Send a text

What if the “defiant” behavior you’re seeing is really an attachment alarm? We sit with licensed counselor and adoptive parent Dorothy Derapellian to unpack Core Attachment Therapy, a practical, compassionate framework that steadies the home first, then rewires safety through play. Dorothy blends the Nurtured Heart Approach with developmentally sequenced attachment games so families can “go back in time,” repair early ruptures, and build the felt sense of trust kids need to thrive.

We start with a crucial reframe: when a child seems to run the house, dysregulation is usually in charge. Nurtured Heart gives caregivers structure to remove energy from problem cycles and richly recognize what’s going right. That precise, character-based recognition builds inner wealth, restores parental confidence, and cools the temperature of daily life. With the house calm and adults effective, the second phase begins: playful rituals that re-stage early bonding—from close, regulating contact to healthy separation and individuation—so children learn in their bodies that caregivers are safe and dependable.

Dorothy shares moving examples, like a child who once escalated at sirens but now instinctively seeks her mother’s arms. We talk about caregiver readiness, why parents’ own attachment injuries matter, and how to avoid reactivating abandonment by sequencing support. We also widen the lens: adoption and foster care bring unique layers of grief and unknowns, but prenatal stress, medical trauma, and modern pressures can disrupt attachment in any family. The throughline is hope: it’s never too late to heal.

If you’re a therapist or caregiver seeking concrete, relationship-first tools, you’ll leave with a roadmap you can use right away—and details on training and certification to go deeper. Listen, share with someone who needs encouragement, and tell us the one idea you’ll try this week. If you found value here, follow the show, leave a review, and pass it on so more families can find their way back to safety and connection.

A Hero's Welcome Podcast © Maria Laquerre-Diego & Liliana Baylon

Send us a text

What happens when the checklist says “no,” but your body and life keep saying “something is real”? We open the new season by taking aim at diagnostic gatekeeping—across therapy offices, clinics, and urgent care—and making the case for care that centers lived experience alongside criteria. With returning guest Jessica Kirkberg, LMFT and sex therapist, we untangle how the medical model can flatten people into labels and why cultural humility, social location, and context should guide treatment just as much as manuals do.

We get practical fast. Jessica shares how training in cultural humility and pain reprocessing reshaped her supervision and client work, from asking about the menstrual cycle to mapping how Ehlers‑Danlos syndrome, endometriosis, migraines, and autoimmune flares affect mood, attention, and safety. We talk about the rise of self-diagnosis through social media—not as a problem to be mocked, but as a tool that gives people language and community when criteria were written for someone else. For many, an EDS diagnosis won’t unlock a cure, but it can unlock clarity, reduce shame, and point to better pacing, sensory supports, and boundaries.

Ableism shows up everywhere: patients feeling forced to “look sick” to be believed, therapists policing how clients sit or move, and insurance barriers that turn access into a maze. We offer concrete ways to lower the mental load in therapy—allow movement, normalize comfort items, keep heat packs and tea on hand, dim harsh lights, and keep curiosity at the center. We also challenge clinicians to name their own social locations and examine internalized ableism, because what we hide in ourselves we often project onto clients. If your setting is rigid, build a consultation circle, follow disabled clinicians, and test one new adaptation at a time. Better care isn’t a slogan; it’s a series of small, repeatable choices that trust what people say about their bodies and minds.

If this conversation pushed you or gave you language you needed, subscribe, share with a colleague, and leave a review telling us one access change you’ll try this week. Your story might be the spark someone else needs.

A Hero's Welcome Podcast © Maria Laquerre-Diego & Liliana Baylon

Send us a text

The conversations that shaped our year didn’t push us to work harder. They moved us to be human. We revisit the moments that shifted our lens: naming white supremacy inside everyday clinical decisions, strengthening cultural competence with Latinx clients, and turning judgment into curiosity so the therapeutic alliance can lead. We also reframed the parts of the job that feel “scary.” Subpoenas, high-conflict divorce, and big behaviors became step-by-step, consult-supported tasks that protect our licenses and regulate our nervous systems.

Joy showed up as an ethical practice. A listener-favorite segment on travel hacking reminded us that rest isn’t indulgence. It is the infrastructure that makes good therapy possible. From there, we traced the path toward sustainable careers: mentorship as an attachment relationship, releasing the “pay your dues” myth, and setting down the armor that keeps us guarded. With guests who offer lived expertise and practical tools, we mapped a future where boundaries are clear, play has a seat at the table, and self-compassion is non-negotiable, especially for therapists who are also caregivers.

Season three is on the way, and we’re ready to build on these practices: culturally responsive care, court-smart documentation, nervous system literacy, and a professional identity rooted in our values. Join us as we bridge generations of clinicians, dismantle what no longer serves, and create a community where difference is strength. Subscribe, share with a colleague, and consider: what shifts are you making next year?

A Hero's Welcome Podcast © Maria Laquerre-Diego & Liliana Baylon