About Me

I am the parent of 3 wonderful kids – Sam (22), Lucy (21) and Mac (17). Sam has autism. He is quite high functioning, although the skills and abilities that are prominent today were not always so! Sam is indeed the product of countless hours of therapy, patience, diligence, stubbornness and love by numerous people in many varied settings. My experiences while learning to deal with many different agencies, support groups, professionals etc. led me to my current profession – an autism advocate. I have been supporting families for nearly 20 years, since 2000 as a professional special needs advocate.

I am Australian – my home town is Wagga Wagga and is located in New South Wales. I attended the Australian National University and majored in Psychology. I then became a high school teacher, and my goal was to become a teacher of children with autism! I moved to the USA in 1985 and to Carlsbad, CA in 1987 – I’m practically a native! Sam was born in 1988 and diagnosed with ASD/PDD in 1995. His diagnosis changed my life in so many ways.

My children were all educated in the local public school districts (Encinitas, and San Dieguito). Nothing was ever “handed to us on a plate” but I learned many “tricks” over the years and had some wonderful teachers, usually amazing speakers that our autism chapter invited in our never ending quest for learning the latest ways to help our children.

I became President of the local chapter of the Autism Society of America, only leaving 9 years later as my marriage fell apart. The wonderful years I spent supporting families and individuals became the backbone for setting myself up in business as an autism advocate and special needs educational consultant.

I have worked all over San Diego county as I’ve ventured north into Orange County as well. I’ve also been fortunate to support a few clients in other states (I love Hawaii!!). It has always been fun to meet parents of children with autism when I go to Australia, and I have often been invited to speak to various parent groups, giving a unique perspective having lived in two different continents and experiencing two very different educational systems. My goal is to continue to work with families in need wherever they live.

Sam now accompanies me on occasion as a co-presenter to various groups and organizations in San Diego County. He is an excellent baker and hopes to make that his profession.  We particularly enjoy presenting to classes of special education teachers. Sam is able to share his experiences from school, both positive and negative. I supply the parent perspective, as well as that of an autism advocate. And Sam has the opportunity to share his amazing chocolate chip cookies! (You really should try his sour cream cheese cake!) Currently, he has a part time job with a local grocery store in the neighborhood giving him ample opportunities to meet old friends and school teachers. Every day he comes home and says, “Mom, guess who I saw today?” He is a joy and keeps me so very grounded.

I continue to grow with every family I am privileged to help. Recently, I have added a new service – that of life coach. I recently (March 2011) completed my certification as a life coach with the Life Purpose Institute. I realized that I had been providing this service, in a general way, as I supported each family. But I wanted to hone my skills. The life coaching course with the Life Purpose Institute has given me valuable tools that I now use to work exclusively with the parents of children with special needs as they struggle with the stresses of parenting challenging children.

Having experienced the frustrations struggles and challenges common to parents of children with autism – indeed, parents of children with special needs – I feel uniquely qualified to offer the services of life coach. In fact, I think that a better title would be “self care coach” as this is often what is missing most. Yes, we put our children first to the detriment of ourselves. While we are able to keep that up for extraordinarily long periods of time, it does indeed eventually catch up with us. And then we feel lost, wondering what happened to our identity, our very selves??

I struggled for many years trying to bring myself back to health – emotional, physical and spiritual health. I want so much to share this knowledge with you, to help ease your way. Don’t keep running in circles, feeling lost, alone and so very, very tired. Call me. Let’s talk. Let me help you with my life coaching tools and experience to become a whole, happy person again.