Practical Therapeutic Approaches with Nancy Jo Rettig, Part 2

Building a Strong Foundation with Transitional Kindergarten Teacher Megan Larquier

SweetSmarties! I had an amazing conversation with Transitional Kindergarten teacher Megan Larquier this month! I've considered doing her job, have already done a version of it, and am currently earning a certificate to do it to a greater extent, if I choose to pursue that path in the future, so we were very well-matched for this discussion! She's incredibly knowledgable, and I was fascinated to learn what she has to share! She has a Master's degree from Cal State Fullerton, and the Literacy component taught her all this Linguistics information that I studied too, in a different context, so hearing about that was such a joy to me, and definitely one of my favorite parts of our talk! I also adored speaking about Social Emotional Learning of course, and it was so fun to nerd out about Human Development Theory as well! I love her approach, and the children she teaches are so lucky to be in her class! We agree on the significance of her role, and what a profound influence and responsibility she has to help these kids build a healthy foundation and literally learn how to be people! I can't overstate how important and valuable that is, so to know how well she's doing it is such a treasure! What a gift to the world! Anyway, I think I've gushed enough, so you'll need to listen to the episode to find out any more. lol I hope you feel even a fraction of the genuine intrigue, delight, and poignancy I felt during our interaction. <3 (:

Practical Therapeutic Approaches with Nancy Jo Rettig, Part 2

Hi SweetSmarties! I got to interview Nancy Jo Rettig this month! We bonded so well and had so much to discuss, our recorded conversation lasted two hours! I decided to divide our interview into two parts, and here is the second! I mention this in the epilogue to Part 1, but just to write it here as well: She has 40 years of experience as a Licensed Marriage & Family Therapist, and she was a school counselor for 25 years! She also has a degree in Addictions Counseling! In the first part of our interview, which you can listen to in the previous episode, we spoke about about her background, how we initially connected, our recurring segment about our interpretations of the phrase Progressive Parenting, her match-making company, the Bob Newhart Show, Televised Therapy, and her practical, direct, goal-oriented approach. During the final part of last episode, we discuss my sleep issues, and we end with how I feel about my current phase of life, regarding my biological clock, dating, marriage, and if I would like to have children one day (the answer may surprise you, if you haven't already heard part 1!). In this second part of our discussion, we cover the patterns she noticed during her school counselor career, how they've changed over time, potential solutions for our widespread stress and anxiety, and we finish with her one final piece of advice to us, which you'll have to listen to the episode to find out! ;) I loved talking to her so much, and I hope you enjoy both parts of our interview! :) <3

Practical Therapeutic Approaches with Nancy Jo Rettig, Part 1

Hi SweetSmarties! I got to interview Nancy Jo Rettig this month! We bonded so well and had so much to discuss, our recorded conversation lasted two hours! I decided to divide our interview into two parts, and here is the first! I mention this in my epilogue, but just to write it here as well: She has 40 years of experience as a Licensed Marriage & Family Therapist, and she was a school counselor for 25 years! She also has a degree in Addictions Counseling! In this first part, we speak about her background, how we initially connected, our recurring segment about our interpretations of the phrase Progressive Parenting, her match-making company, the Bob Newhart Show, Televised Therapy, and her practical, direct, goal-oriented approach. During the last part of this episode, we discuss my sleep issues, and we end with how I feel about my current phase of life, regarding my biological clock, dating, marriage, and if I would like to have children one day (the answer may surprise you!). In the next part, we cover the patterns she noticed during her school counselor career, how they've changed over time, potential solutions for our widespread stress and anxiety, and we finish our conversation with her one final piece of advice to us, which you'll have to listen to the episode to find out! ;) I loved talking to her so much, and I hope you'll enjoy listening to both parts of our interview! :) <3

Exploring Needs Underlying Behavior in Pursuit of Relational Safety with Morgan Abraham

Hey SweetSmarties, I had a lovely conversation with Morgan Abraham on Wednesday, March 25th, three days before my final Pretend & Play performances I mention in this episode. I’m publishing our discussion on Monday, March 30th, and our shows went really well this past Saturday; I’m so proud of my little performers! Anyway, Morgan is my fourth and most likely last Social Worker interview on this podcast. We first connected when I was looking for one to interview in December 2025, and we decided to save her for March 2026, which happens to be National Social Worker month, as well as her birthday on St. Patrick’s Day, 3/17. :) In this episode, we talk about her background, her journey to where she is now, including some major health events, big career shifts, her approach, specialities, offerings, and we even bond over our shared experience of her hometown at the end. <3 We also cover my philosophies on how to nurture children, entrepreneurial struggles, the tragedy of our society undervaluing what we do, and I gush about how much I love the kids I work with, and how severely I’ll miss them when our time together ends. As I write this, it ended two days ago, and I’m still processing my reaction, but I hope they’ll enroll in the courses I developed for this spring and summer, and that our relationship will continue in other ways. I may be fortunate enough to care for them in their own environments soon, so I’m looking forward to the possibility of that as well. Morgan is so wonderful: friendly, open, understanding, caring, kind, empathetic, knowledgeable, passionate, and very enjoyable to interact with - a dream guest for me! Our dialogue flowed so easily and naturally, and anyone who gets to work with her is super lucky! I’m excited to discover how her career develops in the future, and I hope you’ll seek her out, if you think you’d be a good fit, because there are many ways she can help improve your life! :D As you can hear, my voice still isn’t back to normal yet, even though it’s been compromised for over 3 weeks now. :/ It’s definitely improved from the first week, but I really want to fully recover soon. I think I just push myself way too hard, but I don’t have the chance to slow down, so I don’t know how I’ll heal. Very slowly, like I’m experiencing now I guess. Anyway, I love you, and I want to help as well as I can, so stay tuned for everything I’m developing, I hope you benefit from this episode, and I’ll talk to you next time! 💖 P.S. Here are a few links to learn more about Morgan and her work! https://www.morganabrahamtherapy.com/ [https://www.morganabrahamtherapy.com/] https://parenthoodonpurpose.com/ [https://parenthoodonpurpose.com/] https://kidsunfiltered.com/ [https://kidsunfiltered.com/] P.P.S. We both studied Latin, and we teach you two new phrases! One more thing: Alyssa's first book is actually called "Tiny Humans, Big Emotions." I often say "Little People" instead, because that's more engrained in my brain I guess. lol

Stabilizing our Self-Worth with Olympian Sarah Straton

SweetSmarties, I published my 22nd interview on 2/22 with an Olympian on the last day of the Olympics!!  I really care about all those synchronicities, so it was important to me to release the episode on this date, and I hope you enjoy how everything aligns so well together too. :) Sarah Straton played beach volleyball for Australia in the Sydney 2000 Olympics, and then went on to have a career in Parenting, which is how we connected. <3 She founded a company called Evergrowing, which provides so many resources, like workshops, classes, and support groups, just to name a few! She also speaks at schools, corporations, and coaches volleyball at our local high school! :D I loved our discussion so much, and I really hope it resonates with you as well. ✨ You can learn more about her work here: https://sarahstraton.com/. Bye until next time, my loves! 🫧