Writing

Whether I’m writing an essay, Op-Ed, or academic article, I’m honored to share the wisdom of my ancestors and enrich that wisdom with the teachings of liberation workers whom society has pushed to the margin.

Speaking

Whether I facilitate workshops or speak on podcast interviews, my goals are to light up your soul, overjoy your heart, and ground your body. Thank you for bringing your curious heart to relearn and unlearn together.

Living While Staying Alive as an Act of Resistance

The future seems bleak. 

Our history is actively being erased. Our existence criminalized. Our arts and healing co-opted. (And that’s just Tuesday.)

“Where do we go from here?” may be running through your mind on repeat.

This bleakness is real, and so this is my love letter to our despair and grief. But it’s also an invitation: an invitation for you and me to hope and heal together so we can stay in the struggle for liberation together a while longer. 

Parenting for Social Justice Q&A with Nat Vikitsreth

(Please scroll to the bottom of the page to see my Q&A section)

Parents wonder how to raise children who will stand up against racism and injustice. We begin that conversation here.

When should we start the conversation about racism?

In a nutshell, the conversation about racism begins when you’re ready and rooted in your values. Because babies and toddlers are already learning about implicit biases and prejudices just by observing the world around them. They’re ready for you to help them learn.

The real question is: are you ready?

PERSPECTIVES: Advancing Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Queering “Ways of Being”

Replacing Politeness With Honesty to Create Belonging

Nat Vikitsreth

When practitioners move beyond professional niceness to embody honest human connection in our field’s relationship- based work, true belonging and equity emerge. With such radical honesty, foundational concepts, such as therapeutic alliance and attunement, will be explored through the lens of social justice. In other words, we are “queering” ways of being by explicitly exploring intersecting identities, power, and privilege with the caregivers we serve. Using a blend of personal narrative, clinical insight, and social justice practice, I share what therapeutic alliance can be like without “powerblindness” and what attunement can feel like with boundaries and accountability

The Safety, Privilege, and Invisibility I Found Living Stealth

While keeping my transness a secret kept me safe, sharing my truth helped me see I was so much more than just a woman.

When I was in college, I started every day with two Marys. The first was a Hail Mary, a round of prayer I offered up like the proper Catholic-Buddhist young woman my parents had taught me to be. The second was the 2007 Mary J. Blige track “Just Fine,” which I’d blast while carefully applying my lip tint and that third coat of Maybelline’s Great Lash mascara. There was something about her voice that soothed me as I begrudgingly plucked away my chin stubbles. Before the track ended, anything manly was gone, tweaked and tucked away. Welcome to my stealth life…

Knowing your value. Speaking your truth. Practicing humility. Being confident yet compassionate in your work. These are just a few key pieces of advice our power list of experienced and inspirational early childhood professionals have for others in the field.  

Learn more about their perspectives and how their Asian American, Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander heritage influences their approach to diversity-informed practice and the services they provide to young children and their families. 

“Humility helps us remember that the families’ stories and children’s emerging skills carry as much weight as our professional training.”

EMERGING LEADERSHIP AWARD: , Nadha (Nat) Vikitsreth

An interview with winner of the Practice Award, Nadha (Nat) Vikitsreth.

113: Balancing Self-Care and Community Care with Nat Vikitsreth

This episode is about liberation, revolution, and social justice. We are tackling these topics from a practical perspective with my guest, Nat. Join us!

Nat Vikitsreth is a licensed clinical social worker who works with families who want to practice social justice in their daily lives but are torn between acting in their communities and at home. She helps them bridge the gap despite being tired, overwhelmed, and stretched too thin. Holding space for their beautiful intentions and walking with them on this journey are Nat’s passions.

3 in 30 - Takeaways For Moms
Navigating Parenting Triggers with Nat Vikitsreth

Lover of practical ideas, conversations with kindred spirits, and my two wild children who keep life interesting.

I combined all of these passions when I created 3 in 30, a podcast for moms who want doable takeaways to try with their families - strategies to help us manage the madness and maximize the magic of motherhood.

In this episode, we are going to be discussing how to navigate our parenting triggers. A trigger in parenting is a small action, often done by our children, that releases a spring within us the parent and sets off a reaction. This reaction can sometimes feel like it is exploding out of us against our will, much like a real life trigger was pulled inside of us. So what do we do with our internal triggers? Can we tame them? Get rid of them altogether? Are triggers always a bad thing, or do they sometimes protect us?

Breaking Chains: Nat's Inspiring Journey from Decolonized Therapy to Parenting Liberation

In this episode, we welcome Nat Vikitsreth, a passionate dot connector and advocate for social justice in parenting. As the founder of Come Back to Care, Nat guides parents on a transformative journey from autopilot to decolonized, embodied, and intergenerational parenting.

Join us as Nat shares her insights on healing, emphasizing the vital role of addressing inner child and internalized oppression wounds within a supportive community. Dive into Nat's vision of a world where parents, having reconciled with their past, authentically engage in parenting and community organizing. Nat's academic achievements include a graduate degree from the Erikson Institute’s Social Work and Child Development Program and another master’s degree in Infancy & Early Childhood Special Education.

Kindness Starts at Home - Parenting with Social Justice in Mind with Nat Vikitsreth

Hello, I’m Dr. Laura Froyen and this is the Balanced Parent podcast, where overwhelmed stressed out and disconnected parents go to find tools, mindset shifts and practices to help them stop yelling at the people they love and start connecting on a deeper level, all delivered with heaping doses of grace and compassion. Join me in conversations that will help you get clear on your goals and values and start showing up in your parenting, your relationships, YOUR LIFE, with open-hearted authenticity and balance. Let’s go!

In this episode, I had the pleasure of interviewing Nat Vikitsreth, a founder of Come Back to Care and a host of Come Back to Care Podcast. She is a decolonized and licensed clinical psychotherapist, transgender rights community organizer, and child development specialist. 

Decolonized LGBTQ Parenting: Finding Balance in an Anti Queer World

The show all about family; but with gay! Queer mom, Jaimie Kelton, humorously goes in-depth with weekly LGBTQIA+ guests about their families; how they made them, and how they show up in a world that wasn't necessarily designed for them. The mission is to normalize, elevate and celebrate, while confirming that we're just like other parents, trying not to yell at our kids when they still haven't put their shoes on and we're 25 minutes late for school. The end result is a compelling podcast that amusingly explores the age-old question: what's it like to live as an LGBTQ family in a world built for the straights?

Nat Vikitsreth is a licensed clinical psychotherapist and child development specialist, and host of the Come Back to Care Podcast. She shares her personal journey, growing up in Bangkok, Thailand, and embracing her identity as a trans woman. Nat's work goes beyond therapy; she offers vital support to the queer community by being the "trans auntie of the village, loving up on other parents, especially queer parents." She discusses the importance of self-awareness and being present with our children. Her message reminds parents (especially Jaimie 😜) to give themselves grace as they navigate the complexities of parenting.

Attachment Theory in Action: Social Justice Parenting with Nat Vikitsreth

Presented by The Knowledge Center at Chaddock, Attachment Theory in Action is a bi-monthly podcast featuring national experts from the field of attachment and trauma. Hosted by Jenna Kelly, the podcast is dedicated to therapists, social workers, counselors and psychologists working with clients from an attachment-based perspective.

This week, Jenna sits down with Nat Vikitsreth to discuss issues in social justice parenting, and what that can mean for the parent-child dynamic.

Re Imagining Parenting to Be Decolonized, Embodied & Intergenerational

With Allied Media Projects

What if raising a child begins with tending to our inner child and doing the healing work our ancestors couldn't? Rooted in Emergent Strategy (ES), we'll delight in brief stories of three toddlers who will teach us about ES's nonlinear, adaptive interdependence and decentralization of power. We'll use these lessons from our tiny teachers to re-ignite our re-imagination of parenting as an act of social justice. Let's explore what decolonized, embodied, & intergenerational parenting can look like.

Asian America: The Ken Fong Podcast
Nat Vikitsreth On Helping Young Children Navigate Their/Your Feelings Parts 1 & 2

ASIAN AMERICA: THE KEN FONG PODCAST is a distinctive program that shines a spotlight on the manifold faces and facets of the diverse Asian American community. From the moment Ken launches each week’s episode with his current musings, you’ll feel like you’re sharing a booth with him at a local coffee shop. And when his guest joins him, you’ll get to listen in as he deftly invites them to talk about their pathways, their passions, and their latest pursuits.

Nat Vikitsreth is a recognized expert on how to teach young children to navigate their and your feelings. And when you learn how she came to fully embrace herself as a trans woman, you’ll understand how she arrived at her core convictions about children.

Lapsed Podcast - Trans Day of Visibility Special Edition: A Conversation with Nat Vikitsreth

Anne and Stephanie are friends, former coworkers, theatre artists and educators. They were also both raised Catholic. Join them as they compare notes on their respective Catholic upbringings.

As Trans Day of Visibility approaches, we are honored to share our conversation with Come Back to Care founder Nat Vikitsreth, a dot connector, norm agitator, and lover of liberation who supports social justice curious parents to practice social justice in their parenting while re-parenting their inner child. Listen in as Nat talks about what it was like attending an all boys' Catholic School as a Catholic-Buddhist trans kid growing up in Thailand. Highlights include altar boy Spice Girls fashion shows and secret highschool romances.

DISCLAIMER: Low key explicit content. Not suitable for listening while multitasking with your little ones *wink*

The Wild & Sublime Podcast

Host Karen Yates interviews sex experts, conducts dynamic panel discussions on sex and relationship issues, takes questions, and more. Storytellers and other entertainers add even more spice! And check out our membership site, The Afterglow, to support the show and get extra audio content.

PRIDE SHOW: “LIVING AUTHENTICALLY AND FEARLESSLY” + COMEDIAN MANNY PETTY

The first half of our Pride Edition show features a panel on how to live authentically and fearlessly as a LGBTQ+ person in these challenging times, plus a comedy set with Chicago comedian-musician Manny Petty. Guest host Matthew Amador. Recorded at Hungry Brain in Chicago.

DISCLAIMER: Low key explicit content. Not suitable for listening while multitasking with your little ones *wink*