I was raised in a family with taboos, guilt, and blame. My parents had a complex relationship with emotional intensity and a lot of yelling. They struggled to relate to each other. Living with them, I often felt ashamed and promised myself a more peaceful family life.

One of my dreams was to have my own family. The birth of my daughter in 2012, and my son in 2013, was fulfilling. However, parenting brought unexpected challenges like food allergies, social struggles, emotional dysregulation, and anxiety. These difficulties were hard to manage and not what I envisioned when dreaming of motherhood. These complexities with my children led to the first significant arguments with my husband.

In 2019, I started coaching training to support my corporate clients in leadership development. I didn't expect that becoming a coach would positively impact my family and university students like it did. Coaching changed many of my relationships, especially with my family. It increased my self-awareness and intentionality, helping my children develop strong emotional intelligence and giving me the courage to have difficult conversations with my husband about our kids.

At the university, I applied coaching techniques in class, focusing on creating a safe and challenging environment. This approach particularly helped students with dyslexia, ADHD, or on the Autism spectrum.

In 2021, I met Elaine and Diane. I felt like I received a gift from heaven because I knew I needed extra support to understand my complex kids. Sanity School® and the Impact Model helped me and my kids move to a different level. I learned how to effectively change my perspective, take a marathon view, have realistic expectations, use curiosity instead of judgment, and feel more confident about what I was doing. When we learned that one of my kids was on the autism spectrum, I felt I was capable of dealing with it and helping other parents use the coach-approach.

I feel proud to be part of the Impact Parent team as I have worked closely with trainers and coaches to bring Sanity School® closer to the Spanish-speaking world. Our first challenge was to translate Sanity School® into Spanish. As of 2023, Elena Nichols and I have successfully delivered the program to groups of parents from a Latin Community in Chicago, thanks to the support of a non-profit, The Balance Project.

Our second challenge was supervising the Spanish translation of the complementary book to Sanity School®: The Essential Guide to Raising Complex Kids with ADHD, Anxiety, and More, written by Elaine Taylor-Klaus.