“I’m totally overwhelmed and stressed out.”

“I’m drowning in a sea of grief (and angry as hell)!”

 “I can’t see how we'll ever be happy.”

“I’m lost and scared to death.”

"I'm guilt-ridden."

"I completely don't know how to cope."

 "I'm beyond terrified about my child's future."

"My marriage might implode from the strain of our situation."

Watching a mom and tween girl eating snacks and chatting at my favorite café, I told them I’d never had time like that with my mom when I was young.

"She was too busy keeping the family together and my brother alive."

I grew up in a family with a child with a catastrophic illness. By the time my oldest brother was ten, my parents had planned four funerals for him (and he's still alive!). 

My childhood wasn’t easy and it wasn’t all that fun. Who knows what kind of person my dad would’ve been if my brother hadn’t almost died all the time.  

But in retrospect, I saw that my parents' stress must have been almost unbearable. 

And later, as a social worker for families with kids receiving specialty medical care, I got to witness a bit of what my parents went through.

I even had a phone conversation with a mom, sitting beside her son in the same hospital where my mom sat so many times with my brother, watching her son suffer from radiation side effects as they both fought for his life, just as my mom and brother had done so many times. 

Now I help families like mine create more joy and less stress than what I grew up with, by giving them the support my parents needed and didn't get.

I help parents protect from toxic stress (repeated experience of a stressor without adequate support), to reduce children's future risk of health, social, and economic problems...to prevent or reduce current and future complications impacting quality of life. 

— . —

After losing my social work career from an injury-turned-disability, I recently found a way back to my calling—helping people suffer less. 

First I found my topic—unexpected identity loss—and started the Bold Becoming podcast. I interview people about regaining their footing after the rug’s pulled out from under them. 

I discovered patterns in their overcoming adversity stories that were the same as mine.

Then I wrote a book on the topic—Masters of Change. 

Now I’ve developed a coaching program. New Normal Coaching serves parents who are strengthening their internal resources as they navigate the grief and daily challenges of parenting a child with special needs. 

I support parents moving from feeling powerless, scared, sad, and mad to feeling more competent and at peace with their new roles and family trajectory.