In this week’s episode we are chatting with podcast host, school psychologist, pediatric sleep consultant, and mindset coach for mamas – my new friend Carly Ely, M.Ed, Ed.S!!

I recently connected with Carly in Cathy Heller’s podcast program and I was immediately drawn to her badass, no-bullshit energy. As a helping professional and mom of two, and having been diagnosed with ADHD and autism herself, Carly embraces imperfection and provides realistic and conscious parenting tools for the overwhelmed mom. 

After practicing as a school psychologist for 10 years, Carly found herself feeling limited by the help that her profession could offer families. Rather than solely assessing and providing diagnoses for kids (often leading to dead-end solutions), Carly wanted to take it a step further and provide tangible help to the families she served. She then worked toward her certification in pediatric sleep consulting and opened her practice to offer motherhood and mindset coaching. 

To kickstart our conversation I wanted Carly to expand on her journey and share how she was able to adopt her authentic and imperfect style of treatment. She noted that a key turning point in her life that inspired her was being diagnosed with ADHD and autism in her 30’s after already practicing as a school psychologist for many years. 

“it was a moment for me because i'm a literal psychologist. i'm trained in assessing and recognizing this in other people, and yet it was not on my radar at all. Never in a million years would i have thought that about myself.”

Carly had noticed herself feeling overstimulated, but after discovering her formal diagnoses, she finally began to understand more about why she was feeling that way. She now coaches her clients into understanding more about why their overwhelm may be there and the benefit of leaning into their own triggers, patterns of behavior, and diagnoses. 

“There's information that suggests that we can really rewire our brains. It's not a terminal, chronic, lifelong condition that you're just going to need to suffer through. But in order to even approach that and start to say, okay, what are some things I can do? You have to know it. You have to know in the first place that you're dealing with it.”

For the overwhelmed mom who is concerned about her parenting, Carly offers helpful tips:

• Acknowledge your own wounds and be open to healing. Identify that your inner child may need some TLC and choose to do better.

• Practice awareness and mindfulness. Whether you struggle with a mental health issue or anything else, you can build your awareness and you can build mindfulness. You are already more than halfway there, and you are already a good enough mom. 

• Repair where you need to. Our kids don't need us to be perfect, but they need us to be awake. They need us to be present, to be human, and to own our shit. There will be times when we might need to do some repair, but that is more than okay. There's so much good that we teach our kids when we can do that.

Motherhood is filled with unpredictable moments, triggers, and bursts of joy, so let’s allow ourselves to navigate every day without undue pressure. It's about taking all of these new challenges that you didn't have before and transmuting and alchemizing that into a better you — taking all the hard things and making them beautiful.

Connect with Carly!

Podcast: Same Shit, Different Mom Podcast

Instagram: @motherhoodalchemy

Take care of yourselves and therefore each other!

xo, brooke jean