Securely Attached
Securely Attached is your go-to parenting podcast, supporting moms and dads from pregnancy all the way through their child's adolescence and every stage in between.
Join us every Tuesday as clinical psychologist and mom of two Dr. Sarah Bren shares her expertise and interviews top experts in the field, simplifying complicated concepts and pulling back the curtain on the brain science and psychology that drives and shapes the parent-child relationship.
And now, every Thursday, Dr. Sarah Bren is joined by Dr. Emily Upshur and Dr. Rebecca Hershberg for a special segment, Beyond The Sessions. We’re answering YOUR parenting questions from the perspective of clinical psychologists highly trained in developmental science and real-life moms who get that parenting is messy, and sometimes we have to laugh, cry, and throw out the “rules.”
From toddler tantrums, to effective discipline strategies, to leaning into the principles of respectful parenting, and to managing your own mental wellness as a parent—this podcast is your ultimate resource for judgment-free, research-backed information you know you can trust.
About Sarah Bren, PhD
Dr. Sarah Bren is a licensed clinical psychologist and mom of two who helps parents understand the building blocks of child development and how secure relationships form and thrive. Her work is focused on helping parents find their inner confidence so they can respond to any parenting problem that comes along and raise kids who are healthy, resilient, and kind.
- Update frequency
- every 3 days
- Average duration
- 41 minutes
- Episodes
- 341
- Years Active
- 2021 - 2025
20. How will masks impact children’s language and social-emotional development? A conversation with SLP Becky Birkenfeld
Masks can cause a great deal of stress for parents - it’s one more thing to remember before getting out the door in the morning, can be a source of power struggles, and perhaps the most daunting, the…
19. Navigating sibling fights: Q&A with Dr. Emily Upshur
Sibling dynamics can be complicated! And the way we parent the interactions between brothers and sisters often looks different than how we would handle the same situations in a playdate, daycare or s…
18. Finding your footing in fatherhood: My husband's journey with RIE and respectful parenting
Parents often feel they need to be perfectly aligned with their partner in their parenting approach. While it is true that sharing the same overall values and standards do help, allowing your partner…
17. Busting parents' biggest sleep myths to turn bedtime from stressful to restful with Lauren Wolf
If you’ve ever asked, “is it bad my baby naps less than my friends’ kids?” “is it too late to break the poor sleep habits I created?” or the all too common “am I doing this right?,” this sleep episod…
16. Time Saving Hacks: 5 ways parents can get back time
You don’t need to be Ferris Bueller to realize that time moves pretty fast these days. And for parents, that can lead to feelings of stress, exhaustion and burnout.
In this episode, I’ll walk you t…
15. Expanding the postpartum conversation: How PMADs can affect new fathers with Dr. Emily Upshur
The postpartum period presents new parents with a massive identity shift and an overwhelming flood of sudden changes. It’s important we talk about this and acknowledge that having a newborn is hard. …
14. Motherhood as a Millennial: Tuning out the noise and learning to find trust in ourselves with Marcella Kelson
Millennial moms and dads have a lot of their plates. As the first generation to become parents in this advanced digital age, we’re especially hard-hit by the mom-guilt, constant comparisons, and a…
13. Beyond postpartum depression: A breakdown of all PMADs (perinatal mood and anxiety disorders)
Perinatal mood and anxiety disorders effect about 20% of women. It’s important we prepare parents-to-be for the possibility that they may experience this, and the symptoms to look out for. In this ep…
12. Healing trauma and fostering connection through cooking with children with Chef Kibby
In this episode I am joined by professional chef and father to biological, adopted and foster children, Chef Kibby. You’ll hear how he uses the kitchen to help his children learn to trust and work th…
11. How parents can teach body safety rules and help prevent child sexual abuse with Feather Berkower
Warning: This episode includes discussions on childhood sexual assault and may be triggering for some listeners.
It falls on us as parents to push through our own discomfort to engage in conversat…
10. Is it picky eating or a feeding disorder? How to handle both with feeding therapist Rebecca Taskin
When parents have a picky eater on their hands it’s easy for them to unwittingly enter into a dance with their child that can lead to them becoming more and more resistant to foods as parents grow mo…
09. Child favoring one parent? Strategies that strengthen bonds and foster flexibility: Q&A with Dr. Emily Upshur
Favoring one parent over the other is a very common and developmentally normal phase for children. In this episode, Dr. Emily Upshur and I help a mom who is struggling with this issue. We discuss …
08. Sleep training, sleep learning, cry it out, or never let them cry: The basics of creating an ideal sleep environment with Eileen Henry
When it comes to helping our children with sleeping, the goal is to make them feel confident and capable of independently falling asleep and then falling back asleep if they wake up in the middle of …
07. Getting on the same page as your partner in parenting
What do I do when my partner and I are not on the same page with our parenting values, how do we raise our kids, how can we address behavioral issues?
In this episode, I’ll be tackling all those que…
06. Teaching children emotion regulation skills through coregulation with Dana Rosenbloom
Young children often need our help to get their bodies and minds back into a regulated state after they’ve lost their cool. One of the most effective tools parents can use to do this is to coregulate…
05. Using the RIE method to create strong parent-child relationships with Deborah Carlisle Solomon
I’m joined by Deborah Carlisle Solomon and together we'll discuss 3 easy to implement and actionable steps parents can start taking today to strengthen trust and cooperation in their parent-child re…
04. You hear "I hate you!" but what is your child really trying to communicate: Q&A with Dr. Emily Upshur
Dr. Sarah and Dr. Emily respond to a mom who is asking for help figuring out what to do when her child says “I hate you!” or uses hurtful language.
I want to hear from you! Send me a topic you …
03. The Wonders of Play: More Than Just a Way to Pass the Time : A conversation with Jennie Monness
Jennie Monness, creator of @momommies and co-founder of Union Square Play and I discuss what exactly the function of play is (spoiler alert - it’s more than you might imagine), why play is so import…
02. Attachment Theory and Fostering Secure Attachment Relationships
In my deep dive on the topic of attachment theory I’ll review the nuts and bolts of exactly what it is and why secure attachment bonds are so essential to the formation of personality and predictive…