About the episode
Our generation of parents is way too involved. Michelle Freedberg sees it from the therapist’s chair, and she says it’s time to pull back.
Twenty-plus years after her first job at PIMS, Michelle Freedberg joins Mike for a candid conversation about parenting kids who need you less, building a solo therapy practice, starting the Before Boca podcast at 50, and why she’s over the excess of beauty products.
This one runs more casual than most episodes of The PIMS Influence, two old colleagues catching up, and it keeps landing on real topics: gender disappointment in family planning, containing your own anxiety so your kids don’t carry it, and the Before Boca episode where Michelle and her co-host Lisa asked a 21-year-old how he actually wants to be parented.
When the videographer who was supposed to run their podcast tech took a job in California a week after they committed, Michelle and Lisa learned every piece of it themselves. Her verdict: if the show never makes a dime, learning something completely new at 50 was the reward.
MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:
Michelle Freedberg on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michelle-freedberg-4626704/
Women’s Wellness Center of Bergen County: https://womenswellnessbergenco.org
Before Boca on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/before-boca-a-podcast-for-women-rediscovering/id1866963369
Before Boca on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/before_boca/
Chapters
0:00 – Intro
1:42 – From PIMS to Private Practice
9:39 – Parenting in the Age of ChatGPT
17:28 – Gender Disappointment in Pregnancy
19:42 – Big Kids, Big Problems
24:11 – The Story Behind Before Boca
26:02 – Asking a 21-Year-Old How to Parent
32:24 – Over the Beauty Product Overload
38:00 – Rapid-Fire Parenting Questions
ABOUT MICHELLE FREEDBERG
Michelle Freedberg is a licensed clinical social worker and mental health therapist. She has run the Women’s Wellness Center of Bergen County, her solo private practice, since 2010, specializing in maternal mental health and women’s mental health. She co-hosts Before Boca, a podcast for women rediscovering themselves in midlife.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/michelle-freedberg-4626704/ | https://womenswellnessbergenco.org
