Do you know any adults that lose it easily or really struggle emotionally when they are faced with challenges?  I don’t know about you but I’ve met my fair share!  Knowing what I know now, I do my best to be empathetic because chances are high that they simply weren’t taught how to cope as children.

This is an area that I work on with parents often because it’s common for children to...

When I ask my clients what top feelings they experience most often, “overwhelmed” is almost always on the list.  Given all the activities and school work for our kids added to our own responsibilities — as well as emotionally supporting our kids in navigating today’s social landscape — it’s no wonder that parents are overwhelmed!

I was having a discussion with a client...

As a parent, do you feel like your emotions can sometimes drive you to react in a way that you later regret?  When your kids are fighting and emotions are high, do you get sucked into their emotional vortex?  Alternatively, if they are super excited or happy, can they help lift your mood too?  This is no surprise — because as it turns out, emotions are more contagious than a cold or the flu....

I’ve been talking about Parenting From Neutral a lot lately, but do you really know what it means and why it matters?  I’ve mostly talked about how when you learn to Parent From Neutral, you take the heightened emotions of frustration, anxiety, and overwhelm out of your parenting process so you can calmly and effectively parent your best when your kids need you most.

But there is another factor to...

When you make a mistake are you the first person to beat yourself up?  If you’re like most of my clients (and many friends), you likely berate yourself for your mistake. Most parents want their children to develop positive self-talk and be kind to themselves, but that’s not what we model for them when we beat ourselves up. I have to teach my clients the power of having their own back, especially when...

Do you find that as a parent you go from zero to sixty easily, and find yourself snapping or yelling more than you would like?  Emotions are running high as a collective, and our nervous systems are already on edge.  Many parents are feeling like they’re hanging on by a thread, and any proverbial straw can break the camel’s back these days.  

When I first start working with clients, I...

Do you wonder how you can raise your kids to be more kind?  The best place to start with raising kind kids is to actually be kinder to yourself.  So if you find that you are prone to beating yourself up, thinking that being hard on yourself will motivate you to change — you are actually making it harder for yourself to change. Kids learn through modeling, so when you take care of yourself and are kind...

Happy New Year!!  Have you thought about what you want for this year?  Is this the year that you stop yelling and become the calm and effective parent you want to be?  Is this the year that you improve your relationship with your kids so you can stop walking on eggshells in your own house?  How do you want to grow, what experiences do you want to have, and how do you want to feel?  

The...

As you get closer to the end of the year, have you started thinking about next year?  What you want to change, what you want to start, what you want to stop, what you want to accomplish?  The beginning of a new year is like a reset, where many people start thinking about the better version of themselves they want to become.

The problem is that most of us start from a place of what we don’t like, what we...

Have you ever noticed that when you have a list of 25 things to do, and you knock out 20, your brain still focuses on the 5 that you didn’t do?  You can blame your ancestors for that!  Your brain is wired to put more emphasis on negative experiences than positive ones.  It’s how our caveman ancestors survived and our brains evolved.  It’s called the Negativity Bias.

That’s...

As we are now into the season of gratitude, what are you most grateful for?  I know that when I stop and take stock, I’m usually most grateful for those small moments of connection with my loved ones — the moments talking before bed, the random hug in the middle of the day.  The question is how present are you for these moments?

Are you able to enjoy them, or is your mind occupied with lists of...

Have you ever stopped to think about the characteristics that you want to develop in your child?  The type of adult that you want them to grow into?  How you want them to think about themselves and treat others?

Many parents say that they want their children to be confident, to be kind…  but I’m not sure they put much thought into it beyond that.

This came up recently in a coaching session...