How Parenting Changes Your Brain: Dr. Greer Kirshenbaum Explains the Science of Healing Trauma Through Nurturing

by | Nov 12, 2025 | Uncategorized | 0 comments

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What if the very act of nurturing your child could rewire your traumatized brain? Today I explore how parenting changes your brain with neuroscientist and author Greer Kirshenbaum. As someone who couldn’t co-sleep because of my PTSD flashbacks, I was deeply moved by what Greer revealed about the science of parental transformation.

We discuss why some parents feel disconnected from their bodies and struggle with physical closeness, yet still can create secure attachments with their babies. Greer shares surprising research about what happens in both parent and baby brains during those early years, and why your perceived “failures” as a parent might actually be completely irrelevant to your child. 

We also tackle the tough questions—what if you never learned how to nurture because you weren’t nurtured yourself? What if trauma makes traditional bonding advice impossible to follow? This conversation gave me a completely new perspective on my own parenting journey and the healing that happened without me even realizing it.

 

More about Dr. Greer Kirshenbaum:

Greer Kirshenbaum, PhD, is a neuroscientist, doula and educator who empowers nurtured parenting, disrupts modern parenting practices to begin new cycles of intergenerational wellness. She is on a mission to revolutionize the future of health and it all begins at the beginning of life. Greer spent many years studying the brain in a lab and many years using her knowledge while supporting families as a doula. She wants families and perinatal practitioners to understand how caregivers can boost success, thriving, and flourishing, and diminish depression, anxiety, and addiction in adulthood by shaping babies’ brains through simple intuitive enriching experiences in pregnancy, birth, and infancy. 

 

Topics covered on How Parenting Changes Your Brain:

  1. What specific brain regions transform when you become a parent, and why can scientists identify parents just by looking at 70-year-old brains?
  2. How does parenting change your brain differently for birthing parents versus non-birthing parents?
  3. Can nurturing your baby actually heal your own childhood trauma and create the secure attachment you never had?
  4. What if you can’t co-sleep or struggle with physical touch due to PTSD—are there alternatives that still foster connection?
  5. Why do babies in the NICU still recognize their parents, and what simple voice recording technique helped me bond with my medically fragile newborn?
  6. If you never received nurturing as a child, how can you learn to parent differently without an internal working model?
  7. How does parenting change your brain to see your body differently—why did I finally love my body only after becoming a mother?
  8. Why does your baby think you’re perfect even when you hate your body or feel like a failure?

 

Connect with Dr. Robyn Koslowitz:

 

Connect with Dr. Greer Kirshenbaum:

 

More about Post Traumatic Parenting:

“How can I give my kids a normal childhood, when mine was anything but?” Post-Traumatic Parenting is the podcast for anyone who has ever asked themselves that question. Robyn Koslowitz, Ph.D., clinical psychologist and Post-Traumatic Parent, combines the fields of post-traumatic recovery and growth with our best understanding of how to raise Little Humans. Through interviews with experts in the fields of behavior science, psychology, trauma, and child development, as well as interviews with toy developers, children’s book authors, and anyone else who makes childhood a delight, Dr. Koslowitz explores how trauma impacts our parenting, and how to hack our traumas into superpowers and super-parenting.

Each week, Dr. Koslowitz unpacks how to survive and thrive as a Post-Traumatic Parent. She shares behind-the-scenes insights into the research that underlies what we know about parenting, child development, and trauma recovery. Each podcast provides actionable tips about how to transform our Post-Traumatic Parenting and how to turn our parenting journey into a post-traumatic growth experience. Dr. Koslowitz interviews some of the famous names in these fields, and some experts you’ve never heard of (but should have!). Ready to go from survivor to thriver? Ready to become the parent you’ve always dreamed of being? Join us!

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