For over 20 years, I’ve had the privilege of supporting parents, families and educators as a Licensed Clinical Social Worker and Parent Coach. I’m a Certified Positive Discipline Parent Educator, Certified Positive Discipline Early Childhood Educator and Certified Redirecting Children’s Behavior Parent Educator.
Raising my own two very strong-willed kids, both of whom happen to have ADHD, completely changed the way I understood parenting.
I know what it feels like to love your kids more than anything and still feel overwhelmed by the tantrums, power struggles, big emotions and constant second-guessing.
Like so many parents, I found myself exhausted, frustrated and wondering why nothing I was trying seemed to be working. I knew something needed to change…not just for my kids, but for me too.
Today, I help parents feel less overwhelmed, more connected to their kids and more confident navigating the hard moments that come with raising kids.
My Story…and Why I Do What I Do
One of the hardest parts of parenting was realizing that it wasn’t always about what my kids needed to change. Turns out, I had to look at myself too. 😉
Here’s the thing…my parents did the best they could and they definitely had their limitations. The unspoken vibe in my home was that there was a “right” way and a “wrong” way of doing things. Choosing the “wrong” way wasn’t pleasant. It often involved criticism, long lectures, shame, anger, lots of yelling and silent treatments.
Like most of us do, I brought some of that baggage from my own childhood into parenting.
I carried the belief that there was a right way for my kids to act and when they didn’t behave the way I thought they “should,” I didn’t handle it well.
I got impatient. I got frustrated. I yelled.
I became the parent I swore I would never be.
And I carried a lot of shame around that, especially because I was a therapist who “should” know better.
Let’s just say I hit a low.
I realized I didn’t have the tools I needed for the two very strong-willed kids I was raising. And all the traditional parenting methods I had learned…consequences, punishments, rewards and bribes…weren’t working.
Deep down, I knew I didn’t want my relationship with my kids to keep feeling this hard.
What Changed Everything
They say timing is everything and I was so fortunate to stumble upon Positive Discipline and conscious parenting at a time when I was feeling pretty lost.
Something about the approach just clicked for me and I dove in headfirst. I took classes. I read books. I joined parent groups. I got my own parent coach. And eventually, I became certified in Positive Discipline so I could help other parents experience some of the same shifts that had made such a difference in my own family.
But what changed things for me wasn’t simply learning a new set of parenting tools.
I started looking at my kids’ behavior differently.
Instead of focusing so much on controlling, correcting or fixing them, I became more curious about what was happening underneath the behavior. I learned more about their developing brains, the skills they were still building and what might be making things so hard for them in that moment.
And I started paying more attention to what was happening inside of me, too.
Why did certain behaviors get such a big reaction from me? What was I afraid would happen if I didn’t stop something immediately? What patterns from my own childhood was I bringing into my parenting without even realizing it?
That awareness gave me something I hadn’t had before: more choice in how I responded.
I learned that I could set limits and still stay connected. I could be kind AND firm. I could guide and teach without relying on punishment, shame, bribes or rewards.
And little by little, things started to change.
Where I Am Now
The biggest shifts weren’t just in my kids. They were in me.
I became more grounded, less anxious and less reactive. And as I started responding differently, our whole family dynamic began to shift.
There were fewer tantrums, power struggles, meltdowns, sibling fights and battles over every little thing. Was it perfect? Heck no! 😉
But there was more connection, more peace and a whole lot more fun in our family.
Trust me, none of this happened overnight. It took practice, looking honestly at my own patterns and triggers and working through some of my own “stuff,” with plenty of ups and downs along the way.
And listen…I’m still a work in progress.
But everything I learned through that experience changed not only the way I parented. It changed the way I work with parents.
Today, I don’t just want to give you another list of parenting strategies.
I want to help you understand your child. What might be underneath the behavior? What skills are they still developing? What do they need from you? And sometimes, what’s happening for you that makes a particular situation especially hard?
Then we figure out what to do with that understanding in real life.
Because none of us does this perfectly. It’s really about becoming more aware of our patterns, making small shifts where we can and continuing to come back to the parent we want to be.
If you’re feeling stuck, overwhelmed or simply wondering if there’s a different way to handle what’s happening in your family, I’d truly love to support you.
I’m so glad you’re here.
Learn more about working together
(In case you’re interested, I received my BA in Psychology and Family Studies from the University of Arizona and my Master’s Degree in Social Work from San Diego State University. 😊)