Motherhood

Holding my new born baby in my arms, I finally understood how much my mother loved me…strange that I never really understood her all-consuming devotion before. But my mother had said that pregnancy and the early years of motherhood were the ‘best years’ of her life.

Why was I finding this supposedly blissful period so hard and full of conflicts?

Why did I feel drained, riddled with anxiety, overwhelmed and, at times, depressed?

As I endeavored to be a perfect mother, devoting myself entirely to my child, I began to lose sight of myself. Indeed, I hadn’t even found pregnancy easy: having to seem perpetually thrilled to have a baby, to eat right, to be radiant and overjoyed when parts of me felt conflicted about giving birth, scared about staying home with a child and worried about what my identity would be now that I was a mother: all these were real challenges.

Was I deficient, or was pregnancy and motherhood really this hard? It took me only a few months of being a mother to find out that I was not alone. First time mothers everywhere feel overwhelmed, anxious and at their wits’ end. I started to talk to mothers about their struggles. I figured out ways for all of us to hold on to our Significant Selves while still devoting the necessary time, energy, love and commitment to our children.

BACKGROUND

My Passion

Working with people to help them to achieve their goals has always been my passion. I began my professional career sixteen years ago as a personal fitness trainer, teaching group classes and working privately with individuals in order to support them to meet their fitness goals and personal needs. Because I wanted to help people to cope with the difficult transitions that they faced in life, I became certified in pre-natal and post-natal fitness, as well as in senior fitness. Working in these areas gave me insight into the challenges people met when experiencing life-transitions: even transitions that were supposedly ‘happy’ seemed sometimes to be difficult and fraught with conflicts. I found that I did more than train my clients physically, for the majority of my professional day was spent facilitating people’s lives.

My Path

During the years that I worked as a fitness trainer, I educated myself in and explored other fields that interested me in order to probe fully who I was and how I wanted to spend my life. My fitnesss training business supported me while I pursued a BA at Columbia University and a PhD at the University of Pennsylvania. I left school after receiving my masters degree to give birth to and raise my daughter, Bryley.

My Purpose

When Bryley was a toddler, I went back to work part-time and found, once again, that much of my time was spent helping people negotiate life’s challenges. Luckily by this time, I knew my passion and purpose: to help new mothers to hold on to their Significant Selves while they continued to devote themselves to their kids. I enrolled in the Coach Training Alliance’s “Certified Coach Program” and developed the business of my dreams: a life-coaching company called Significant Self.

Credentials

• Certified Life Coach (Coach Training Alliance, 2005)
• Member of the International Federation of Coaches
• Certified pre-natal and post-natal fitness instructor (Aerobics and Fitness Association of America (AFAA), 2000)
• Certified personal and group fitness instructor (AFAA, 1988)
• Columbia University, BA
• University of Pennsylvania, MA