Empowered to Connect

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Empowered to Connect (ETC) is an attachment rich community focused program that exists to support, resource, and educate caregivers.

10/13/2026

Nobody plans to yell, shut down, or say something they regret. But conflicts happen in every home, and it don't have to be the end of the story.

In our latest newsletter, Jesse walks through a Connecting Practice that turns conflict into a starting point: Repair, Reflect, Re-Adjust. Repair means owning our part. Reflect means asking what we learned. Re-Adjust means deciding what we'll actually do differently, whether that's changing our expectations, adding more support, or both.

It also reminds us where the real teaching happens: in all the calm, connected moments that come after the storm passes.

Click here to read the full article: https://mailchi.mp/bec955675403/j4lds41rrh

10/12/2026

This week, ETC is headed to Filled Together!

Jesse Faris will be in Marlton, NJ leading breakouts on “Red Light Green Light: Building Kids' Skills Through Play” and “6, 7 Ideas for Surviving the Tween & Teen Years.”

Will we see you there? Let us know below!
And if you'd like to learn how we can bring our expertise to your church, organization, or event, click here: https://empoweredtoconnect.org/schedule-training/

10/09/2026

"You can't trust somebody that you don't think is good." Melinda Cathey shared this while talking about how we invite people into trust, and it lands just as hard at home.

We ask kids to trust us, to tell us the truth, to come to us when they're struggling. But a child who has learned that adults are unsafe has good reasons to hold back. Trust tends to follow goodness they can actually see and feel over time, through kind, predictable, repeated experiences.

So before we ask for trust, we get to ask ourselves what we're showing this child about who we are. This episode discusses faith, and Melinda applies this same idea to how we talk with kids about God, starting with his goodness and love.

Click here to listen to the full episode: https://empowered-to-connect-podcast.castos.com/

10/08/2026

Every baby has one way to say "I need something": a cry. What happens next begins to wire in a message about whether needs matter and whether people can be counted on.

Counselor Melinda Cathey walks through the four attachment styles on the podcast: Secure, Anxious Avoidant, Anxious Ambivalent, and Disorganized. She also shares that she recognized the Avoidant style in herself after decades as a therapist, and that most of us are a mix instead of one tidy label.

This episode discusses faith, and Melinda also connects each style to how a person might picture God. Whether you are parenting a child with a hard start or sorting through your own history, these patterns can explain reactions that otherwise make no sense. Save this for a closer look at where you and the kids you love might land.

Click here to listen to the full episode: https://empowered-to-connect-podcast.castos.com/

10/07/2026

We can tell a child they're safe a hundred times. Believing us and trusting us are two different things.

Counselor and author Melinda Cathey walks through the difference on the podcast. Belief is about whether something is true. Trust is about whether someone feels safe, and it can only be built through experience, over time, with someone who keeps showing up.

For children who have experienced stress, trauma, and adversity, the experiences that would have built trust may have gone missing or gone wrong. That is why our words matter less than our consistency.

This episode discusses faith. Melinda shares her Christian perspective on how all of this connects to trusting God. Save this one for the next time a child keeps you at a distance.

Click here to listen to the full episode: https://empowered-to-connect-podcast.castos.com/

10/06/2026

Can you believe something with your whole mind and still struggle to trust it with your heart?

Our guest Melinda Cathey spent decades as a counselor and missionary before one idea changed how she worked with hurting kids and the adults who care for them: belief and trust are two different things. Belief lives in the head. Trust gets built through experience, one met need at a time.

In this conversation, we talk about faith. Melinda shares her Christian perspective as we walk through the attachment styles and how they can shape the way we see God, why caregivers often need to start with their own stories, and what it looks like to become a corrective experience for a child who has learned that people can't be trusted.

If you've ever wondered why trust comes so hard for some of us, this one is for you.

Click here to listen to the full episode: https://empowered-to-connect-podcast.castos.com/

10/05/2026

We had a great time connecting with all of you who were at CAFO recently!

Follow this link to learn more about bringing ETC’s trauma-informed and attachment-focused training to your group or event: https://empoweredtoconnect.org/schedule-training/

10/02/2026

Posh spice behavior: the eye roll, the "you're so embarrassing," the sudden certainty that everything about you is uncool. If you're raising a teen or tween, you've probably been on the receiving end this week.

Pulling away and pushing back is a big part of how young people build an identity. Deciding "I'm not just like them" is the work, even when it stings.

We can make room for their own taste and opinions while still holding a loving limit around basic respect. Skip the angry lecture, share power where you can, and model what respectful conversation sounds like. Underneath the spice mask is someone trying to figure out who they are.

Save this post for the next eye roll, and share it with someone you love who’s raising a teen or tween.

10/01/2026

We're not going to pretend our kids' big, emotional moments don't scare us sometimes. Yelling, slamming doors, the sharp edge in their voice, it's okay to admit that's hard to be around.

That big emotional response is often a nervous system caught in a stress response rather than a kid trying to make life difficult. And a stressed kid can't just calm down because we ask them to, they need to borrow our calm first.

That's why responding thoughtfully, pausing, centering ourselves, then engaging, matters so much more than reacting in our own anger and stress. When we are able co-regulate with kids, we’ll end up seeing the child beneath the scary spice mask.

Save this post for the next big blowup, and share it with a friend who could use the reminder.

09/30/2026

The kid who can't stop moving isn't trying to make your day harder. Climbing, crashing, jumping, and roughhousing can look like aggression or "too much energy," but a lot of the time it's a body seeking regulation.

Movement and sensory input (think climbing, jumping, deep pressure) are how some forms of sensory dysregulation find their way back to calm. When we take movement away as a consequence, we're often removing the exact thing their body needed more of.

Build movement and sensory breaks into the day proactively, before things unravel, instead of only reacting once they have.

Save this post for your next can't-sit-still moment, and share it with someone who gets it.

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