Ep. 303: The Science of Feeling Safe Again
Parenting Great Kids with Dr. Meg Meeker
Dr. Meg Meeker
4.6 • 1.1K Ratings
🗓️ 25 November 2025
⏱️ 38 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In this follow-up to our conversation on divorce and healing, Dr. Meg Meeker sits down with therapist and integrative healer Dawn Wiggins to talk about what it really takes to recover from any kind of trauma — whether it’s divorce, loss, or years of emotional stress.
Wiggins explains how trauma shapes our nervous system, thoughts, and relationships — and how real healing happens when we reconnect body, mind, and spirit. Together, they unpack practical ways to calm the body, release old pain, and create safety from the inside out.
🧭 Key Takeaways
- Trauma lives in the body — and the nervous system needs to feel safe before real healing begins.
- Being present (not perfect) helps children and loved ones feel secure.
- Recognize and release negative beliefs that keep you stuck in fear or guilt.
- Tools like EMDR, somatic therapy, and homeopathy can help integrate emotional healing.
- Healing is a full-body process — involving your brain, your breath, and your belief system.
- When you heal yourself, you break generational patterns and model resilience.
About Dawn Wiggins
Dawn Wiggins is a licensed therapist, homeopath, and integrative healer who helps people recover from trauma and life transitions. She’s the creator of A Different “D” Word, a year-long healing program, and host of the podcast Dear Divorce Diary, where she guides listeners toward emotional safety, balance, and self-trust.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This episode is sponsored in part by Dawn Wiggins of the different D-word and the Dear Divorce Diary podcast. |
| 0:06.7 | But then when we have very painful experiences and we don't have time to attend to them |
| 0:11.4 | because we have to get to work or we have to get the kids to school or because the millions of |
| 0:16.1 | pressures we have, we learn how to quote unquote check out. |
| 0:19.0 | But when that becomes chronic, it actually starts |
| 0:21.5 | to change our neurology. This is parenting great kids with Dr. Meg Meeker. So, Don, let's talk about |
| 0:31.0 | the kids, because one of the things I think that it makes divorce even harder for women is dealing with their kids' grief. |
| 0:40.5 | And how do they do that? |
| 0:42.2 | Particularly if you've got a situation where dad just bailed, you know, and he left and he's, |
| 0:47.2 | you know, across the country or whatever, not interested in being involved with a family. |
| 0:52.9 | How do you suggest mothers help their kids? |
| 0:58.8 | Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. |
| 1:00.3 | The most important thing a mom can do, and I think it is especially hard to do when moving through divorce, is just be present and curious. |
| 1:15.7 | Being present is 100% the greatest gift you can give a kid who is struggling. And I think for women who are getting divorced, right, they have all of their own |
| 1:21.1 | emotional mess going on, their own grief, their own anger and resentment and all of that. |
| 1:27.3 | And I think we really have a |
| 1:28.7 | hard time setting that aside to be present for our kids' experience and accepting that our kids |
| 1:33.1 | are having a very different experience than we as women are having. And kids need their dads. |
| 1:39.9 | Kids need both parents. Kids need to maintain that attachment and that love for their parent. And I think |
| 1:48.5 | women, both parents, but especially women, I think we overcompensate by trying to buy things and, |
| 1:57.7 | you know, throw the best party into all those things to try to distract our kids, |
| 2:01.5 | but our kids don't need to be distracted. They need to feel and they need to be able to release |
... |
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