About Us

Our Little Story

I have been told that the best way to learn is to teach. This has certainly been true for me. I feel such gratitude to the people who helped enlighten me so that I have been able to fill my parenting and teaching toolbox so positively. Mastering the material I need as a Parent Educator to teach, which I have done for over 15 years, has provided me with the tools I apply to be the “best mother” I can be! It has also made my “motherhood journey” joy-full and rewarding. I feel so very blessed to be a mother of three beautiful boys who are now all teens, two of whom are twice exceptional/2e. When I began my career as a Deputy District Attorney in Los Angeles County in the 1990s, I was saddened to see the rupture of relationships between parents and teens… parents literally told me I needed to take over as they had “lost control”.

When I became a mother of twins in 2002, it did not take long to realize that strong relationships with our children, and all others, are built on trust, love, and connection – not control. The trainings I have taken and/or programs I have my certifications in which include Redirecting Children’s Behavior (RCB), Positive Discipline, Supporting the Emotional Needs of the Gifted (SENG) and Reflective Parenting have provided me with a plethora of knowledge which assists me in passing along the tools to parents at home, teachers in the classroom and to all others who are responsible for being a part of the village necessary to raise children. In addition, the education I have received regarding child and brain development in children has enabled me to understand, as well as teach, why all behavior, including misbehavior, is merely our children trying to communicate “something” to us – whether it is in the home, a classroom, a camp, etc.

I was the Co-Director and Co-Founder of Empowered Parenting for almost a decade before becoming the parent educator at the Summit Center. Raising Enlightened Children is a program I developed for any adult involved in caring for and thereby “raising” children. The practical and easy to use tools are combined with simple explanations on how our brains work to co-create loving and respect-full relationships. Meditation and mindfulness practices are incorporated into the lessons taught since our minds (brains), hearts (emotions and feelings) and souls (states of unconditional love; spirits) must all engage to enjoy mind-full, heart-full, spirit-full and joy-full relationships and lives!

It is my hope and belief that by raising enlightened children in our homes, our schools and everywhere children are taught and “raised” will make it a better world for us all to live in!

For more information, please click on Gifted and Twice-Exceptional Learners

Being a mom has been the greatest, most rewarding and most difficult job I’ve ever had. The emotional and physical changes I’ve gone through in the last 11 years have been indescribable and every single one of them is worth it just to see my son, Zander, thriving.

In addition to being a mom, I am also a coach. I didn’t always know I wanted to be a coach. In fact, it took several years to realize that coaching moms was not only something I enjoyed learning about, but it was also something I had a passion for.

My personal development journey began when I said yes (for the third time) to a home-based business. I was fed up with Corporate America, and I was attracted to the freedom and flexibility that came from working for myself.

With this new career came a lot of new challenges, some I faced head-on, and others forced me to work on things like my self-esteem, self-worth and other limiting beliefs. But my greatest teaching in my life has
been Zander. In fact, I’ve started seeing him as my course corrector. Whenever I’ve found myself on the wrong path, he’s been the one to point me in the right direction.

The first-course correction came when he was a little over a year old, and I left a marriage that was no longer serving the woman I was becoming. Since that’s not exactly how I saw it at the time, I slipped into the deepest depression of my life.
In six months, I’d lost everything I prided myself on. All the things I’d used to bolster my self-esteem were stripped away one by one. I lost my status as a wife, I was going through a second divorce, I stepped down as a leader in my company, returned the free car I had earned and I was back to living in my childhood home, completely dependent on my parent for financial support.

I wanted to die.

But that little boy, who once shared my heartbeat, the one that depended on me for his survival, needed me, so I had to keep going.

For years, I stayed in this half-life. I went through the motions of living my life, working my business and raising Zander, but I’d lost my joy of living.

On January 1, 2017, I got an email from a life coach with a subject that said, “I wish you more P.A.I.N.”

Pain was an acronym that I don’t remember, but the subject was disruptive enough that I opened it.

I signed up for his course called “Success & Fulfillment in Your Business.” That sounded fantastic, although the only word I really paid attention to was “Success.” I desperately wanted to succeed in my business, so I could reclaim my glory days. I would have paid anything to be successful in my business, although I think it was only $197.

During the course, I hired a coach to work with one-on-one, and I fell in love with the way I started to feel, the results in my business, and the changes in my personal relationships. I fell in love with myself.
Me? Being in love with me? The woman who hated being alone with herself, the woman who needed to be around people, the woman who needed to be in a relationship, the woman who had lost her identity to being a wife, a mother, and a beauty consultant finally didn’t need those things to feel good about herself and truly loved me for me?? This woman who didn’t feel lovable was finally loving herself and what a difference that made in my life!

From an extreme place of love and gratitude, I want to help other moms change their relationship with themselves, their children and their families. I want to help moms embrace their imperfections as they work toward being the best version of themselves. No one is perfect, but we can all still be better, and it starts with self-healing.