Parent Coaching

Parenting is one of the most difficult adventures we have the privilege of embarking on. To raise a child to be a loving, fully functioning adult takes wisdom, patience, love and guidance. Donna enjoys walking alongside parents as they grow in understanding their child and his/her needs. Often parents need to do their “own work” in order to be able to become the parent they want to be. Donna coaches parents with an attachment lens, helping parents create safe connections for their own children. Parents love their children but often get stuck in “parent guilt” wondering if they are too strict or too soft , and ultimately fearing they are ruining their child. By looking at parenting through nurture, structure, engagement and challenge, parents are able to recognize their strengths and growth areas.

Grief

We live in a culture that doesn’t understand what it means to live with a heart. When we experience loss it takes time for the mind, body, and heart to adjust to what is missing. Grief actually hurts us physically, energy is low, sleep is interrupted, color and flavor seem duller. People say, “It’s been two weeks you should be over it by now.” But grief is not on a stop watch. It comes in waves and leaves like the wind, it whispers in your ear when you least expect it. Have you experienced loss? A breakup, a friendship? Is life just not turning out as you expected? We experience grief when our dreams don’t come true. Sometimes it helps to talk about it.

Trauma

One definition of trauma is “I thought I was safe and then I wasn’t”. Imagine driving down the road when, BOOM, another car crashes into you. What a terrifying situation! Many people are able to recover quickly from an incident like this. But some will struggle with intrusive images of the accident happening, trouble sleeping or fear of ever getting behind the wheel again. If these symptoms don’t clear up within a few weeks this person may benefit from EMDR​ or Brainspotting​ in order shift the the experience, “Its happening again right now!! to a memory, “I was in an accident once.”

Brainspotting is a powerful, focused treatment method​ that works by identifying, processing, and releasing core neurophysiological sources of emotional/body pain, trauma, dissociation, and a variety of other challenging symptoms. Brainspotting is a simultaneous form of diagnosis and treatment, enhanced with Biolateral sound, which is deep, direct, and powerful yet focused and containing. ~ David Grand

EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) When something disturbing happens it gets stored in the brain in a way that our human system feels that event is either going to happen again at any moment, or is happening now. When some event happens that may be similar or just has an element that reminds the system of that disturbing event, the brain reacts as if the original disturbing event is happening. EMDR helps to move the storage of that memory to a more functional part of the brain​ that can experience the event as actually being in the past. It is important to know that there is a real physical change happening with EMDR. The events that used to trigger the brain into over-reaction no longer have that effect. The person can now react to the present without the past interfering. ~ Deb Kennard

Parenting

She is available to speak to parenting groups about connecting with their children. Donna has over two decades of parenting experience. She helps people parent by helping them recognize the stages of parenting. When do parents need to oversee and when do they need to let kids spread their wings. Donna sees parenting through the lenses of nurture, engagement, structure, and challenge. Donna has been a MOPS speaker and MOPS mentor mom. She also has six years of experience as a community educator teaching about saving sex for marriage and healthy dating. She would love to talk to parents of teens about these subjects.

Twenty Somethings

The twenty-third year of life can be perplexing. So many people think, “As soon as I graduate from college my life is really going to start.” But careers can be a challenge, singleness can be confusing, and relationships are life-giving but also scary. Donna loves normalizing the challenges of this stage of life.