Instructor Specialty: School refusal

Indira Raja

Indira Raja, Certified Hand in Hand Instructor Welcome to my page! I am so glad you are here! I came across Hand in Hand Parenting in 2014 when I was looking for ways to help my boys with issues they were struggling with, both at home and in school. None of the conventional tricks and

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Adrianne Kmet

Adrianne is a trauma-informed Registered Nurse working with neurodivergent individuals and their families. As a wife and mother of two (soon to be three) children in a neurodivergent family, she deeply understands the importance of acceptance and connection as a safe base from which growth can occur. Adrianne and her husband Martin have used the Hand-in-Hand Parenting tools since their children were young and it has changed their lives!

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Magdalena Garcia

Magdalena has supported families and children for many years in preschool, elementary and middle school as a teacher, a teacher coach, and Director. She co-founded a small non-profit K-8 school focused on social-emotional development, moving beyonds rewards and punishments, and on being in relationship with students. She taught in both large inner city public schools and small private schools, and found the struggle for parents and teachers to be the same: how to stay in good relationship with children/students when the going gets rough? And the going sure can get rough! 

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Alison Kemi

Alison is passionate about seeing the goodness in children and their parents, no matter how tough things seem to be, and supporting them to find what works for their own unique situation. Before becoming a parent, Alison had worked for over 10 years as a primary teacher and holds Post Graduate Certificates in Social, Emotional and Behavioural Development and Physical Education. Connecting with children through play and listening to what is most important to them has opened up many opportunities for joy, fun and learning with family, friends and at school.  

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Summer Sheldon

Summer Sheldon lives in beautiful rural Oregon with her husband, three kiddos, a dog, two cats, and a very fluffy rabbit. She started using Hand in Hand tools with her young children in 2010 when she heard Patty speak at a conference on the importance of LISTENING to her child’s emotions and CONNECTING through hard

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Fruzsina Balogh

I graduated with majors in English and Communication/Media, I worked as a journalist and for an NGO focusing on people with disabilities. I always loved working with people especially with the ones in need and I always had a very strong inner motivation to “change the world”. When my son was born in 2012, I

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Louise Durrant

Louise is mother to two children, who were aged 7 and 4 when Louise was introduced to Hand in Hand Parenting in 2014. “Becoming a mother has been a profoundly life changing experience, which has brought enormous joy, fulfillment and deep wellsprings of love into my life. It has also challenged me beyond what I

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Karen Wolfe, LMFT

Karen Wolfe, MA is a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist, Certified Hand in Hand Parenting Instructor, and the founder of SF Bay Play Therapy Family Counseling Center serving families and couples in San Francisco, Oakland, and through telehealth throughout California. She has been supporting children and families since 2002 and her specialty is doing play

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Sareli Beltran

Sareli has over a decade of experience supporting families through various culturally sensitive tools. It was through her work as a positive parenting educator, that Sareli was first introduced to the wonderful world behind the Parenting by Connection approach. Being a natural skeptic, she decided to take Hand in Hand’s Professionals Intensive first and began

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Carol Kellendonk

I am a certified music teacher and I have been teaching in different school settings for over 25 years. I am also the mother of four children from age thirteen to twenty five. I started teaching, because I always had a good connection and a natural empathy with children. I also deeply believed, that every

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Shaheen Merali

Shaheen Merali calls herself an international citizen, and for good reason! Born in Dubai to East-African parents with Indian origin, she moved to the US in her teens and then to the UK in her twenties. She has a degree in Psychology and more recently, a diploma in Montessori teaching. Much of her life has

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Patty Wipfler, Founder

Patty Wipfler was born, raised, and educated in California, graduating from Occidental College in 1968, and is the mother of two sons. The focus of her work since 1974 has been teaching basic listening, parenting, and leadership skills to parents. She directed The School, a non-profit parent co-operative preschool in Palo Alto, and later directed

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Kathy Gordon

Kathy came to parenting late in life.  She was single and in her 40s when she recognized her burning desire to be a Mom.  So 10 years ago, Kathy adopted a beautiful baby boy, who is now, as tall as she!  More than anything Kathy wanted her son to experience the unconditional love that she

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Ravid Aisenman Abramsohn

Ravid began by bringing Parenting by Connection to the Israeli community in Silicon Valley, California, and is now providing services in Israel. She has two girls and has been using listening tools since 2008. Through her work with Hand in Hand she has taught different classes, workshops, play trainings, and parent consultations in Hebrew and

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Rachel Schofield

Rachel Schofield has been involved with Hand in Hand Parenting 2007. She’s a Professional Member of the Australian Association of Family Therapists, and Mum to two boys. Rachel says, “So many parents I work with want to raise their child in loving respectful ways but find it hard to do.” “They feel like failures – and

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