Lisa is the mother of four children, who also happen to be four of her best friends! She has been coaching parents and professionals in building happy relationships since 1987. Author; columnist; educator, and occasional radio and TV guest. She thinks that (almost) everything is improved by the addition of liberal amounts of laughter.
Not only has she created life changing education for parents, but she has also relished developing programmes for teens. These inspire teens to build their own self esteem and engender a generosity of spirit towards others.
International recognition for her work is burgeoning. She works both at home in New Zealand and abroad, saying this suits her wonderfully as she has a low boredom threshold!
ACEA recognised her skills by awarding her the
Year 2000
EXCEPTIONAL ADULT EDUCATOR AWARD
Her family feel it is only fair to warn you of her off-beat sense of humour and wish you good luck!
Linda is the mother of three great kids. Whilst she takes her role as a parent really seriously, she also believes laughter and fun are the magic ingredients that hold it all together.
Coffee; red wine; trees; sitting watching the ocean, and having the sun on her face are some of the great pleasures in her life. The Playcentre movement and philosophy were powerful influences in her life when her children were preschoolers.
She passionately believes that grown ups have a role to encourage and support children as they mature into who they are meant to be, (not what we want them to be). This way we nurture the truth of the spirit of each child.
Her experience of working in the school education system has highlighted the importance of working with integrity and upholding each child’s dignity - and that no one is too small or too big to not be treated with respect.
She believes the more people that love a child the better.
Ralph adds a wonderful male perspective to our parenting team and our classes for parents.
True to his Swiss genes, he goes into gleeful overdrive when he is skiing down the steep mountain slopes on a bright sunny day.
If snow isn’t at hand you might find him running a Marathon (go Ralph!), or relaxing with his guitar.
His experiences as a dad, a Steiner School parent, and as an accelerated learning instructor in NZ High Schools awakened his passion for parent coaching. He believes that parenting is the most influential “job” that shapes our young generation, and also the most neglected one.
Building trust, self-confidence and cooperation in a family are keys to his vision in working with parents - and for him, working to promote these is a not-to-be-missed thrill.
As a fun-loving, easy-going facilitator he loves all the new discoveries he too makes when working with groups of parents.
Michelle has four fabulous kids. Never a dull moment in their house, that’s for sure!
She has been working with Parentingworx as a facilitator since the year 2000 and absolutely loves it.
She believes that, the things that she’s learnt from the ‘Awesome Parents Programme’ have saved her family from some messy melt downs! She laughingly adds “To tell you the truth, I think it is part of my karma that I have to keep going to parenting courses every term!”
Michelle has become the team specialist in the Pikler based class ‘Wonder of Babies’ and has had the privilege of running this course over the last two years.
She thinks of it as an honor to work with mums and their precious babies during this six weeks class – she describes the experience as ‘heart-melting’. (And we believe her –her face is completely blissed out whenever she talks about it!!)
Sarita is a mother of four– of her greatest teachers! She is a wonderful acoustic musician, and also has a secret habit of playing shockingly bad chess until the wee hours of the morning!
She loves her Parentingworx role. This is because it gifts her the chance to fulfil her dreams of supporting parent into building vibrant, healthy relationships, whilst building their internal relationship with themselves!
Learning as much from others as she shares with them is an immeasurable joy to Sarita.
“When parents take time out of their busy lives to share in the riches that ParentingWorx has to offer, it is one way of showing the wonderful depth of their commitment to their children. It’s about supporting each other as parents, so we are filled to the brim with practical support, connectedness to others in the community, and tons of magic and laughter. That's why I love this work. It helps to keep me focused in the direction of my true north."
Personal Assistant to Lisa – she created her own job description “To organise Lisa’s Life”. Holly also helps us take care of the planet and those who live on it. Her social conscience is in action through:
She has one gorgeous four year old – Tigerlily – the littlest member of our team!
A.K.A Lilly Billy – this is one special little girl!! Tigerlily came into the world at about the same time that ParentingWorx was discovering Emmi Pikler’s beautiful way of being with babies.
She has been living proof that when parents slow down and raise their babies with patience, love and respect – little marvels are visible on a daily basis. Tiger came to work with her Mum so that they could stay near each other – and we wouldn’t have had it any other way! In August 2009 she has started her Waldorf education at the Steiner Kindergarten nearby. She LOVES it.
Holly sometimes wonders if Tigerlily could possibly be a reincarnation of her beloved old Boxer dog Max - as she snuffles just like he used to, and also laughs in her sleep.
‘How much time do I have left?’, I asked the wise one.
‘Enough to make a difference’ came the reply.
