Complex PTSD & Parenting: Why Control Won’t Save Your Child with Stephanie Foo

What if the pressure to “get parenting right” is actually coming from your trauma?

In this powerful and deeply validating conversation, I sit down with Stephanie Foo, author of What My Bones Know, to unpack what it really means to parent while healing from complex PTSD.

Together, we explore the intense fear many trauma survivors carry into parenting; the belief that one wrong move could damage their child forever. We also discuss how modern parenting culture often amplifies that fear instead of easing it.

Stephanie shares her personal journey of becoming a mother while navigating C-PTSD, including the anxiety, perfectionism, and overwhelming pressure to control every outcome.

This episode is a must listen for anyone who has ever wondered:

“Am I messing up my child?”

Topics covered in this episode:

• Why “perfect parenting” is often a trauma response
• The hidden ways parenting advice can prey on vulnerable moms
• The difference between child distress and actual harm
• Why control doesn’t create safety (and what does instead)
• How C-PTSD shows up in parenting from hyper-attunement to dissociation
• The truth about attachment (hint: you only need to get it right ~30% of the time)
• The role of repair, not perfection, in raising resilient children

About the Guest:

Stephanie Foo is the author of the bestselling memoir What My Bones Know, where she chronicles her journey of healing from complex PTSD. Her work has helped bring C-PTSD into mainstream conversation, giving voice to experiences that were long misunderstood or overlooked. To read more about Stephanie, and to buy a copy of her book, you can visit her website here.

Connect with me on Instagram @dr.koslowitzpsychology and check out my new book Post-Traumatic Parenting: Break the Cycle and Become the Parent You Always Wanted to Be