My desire for life coaching came about through my own struggles and life transformation. I know transformation may sound dramatic but I need only to look back to where I was and again to where I am today to see the transformation that has occurred. The journey from where I was as a new mom at the age of 26 to where I am today as an experienced mom to seven children has been long, painful at times, completely eye opening, and rewarding beyond compare. I am not the same person I used to be and this has been not only by fate and circumstances, but also by choice. This crazy life I lead is mine, all mine, the good, the bad, the imperfect, it is all by design. Because of this, I feel inspired to work with other people that are going through life struggles, and to help them figure out the areas they want to work on and how they want to design their lives. I want to be there as they transform from where they are today to where they want to be. I want to help people find the joy that is missing from their lives and to achieve the peace and calm that comes with living their authentic lives.

I have a degree in Speech-Language Pathology and have been a speech language pathologist over the past 20 years working with young children and their families to improve their communication abilities. This line of work has increased my scope of understanding and practice for working with children with not only speech and language disorders, but also attention deficits, autism spectrum disorders, executive functioning deficits and childhood anxiety. I am a true believer in the importance of communication as a whole as it relates to every aspect of our lives!

I had my own four children over the course of five years and was often stopped at the grocery store and asked if all four of these children were mine. I was also frequently asked if I was done….yet? In retrospect I am guessing this was spoken from a parent that had probably narrowly escaped the trenches of parenting small children! Parenting is difficult! Although I had years of practical and clinical experience under my belt, there is definitely something very different when the children are your own, especially when their hormones get involved! I found myself reading every parenting article or book I could find, listening to podcasts, taking continuing education classes, and talking with other parents wherever I went to soak up everything I could and to learn from those that had been through similar parenting issues before. I continue to do this today because there is always some unchartered territory and always something new to learn.

I came to realize that despite all of that information and knowledge I had acquired, the best way to help my children through their ever changing ups and downs and growing pains (and to stay sane at the same time!!) was to be whole and at peace with myself. This is where the transformation began. I began turning inward and getting still, increasing my self awareness as to some of my patterns and behaviors, and tapping into the parts of me that had been in hiding since I had my children. By practicing gratitude and loving kindness toward myself and others, I began prioritizing my happiness, without the previous feelings of guilt I had felt in the past. I made the choice to live true to me and my authentic self. And as I did this, I noticed a change in not only myself, but also in my children.

This journey of parenting has looked different to me over the last 22 years. Transforming your life means that sometimes you have to make choices. In my case, I made the difficult choice to divorce when my children were 7, 9, 11, and 12 years old. For several years I navigated life as a single parent, attempting and not always succeeding at co-parenting with my former husband. Several years later I married a loving man and his three children and I found myself becoming a stepparent, a role I had never played before. Having more children to love has been the easy part but step-parenting comes with its own challenges and limitations.

Stepping into today, my husband and I are collectively parenting our seven children, working hard to foster a home full of love, humor, tolerance and support. With all of our children now teenagers and young adults there isn’t much we haven’t endured! We joke that we would make a great reality show and there are days that I feel disappointed at the amount of ‘good content’ that has passed us by! Our family has not been immune to the struggles that typical teenagers face such as navigating friendships and relationships and juggling the demands of school with work and extracurricular activities. All this, while dealing with the pressures to fit in, to get into college, and to deal with the ridiculous standards set by social media. And lucky us, we have gotten to do this over and over and over again! We have also not been immune to the struggles of anxiety and depression facing many young children today as well as attention deficits and the impact they have on learning as well as a child’s executive functioning skills. We have seen that not only do these issues impact a child, but they also impact the family as a whole.

Over the years, I began having conversations with other parents who were looking for support and guidance. Some were struggling in their marriage, some were having difficulty parenting a particular child and some were just feeling lost as to what their purpose was in life besides being an Uber driver and a short order cook. They were where I had just been. Their stories resonated with me and my story gave them hope. When we open ourselves up to the possibilities of change, invite subtle shifts in our mindsets or perspectives, and start to put things in motion, we begin the process of designing our own lives. This is why I became a life coach. I believe that I was given these challenges in my life for a reason, so that I can use my own experiences and my own path of transformation to help others like myself design and lead their best lives.

xo,

Joan