Frequently Asked Questions

Yes. I’m based in Atlanta and work virtually with parents and caregivers all over the world.

Since parent coaching is not psychotherapy, families can work with a coach who lives outside of their state or country. If your situation requires clinical treatment, diagnosis, crisis support, or another regulated service, we will be clear about that and help you identify the appropriate kind of professional.

Whether you’re five miles away or five states away, our work remains focused on the same thing: understanding your family and creating a practical path forward.

A parent coach is a trained, experienced guide for you and your family. We provide you with immediately-useful information and individualized tools to help make parenting less overwhelming and family life more joyful.

While most parents have a “sample size” of a small number of kids, we’ve worked with thousands of families over many decades. That means we see what works for a wide variety of kids and families in the long term, and we use that information to support and guide parents right now.

What Clients Are Saying:

“When I started this, I thought, ‘I don’t need a parent coach,’ but I have found Cari invaluable. She is so supportive. Cari has been a rock.”

“Cari was the first person who gave us concrete strategies and actual ideas that we could go home and use the same day. She is the answer to the whole ‘Kids don’t come with instruction manuals’ problem.”

Coaching is not therapy. Coaching focuses quickly and deeply on identifying what is happening and making an actionable plan to address the problem, while therapy helps clients unpack why things are happening and heal past trauma.

Coaching is generally shorter-term than therapy and focuses almost exclusively on the present and future.

While we are not therapists, we often collaborate with therapists and other professionals to meet the family’s collective needs. We value a team approach and are happy to work with anyone on your family’s care team.

What Clients Are Saying:

“We have gotten more out of this than years of weekly individual therapy. It’s like putting the emphasis on the right syllable.”

“It has been wonderful to collaborate with Cari and our child’s therapist. It has given us many different perspectives that we wouldn’t have had otherwise.”

We’ll pinpoint where the day-to-day reality of your family life doesn’t align with your hopeful vision and collaborate to identify big ideas and strategies to fill the gap.

After identifying your initial goals, we’ll:

Prioritize the work to create the big shift you’re looking for, starting on Day One.

Individualize our approach to align your vision and your real life.

Nurture the skills and strategies that work for you, as we continue to stabilize your whole family.

Clients notice a difference in their relationships and approaches after even one session.

What Clients Are Saying:

“Having the plan that we put in place is the only reason we made it through those hard moments. We are doing something fundamentally different, and it’s working.”

“I’m feeling more at ease, not stressed like it’s going to be a huge mountain to climb. Breaking it down helps me get through things.”

This work isn’t really about your kids. Yes, we’ll talk about them (a lot), but the most meaningful shifts come from you, including the stories you tell yourself about your child, the expectations you carry (of yourself and others), and the way you respond when something needs to change.

Everyone quoted here—and throughout this site—has done this work without us having to meet with their child.

Here’s What Clients Are Saying:

“I thought Cari would need to meet our daughters and observe our interactions with them to be able to help us. But that has not been needed. Turns out the work was more about us than our child.”

“Even though Cari does not meet with my child (and he works with his personal therapist), he loves Cari’s approach with me, and her suggestions bring positive results for us both.”

“Without ever meeting my children, Cari gave me a framework for really listening and helped me figure out when to use it in my daily life. I feel free, lighter, happier, and more in control.”

Let’s be honest: you’re spending a lot of time, energy, and resources chasing down a mix of parenting voices that don’t quite fit. They often leave you second-guessing or feeling unsure and full of regret.

Imagine channeling the same energy into learning and practicing strategies and approaches that actually work for you and your family.

That’s what parent coaching does, and it’s a game-changer.

What Clients Are Saying:

“Instead of trying to share a process with our child’s therapist and psychiatrist, we have a dedicated space that gives us support and helps us solve parenting problems. It is the focused space we have needed all along. Parent Coaching is exactly what we needed at this stage of our process.”

“We previously took a parenting class, and I’ve read books, but that information can be dense and hard to retain. Cari helps us through the daily ups and downs in an honest and insightful way. She’s given us new perspectives on the different stages our kids are in... and how to deal with each of them individually and together.”

We work with many parents who are not struggling with any big, glaring issues. They just live with a constant low hum of uncertainty—overthinking every decision, second-guessing every reaction, and wondering if they’re getting anything right.

In your head, it might sound like:

“Am I messing up my kids?”

“Am I asking too much for their age—or not enough?”

“How can I tell if I’m making good decisions when I end up feeling uncomfortable either way?”

“Is parenting supposed to be this hard?”

There is an easier way to navigate the uncertainty: by connecting with a deeply experienced, trustworthy guide who has walked this path and can support you with clarity, kindness, and zero judgment.

Even better? When that guide comes with a warm, understanding, and helpful community of other parents in the same boat.

What Clients Are Saying:

“I feel more equipped to handle everyday moments of conflict without damaging my relationship with my kids or creating unnecessary guilt or fear for myself. It’s game-changing, really, how the program has created a sense of peace in my parenting journey.”

“Cari helps us through the daily ups and downs in an honest and insightful way. She gives us new perspectives on the different stages our kids are in... and how to deal with each of them individually, and together.”

"I have never received such empathetic, clear, and focused analysis and advice. Cari listened attentively and was empathetic, deeply analytical, and concrete about the tools she thought would be most effective. I felt an instant rapport with her while talking, without ever losing a sense of professionalism. I am deeply grateful, and I would recommend her to anyone who is struggling with challenges related to parenting."

All private and group sessions are held online. This allows parents in different locations to easily attend together.

Participation varies depending on the family structure. We’re happy to work with any combination of adults committed to the well-being of the extended family.

What Clients Are Saying:

“Cari has helped us so much not only in looking at our individual parenting styles but also our parenting styles as a unit. The tools and strategies she has given to us have been invaluable in how we approach difficult situations with our children. We have also appreciated that Cari has us look at prioritizing ourselves as a couple in order to better care for our children.”

“We have accomplished exactly what we set out to do and cannot believe how far we have come. I feel so grateful. The icing on the cake is that our co-parenting relationship and friendship have been strengthened through our work with Cari.”

Payments are made through a secure payment platform. Unfortunately, coaching is not eligible for medical or flex spending accounts (HSA or FSA).

Similarly, coaching is not currently covered under any insurance plans. When that changes, we will happily provide the documentation you need to submit for reimbursement.

While we cannot offer refunds for payments made, we do everything we can to meet our clients’ needs throughout our work together.

What Clients Are Saying:

“Working with Cari is amazing and worth the money!”

Parents come to us with everything from everyday friction to full-blown “something has to change” situations.

Parent coaching can help with tantrums and meltdowns, defiance, anxiety, perfectionism, sibling conflict, school struggles, routines, screen time, emotion regulation, executive functioning, communication, boundaries, and the many surprising adventures of raising tweens, teens, and young adults.

If something keeps happening in your family and you don’t know what to do next, we can start there.

Yes. We work with many parents of neurodivergent children, teens, and young adults, including families navigating ADHD, autism, anxiety, executive-function challenges, twice-exceptionality, learning disabilities, sensory differences, or some complicated combination of the above.

Neurodivergent children need parenting approaches that account for how their brains actually work (not more pressure to respond like everyone else).

Parent coaches do not diagnose or treat medical or mental health conditions. We can help you better understand your child, reduce unnecessary conflict, adjust expectations and environments, and develop practical strategies that support your whole family.

When appropriate, we are also happy to collaborate with your child’s therapist, doctor, school, or other professionals.

What Clients Are Saying:

"Cari has opened our eyes and helped us to explore our children and their unique gifts in so many ways."

"We found ourselves at the breaking point in parenting our adolescent child with Autism and OCD. Throughout our work together, Cari helped us identify and stay focused on what we wanted to accomplish, and get on the same page with our approach by creating a shared decision-making space, especially regarding boundaries. Cari guided us in developing clear plans to address one thing at a time when we were drowning in overwhelm, broke down complex problems into manageable parts, and reminded us to celebrate our successes."

Nope.

A diagnosis can provide helpful information and access to important services, but you don’t need one to know that your family needs support.

We can begin with what you’re seeing: the explosive reactions, impossible transitions, school refusal, constant negotiations, anxious spirals, or whatever else is making daily life harder.

We won’t diagnose your child. We will help you identify patterns, understand what's happening beneath the behavior, and decide which strategies or additional resources make sense.

You’re allowed to ask for help before you have a name for the problem.

What Clients Are Saying:

"I reached out to Cari when I was getting into a lot of power struggles with my young child. We were both having big, difficult feelings, and I didn't want to keep having so many hard moments with her. I knew that what I did now would impact our relationship as she grows up. Cari provides actionable tips and expert insights as a longtime parent, educator, and researcher."

"Our child's doctor recommended that we contact Cari to help us learn to support our child in increasing his frustration tolerance and managing his big emotions. It was unnerving to take him anywhere because we were not sure how he would react. Nothing we tried improved his behavior. Since we started working with Cari, we feel much better equipped. She offers tailored action plans and creative solutions to our many parenting needs, and we have learned to help him strengthen his frustration tolerance, leading to more positive social interactions with friends. These changes have improved the overall quality of his life and ours."

No. One committed adult can change an entire family system.

We're always happy to work with parents and caregivers together when everyone is willing and able to participate. That can be especially useful when co-parents disagree about discipline, expectations, or what their child needs.

But coaching can still be effective when only one parent attends. We’ll focus on the parts of the family dynamic you can influence rather than spending our time trying to control another adult.

Sometimes a skeptical co-parent comes around after they see that things are actually getting better. Funny how that works.

Every family is different, so we can’t promise a magical transformation by next Tuesday.

Many parents begin feeling more hopeful and less overwhelmed once they understand what is happening and have a clear plan. Concrete changes at home may appear quickly, while more established patterns need time, practice, and adjustment to root and bloom.

Private coaching begins with a three-month commitment because lasting change usually requires more than one excellent conversation. We need time to try strategies, observe what happens in real life, and refine the plan together.

After the first three months, we'll reassess and go from there.

What Clients Are Saying:

"I'm impressed. He's turned a corner. I've turned a corner. I didn't think we'd get here, and certainly not this quickly."

-S.Z.

Yes. Parent coaching works particularly well online because the work happens through you, in your home, during the other 167 hours of the week.

Meeting virtually also makes it easier for busy parents, co-parents in different locations, and anyone who would prefer not to add another commute to an already absurd schedule.

You get personalized guidance and practical strategies from wherever you happen to be. Pajama bottoms are entirely acceptable.

What Clients Are Saying:

"We are in such a good place with the kids now. We have hiccups and new challenges, but you have really helped us get our sh*t together. Just having a toolbox and a process for dealing with the challenges has been a game-changer. It works on adults too!"

"Cari helped us create a plan that fits our child and supported our growth as parents. It is amazing. It's much more efficient and effective than trying to read all the parenting books out there. It's like a cheat sheet to parenting.”

"Our coaching experience with Cari was nothing short of exceptional! She is non-judgmental and real. Her expertise, empathy, and encouragement helped us understand that what we are going through is not unusual. She came to the table with ideas and solutions that set us on the right path. Cari made us feel hopeful. She went above and beyond to support our family."