About your coach

Bachelor’s Degree in Psychology from University of Michigan 1983
Master’s Degree in Clinical Psychology from Purdue University1986
Doctoral Degree in Clinical Psychology from Purdue University 1993

I have been a Clinical Psychologist in private practice since 1993, specializing in working with children, teenagers and parents.

I have conducted workshops on parenting younger children, what to expect from teenagers and how to parent in divorce.

Professional Memberships
Member, Greater Pittsburgh Coaches Association
Member, International Coach Federation
Member, American Psychological Association
Member, Pennsylvania Psychological Association

Clearances
I carry Act 33/34 clearances. These indicate that my records have been checked by the Pennsylvania State Police and Pennsylvania Department of Public Welfare Childline and Abuse Registry and that I have been “cleared” to work with children.

Additional information
I was a residential camp counselor and administrator for 6 summers between 1979-1985, first at Emma Kaufmann Camp in the Blue Ridge Mountains of West Virginia , and then at Camp Vacamas in the woods of Northern New Jersey. There is nothing like seeing kids and teenagers grow when they are living in the woods for several weeks with peers rather than their siblings, and counselors rather than parents. They master skills they never knew they had, and become capable in ways they never thought possible. It was a treat to be a guide for them as they experienced this.

Philosophy of proparent

I began proparent Coaching because every parent deserves to feel supported and strengthened in the the hardest job in the world: the job of raising good kids into great adults. That’s just what a coach is there to do.

Only one or two generations ago parents could rely much more on extended family for support, encouragement, a fair amount of advice, and maybe a little meddling. Communities were smaller, people stayed for a lifetime, and the biggest outside influence was a black and white TV with three channels. Kids learned social skills by playing in each other’s yards or out on the street. They learned to stick up for each other, how to be a good winner and not be a sore loser, and how to pick themselves up and try again if something goes badly. Kids had their freedom, but clearly knew who was in charge of the family.

But today’s society is more mobile, faster-paced, and has so many more outside influences. It still takes a village to raise a child, but now that village might not be made up of your and your spouse’s extended families. Parents may need to rely on the staff of an after-school program or some other caregiver. Sports are less about backyards and more often about organized activities where parents or paid coaches are there to mediate all disagreements. Even when kids come home after school, we are a lot more jittery about how far they go in the neighborhood and how they’re going to stay safe.

There’s a strange mix now in society; we spend less time with our children and ask them to be independent much earlier…while at the same time their activities and interactions are supervised much more closely and they are often protected from really experiencing any kind of failure or problems.

My job as your coach is to help you navigate all of this. I can help you make sure that your children learn those backyard lessons they might have learned on their own a generation or two ago. I can work with you to figure out how much freedom is the right amount for your child at a certain age. I can help you figure out when it’s appropriate to let your child fail and learn from this failure—versus when you should step in to protect your child from taking too hard a fall.