Making Peace with What Is and Bringing Back the Village with Gina Janc, LMFT

A Podcast for Moms

Gina Janc is a grounded force - her steadfast energy immediately reminds you to be a little gentler with yourself.

When Julia asked Gina to describe herself, Gina began with what was most true to her - she is a mother, daughter, granddaughter, great granddaughter, a deeply spiritual woman, and she is a lover of deep, vulnerable relationships. She is also a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist.

Gina is the founder of Bring Back the Village. She offers Talk Therapy, Parenting Circles, Parent Ceremonies, and a Prenatal Bonding E-Course.

The only thing constant in motherhood is change. Our conversation will encourage you to make peace with what is in your life - today - and it will inspire you to create space for the little things that invite self-regulation.

We Discuss:

• Gina’s transition to motherhood and how honoring her maternal lineage acted as a source of healing during that transition
• Gina’s experience as a LMFT and how being a LMFT has informed her motherhood experience
• A story from Gina’s daughter’s birth -- she describes her transition to motherhood as “disorienting” and “compartmentalized”
• The practices Gina uses to feel integrated and regulated
• Gina shares about her experience as step-mom
• Gina speaks to the importance of self-care and “making peace with what is”
• Gina’s maternal lineage and how she is working to shift what she received from previous generations
• Julia and Gina discuss Pandemic Parenting and Gina provides helpful suggestions and reflection questions for navigating parenthood and supporting our children during the pandemic
• Cultivating community and accessing the “village” within yourself
• Gina’s closing advice to the listeners: tenderness, self love, and finding little ways to be gentle with ourselves

Powerful Words from Gina:

• On Motherhood: “Motherhood is humbling.. My transition into motherhood was very humbling, brought me to my knees, still brings me to my knees. And, yes, I had the education, and the experience and I was still really rocked by the experience and I don’t think I realize how, the identity shifts I would go through as a mother, and the soul level transformation…”
• On the Birth of Her Daughter: “...in that moment, it felt like, maybe a piece of me or a part of me, I lost or I was losing myself or this transformation was happening that I knew I could never go back to who I was before, that something new was emerging in me and what is this and what’s happening and it was very disorienting…”
• On Self-Care: “... in any way that I can welcome in some self-compassion, so that I can take care of myself without thinking, ‘oh it used to be different or oh you should be working out more or you should be this or you should be that’, and I’m just kind of now more at peace with what is - you know, ‘what do I need today and how can I give that to myself?’”
• On Honoring Her Maternal Lineage: “When I became a mother, I felt a sense of gratitude for my own mother and all the other women who mothered me in my life, because it was this understanding of like, oh wow, there’s no special magic to being a mother… one day you’re a person and the next day you give birth… and now you’re a mother and here you are with all of your stuff and your wounds and your insecurity and your fears...and even the things that were passed down to you from previous generations and I think motherhood awakens you to that...And what am I going to do with that? How can I shift that for my daughter and for future generations?... It’s accepting all of it, the light and the shadow of it...”
• On Community: “There is something really special about women being supported by other women, especially in motherhood.”

Resources:

Website:

• https://www.bringbackthevillage.org/

Instagram:

• @BringBackTheVillage

Mentions:

• Gena McCarthy
• Janet Lansbury

Discount for Gina’s Prenatal Bonding E-Course:

Use the code ‘FORMOMS’ to receive Gina’s Prenatal Bonding E-Course for $29.00 (regularly $49.99): https://www.bringbackthevillage.org/prenatal-bonding/