https://www.bronwencarrollmd.com/ Follow at: https://www.instagram.com/bronwencarrollmd/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    48 mins
  • # 359 Why Midlife Moms are Burning Out

    # 359 Why Midlife Moms are Burning Out
    Feb 9 2026
    Midlife moms are carrying so much—parenting teens, managing work, holding families together, and often supporting aging parents at the same time. It’s no surprise so many moms feel emotionally depleted, overstretched, and quietly burned out. In this episode, Colleen O’Grady sits down with Dr. Allison Alford, author of Good Daughtering: The Work You’ve Always Done, The Credit You’ve Never Gotten, and How to Finally Feel Like Enough, to name a role many women live out—but rarely talk about: daughtering. Dr. Alford explains why adult daughters often don’t recognize (or receive credit for) the mental and emotional labor they carry, and how that invisibility can fuel guilt, resentment, and burnout. Together, they explore what it looks like to define “good enough,” set healthy boundaries, and create more balance—without losing love or connection. ✅ 3 Key Takeaways Daughtering is more than what you “do.” It includes emotional labor, mental load, planning, worrying, smoothing conflict, and carrying responsibility—often unseen and unmeasured. Burnout grows when expectations stay unspoken. Many women feel “never good enough” because they’re trying to meet a standard that hasn’t been clearly defined—by their parents, siblings, or even themselves. You can define “good enough” and still be loving. Healthy daughtering includes boundaries. You don’t have to overfunction to prove your worth—and you’re not responsible for managing everyone else’s feelings. 👤 About the Guest Dr. Allison Alford holds a PhD in interpersonal communication from the University of Texas at Austin and is a leading scholar on daughter and family communication. Her work has been featured in outlets like The Atlantic and Oprah Daily, and she previously hosted the Hello Mother, Hello Daughter podcast. Follow at: https://www.instagram.com/daughtering101/?hl=en Learn More at: https://daughtering101.com/about/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    42 mins
  • #358 Is My Teen Normal?

    #358 Is My Teen Normal?
    Feb 2 2026
    Is your teen’s behavior a sign that something is “wrong”… or could it be part of normal development in a high-pressure world?When should parents seek help—and when might labels actually do more harm than good? In this powerful and thought-provoking episode, Colleen O’Grady sits down with child and adolescent psychiatrist Dr. Sami Timimi, author of Searching for Normal. With over 35 years in the UK’s National Health Service, Dr. Timimi challenges many of the assumptions parents have been taught about teen mental health. Together, they explore why diagnoses like ADHD, autism, anxiety, and depression have exploded—and why medicalizing distress can sometimes steal hope instead of restoring it. This conversation reframes teen behavior through the lens of context, development, relationships, and resilience, reminding parents that emotions are not emergencies and that most teens are not broken—they’re responding to a stressful world. About Dr. Sami Timimi Dr. Sami Timimi is a British child and adolescent psychiatrist with more than three decades of clinical experience in the UK’s National Health Service. He has authored numerous academic papers and books and is widely known for his critiques of the over-medicalization of mental health. In Searching for Normal, Dr. Timimi offers a deeply humane, evidence-based challenge to psychiatric labeling and invites families to reclaim a more hopeful, relational understanding of distress. Three Takeaways for Parents Distress is not the same as disorder. Many teen struggles are understandable responses to pressure, change, and context—not signs of lifelong pathology. Labels shape identity—and not always in helpful ways. Diagnoses can unintentionally limit teens, increase fear, and turn temporary struggles into permanent stories. Relationships matter more than control. Teens don’t need to be “fixed”—they need connection, patience, and adults who aren’t afraid of emotions. Follow at: https://www.instagram.com/dr_samitimimi/?hl=en Learn More at: https://www.samitimimi.co.uk/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    43 mins
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