Stop Riding The Rollercoaster
of your child’s most confusing behaviors
Join me for 3 months of solid support and practical brain-based tools for more family harmony
Raising Kids With Big, Baffling Behaviors
A Course for Parents
Move From Meltdowns And Power Struggles
To Reconnecting With Your Kids And Yourself
10 Weeks of Support and Brain, Body, Sensory Tools That Really Work!
Overwhelm tends to be catchy.
If you’re navigating BIG feelings and behaviors from your kids, finding yourself flooded, frustrated, or confused—and aren’t finding traditional parenting strategies helpful—this series is a brain-based game changer.
Join me and a small group of fellow parents as we shift away from conflict and evermore creative consequences.
Lean into 10 weeks of tailored support and flexible, effective strategies among parents who won’t be startled by BIG behaviors.
So you’ll have more energy and curiosity about what’s underneath, and how to reduce the stress for everyone in your family.
Together we’ll explore useful tools that can shift behavior, how your family navigates challenges, and increase your child’s sense of connection with you—and themselves.
Make Sense of BIG Behaviors
Understand what’s fueling them, so you can meet challenges more effectively.
This series is strategically designed so you don’t just learn a bunch of parenting tools and techniques.
You will be equipped with practical interventions that actually work—and you’ll understand which tools to use when and why—based on the science of being relationally, socially, and behaviorally human.
Fresh Skills For Coping With Stress: More Strategy, Less Drama
Shift what gets your attention, and stop the reaction train from picking up steam!
We’ll explore the neuroscience of behavior, expanding your toolbox with a series of flexible, practical strategies for responding in the midst of intensity and overwhelm, while growing your capacity for managing stress and reducing frustration.
Finally understand what’s underneath the drama and giving up. So you can stop playing Whack-A-Mole with difficult energy and engage it differently!
Trust your own good thinking
So you can follow your instincts and quiet critics (even inner ones!)
This no-shame, no-blame approach to parenting illuminates why good intentions and honest emotions can clash—even when you “know what to do”—but especially when you’re fried.
This series is especially powerful for parents raising highly sensitive kids, or finding that standard issue parenting advice doesn’t reflect your experience. Many of the families drawn to this series are navigating neurodivergence in their kids, themselves, or both.
“I constantly go back to what I learned in this class when observing my daughter—what I learned from MereAnn, other families, and my own self-reflection. ”
Let’s Get To The Root Of What Feels Stuck
And Start Easing The Intensity
I’m on a mission to help more adults see and hear kids—even while they’re still building communication skills and impulse control—with whole-hearted support for the essential work of parenthood.
This series is designed to grow your capacity, fill your toolbox, and increase your support.
I’ll help you connect the dots between behaviors that fluster and frustrate you with skills for translating what they’re communicating.
We’ll work together to change the context and shift your perspective, so you have new options for responding. All while expanding your steadiness and clarity about what’s really going on beneath the surface.
You’re the best expert on your child, their patterns, and how even small shifts or miscommunications send a ripple through your family. Whether they feel things deeply, or you’re caught in old patterns that need to be updated—the dance you’re doing together needs a reset.
Your questions and insights are welcome. If your child isn’t getting what they need at school, and you want to know what works better and how to advocate for them, let’s put our heads together. If your child is older or younger than the examples I share in class, we’ll tailor the tools for your specific kiddo, or fine-tune what works to support their sibling—because it’s bound to be different.
Your worries and what-ifs are invited. When a guided experiment needs tweaking to meet your kiddo where they are, we’ll adapt it together. Because there is no cookie-cutter solution. If there were, I’m betting you’re crafty enough to have found it by now.
Parenthood is no cakewalk. But it can be sweeter and less stressful. Let’s imagine that shift together, and lean into it over 10 whole weeks. I want your community and capacity to grow. I’ll be right alongside you.
“I enjoyed the connection and community with other parents. It helped me feel less isolated in my struggles to support my child.”
What You Can Expect
(10) Weekly small group sessions
(1) Private parent coaching session
Email support between sessions
Practical info and fresh tools each week, so you can apply what you’re learning right away
Time for Q+A every time we meet—come get your BIG (and small) questions answered
Neurodiversity-affirming parenting strategies rooted in a strength-based, connection-first, science-informed approach
Full-color workbook to use between sessions
You get to decide how much “homework” you do (i.e.—intentional experiments, written reflection, resources)
A circle of parents with similar experiences, where your questions are welcomed and challenges held with compassion
Shift toward more confidence and less conflict, so you can enjoy your kids more!
I’m sharing my best resources from 16+ years of working with kids, parenting my own, and training teachers and therapists.
I’ll braid all this experience together with the brain science to back it up, helping you add strategies to your toolbox that are tailored for your daily challenges. And we’ll keep vulnerable nervous systems in mind all along the way.
Make sense of BIG behaviors and redirect your energy, so you AND your kids can get needs met with fewer meltdowns.
“I’ve already shared with anyone who will listen how this class has empowered me to pause and shift my parenting responses.
This benefits the relationship between me and my child, as well as other relationships in my life.”
Course created by Robyn Gobbel, host of The Baffling Behavior Show podcast
Hi, I’m MereAnn
I help adults see and hear kids.
I’m a child development specialist and parent coach focused on supporting families through the preschool and elementary years. I focus here because I needed extra support in those stages, too.
Even after 16 years as a play therapist and 10 years before that, running afterschool and summer programs, working as a nanny, and teaching both preschool and high school—parenthood has been a crash course in embodying my own values and expressing my needs. I’ve dived into discovering regulation strategies that work (not the “5 Simple Steps” kind), uncovering my superpowers and getting to know my tender spots—so I can help my kid do the same.
Life with kids is full of tremendous growth and change for everyone in the family. That’s why I’m committed to collaborating with parents to see problems and solutions in totally new ways—so everyone in your family can thrive—and your needs don’t get lost in the mix.
As a long-time student and teacher of attachment theory, I’m fascinated by how relationships, persistent stress, and how we were parented shapes our parenting. Good news—we can shift our patterns and habits to better meet our needs and our kids’!
Tapping into current brain science and learning flexible, positive communication tools means honing your parent wisdom, so you can really get what’s fueling the behaviors you want to change.
Gaining skills to be able to see under the surface means you can tap into your wisdom as a parent, and steer from there—even through the inevitable storms.
I’ve been hosting parent groups since 2016, and am especially excited to work with parents of kids with BIG behaviors and nervous systems that need a little extra support.
You already know the ways your kids are sensitive and seeking attention—let’s work together to understand what’s brewing underneath, so you can guide them, with confidence and connection.
Your coping skills and regulation shine a light for your kids.
This might be hard to hear, but it’s good news…It matters how you manage your own regulation and sense of connection.
We adults are like thermostats in our kids’ environment; we have the power to adjust the temperature, but it takes awareness and intention to not increase intensity right along with them, or give up when they do.
That doesn’t mean we cause kids’ behavior—it means we can influence it by adjusting our own reactions, building our capacity, and matching expectations to their current strengths and challenges.
I’ll guide you through the brain science and attachment theory that backs this up, with flexible strategies you can use right away.
After years of teaching and attending in-depth workshops on relational neuroscience, attachment, family systems, and power dynamics—I’m excited to share this professionally designed curriculum, brimming with practical, science-backed strategies and tons of support for…
setting limits that stick
balancing boundaries with realistic expectations—and untangling limits from boundaries (we need both!)
meeting competing needs of different family members
navigating intensity and moments of conflict without flipping your lid (as often, nobody’s perfect!)
positive communication and repairing upsets
different learning styles and sensory capacities
weaving together your values and needs as a parent—these matter deeply
advocating for your child in different settings (school, co-parenting, with grandparents)
I trust your judgment, insights, and bandwidth.
The content is geared for families navigating neurodivergence (including highly sensitive temperament, suspected ADHD, autism, anxiety, learning challenges, early loss or trauma, regulation and sensory needs—just to name a few flavors of neurodiversity) and looking to ease behaviors that are more confusing and overwhelming than “typical” parenting books have room for.
There’s no such thing as “being behind” in this series. It’s designed to support and encourage you, not add to your To-Do List.
Questions about what’s covered, the pace of sessions, or the type of resources I’ll share? All the details are below.
“Parents are appreciated and celebrated in this course rather than made to feel judged in their parenting.”
Details
LIVE group sessions with immediately useful resources, spotlight coaching, answers to your questions, and heartfelt support among smart, resourceful parents looking to feel more connected and less alone navigating BIG behaviors.
Group maximum is 6 families in each group
Sessions include practical tools & flexible strategies to implement each week.
ADHD Focused Group is FULL : April - June 2025
Wednesdays, 4:30-6:15pm Pacific
Group Includes
(10) Weekly group sessions, with Q+A every time we meet
(1) private parent coaching session, tailored just for you
Full-color, printable workbook
Weekly topics and TONS of examples to guide you through the tools
Practical, flexible tools you can start using right away
Worksheets & other materials to practice what we’re learning
Prompts to help you track patterns and weekly experiments
Email support between sessions (up to twice a week)
Equity pricing available as partial scholarship for BIPOC, LGBTQ+ and sole parents at need
Payment plan available.
Got Questions?
Scroll down to the FAQ’s below. Or reach out via my Contact Form.
You’re also welcome to Book a FREE phone chat on my calendar, and let’s talk about whether this group is a good fit for your family. I’ll be honest and supportive, either way!
What if you understood the science of behavior
So deeply that no behavior — from your kids or yourself — would leave you dazed and confused anymore?
What if you could see below the surface of sideways shenanigans to the needs underneath?
And do this with ANY behavior that shows up— knowing exactly which tools to use when?
Let’s do this!
A few foundational beliefs…
What’s fueling BIG behaviors? Invisible needs.
When we understand what fuels off-track behavior—theirs and ours—
we can go right to the heart of communicating safety and boosting regulation—even when anxiety, grief, defiance, sensory needs, or aggression are in the mix.
If you’ve been clear and consistent, something else is getting in the way. Let’s decode what they need.
Brain science supports playfulness! And builds new pathways to regulation.
While we can’t always lead with play, making time to connect and stir up some laughter reminds us not all of parenting is a struggle—and actually eases tension in our physiology.
We’re learning SO MUCH about the brain-body connection—accessible neuroscience can help us invite and support better behavior. So you can enjoy more fun and less funk.
Regulation shapes social skills. And how we read ‘em.
We’ll explore how regulation and connection contribute to raising kids with steadier coping skills, social-emotional smarts, and the power to ask for help.
Navigating challenge takes flexibility. When kids know we’ve got their back, they can take healthy risks, cultivate empathy, and make amends.
Here’s where we’re headed…week by week
Becoming the expert in your kid’s behavior
Week 1 What You See Isn’t What You Get
Week 2 Regulated, Connected Kids Who Feel Safe and Know What To Do Behave Well
Week 3 Exploring A New Lens on Behavior
We’ll explore the brain science of regulation and behavior, with attention to non-verbal communication, taking a no-shame, no-blame approach to making sense of big reactions and specific support for anchoring through BIG behaviors and high stress moments.
I’ll share how I talk with kids about understanding their own brains and needs—so you can help guide them through this process, too. And you’ll get to experience a whole new perspective on what it means to navigate the world (inside and outside) with a vulnerable nervous system.
You are nearly the best-equipped person in the world to write the operator’s manual for your own child, second only to them!
Now Let’s Shift Those Behaviors
(not ‘fix’ your kid)
Why don’t off-the-shelf parenting books seem to work for your kid? One wide-sweeping guess? They’re not written for or about your kid!
The deal with parenthood is that you don’t get all the information up front. It’s more like a spigot that turns on fast or slow over time, sometimes a trickle of insight flows out—other times it’s gushing! But what a book can’t tell you is how to handle each individual moment when you and/or your child are flooded. That’s where this series fills in the gaps.
We’ll start with navigating the hotspots, making sense of what’s happening in those moments, and working backward from there…so you can meet the next mighty moment with more perspective & tools.
Why rewards, consequence, logic & control don’t budge some of the most persistent behaviors. When we focus on the behavior, it can feel like playing a game of Whack-A-Mole!
Just when one behavior shifts, another one pops up…you’re not nuts, and you’re not the only one. This his how vulnerable nervous systems respond to stress.
Week 4 Getting To Know The Engage, Protect, Shut-Down Brain Pathways
Week 5 Increase Felt Safety (in the body, the environment, and relationships)
Week 6 Changing The Brain With Connection and Co-Regulation
Week 7 Strategies To Calm The Protection Brain and Soothe The Shut-Down/Withdrawal Brain
Week 8 What To Do When Their Thinking Brain Returns (AKA: What about a consequence?)
Why Knowing Isn’t Even Half The Battle
(Why “know better, do better” isn’t the whole story)
Supporting your child and their needs is an essential responsibility of parenthood. But it does not require you to let go of your own needs in the process. It’s possible to feel more connected with your child without losing track of yourself. I’ll show you what I mean…no bubble baths or solo retreats required. And no judgment if those are part of your dream! We’ll lean into expanding your capacity by tuning into yourself.
Now that we know how Connection, Protection, and Non-Verbal communication are part of the path to finding new ways in, we can lean into growing your own window of stress tolerance.
You’ll tap into your inner compass to orient and map your path as a leader in your family. And I’ll teach you how to be a thermostat for your kids, resetting the level of intensity and shifting the vibe without walking on eggshells.
You already have a sturdy toolbox by this point. Let’s work together to update and adjust how you wield your best tools.
Week 9 How You Can Know What To Do And Still Not Do It
Week 10 Growing Your Capacity For Stress Tolerance + 4 Steps To Not Flip Your Lid
FAQs
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This group has been created specifically with neurodiverse parents and kids in mind. That means we’re working with the nervous system needs that are present, not imagining what those needs “should or could” be. If you need captions, notes, or other supportive resources to access the material, I’m glad to support you and get creative with resources in different formats.
If we haven’t yet met, request a free phone consult, and let’s chat.
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Awesome! They are welcome to join you—the enrollment is per family, not each. You’ll both get more out of it if you attend together, rather than alternating weeks. Each session is designed to build on the last, with tools grouped together.
Sole parenting? Invite your nanny or a supportive grandparent to join you!
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Hoping to explore the tips and tools we cover in more detail? You are welcome to add on a dedicated coaching session for a special price just for folks in the class.
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I’m asking you to make a sincere commitment to the full series.
And, still: Life happens; we can roll with it. Since this is a series of live group sessions, each session builds on the prior one. Do let me know if you have to miss a session, and I’ll share a couple resources to fill you in. Sessions won’t be recorded, but your course workbook highlights the main ideas. I’ll be happy to share the slides, or suggest a podcast episode that relates, and I’m always open to your questions.
Shifting how we make sense of behavior, lets us receive it as communication.
So we can respond differently.
What Parents Say About My Courses
Gain Confidence in Your Parenting
“The idea that children need to offload [big feelings] and letting my children do that without trying to fix things or get them to stop has given me more confidence and taken a little bit of struggle away.”
— dad of preschool twins
Get tools you can use
“MereAnn offers an effective and comforting blend of parenting strategy and group support. I would recommend this class to anyone who works with or cares for children as a means of better understanding their behavior.”
— parent of pre-teen boys
Unpack kids’ behavior
“The annoying little things your kid does, the patterns you've noticed but been unable to break...MereAnn helped us understand why these things happen and how to proactively anticipate them.”
— dad of preschooler
