God was so faithful to show me Occupational Therapy at the young age of 16. When a dear friend of mine was in a life-threatening car accident, I had the privilege of observing and helping with his rehabilitation. Through that experience, God sparked a flame in my heart, and I knew I was created to help others in their time of physical need. During OT school, working with children quickly became my favorite way to practice my new skills. Their innocence drew me in, and I wanted to be part of their story, creatively encouraging and empowering them to reach their God-given potential.

Reflex integration didn’t make its appearance in my life until I had been practicing for some time. But once again, God sought me out. Through others, and through the circumstances of one of my own clinic families, He revealed to me the power of primitive reflexes and brain balancing. I went out to learn these new skills and master them, and integrating retained primitive reflexes, along with the work of Dr. Robert Melillo and Dr. Harald Blomberg, became my passion project. As I applied these principles alongside many other techniques in the clinic, I saw firsthand the power these reflexes have in building the foundations of the brain, and how they helped me find root-cause solutions for the children I served.

As a mom of three myself, watching a child move from a struggling spirit to a carefree one, and then become a thriving child, was all I needed to put pen to paper (or keyboard to computer, as it were!) and make a difference in the lives of other children and families. When COVID arrived, I was once again prompted to bring these principles into a virtual setting. What I saw was eye-opening: children made greater progress when their parents were the agents of change 4–5 days a week than when I was doing the work myself in the clinic only 1–2 days a week. That revelation changed everything. I took what I’d learned and turned my knowledge into a course, so I could coach families more efficiently and effectively, right in their own homes.

Over three decades in clinics and in public, private and homeschool settings, I saw the same pattern again and again. The behaviors parents were worried about were signals from a nervous system that had missed a step in development. When we went back and built that foundation, children became calmer, more focused and more confident.