How Conscious Parenting Helps Break the Cycle of Fear and Anxiety – Interview With Sharon Medina

Sharon Medina is a leader in conscious parenting and self-growth coaching. Raised between Colombia and the United States, she experienced firsthand the struggles of navigating generational trauma as a first-generation immigrant. With over 10 years of experience in education, mindfulness, and trauma-informed coaching, Sharon empowers parents to heal, reconnect with the child within them, and create safe, authentic relationships with their children. She is the founder of The Connected Tribe, a coaching platform dedicated to transforming families from the inside out, and Reach Through Education, a teen mentorship program based in Houston. Her mission: Break generation trauma, come back home to your heart.

Sharon Medina, Conscious Parent coach

Please tell us more about you (Feel free to share anything that makes you unique.)

Hi, I’m Sharon Medina. I’m a certified conscious parent coach, a mama to a bold, intuitive little boy, and someone who’s spent the last few years of my life untangling from all the roles I thought I had to play. As a first-gen immigrant daughter, I grew up with a lot of pressure to be the “good daughter,” the “fixer,” the “family therapist”, the “family backbone”, the one who held everything together. But that version of me wasn’t connected to her. She was so used to playing the roles that were expected of her. I left my family home at 17 and fell into a toxic relationship with a narcissist. I hit rock bottom at the age of 19 when I was sexually abused by a family member. I felt like I was suffocating with no support, so I left the U.S. in my early twenties to live in Taiwan, where I started asking bigger questions about who I really was, what my life purpose was, and what I wanted out of life. After 4 years of healing and reinventing myself, I met my husband there.

Tell us about a pivotal moment in your life that brought you to where you are today.

That was my first revival, but what truly transformed me was becoming a mother. I thought that all of my pain had been processed, and then I fell into postpartum depression, and a diagnosis of a uterine tumor that pushed me into daily excruciating pain and a disconnect from my body, and most of all from my son.

I gave birth in 2020 (at the start of the pandemic). I thought having a baby would complete me after everything I went through. But instead, I felt empty, angry, and completely misunderstood. I was exhausted and isolated, physically and emotionally. That was my breaking point. Yet, it was also the beginning of a deep healing journey that led me to learn about conscious parenting, nervous system work, inner child healing, and somatic practices that helped me come back into a healthy relationship with my body and into connection with my child.

Tell us a bit about your story. How did you build your career until this point?

My career wasn’t planned. It evolved from my own pain. I started sharing my experience honestly online, and slowly, people began reaching out. They saw themselves in my story. That turned into sharing what had helped me, workshops, and now a full coaching practice. I became certified in conscious living and parenting, integrated trauma-informed tools, and drew from my experience to guide others who, like me, felt alone, misunderstood, but with the desire to change for their kids. My work is as much lived as it is studied.

Who inspires you to be the best that you can be?

Who inspires me? My son. Every single day. His kindness, his authenticity, his emotional depth. He holds up a mirror I can’t ignore. He doesn’t let me abandon myself. My clients inspire me too, because they are the ones doing the hard inner work to show up differently for themselves and their families, even if it’s hard. And the younger version of me who needed someone like me years ago. I do this for her too.

My work is inspired by pain, but what drives me is the refusal to pass that pain on. I want parents to know there is another way. I want them to feel supported, cared for, and held. I want them to stop surviving and start living a full and connected life. Because when we shift the way we see our pain, everything around us shifts too.

What would you like to achieve for yourself and your business in the future?

For myself and my business, I want to grow The Connected Tribe into an online platform that is deeply trusted and respected. I want to speak at conferences, be a guest on the kinds of podcasts that make people cry because they feel seen. And, I want to grow this into in-person retreats in the near future, I want to have an impact on people’s healing and share my message of bringing back connection to ourselves, and our community that has been lost through years of isolation, colonization, and acquisition. I don’t want to grow just for money. I want honest, grounded growth that reflects the depth of this work.

What’s your purpose, mission, and driving force for all the work you do?

My purpose is simple: to help people heal so that our children can live in a world without violence, injustice, and suffering. I know it sounds impossible, but if I can get one parent to stop reacting from fear and anxiety, and start choosing understanding and connection, then I’ve fulfilled my purpose. My mission is to hold parents through their inner growth, but not from a place of fixing their kids. From a place of healing themselves.

Is there a core value that you are most passionate about?

The core value I return to repeatedly is Connection. Not performance. Not perfection. Not division or hate but intentional connection, safety, and trust. And that begins when we start to heal ourselves first.

What are your next goal or project?

My next goal is to launch a new group coaching program called Coming Home to You this September 2025, that brings parents together who are ready to learn nervous system healing, inner child work, and body connection to feel and build a healthy relationship to themselves and their family. I also want to collaborate with other coaches and healers who do this work.

What inspired you to create The Connected Tribe?

My business is called The Connected Tribe because I believe that we all have forgotten what it is like to live a life in community connection, supporting one another like in tribal communities. What I lived through was not a unique experience to me; it was a constant reminder that we are not meant to live or parent in isolation. Throughout my experience, I felt a profound longing for the connection and support of others. Parenthood can be so isolating, lonely, with parents being judged for facing challenges or child rearing without guidance, without a community to lean on, a type of identity erasure. That is what inspired the creation of The Connected Tribe.

The Connected Tribe is a tribute to the Amis tribe in Taiwan and their belief in “Mipaliw” or “Everyone helping one another”. I realized I wanted to create a Mipaliw, a space where parents could find a sense of belonging, a sense of being held, a sense of walking this path together like a Connected Tribe, and I knew others felt the same.

What kind of audience do you target your business towards?

My audience is both non-parents, caregivers, and parents, many of them are cycle-breakers who want to raise themselves or their kids without shame, anxiety, or fear. They are reading the self-growth, healing, and parenting books, attending webinars, and using the mantra scripts they’ve heard on social media. They’re tired of yelling, reacting, of the guilt that comes after, and of the pressure of being perfect people. They want connection, growth, calm, but they also want someone to hold their hand while they figure out how to get there.

What services or products does The Connected Tribe offer?

I offer free clarity calls, 1:1 coaching, group coaching (once a year), and online resources. I also offer teen mentoring through REACH Through Education, my teen-focused program that guides teens in developing executive functioning with emotional leadership. Our services meet parents and teens where they are and offer actual tools for regulation, emotional safety, and healthy connection.

How do they address the needs of your target audience?

One of the biggest challenges my clients face is the feeling of failure, teens and parents alike. They think they’re ruining their kids. Or the teens feel like they are not meeting their parents’ expectations. Many are stuck in survival, a loop of fear and anxiety patterns. They want to stop but don’t know how. What they’re really struggling with is an unsafe nervous system, unresolved pain, and a lack of emotional support.

I help them face that challenge by creating a safe container. I guide them through somatic tools, ancient eastern mindfulness practices, and inner child work. I help them understand their patterns instead of judging them. And most importantly, I remind them they’re not alone. They can be their authentic selves and learn to heal at the same time.

Could you share some success stories from your clients?

A parent in one of my coaching groups messaged me one day and said, “I saw my child melting down, and for the first time, I didn’t see it as a problem or something I needed to fix; instead, I empathized with her (her child’s) pain. And I sat with her. And later I cried in the closet, because I’ve never had that kind of understanding shown to me before.”

That moment made me feel so proud of her because that’s the work. Without performing empathy. Without showing up as the perfect parent. Just a deep and honest presence. That’s what changes everything, and that is what sets The Connected Tribe apart: it doesn’t center around controlling or fixing behavior from the child or the parent. It is grounded in the parents’ healing. I don’t slap on tips and call it a day. I work alongside my client to get to the root cause. I don’t promise quick fixes. I guide them through lasting change, the kind that starts with the body and ripples through generations.

If you could change one thing about your industry, what would it be and why?

If I could change one thing about this industry, it would be to stop focusing on looking at the child as the problem and start focusing on connection. Parenting is not about controlling kids, because they aren’t our projects to perfect; they are whole humans to be held. We need to stop using fear, shame, criticism, and punishment as “discipline” and start building relationships rooted in mutual respect and regulation.

A common misconception is that conscious parenting is passive or permissive parenting. That couldn’t be further from the truth. It is giving choice and autonomy to our kids while holding boundaries without punishment or fear. It’s actually the most accountable form of parenting because it requires the adult to look inward, to be conscious in their relationship with their kids. To take full ownership of their reactions. And that’s hard. But it’s also the most freeing.

How do you and your business address them?

I address that misconception by showing the real work. By being transparent about the emotional labor it takes. I don’t sugarcoat it. But I also don’t leave people alone in it. That’s what makes the difference.

For readers inspired by this conversation and eager to start their journey, what first steps would you recommend?

If you’re reading this and just starting your journey, start by observing. Notice your reactions. Feel your tension. Notice your patterns. You don’t need to fix everything today. You just need to start getting honest with yourself, even if it feels uncomfortable at first.

And if you want support, I’m here.

Follow me on Instagram @the.connected.tribe for honest conversations, nervous system tools, and real parenting moments. Or book a free clarity call if you’re ready to explore working together. Either way, let this be the moment you stop trying to do it all alone.

You deserve support. You deserve softness. You deserve to come home to yourself.

Follow me on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and visit my website for more info!

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