Reframing Me - Self-Development & Parenting Teens for Midlife Moms Podcast By Dr. Jennifer Brubaker cover art

Reframing Me - Self-Development & Parenting Teens for Midlife Moms

Reframing Me - Self-Development & Parenting Teens for Midlife Moms

By: Dr. Jennifer Brubaker
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Your kids are growing up - but so are you. Reframing Me is the podcast for moms of teens ready to reframe family, identity, and self-development in midlife.


Parenting teens is hard -and parenting while rediscovering yourself in midlife can feel even harder. Reframing Me is the parenting podcast for moms raising teenagers who are also navigating the transition out of hands-on motherhood, identity shifts, and the search for balance, fulfillment, and self-development.


Hosted by Dr. Jennifer Brubaker, a Communication Studies professor, mom of three teens, and intrapersonal communication expert, each episode blends family communication strategies, honest conversations about parenting teens, and self-reflection tools to help moms strengthen family relationships while rediscovering who they are as women.


Together we’ll talk about the issues moms face but don’t always say out loud: changing family dynamics, feeling invisible, letting go of control, and creating new purpose. Through research, theory, and compassionate conversation, you’ll find support, strategies, and a sense of community in this season of parenting and personal growth.


Join the Reframing Me community to connect with other midlife moms, share your stories, and reframe how you see yourself, your family, and your future.

Send emails to jen@reframing-me.com; or on socials: Reframing Me on FacebookAND join the Facebook group Reframing Me: The Podcast Community; @reframingme on Instagram; Reframing Me on YouTube @reframingme on TikTok

© 2025 Reframing Me - Self-Development & Parenting Teens for Midlife Moms
Hygiene & Healthy Living Parenting & Families Personal Development Personal Success Psychology Psychology & Mental Health Relationships
Episodes
  • How to Evolve with your Teens: Moving from a Vertical to a Horizontal Relationship
    Nov 6 2025

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    *** Join me in the Reframing Circle to go deeper each month with *1 bonus Jen is Zen episode,* *1 matreniassance-themed episode,* *1 guided meditation,* and *weekly book readings/discussions.***

    What does it really take to build openness, honesty, and trust with our kids as they grow into teens? It's not by becoming the "cool mom" and loosening all boundaries, but it is by evolving right alongside them.

    As kids grow up, parent–child relationships shift from vertical to horizontal -from top-down authority to side-by-side connection - and this change asks us to redefine what authority, influence, and love look like in modern families. Believe it or not, both openness and structure and both freedom and safety, can peacefully coexist.

    It's not about perfect parenting, but it is about relational growth - learning to listen more than lecture, to respond instead of react, and to trade control for connection. It’s about the moment we stop trying to “win” as parents and start learning to walk beside our kids instead.

    Because the goal isn’t to raise perfect children - it’s to raise honest ones. And that kind of honesty is built, moment by moment, in a climate where trust feels safer than silence.

    Support the show

    Thank you for listening and being part of this community! Let's get social. Follow me on Facebook, on Twitter @reframing_me, on Instagram @reframingme and on TikTok @reframingme
    I hope you enjoyed the episode! Please leave a review, catch up on any missed episodes, and be sure to follow the show, so you don't miss new content!


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    45 mins
  • Reframe the Moment: Chapter 8 - Our Discontent
    Oct 30 2025

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    Be a founding member and join the Reframing Circle for EXCLUSIVE content! Inside the Circle - a private space for women ready to rediscover themselves beyond the frames around them, the roles they play, and the narratives they’ve been told - you'll have access to bonus Matrenaissance, Jen is Zen, book content and more!

    In this bonus episode, we continue our weekly series, reading and discussing excerpts from my new book, Reframe the Moment. It's super fun and appropriate because each essay grew out of a Jen is Zen episode, so why not bring it full circle. Today we talk about Chapter 8 - Our Discontent.

    Our discontent often comes from our desire to control the situation and to predict the outcome. Acceptance that we can’t do that can be a huge relief and an opportunity to move forward. Maybe it’s not from where you want to be, but it’s from where you are. What would happen if instead of putting that positive or negative frame around it, you just accepted it? As is.

    Support the show

    Thank you for listening and being part of this community! Let's get social. Follow me on Facebook, on Twitter @reframing_me, on Instagram @reframingme and on TikTok @reframingme
    I hope you enjoyed the episode! Please leave a review, catch up on any missed episodes, and be sure to follow the show, so you don't miss new content!


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    10 mins
  • It's Time to Reframe YOU: A walk-through of the ReFRAME Model
    Oct 28 2025

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    Welcome back to the show! I hope you enjoy this episode - it's not a typical episode; instead, it's more of a guided walk-through of the ReFRAME process, a six-phase model for personal and identity transformation.

    Do you feel like you're not quite sure who you're becoming, but you know you're not who you were? Identity discovery is a fluid, ongoing practice of communication between our past, present, and emerging selves, and the ReFRAME model exists to help you through it.

    The class-style session introduces each phase with short explanations and reflective exercises.

    1. Recognize – Becoming aware that something no longer fits and identifying the gap between external expectations and inner truth through the Identity Gap Audit.
    2. The little e – Choosing an emotional current—Kindness → Joy → Love → Confidence → Gratitude → Grace—as the controllable energy that powers all other steps.
    3. Feel – Allowing emotions to surface and interpreting them as information using the Feel & Flow Scan (Name it, Notice it, Nurture it).
    4. Reflect – Making meaning from emotion and identifying personal narratives with the Reframe the Story exercise, transforming limiting beliefs into new perspectives.
    5. Articulate – Giving language to the new understanding through the IRL Identity Map (“Right now, I am someone who …”), turning inner truth into lived communication.
    6. Move – Translating awareness into action with the GROW Action Plan (Goal, Reality, Options, Way Forward) and committing to one aligned micro-movement.
    7. Embody – Integrating the work through the Identity Embodiment Exercise (Before, Current, Becoming) and a daily affirmation that anchors the desired state.

    Beginning In November, you'll be able to dig deeper into this process by subscribing to the Reframing Circle for bonus content. And in January, you will be able to really do a deep dive in a six-week course. I hope you'll join me on this wonderful journey!

    Thank you for listening and being part of this community! Let's get social. Follow me on Facebook, on Twitter @reframing_me, on Instagram @reframingme and on TikTok @reframingme
    I hope you enjoyed the episode! Please leave a review, catch up on any missed episodes, and be sure to follow the show, so you don't miss new content!


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    1 hr
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