Coaching Services
Trauma-Informed Life Coaching Services
Are you feeling exhausted, overwhelmed, scared, and unsure of what to do next to help your family?
Coaching may be just what you need! Changing our situation for good isn’t necessarily about fixing what’s bad or anyone being broken. It’s about understanding what’s really going on beneath the surface, taming the fire-breathing dragons of trauma that we may or may not even know exist, and learning tools and skills to safely combat them.
Perhaps more importantly, success is about creating a plan to help you and every member of your family safely navigate unfamiliar territory. It’s then about implementing that plan and building a network of support and accountability among people who understand the realities what you’re going through to keep you on track and moving forward in healthy ways.
Clarity
Find the drivers of the chaos, understand the impact of trauma, and learn how to calm it down
Security
Create a safety plan that works and meets the physical and emotional needs of every member of the family
Achievement
Learn different approaches, check your belief systems, set realistic expectations, and take action
Support
Surround yourself with others who get it, live it, are seeking to rise above it, and want to see you succeed
Parent Coaching Helps Familes Heal!
No one would ever dream of climbing Mt. Everest without proper training, support, or a guide who’s been there before and knows the way to the top.
Yet, attempting to navigate a life or a home full of trauma and survival behaviors by yourself is equivalent to attempting to do just that! This job is way too big to do alone, and none of us were meant to do it alone.
Parent coaching can help you…
Significantly reduce toxic stress, burnout, and overwhelm
Gain clarity and insight needed for critical decision making
Learn how to identify and reduce trauma-drive survival behaviors and beliefs
Confront and resolve your own feelings of grief, loss, and resentment
Learn and practice positive and healthy coping skills
Establish and maintain healthy boundaries in all areas of life
Repair and restore important key relationships in your life
Identify and reduce your own contributions to the chaos
Reclaim your place as a leader in your family without fighting for control
What People Are Saying…
“As a parent of a traumatized child, I felt lost and overwhelmed. Diana provided invaluable support and guidance. She helped me understand my child’s behaviors and taught me effective strategies for setting appropriate boundaries and creating a healing environment. Most importantly, she taught me about safety and showed me how to take care of myself throughout the process. I am forever grateful for this experience.”
““My outlook on parenting through the future and on life overall has shifted drastically. I have found myself and I am able to know some confidence in our future. Like every parent, there are still plenty of hard days that end with the question of whether I made the right choices, there is still the exhaustion sometimes too. What I’ve dropped from my parenting is the questioning of myself about whether I am capable, and whether it is possible for me to guide my children to a satisfying adulthood. I don’t miss those questions.”
Why does parent coaching work?
Parent coaching works because we focus on the right person first! By far the best way to help a child heal is to help their mom do it first! There are many resources out there that focus on helping struggling kids. However, there are very few that even acknowledge the needs of parents. In fact, many of them place even more demands on tapped-out parents in order to make their programs work.
This is crazy to me! It’s also the exact opposite of what actually works. Until we get Mom back on her feet, back in the driver’s seat, and OUT of the stranglehold of trauma, drama, and burnout herself, there isn’t much that will work with the kids or the rest of the family.
Rather than chasing largely ineffective treatments that only address one small piece of things with the kids, I work directly with you, the mom, and support, strengthen, and guide you as you move through the process of helping yourself and your family find hope, healing, and peace.
Frequently Asked Questions
No Display
Your content goes here. Edit or remove this text inline or in the module Content settings. You can also style every aspect of this content in the module Design settings and even apply custom CSS to this text in the module Advanced settings.
Who do you work with?
I specialize in working with mothers of children who struggle with intense emotional and behavioral problems associated with early childhood trauma, prenatal drug or alcohol exposure, or other mental illness.
These children often look perfectly normal on the surface but have hidden disabilities that prevent them from sustaining appropriate relationships, controlling their behavior, and regulating their emotions.
Some of the conditions a child might struggle with include:
- Reactive Attachment Disorder (RAD)
- Complex PTSD (CPTSD)
- Conduct Disorder (CD)
- Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders (FASD)
- Disruptive Mood Dysregulation Disorder (DMDD)
- Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD)
I also work with women who experienced trauma during their own childhood and still carry scars from it that are disrupting their adult relationships, job performance, and ability to cope and function in many areas of their life.
Can you help me fix my kid?
Unfortunately, no, I can’t.
I will also tell you that if anyone says they can, they’re either lying, inexperienced, or don’t have a true understanding of complex trauma.
Who can fix my kid?
While there are many things you can do as a parent to create an environment for healing to happen, the only person that can heal the scars and change the survival patterns and behaviors trauma created is the person who experienced the trauma.
Please also note they cannot do it until they are emotionally and cognitively ready to do the work required to make it happen. It can’t be forced. Some kids may do it, others may not. It may take until well into their adult years before some will be able to make sustainable healing happen. Sadly, it also may not ever happen for some due to the severity of the damage that occurred.
What kids need most…
I believe what our struggling children (and families) need most is a strong, healthy, well-trained mom who understands how they operate and think.
They need a mom who doesn’t fall prey to their tricks and knows how to set and enforce appropriate boundaries that ensure physical and emotional safety for everyone.
They also need a mom who has good relationship skills, takes care of herself first, and is able to recognize and meet her child’s needs, including the ones that are only communicated through negative behavior.
That’s a pretty tall order…and it’s also what we work on all through the coaching process!
How is coaching different than therapy?
About Life Coaching
Life coaching is a partnership in which we work together to help you find the right answers for you and your family.
It is a forward-looking, solution-focused process of transformation and empowerment. It isn’t a treatment program and nor is there any assumption that anything is wrong with you (other than you’re living in a high-stress environment.)
Life coaching is also a system of support, direction, and action. My job as a coach is to guide you through the process of discovering your own right answers and then support you as you take action and implement them in your family and life. I educate and train when needed, but I also firmly believe that you know your kids better than anyone and YOU are the best expert on your own life and family…even if you don’t know it yet.
About Therapy
On the other hand, by it’s very definition, therapy is a formal treatment program that is aimed at fixing diagnosable mental health conditions and disorders. That treatment is considered a medical intervention and is administered according to standardized evidence-based treatment methods and protocols. It can also only be administered by a state-licensed mental health professional.
Sometimes that is what is needed, sometimes it’s not. If you’re in the extreme heat of active trauma, sometimes therapeutic interventions are required in order to take the heat off things.
Unfortunately, most professionals including doctors, therapists, social workers, and schools have little to no training in complex trauma or the conditions related to it. Nor do they know how to recognize or treat the problems associated with it. That can be a very frustrating dynamic for everyone!
What can I expect to gain from coaching?
In short, you’ll get out of it what you put into it.
What it takes…
If you are willing to take the leap of faith, do the work, and make the investments and sacrifices required, you will experience significant positive changes in yourself and your family that no other modality can deliver.
However, those changes only come when you’re actively engaged and focused on making them happen. Healing isn’t a passive process. It takes a significant amount of time, effort, teamwork, and commitment to untangle the mess, learn and apply new skills, and change belief systems and behavior patterns that aren’t working.
You can expect me to…
Challenge you, push you, validate you, listen to you, teach you, support you, laugh with you, cry with you, and believe in you.
I will also help you believe in yourself, see things from a new perspective, shift the way you think, and modify the actions you take.
I expect you to…
Whether you’re participating in a course, workshop, the Burnout Busters program, or private coaching, I expect you to show up, be present, be honest, take the process seriously, keep up, and take specific and direct action steps, even when they feel impossible or scary.
In other words, I expect you to give it all you’ve got and to be 100% all in.
How much does coaching cost?
It depends on what you’re looking for and the level of participation and service you choose.
I have some fairly inexpensive self-help books available. I also have course and workshops you can try. Some are self-paced and very affordable. Others are live, offer more interaction, and focus on working through specific topics.
The Burnout Busters Academy is available for moms of kids who struggle with intense emotional and behavioral challenges. This is an awesome group coaching program and membership that offers the most interaction and support for the most reasonable investment. It’s also a great fit for those just starting out on the healing journey (and those with some experience, too!)
It’s a simple month-to-month membership currently being offered at less than $200 per month. It’s available by application only and is limited in size to keep the group small, cozy, and safe for everyone. We currently have a couple of spots available and will consider creating a second class if there is enough interest.
One-on-one coaching is a professional service and I charge accordingly. Private coaching is very time-consuming and labor-intensive on my part. Plus, I’ve made significant investments myself in learning how to be able to help you get the results you want to achieve.
It also requires a strong commitment, documented progress, and a significant investment of time, energy, emotion, and money on your part.
You can, however, expect to achieve amazing results that will help you create a completely different life and family dynamic if you’re willing to put in what is required to get those results.
If you are interested in this service, it is likewise available by application and interview only.
No Display
blah blah blah
Yes Display
blah blah blah
Your Title Goes Here
Your content goes here. Edit or remove this text inline or in the module Content settings. You can also style every aspect of this content in the module Design settings and even apply custom CSS to this text in the module Advanced settings.
What else do I need to know about coaching?
Coaching is Not Therapy
Sometimes coaching works better than therapy. Sometimes it doesn’t. While coaching can work quite nicely in tandem with therapy, life coaching is not mental health therapy. Nor is it a replacement for it if that is what is needed.
Coaching is Not a Fast Process
Coaching is not a willie-nillie or passive experience. It takes time, focused effort, commitment, and repetition to learn new skills, develop new ways of thinking, and change habits. It takes even longer when trauma has been part of the mix. As part of the growth process, we very often find patterns, old ways of thinking, doing, and believing, and create a foundation of safety that will allow you to move forward.
Sometimes it takes some poking, prodding, and pushing to get to the roots of those things. Sometimes we have to relearn things several times before they stick. Sometimes we have to stop and rest along the way.
To achieve the results you’re looking for, a minimum 6-month commitment is recommended. Most people stay with it much longer and find that it takes a good 18 months to 2 years to fully reap the benefits.
Coaching is Not Cheap!
Coaching is not a medical service or treatment. Therefore, it is not covered by any kind of medical insurance. It also requires a great deal of time, effort, training, and investment on my part to help you keep moving forward and get where you want to go. While some coaches out there may offer very cheap services, that’s not me, and it’s not the type of coaching I offer.
I’m in it for the long haul and seek to help you achieve true breakthroughs and transformation results that last!
It Must be Focused on Mom!
Though our kids may be the ones causing all the problems and demanding all the attention, it’s MOM that holds the keys to the solutions. As such, it is essential that MOM has the support and tools she needs to keep enough fuel in her own tank to do this job. That’s very difficult to do when you’re the “nurturing enemy” and take the brunt of all the special stuff the kids can dish out. It’s even harder to do if you’re trying to do it alone.
Climbing out of chaos isn’t just about fixing our kids, though. It’s about choosing safety and peace every single time. It’s about breaking generational cycles of trauma. It’s about building strong families and combatting the social pressures and influence of society while still maintaining your own sanity at the same time. It’s also about doing all we can to prepare and teach kids, even our struggling ones, to manage their own lives and emotions…and if necessary, learning to let go and let them be once they become of age, regardless of whether they’re ready to be out in the world on their own or not.
Are you ready to try it?
If so, click that button below and submit an application!
