I began teaching in 1996 and have always held a belief of teaching with heart and connection before correction. In my desire to show up as the best teacher possible, I have remained an avid student, always searching for new knowledge on how best to support the individual child’s journey. Studying the Montessori Philosophy grew me further as an educator and set me on a path to opening my own preschool where we integrated this system with a more traditional model. The combination worked and with the underlying inspiration of creating a learning space that I would want my own children to experience “one day” the doors opened in 2000. Kids Company Montessori Preschool, a place where children are seen, heard, and loved, was founded.

My journey to “one day” and motherhood is a story for a longer writing, but in summary, it took another 18 years of life (and all the ups and downs that make us grow….or grow up), and not the path I had assumed would be my story. The birth of my twin daughters at 46, after consciously deciding to become a solo mommy, opened my heart and curiosity about how to honour my children and the choice I made to show up as the best parent I can be. The thirst for answers came into deep focus when my solo parenting life, business owner responsibilities, the onset of Covid19, forced lockdowns and working from home stretched my parenting skill set, as did my stress levels and my own children’s ability to let me feel as if some days I was really failing them and my expectations of myself.  Something I had never experienced in teaching. Now I realise I was failing forwards with the gift of curiosity. My questions shifted from measuring my success by the thriving child. They included my deep desire to rewrite more self-care, joy, happiness, authenticity, grace under pressure, forgiveness, repair work, authentic connection, laughter, fun, kindness, conversations, and empathetic boundaries back into the skewed representation of parenting as either being a perfect photoshopped moment presented in social media or a more disastrous diabolical experience. This left me searching for the link between 25 successful years of working with children and the highest vision of my life with my own children.  

Enter the Jai Institute for parenting. A philosophy based in attachment and nervous system science (understanding the way we were parented as children and how it defines our ability to connect vulnerably and authentically with anyone outside of ourselves) in conjunction with methodologies of non-violent communication, emotional intelligence, and somatic awareness, self-regulation and co-regulation became the keys I had been searching for. I soaked it up. The Jai Institute for parenting answered so much of what I wanted to understand about myself as a parent and changed what I thought was unchangeable. Everything clicked into place. Did that mean there were no more challenges, tears, heartache in the reality that is parenthood, no, all those factors are still in evidence but the additional skills acquired during my coaching journey allowed my hope of the best parenting version I have ever had of myself could show up more regularly than I ever thought possible, even in the toughest of days and to graciously accept the powerful effect of pausing, reflecting, repairing and resetting when I do not.