Real Mother Fuckers podcast - Tracey Yokas Creates

A Conversation with Vanessa Anderson

Tracey Yokas is the author of Bloodlines: A Memoir of Harm and Healing. She shares her journey of healing and self-discovery while supporting her daughter through an eating disorder and mental health challenges. She emphasizes the importance of self-care and the impact it has on our ability to support and care for others.

Tracey also discusses the challenges she faced in her relationship with her husband and the process of finding common ground and healing together. She highlights the need for open communication, empathy, and compassion in parenting and relationships.

Tracey acknowledges the rise in eating disorders and self-harm, particularly among teenagers, and suggests that the isolation, stress, and disruption caused by the pandemic may have contributed to this increase.

Real Mother Fuckers

Real Mother Fuckers is a podcast on the many realities of motherhood. Hosted by Vanessa Anderson, she interviews inspirational, badass and fascinating mamas (+ dads, experts and other folks) from around the world. Tune in with an open mind because each episode dissects, explores and gets honest about perspectives and experiences that may be very different from your own – and that’s OK! A mix of topics may include: alternative lifestyles, facing adversity, mental health, grief and loss, healing, sex and relationships, and all sorts of caregiving conundrums.

When Vanessa Anderson isn’t hosting Real Mother Fuckers, she is an early childhood/parenting class educator, Waldorf Spanish teacher, yoga/fitness instructor, homeschool mom, and a lover of gardening. She is a mother of two and married to a first responder, which means she has learned to embrace and grow many strengths when shit hits the fan when her husband is gone for long periods of time. All good though, she gets to enjoy her husband’s hot bod when he comes home.

Fun fact: She embraces aging and farts at the grocery store with grace – it happens to all of us, why don’t we just normalize it already?!
A favorite quote: What seems impossible today will be a warm up tomorrow!
Her why for this podcast: She loves to know about everyone’s life experiences. It brings her closer to herself and a truth bigger than herself.

Episode Highlights

I share, in part:

The signs and symptoms and steps we took along our journey.
That teenage-dom is already a fraught time. Add a mental health diagnosis to the mix and you’ve got chaos on your hands.
Ways in which generational trauma impeded my ability to be the presence my daughter needed, and what I did about it.
The reality that no one in my family was on the same page for quite a long time. Healing is a lengthy process.
How my shame prevented me from engaging with my life for a long time and how detrimental that felt.
The resistance I had to overcome to start engaging in meaningful self-care.
The truth about how my wanting to fix the situation actually impeded my and my daughter’s growth.
How honesty about our own shitty coping mechanisms can increase our compassion and reduce our judgment.
Impacts to my marriage.