When relationships hurt rather than help your goals--whether personal, family, or business goals--change begins with individual history. Rather than a magnifying glass to focus on what's "wrong," I offer a kaleidoscope lens that brings everything into harmony.

I created the 7 Childhood Treasures model during my own recovery from a childhood full of what we now call Adverse Childhood Experiences. (My score is 7 out of 10; do you know yours?) Then I discovered that, no matter what kind of childhood you had--dysfunctional and traumatic, like mine, or sane and nurturing--your life now, your relationships now, always benefit from a look through the multi-faceted lens of the 7 Treasures.

The 7 Childhood Treasures are defined within evidence-based, typical developmental processes for early social and emotional development. They are innate assets for developing relationships full of trust, healthy boundaries (rather than co-dependence), a sense of shared magic, and more. A better understanding of our early years, in general, and your early experience, in particular--it turns out--is the best do-over for getting along in life's adult sandboxes.

How I Began

I traveled my early years "guided" by an alcoholic, sociopath, pedophile father and a mother struggling to cope, using a very lean toolbox of skills for marriage and parenting. My father's sexual abuse began when I was an infant and continued, off and on, until I was 15. Soon, I was standing at the threshold to adult life with no tools at all for coping with adult relationships. Certainly, my road to recovery included many years of psychotherapy, finding sobriety, and deep introspection. And there was no coincidence, I believe, in the alignment of those years of recovery with the early years of my professional life.

My successful career focuses on early childhood development and its impact on us as adults. For more than four decades, I've worked directly with thousands of children and adults, from the various perspectives of teacher, teacher educator, program director or agency CEO, presenter/trainer, and consultant. My education includes: 

• BA in Human Development and Family Life
• BA in Anthropology
• MA in Early Childhood Education and Behavior Analysis
• PhD in Developmental and Child Psychology

At the intersection of my childhood experience and my professional insights about the first seven years of life, I found a new way of growing. These strategies enable you to refresh, renew, resuscitate, and even revive or rebuild your relationships at home and at work.

• The 7 Childhood Treasures are a pattern for learning and evolving as a person.
• The 7 Facets of Team Success bring this personal power and perspective to the workplace.
• The Seek Sparkle & Shine Plan is for early years teachers who want to support children in their acquisition of the Treasures, on schedule

From a refreshing retreat for a small team, to a major overhaul of corporate culture, the 7 Facets bring a uniquely productive lens to business growth strategies. For individuals in any stage of growth and personal striving, seeing life from the perspective of the 7 Treasures allows you to take your relationships and your life to the next level, and leave the struggle behind. If teachers aren't finding the sparkle and shine in the children, then my book, Let the Child Shine, will help.

If you're ready, I am here for you. Click here to contact me for additional information.

Other credentials:

• Fifteen years working directly with more than 1,500 children and their families, in preschool and K-3 classrooms
• Fifteen years of teacher education and seminars on transformation, with more than 150 presentations to a total of more than 5,500 people
• Studied team building and leadership development at the Center for Creative Leadership and the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation
• Scholarly writings published in Education and Treatment of Children; Merrill-Palmer Quarterly; the National Association for the Education of Young Children's journal, Young Children; and other journals
• Popular articles published in Kansas City Parent Magazine, WholeChild Developments, Kansas Child, and other magazines and newspapers
• "Becoming My S.E.L.F." chapter in The Innergized Life (publication November 2017)
• Just Be Your S.E.L.F.--Your Guide to Improving Any Relationship (book publication in Summer 2018)
• Let the Child Shine: Teaching to the Brilliance in a Young Child (book publication in Fall 2019)
• More than 50 volunteer positions on advisory boards and committees, in professional associations and state government, such as Chair of the Missouri Coordinating Board for Early Childhood and President of the Board of Directors for Child Care Aware of America