Episode 21

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Published on:

5th Nov 2025

Re-Parenting, Self-Soothing & Emotional Ownership — with Hilary Momberger-Powers

In this heartfelt continuation of Sacha’s conversation with Hilary Momberger-Powers — the original voice of Sally Brown from Peanuts — the focus turns inward to the younger self within.

Hilary opens up about learning to self-soothe, re-parent, and rebuild the trust that trauma once fractured. She shares what it looks like to comfort your inner child in real life — not as a concept, but as a daily practice of gentleness, honesty, and grace.

Together, she and Sacha explore what happens when we stop abandoning ourselves, start speaking to our pain with compassion, and finally make peace with the little kid who just wanted to be loved.

In this episode:

  • What re-parenting really looks like day-to-day
  • How to comfort your inner child with practical self-soothing
  • Building self-trust after emotional neglect
  • Using gentleness as strength
  • Why consistency is the foundation of compassion

Key Takeaways

  • Re-parenting is learning to show up for yourself the way you always needed.
  • Self-soothing begins with awareness, not avoidance.
  • Kindness and stability heal what criticism cannot.
  • You can’t rewrite your past, but you can re-narrate your story.
  • Healing is a relationship — and you’re the one you’ve been waiting for.

Pull Quotes

  • “I can’t miss something I never had — but I can create it now.”
  • “I’m the best foster mother ever to myself.”
  • “You can’t buy peace; you have to practice it.”
  • “Be kind to you first — your insides reflect your outsides.”

⚠️ Content Note

This episode includes references to childhood trauma, emotional neglect, and re-parenting practices. These are discussed from a place of healing and empowerment, but may be activating for some listeners. Please take care of yourself while listening.

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Keywords

Hilary Momberger-Powers, inner child, re-parenting, self-soothing, emotional healing, trauma recovery, self-compassion, self-love, healing journey, resilience, emotional growth

🎧 Next time, Hilary returns to talk about daily practices, gratitude, and her boundary-setting philosophy — “pet the kitty, don’t poke the snake.” You’ll love this one.

👉 Make sure you’re subscribed to The High-Functioning Disaster so you don’t miss this next chapter.

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About the Podcast

The High-Functioning Disaster
High-functioning on the outside. Hot mess on the inside.
You’ve got the color-coded calendar, the competent job persona, the “I’m fine!” mask down to an art—and a mental load heavy enough to throw out your back. Meanwhile, life? That's a hot mess express—total chaos with zero chill and a full tank of emotional baggage. And what makes it even worse? Nearly no one’s talking about it.

Welcome to The High-Functioning Disaster, a podcast for people who are doing their best to hold it together while navigating burnout, grief, trauma, anxiety, caretaking duties, family drama, body image issues, and a to-do list that never quits.

Host Sacha Holder isn’t the disaster (neither are you!)—life is. And this show is about making space for that truth and giving ourselves permission to say it out loud. Every week, Sacha explores what it means to be deeply human in a world that keeps demanding more. Sometimes she’s flying solo, sometimes she brings along guests and friends—but the vibe is always real, raw, unfiltered, and grounded in radical self-acceptance and permission to be human.

We talk boundaries. Body image. Mental health. Emotional labor. The moments where everything feels like too much—and the ones where we catch our breath and keep going.

This isn’t a self-help podcast. It’s a self-permission podcast.
Permission to be exhausted.
To not have it together.
To be honest about what’s hard—without needing to package it as a “lesson.”

Because you don’t need fixing.
You need space to fall apart—and still be seen.
Because some of us are just trying to make it through the day.
And here? That’s more than enough.
New episodes every Monday. Come as you are. Seriously.
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About your host

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Sacha Holder

Sacha Holder is a project manager, podcast host, and bariatric patient who’s not here to pretend it’s all perfect. With over a decade of professional experience and a whole lot of lived experience, she creates podcasts that tell the truth about what it means to live, heal, and grow — through chaos, and curveballs, while keeping it together (mostly).

She’s the voice behind Life in the Bari Lane, a bite-sized bariatric podcast for real people navigating post-op life, and The High-Functioning Disaster, a show about showing up even when everything feels like too much. Through humor, honesty, and zero judgment, Sacha builds community through conversation — because no one should have to figure it out alone.