About Margaret

As the single mother of four teenagers, I thought I might go mad. Keeping food on the table and a roof over our heads was challenging enough, but with four, non-traditional teenagers (read: “school sucks”) I was at my wits end to hold it all together. I REALLY needed help, but I felt ashamed that my children were not “good kids” (read: conforming) and that, although it was my job to make them “good kids,” I was a phenomenal failure.

Guess what? It’s 15 years later and I can tell you that I look back on those years as among the richest of my life. I searched for and found new, more empowering perspectives to support the unique individual that was emerging in each of my children. Most importantly, I began to uncover and tend to my own dreams; dreams that had gotten lost somewhere in my own teen years.

The passion I feel to support parents and teenagers along with my life experience as a mother are the most important credentials I bring to this work and I back that up with education and experience:

  • I have a master’s degree in Family Life Education from Kent State University for which my thesis topic was parent/adolescent communication and the effects of adultism (the oppression of young people by adults).
  • My B.S. (also from Kent State) is in Education.
  • I have completed the core curriculum (116 hours of in-person instruction) from the “Harvard” of coaching schools: the Coaches Training Institute (CTI). I use their method of co-active coaching, putting my client in the driver’s seat and me in the position of supporter, cheerleader, confidant and advisor.
  • I co-authored the book, What Kids REALLY Want to Ask: Using Movies to Start Meaningful Conversations.
  • I published a magazine called Coming of Age for parents and mentors of teenagers.
  • I’ve traveled, with some success and a lot of tears, the road of highly sensitive and emotional children with mental health issues.
  • My family of origin includes two suicides, a fact that has prompted me to a deep, personal investigation of the role of family in my own life.
  • I am the birthmother of a son I gave up for adoption at age 19.
  • I am a sexuality educator for 7th to 9th graders.

I am ready to help YOU be the parent you have always wanted to be. Let me partner with you to develop strategies that take you out of the role of nag and policeman to trusted ally and confidant to your adolescent. It will be worth every penny, for you, for them and for your relationship.