About
Between us we have a plethora of experience of working with teens, preteens, parents and families. During the last 15 years we have both worked in several secondary schools with varying roles including adolescent health education and promotion, student wellbeing and teaching. We are both nurses. Trish is a Paediatric Nurse specialised in Adolescence and Azadi is a nurse specialised in Mental Health. Azadi is also a qualified Secondary School Teacher and Bachelor of Psychology. We are mothers and became friends through our work. We have 4 children between us.
Through our work we found limited support for parents, in particular strategies that work well for teens and how to deliver these strategies with the goal of maintaining a close relationship. We also noticed a huge gap in the information available to parents on connecting the dots between family history, their own upbringing and it’s relation to the present day.
We decided it was time to invite other parents to share in all the information we have, to create a safe and non-judgmental community where we can share experiences and build confidence and capacity, incorporating understanding and strategies for you in relation to your own journey AND strategies for parenting your pre- teens and teens all in the one place.
We are here to help you understand your family patterns, your journey through childhood and the connection this has to your own family and parenting.
Understanding your own story, core beliefs and the beliefs you have developed about the world, what it is to be a parent and a teen, how you move through conflict, your pains and your strengths, allows you to parent with clarity, peace and understanding. There are many ways that we can help you, no matter where you are on your parenting journey.
Trish’s story:
“Parenting through the teen years is not for the faint hearted. In fact, I think it was one of the hardest things I've ever done. Not because my teenagers were particularly hard, but because my whole journey through my childhood, through my own teen years and all the generational stuff that came from my family was hard. I had so much information at my fingertips and experience of working with teens that this should have been enough to navigate the teen years with ease.
However, I found there was a constant undercurrent of fear that something bad would happen to them, or that they were slipping away from me. We’d be getting along fine and then out of the blue there would be an argument and I would be triggered in a way I didn’t understand.
I did the work on myself and unpacked my family history to understand my own story. Combining this with the knowledge about raising teens was key to creating a peaceful home and close bonds with my children, bonds that I know will last a lifetime and only get stronger as we all continue to grow together”.
Azadi’s Story:
“My mother and I have the type of relationship every parent would want to have with their child. But it wasn’t always so. It was a decision my mother made when our relationship broke down when I was 13 and doing what all typical teens do. She went into full ‘spy mode’ and I went more and more deeply undercover. What changed the trajectory of our relationship was that my mum decided that ‘her story’ wasn’t going to be ‘our story’. She figured out why she was triggered and came to understand that her behaviour was directed from a place of fear.
She created what she wanted for us with one conscious decision at a time. There were still tense moments for me and my mum growing up but the part that made my mum magical was that she was willing to acknowledge her role in it and work at it with me. She decided our story was going to be one of connection and her role one of influence. She didn’t do this on her own and you don’t have to either”.