Rediscovering Connection with Shelley Doyle
Welcome to Rediscovering Connection, a Podcast where you'll hear from innovative leaders, researchers, community builders, and facilitators, on the frontier of connection.
Through soulful conversations, we explore new ways to connect, on-and-offline, to support our social and digital wellbeing.
I hope this podcast inspires you to rediscover connection in your own life!
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Rediscovering Connection with Shelley Doyle
#10 - Nicole Hamilton - How to Connect Holistically with Children
Nichole Hamilton is the leader of The Kidz Coach in Australia, with a personal mission to provide families with the tools for reconnection and healing.
If you've ever wondered how cold therapy could help neurodivergent children, Nicole's experiences and insights are a must-listen.
Nichole shares how she uses positive language, embodiment, and hypno-play, to help the children she works with process their emotions and provide a blueprint for other parents.
Join us for a 20 minute Soul Talk and learn how you can introduce holistic healing practices into your family's life.
Find Nichole at : https://thekidzcoach.com.au/
Tiktok https://www.tiktok.com/@nicholecss?_t=8gSrQcvdADX&_r=1
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nichole.hamilton.587
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nichole_hamiltonchildrenscoach/
Free 5 day challenge to help you connect with kids https://www.thekidzcoach.com.au/free-coaching
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I hope our conversation inspires you to rediscover connection in your personal or professional life.
Subscribe now and let the magic unfold.
Love & sparkles,
✨Shelley
About Your Host
Hi, I'm Shelley Doyle, a Social Wealth Strategist and Connection Coach. I empower remote and nomadic founders and leaders who crave deeper connections to activate their social wealth, so they can feel trusted, supported, and truly connected—both online and offline—no matter where they are.
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I combine cutting-edge research on social wealth, social wellbeing and social capital with two decades in corporate communications to deliver mind-shifting talks, workshops, and programs around the world.
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Hello, this is Rediscovering Connection with me. Shelley and I'm here with Nicole, the kids' coach, and I'm super excited to really delve into how Nicole has rediscovered connection with herself, with the people in her life, and also with the children that she works with and the families that she helps to reconnect with their children. So welcome Nicole. I'm really happy to see you today. You're on a different day to me. I'm on a holiday here.
Speaker 2:It's Friday here in Australia, Friday morning very early, and thank you so much for having me. I'm super excited to dive deep yeah.
Speaker 1:Amazing. So why don't we really explore that, that reconnection with yourself, like when things started to really make sense for you, once this business venture became something that felt like the right fit for you? Maybe let's go into that like positive journey of reconnection, and how, once you did start reconnecting, how those positive trickles just started to unfold for you.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I guess I mean yeah, 100%, the being in alignment, having a coach help me connect to my heart's desires, my soul, like you, can use whatever word that resonates with you. I'm quite diverse it could be God, universe, guide, inklings, intuition but connecting in here really has led me to this path and I've been in personal development for, you know, about 13 years now and it still brings me back to the very first session I had, when I met a holistic healer. Delving into that soul work, delving into that unconscious, beautiful healing gave me such a profound internal shift that I knew then that I would carry that with me to then teach, and I haven't stopped studying since.
Speaker 2:but yeah, it's that reconnection to soul all the time to drop in out of our heads, which is full of control and fear and chaos. Really, sometimes. Connecting into, to that beautiful wisdom within has led me to work with kids and bring this holistic healing to them, and it's one of the things that I very first teach to kids, to parents, is to try and drop out of your head. So, because we're the guides, like everybody has their innate wisdom. If we go back to the frequency we were created, it's love, it's beautiful, it's just we get too busy and drop out of it very quickly.
Speaker 1:And what? What rituals do you have, what helps to bring you back to center when life inevitably gets really busy and you have a lot of demands on your time and attention? What, what, what do you use to bring yourself back? Good question.
Speaker 2:One of my non negotiables every day is cold therapy. I'm neuro diverse and my brain is very, very busy and cold therapy every single morning I have my own chest freeze or I get in it's like one degrees will bring me into focus and center that breath, that that resonance, and it really helps me just connect to the underneath so that'll help me really calm and focus in the daytime. I love using like smells, so like I love paleo Santo and just taking some deep breaths and changing my state that way. And then the other thing is sun and grounding. They're the other things like if I'm in a very, very busy, like bare feet, trying to get outside, be in the grass, get some, get some sun on me. Those three things are probably the things that I'd go back to pretty well every day.
Speaker 1:I'm so intrigued about this chest freezer. Is it so? Is it a lay down freezer or is it walking?
Speaker 2:No, no, it's just a sitting life. So you know, like a chest freezer, that you put all your food in, it's all lined, and you fill it full of water and then you regulate it with a temperature and you turn it off when you get in it because obviously you don't want to electric yourself. But it's yeah set and it just.
Speaker 2:It keeps the water at like one degrees until you get about three to five minutes depending, and then I do hot cold. I've got a 40 degree spa so I'll go from one degree to 40 and I'll regulate it and helps my nervous system regulate you meet your challenges. It's also an emotional thing as well because you know I take kids through it as well. I take adults it's, and we do a lot of ice baths here in Australia, but it's the practice of the breath and the focus and the challenge mentally, emotionally, spiritually that you go through. But I found honestly with neurodiverse kids it calms them down. If they're ADHD and for those that are very withdrawn, their nervous system flips and they become very chatty afterwards so they let you in. So it's a beautiful holistic way to connect to, to self.
Speaker 1:Yes, I had my first. I was first introduced to like cold water dipping just a couple of months ago and it was summer here in Canada, but the sea is still very, very cold and the friend that introduced me to it she's been doing it for years, so she took me on the whole process of it, like going in the different stages before you go in and then in the end I'm up to here just holding my hands out of the water until I felt that burning sensation in my legs and I was so confused because I'd never heard of this before, like that feeling, and my friend said that is your chi, that's your life force, energy waking up, and I was like, wow, this is why people do this. Do you get that? Do you get that in your chest?
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, so I feel it all through my body. I'm also like a pole dancer and a PT, so personal, like fitness instructor. I don't use it much, but I notice the recovery from it. So the physical aspect so if I have an injury, the cold therapy will bring the energy to that place that needs to heal so maybe your fingers or toes or ankle or shoulder, but the actual for me.
Speaker 2:I believe that my chi is very energetic, so it helps me bring it in, to really come into a calming state, like I can feel the, the energy within me just raise and just like, yeah, stay within instead of being so chaotic. So I guess it's different for everybody, but, yeah, that beautiful, beautiful burn, like it really wakes me up and changes my whole mood, my whole, my whole state every morning. So in some mornings. I don't want to do it, but I do.
Speaker 1:It's my non-duty yes, you know it's going to set you up for the day it's what I'm really hearing is like your journey to rediscover, rediscover connection with yourself and really understand what works for you. And now I'd love to learn about the work that you do and the transformation that you help other parents and then children go through to, to get get a piece of that and to really go on their own journey with, with your guidance beautiful and so, as we know, every single person is different, and so I never work with a child or family unless they pick me.
Speaker 2:So I'll let them interview me and I'll let the child be empowered for the choice. So in that moment of connection I'm helping them go back to self and really go. Oh, I actually have the power, I actually get to choose, and so if they choose me, then any kind of therapy or session can be done with that child, whether it's art or play or cold therapy or running around or pole dancing, any kind of session can be done. Talk therapy, hypnotherapy, anything like that can be done with that child. Because they've picked me. I then teach the parents to lead first, go first. So if they're having emotional issues, dysregulation, they say, hey, I've asked for help for you, so we can both learn together.
Speaker 2:We talk in deep, vulnerable states and by leading myself by example, I can tell them my journey, that I've been through things that have worked with me, and because I've tried multiple modalities, I let them pick and choose what's gonna work for them. It might be crystals, it might be pendulum, it might be breath, it might be cold, it might be body movement. There's no right or wrong way when it comes to connection to self, it's working out what that person innately needs and dropping in to that, like we just did before. Like you and I had to do that soul work. That's where the gold is like helping people find that, getting out of their busyness. So I never have a plan. I run by intuition.
Speaker 2:I guess for me my superpower has always been that every time I've learned something through a beautiful, healing, holistic modality, I make it a game for kids. So if we've got shadow work or if we've got changing states or if we've got moving through an emotion, give me some chalk, give me some crayons, give me some hula hoops. I can make that a game for kids. Let's jump in, let's make it fun, let's do some crazy antics and then do some mirror work and look at ourselves in our soul and our eyes. There's no right or wrong way, but it's helping them access all these beautiful parts that were never or isn't taught in education isn't taught to our kids now. So bringing that to families, bringing that to kids in a fun way that they just get it.
Speaker 1:Mm beautiful and with the way the education system is going, do you see any openings for this kind of work to actually come into the traditional schools?
Speaker 2:I would love to say yes, but I'm really not sure. Like I've worked in education here in Australia and they're very regimented on like well-being and mindfulness, so there's a small part of it but it's not the main focus. The main focus is still curriculum, their KPIs, reading, writing, who's behaving a certain way, and they're not really addressing the bigger issues of the overwhelmed, the kids that don't wanna be there, the negative behaviors they really need. Yeah, a whole curriculum on personal development or well-being or that would be amazing and having people in there, elite people in their league, come in and help children be the best versions of themselves. Then you know, I just think it back to me If I was, if I had somebody like me when I was seven, telling me that I was worthy and enough and was able to be authentically myself and to continue to ask and, you know, speak my truth and work through that, like maybe I wouldn't have made the decisions I made in my twenties, maybe I would have had a solid foundation and a safety net of really knowing who I was, and that's why it's so important.
Speaker 2:You know, we go through our spiritual awakening. 20s, 30s, 40s just make so much sense. Like there's so many of us healers out there, whatever you want to call us. Why are we not bringing it to kids?
Speaker 2:because they get up very quickly. They're going through little traumas. They're going through little, you know, emotions, and it's not that we're not aware of it, because we remember what we were like for kids. But our parents never really did that. They were like off you go, don't worry about it, be a kid. But those little things all build up for our 20s and 30s.
Speaker 1:So true, I would love to see you going into schools. I want to hear from you when you do your first presentation in a school environment. Yeah, something that's come. I've got two young children and I stuff that I'm learning. I am communicating to them and you're right, like they do, they do get it, they want to hear about it, they're curious and they don't like some of the adults that I know they would be huge skeptics on some of the some of the work that I'm doing and the more like intuition side of things. But I know I do practices with my children. I'd love to hear if you do anything like this.
Speaker 1:Like I was in the UK in the summer and my sister was there and my sister would go out. She went away and then she was going to come back. So I was like what do we? What do we think auntie Lily is going to be wearing? And they're just getting them to play with their intuition and just guessing and then just ask them a few times and when she came in I'd be like, hey, you see how you got that right. Isn't that cool? How you can, how you can tap into that and you know, you know, and encouraging their intuition through little exercises like that.
Speaker 2:I haven't done the intuition one. That's really, really cool. I do have a beautiful vated couple in Melbourne and they teach pineal gland activation and the kids have their eyes closed and they can read the book with their eyes closed. They can tell the colors with their eyes closed. It's not something that I've learnt myself. I more go down the pack track of anchoring in positive language and really finding that safety and the embodiment. So I'm like oh, you're so happy now, where do you feel that in your body? Oh, my God, what's your happy color? Let's, let's. And then you know. Like, like using that hypno, play language with kids. Also, like asking questions, like oh, I can see you're really frustrated or angry. Now that's okay, let's express that in a safe way or asking questions.
Speaker 2:So for my son, when he was seven he's 17 now and I first started learning this he was very angry. I was going through a divorce and he was yeah. And I just said to him oh, I know you're really angry, but when was the first time you were angry? And no pre framing, no, anything. He just bottled his little fists up so tight and he's like when I was in your tummy, mama, so angry, I just wanted to get out. And I was like here we go timeline, straight to the womb. And he was. He was breach. He was stuck under my liver, he broke my waters early. I was in my 20s. I didn't really understand. I was telling the doctors that he wasn't the right way. And he was right and he just wanted to get out.
Speaker 2:And so we then unpacked what did you need to know so that you don't have to be angry now? And so conscious therapy talks about oh, you're angry now. Yeah, your parents are going through divorce. That doesn't help their emotional body and where they've stored it. If he's been angry since he was in the womb, then he needed to just have somebody ask the question and say how do you release that? What do you need? And so I've been playing this game for at least seven or eight years with kids, because I've practiced on my own and they get it. They will just go there, like you said, no skepticism, they'll just lead. And then they're like oh, yeah, I feel better now. Awesome, so cool.
Speaker 1:I'm so going to practice that. I so appreciate you sharing that example. My son is a little bit angry, so as well I go ask him when was the first time you were angry, what did you see?
Speaker 2:What did you feel? Awesome. And then to be like, what do you need? Like, what do you, what is your soul need to know, so it releases the anger. And then like, and then just reiterate it back to them and done, done, okay, so cool.
Speaker 1:And is there something that's coming up? For me? Is is just about having having a healthy balance, and I think as parents, we have so many expectations on us. You know a lot of the time juggling work whilst our kids are around. You know you pick up your kids from school and you've still got another hour or so of work to do. Then they're they're around and then you're not giving them the undivided attention that they need. Have you got any kind of strategies that you that you could give to other parents who are really feeling that?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I guess for me is just trying to find the time to be present. Like I am a busy mom. I hold a lot of a lot of responsibilities. I've got a three-year-old as well as a 17 and 14 year old. You know I have a hundred students that you know I have in containers that I, you know, chat to and you know podcasts as well that I'm jumping on to, but when I'm present.
Speaker 2:So after I finish this, I'm Gonna go be present with my daughter, aurora, and really make play dough and and make sure that you know, even in those times that I am busy, I make sure that I will be present at different, different points of the day. So last night she didn't get to bed too late. I did have a late zoom and other moms away at the moment. I was like just whispering in a ear. Do you know how amazing you are? We had a really good day, didn't we? Like it's just putty training.
Speaker 2:I'm like you're so good at going to the toilet, so just like, unpacking at night time for me is the best time to have, you know that, those beautiful little conversations.
Speaker 2:It could be time for apologies.
Speaker 2:You know, sometimes we've had a bad day, sometimes our cup is empty and we've snapped and we've yelled and so for me it was always that time to like unpack and say, hey, let's do better tomorrow.
Speaker 2:And then for the older ones, if you've got older kids taken for a drive, if you can get your kid next to you, like you know, picking up from school and just go the long way, or go get a Milkshake or a coffee or something together, if you get a kid next to you that will talk to you in the front seat, like obviously they've got to be the right age, but they are my two favorite places to connect with my kids and be present and I love that about driving because you you hear about Like parents that are always quick to pick kids up from Airport, so whatever, and even when they're, when they're later on in their life, and it's like it's not the, it's not the chore of having to go that distance, it's the opportunity of having that time with them in the car that you don't get to spend as much dedicated time one-on-one.
Speaker 2:Yeah, one-on-one time as well is really helpful if you've got to be busy family. So I really enjoy. I split my boys with their dad. I have Aurora, so I have like time just for my wife and Aurora, I have time for just my boys and try and make sure that that is a balance. And then I am a bit of a workaholic Because I love what I do, but I also make sure that every single year we have one or two Escapes, whether they're nice holidays overseas or in within Australia, or even just, you know, camping. We always make sure that we've got that also, that downtime that they look forward to and memories are created. It doesn't have to cost much either, guys. Doesn't have to be like I couldn't afford. That could just be. You know, put the tent up outside, or, you know, go to your local, you know caravan park. But yeah, I really Thoroughly look forward to one-on-one family time.
Speaker 1:And I guess that thing with camping as well. You're, you usually do put tech down when you are camping and that's a that's a big thing for families. It's just like tech is always present. So it's about setting healthy boundaries, not only for them but for ourselves as parents, correct?
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, I would be the worst one in my family about tech because I'm always working, so good reminder for me.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and me and me, and I do have to. I put, I have to put mine out of sight because it's.
Speaker 2:At flash yeah so I put it. I put it on, do not disturb, so I can just be really present.
Speaker 1:So important, and when can people find you if they want more from you?
Speaker 2:Nicole, yes, beautiful. So I'm the kids coachcomau and it's kids with a Zed, just to be a bit more zany. But kidscoachcomau. There's a free five-day course that people can watch little videos to just re-engage with their families and homes. I do have a hundred kids coaches here in Australia that do multiple different kids coaching, so like chefs and nurses and educators, so it's not just working with me, I mean, I do also train others to then become kids coaches as well. So there's plenty of information there. I am on socials. You'll get all my links to top Insta, facebook, but I do a lot of free content as well, because it's all about encouraging others to really look at holistic healings for our kids.
Speaker 1:Beautiful. Oh, it's so good to connect with you. Thank you so much for coming on, wisdom. It's been a pleasure and I wish you a wonderful holiday.
Speaker 2:Well, thank you, thank you, Thank you.
