14 posts
Summer should be a time for sunshine, fresh air, creativity, and connection, not just endless scrolling. While screens can provide entertainment and social connection, too much time on them can leave tweens and teens feeling sluggish, disconnected, and irritable. Setting some healthy boundaries around screen time this summer doesn’t mean taking away all their fun. […]
Read MoreHow often do you check your phone in a day? Like, really think about it. Do you reach for it the second you wake up? Scroll while you eat? Watch videos when you’re supposed to be doing work or homework? If so, you’re so not alone. But here’s the thing: we rarely stop to think about how our […]
Read MoreMiddle school can and should be a time when kids figure out some stuff about themselves; there’s no better time to “try on things for size” to see what fits. This includes clothing and hairstyles, activities, new friend groups, music, language (sorry, mom – I don’t like it either) and maybe even some worldly or […]
Read MoreHappy December! I hope your Thanksgiving was whatever you needed it to be this year. We celebrated quietly (minus the cheering for the Detroit Lions!) and it was perfect for us. This has been a very busy fall season for me, working with clients (both parents and kids), doing some speaking engagements, and taking my […]
Read MoreIt’s mid-July and already my clients are telling me that they are getting “Back to School” emails. Neither kids nor parents are ready since it feels like summer just started! I hope that you’ll wring every last bit of fun out of this down time but as a coach, I’m always looking ahead too. I […]
Read MoreHuman connection is one of my favorite subjects to discuss with teens and young adults. We are hardwired to need and want the company of others so why is it so hard for kids these days? A lot of my tween and teen coaching clients express concern about their ability to make and keep friends. […]
Read MoreDecember Newsletter Post for those who aren’t on the mailing list yet! I’m writing this the day after Christmas because despite my best intentions, the holiday and “end-of-year overwhelm” got the best of me in 2023 and the “Newsletter Fairy” did not show up to produce it for me. Can anyone else relate? We often […]
Read MoreThanksgiving was last week and if you’re anything like me, you’ve already moved on to Christmas and maybe even 2023. This time of year seems to move so much faster than the rest of the year, am I right? We are programmed to make resolutions or changes in the new year and many parents want to […]
Read MoreI’ve seen girls change in the 30+ years that I’ve been teaching and in my last 4 years as a coach in the wellness industry. The confidence level has dropped, the anxiety level has risen, comparing themselves to other people has risen, and the seeming “resignation” about what they look like and how they view themselves […]
Read MoreIs there anyone out there who says mean things to themselves in their heads? Be honest! We all have some kind of running dialogue in our heads (our thoughts) and sometimes we take it to a negative place, saying super ugly things to ourselves. Most of the time, they are things that you’d never say to someone else, […]
Read MoreWe all have that person in our life who we’ve known for a long time and have always liked spending time with…until we found ourselves realizing that things have changed and we don’t actually enjoy that person anymore. She makes us feel agitated, she complains all the time, nothing is ever good enough, she puts us […]
Read MoreThis past Sunday I had an interesting conversation with my friend Jill, who runs a successful choral program in a public school. We were discussing the new school year, the current challenges of the pandemic, and the effect that remote learning had on the kids, particularly the ones who were at transitional stages (starting middle […]
Read MoreSchool is starting all over the country in what promises to be another strange year for kids and parents. I’ve seen many posts from friends and acquaintances who have kids entering their final year of high school, with musings of how they got to this point so fast. The river keeps moving, doesn’t it? Everyone is hoping […]
Read MoreThis week, I encountered two music students who were not their usual “on-the-ball selves” during their private lessons. After observing them make a few mistakes that they normally wouldn’t make and a whole lot of yawning, I asked each girl if she was feeling OK. Both admitted that they hadn’t slept well the night before. When I queried […]
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