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At Peace Parents Podcast

At Peace Parents Podcast

Casey 165 Episodes Jun 30, 2026

The At Peace Parents Podcast is your source for all things related to understanding, supporting, accommodating, and advocating for your demand avoidant or PDA child. It will completely transform the way you think about your PDA child's brain, behavior, and parenting, and support you in finding your path to more peace and stability in the home. For more information see www.atpeaceparents.com.

Episodes

Addictive Behaviors and the Nervous System in PDA: A Conversation With Jan Winhall | Ep. 169 Jun 30, 2026 52:54 When I first heard Jan Winhall speak about the intersection of the nervous system and addiction, I immediately thought of the PDA teens and adults in our community who are reaching for substances or engaging in self-harm.In this episode she explains how addiction and self-harm function as nervous system state regulation strategies, what conventional models get wrong, and what it actually looks lik
Understanding the Root Cause of Pathological Demand Avoidance and Equalizing Behavior | Ep. 168 Jun 23, 2026 21:57 In this episode I share the definition of PDA I use: PDA is a survival drive for autonomy and equality that consistently overrides other survival instincts, including eating, sleeping, toileting, hygiene, and safety. I explain how this is different from older definitions that consider PDA to be anxiety driven, and why that distinction matters clinically and practically. I also I introduce the conc
School Advocacy for Pathological Demand Avoidance with Dr. Destiny Huff | Ep. 167 Jun 16, 2026 49:53 If you are a parent who cannot unschool or homeschool your PDA child, or who needs practical support navigating the school system, this episode is for you. I am joined by Dr. Destiny Huff, a licensed professional counselor, non-attorney special education advocate, and neuro-affirming trainer who is also late-diagnosed autistic and ADHD and a mother of neurodivergent children.Dr. Huff shares the mo
Four Ways To Create Calm With Your Pathologically Demand Avoidant Child | Ep. 166 Jun 9, 2026 53:24 When he was young, it seemed like my son Cooper was almost always active and agitated. I tried everything I was told to try - bubble blowing for deep breathing, emotion naming, zones of regulation, nature walks with candy as incentives - but nothing worked. Maybe the activity would occupy him once, but then he'd be agitated all over again afterwards. I thought I must be going it wrong, or just a b
A PDA Neuropsychologist on How Pathologically Demand Avoidant Brains Actually Work | Ep. 165 Jun 2, 2026 01:02:44 I sit down with Dr. Jennifer Huffman, a board-certified pediatric neuropsychologist, PDA woman with lived experience, and creator of the Neurodynamic Navigator System and the Neurodynamic Quotient. After twenty-five years working with children whose profiles were called often called ODD (Oppositional Defiant Disorder), she developed a framework to make the dynamic, fluctuating nature of the PDA br
How A Dad Changed His Parenting To Stop Fighting His Child With Pathological Demand Avoidance: An Interview With My Husband | Ep. 164 May 26, 2026 57:23 This episode is an interview with my husband, Jake, about his path from well-founded skepticism of Pathological Demand Avoidance to fully changing his parenting to support our two PDA sons, and how that has helped all three of them.This conversation is for parents who aren't sure about PDA, their partners who are, and everyone who has wondered what it actually looks like to shift the paradigm as t
Giftedness, Pathological Demand Avoidance and Burnout in Adults: My Story | Ep. 163 May 19, 2026 49:55 In this episode I talk about how I understand my autistic brain, my internalized pathological demand avoidance, and why it took me six years of working in this space before I felt certain enough to say this publicly. I also walk through my life, from childhood to the present, with renewed understanding, in the hope of sharing insights that can help you.This episode is for parents of high-achieving
A Speech Language Pathologist on Selective Mutism, Pathological Demand Avoidance and So Much More | Ep. 162 May 12, 2026 55:38 I speak with Stephanie Harrigan, a certified speech language pathologist with nearly fifteen years of experience working with the neurodiverse population, to talk about selective mutism, feeding therapy and more.Stephanie brings a regulation-first, child-led approach to all of her work, and this conversation is full of concrete examples from her practice, including what feeding therapy actually lo
What Occupational Therapists Need to Know: Restrictive Eating and Pathological Demand Avoidance Part 4 | Ep. 161 May 5, 2026 47:08 This is the fourth episode in my series on PDA and restrictive eating, and this one is for therapists. If you are an occupational therapist, a speech language pathologist, or another type of therapist working with a child who isn't responding to gentle, play-based, sensory-based, or exposure-based feeding approaches the way you'd expect, this episode designed to help you. I share the full arc of m
Practical Autonomy-Based Tools for Families Stuck in Food Struggles - Restrictive Eating and Pathological Demand Avoidance Part 3| Ep. 160 Apr 28, 2026 52:11 If you've heard me talk about autonomy, equality, and lowering demands before and thought, "But what does that actually look like at the dinner table?" — this episode is for you.This is the third episode in my series on eating and PDA, and it's the most practical one yet. I'm walking you through six concrete accommodations you can experiment with if your PDA child or teen struggles with restrictiv
10 Misconceptions About Eating And Pathological Demand Avoidance Part 2 l Ep. 159 Apr 21, 2026 50:50 In this episode — Part 2 of our series on eating and PDA — I walk through the 10 misconceptions about eating that I personally had to unlearn in order to help my son. These are beliefs that are completely reasonable for most children and even most neurodivergent children, but do not apply to pathologically demand avoidant kids and teens. I cover why "kids will eat when they're hungry" isn't empiri
My Son Only Ate Three Foods - Eating and Pathological Demand Avoidance Part 1 | Ep. 158 Apr 14, 2026 37:23 If your child has dropped food after food, won't try new things no matter what you do, and every mealtime feels like a battle — this episode is the first in a four-part series where I get personal.I'm sharing the story of my oldest son Cooper, who at his lowest point was eating only Honey Nut Cheerios out of a single specific bowl. I walked through grocery store aisles sobbing, frantically looking

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