Most parenting memberships are centered on the child and what the child needs to thrive. In these memberships, the parent’s well-being is secondary to the child’s. In Haven, that relationship is reversed: the purpose is to support the mother simply because she’s a human who deserves it; it just so happens that when a mother is cared for, her child will be the unintended beneficiary of that care.

The other big difference is the emphasis in this membership on mindfulness, meditation, and somatics. Somatics in particular is largely overlooked in the parenting world, but it my experience, it is key to both parent and child thriving.

Haven and parent coaching are excellent compliments to one another. While both will give you approximately the same amount of support in the practicalities of parenting, they support you in different, but related, ways. Specifically, you can think of parent coaching as a deep dive that really helps you empty your emotional backpack, while Haven is more of a maintenance program that helps you to “skim off the top” of whatever is in the backpack so that it doesn’t overflow.

It’s absolutely true that dads need support. And because of gender stereotypes in Western societies, it is often even harder for them to access supports than it is for women.

Despite that, I have decided to limit Haven to women. The biggest reason for this is that my experience and training are both related to women. Specifically. the female nervous system, which has higher needs for oxytocin and connection than the male nervous system.

To the dad who would like support—please reach out to me about coaching. I would love to support you.

Full disclosure: I am a straight, cis-gendered woman who is trained in the physiological needs of the female nervous system. Although I would personally welcome any person who identifies as female and/or feels comfortable in female-centered spaces, I am not an expert in other genders.

So basically, if you feel like you would fit into this group—welcome! If you aren’t sure, I invite you to consider parent coaching instead.

Listening Circles are groups of people (in this case, parents) who come together on a regular basis to listen to each other talk. The idea is based on the concept of Listening Partnerships popularized by Patty Wipfler and Hand In Hand Parenting.

As the speaker, the benefit of a Listening Circle is that you get a chance to get in touch with your emotions (and process them so that they don’t continue to take up space in your emotional backpack) while experiencing being deeply seen and heard—which is exactly the experience that your children need.

As a listener, you will have the opportunity to practice holding space for someone else and their emotions, making listening time excellent practice for parenting.

Although I believe that all parents can benefit from mindfulness and meditation, Haven is intentionally designed so that non-meditators can still get substantial benefit from it.

And if you are part of the population that is curious about meditation but just doesn’t do it yet, email me about a special offer I am developing to help parents build a meditation practice.

The Haven membership consists of weekly sessions in which mothers get together and support each other in a variety of ways. These include mindfulness and meditation sessions, Listening Circles, compassion practices and meditations, group parent coaching (during which you can get your practical parenting questions answered), and R.A.I.N. meditation. All of these sessions other than the Listening Circles will be recorded so that people who can’t attend live can catch the replay.

If you have any more questions that I haven’t answered here, please send me an email so that I can help you decide if this is the next step for you.