About this episode
Regina Hess interviews Maria Natapov about the complexities of blended families and effective co-parenting strategies.
Blended families can bring a lot of love, but they can also bring confusion, tension, and emotional complexity, especially when children are navigating divorce, new caregivers, and loyalty conflicts. This week, Regina sits down with Maria Natapov, a co-parenting and step-parenting coach, to talk about what it really takes to create a healthier foundation for families after separation or divorce. Maria shares why communication, structure, emotional awareness, and clear roles are so important for both adults and children, and how step-parents can show up with care without overstepping. They also discuss rapid resolution therapy, how past experiences can shape present-day reactions, and why Maria sees her work as helping families build safer, more supportive systems for the next chapter. Episode Highlights: 0:31 - Episode open 0:57 - Meet Maria Natapov 1:16 - Creating workable family systems 2:55 - Navigating the role of a step-parent 4:17 - Advocating without adding conflict 5:53 - Learning parenting without a playbook 7:18 - Understanding emotions as information 9:20 - The reality of overstepping 10:06 - What children carry after divorce 12:09 - Rapid resolution therapy 14:19…
People in this episode
Host: Regina Hess
Guest: Maria Natapov
Topics covered
- blended families
- co-parenting
- step-parenting
- emotional awareness
- communication
- family dynamics
Keywords
- blended families
- step-parenting
- co-parenting
- emotional complexity
- communication
- family systems
- rapid resolution therapy
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