About Me
With over 30 years of experience, I have dedicated my career to helping parents and teenagers navigate the often turbulent waters of family dynamics and emotional growth.
“The goal isn’t just to survive adolescence, but to build the skills that will help a family thrive”
About Andrew
Helping parents and teens understand each other, communicate more clearly, and handle difficult moments without losing sight of the relationship.
I work with parents and teens during a stage of life that can be exciting, frustrating, confusing, and sometimes all of those at once.
My role is not to take sides or hand out quick answers. I listen carefully, ask questions, offer another perspective when it may help, and work with the actual situations you are facing.
How I Work
I will always be supportive and caring, but I will also be honest. I will ask questions and give you room to think, but when I see something that may be useful, I will say so.
That may mean offering another perspective, challenging an assumption, explaining an idea, helping you think through a choice, or practicing a difficult conversation.
Whenever possible, we work on the whole arc of a situation: how to prepare beforehand, how to handle yourself while it is happening, and what to do afterward.
What You Can Expect
Listening before conclusions
I want to understand what is actually happening before offering an answer.
Practical help
We work on real conversations, decisions, pressures, and situations—not abstract ideas.
Respect for both sides
Parents need room to parent. Teens need room to grow. Both need to feel heard.
Education, Coaching Certifications & Experience
My work is grounded in psychology, coaching, communication, human development, and more than three decades of helping people think through difficult situations and make useful changes.
Master’s Degree in Psychology
Graduate study in psychology and human behavior.
Certified Executive Coach
Professional coaching certification focused on thoughtful, practical development.
Master Coach
Advanced coaching certification reflecting broader preparation and continued study.
Youth & Family Coach
Coaching preparation specifically relevant to young people and family relationships.
Life Coach
Additional coaching certification supporting work with change, decisions, and personal development.
30+ Years of Coaching & Training
Experience coaching, training, consulting, and developing people across many kinds of real-life situations.
Additional Study
Positive Psychology • Positive Intelligence • Neuroscience for Decision-Making and Communication
I continue to study because good coaching should keep getting better informed, not because every conversation needs more theory.
Coaching is developmental and practical.
Foundations in Psychology
My approach is deeply rooted in clinical psychology and developmental science. Over three decades, I have witnessed the evolving challenges families face from the pre-digital era to the complex landscape of the modern age. I focus on developing “Meta-Skills” the foundational capabilities like emotional regulation, cognitive flexibility, and empathetic communication that serve as the scaffolding for all other life achievements.
- Evidence-based psychological frameworks
- Expertise in Gifted and Neurodivergent developmental paths
- Focus on sustainable behavioral change over quick fixes
A Personal Perspective
Beyond my clinical background, I am a father and a grandfather. These roles have taught me more about patience, humility, and the raw beauty of human connection than any textbook ever could. I understand the weight of responsibility parents carry, and the quiet fears they often harbor for their children’s future.
- Rooted in family values.
Listening and Understanding Come First
People rarely benefit when someone reaches a conclusion about them too quickly.
They need someone who will listen carefully, ask thoughtful questions, avoid rushing to assumptions or judgment, and take the time to understand what they are actually experiencing.
Every parent, teen, and family is different. I do not begin with a predetermined explanation or a standard answer. I begin by understanding the situation as you are experiencing it.
That is where my coaching begins.
Why I Focus on Meta-Skills
The teen years often reveal a gap between knowing what would help and being able to do it when emotions, pressure, or conflict rise.
A parent may know that listening will be more productive than immediately correcting. A teen may know that pausing will lead to a better response than reacting. Yet in the moments that matter most, either may lose access to the judgment, language, and steadiness they already have.
That is why Meta-Skills are central to my coaching. They are the underlying abilities that help parents and teens:
Meta-Skills in Practice
The underlying abilities that help parents and teens use what they know when the moment becomes difficult.
Stay Steady
Pause and regulate emotions so you can think clearly.
Understand More Accurately
Separate facts from assumptions and consider multiple perspectives.
Respond Deliberately
Choose your words and actions based on what will be most productive.
Recover and Adjust
Repair when needed, learn, and adjust so you're better prepared for next time
These Meta-Skills don’t replace practical tools and strategies.
They help you use them more effectively—especially when it’s hard.
Meta-Skills do not replace practical advice, boundaries, communication tools, or problem-solving strategies. They help parents and teens use those things more effectively—especially when the situation is difficult, emotionally charged, or uncertain.
Experience, Study, and the Foundation of My Work
For more than three decades, I have worked in coaching, training, communication, leadership development, and human performance—with parents, teens, young adults, professionals, teams, and senior leaders.
30+ Years Experience
Coaching, training, communication, leadership development, and human performance
Broad Preparation
MA in Psychology, multiple coaching certifications, and continued varied multidisciplinary study
Practical application for current and future benefits
MA in Psychology, multiple coaching certifications, and continued varied multidisciplinary study
I hold a master's degree in psychology and certifications in executive, life, and youth and family coaching. My continued study has included neuroscience, human development, emotional regulation, communication, decision-making, positive psychology, leadership, and performance under pressure.
My approach is practical, developmental, and non-clinical. It is coaching—not therapy, diagnosis, or clinical treatment. I draw from several fields and translate that knowledge into practical ways parents and teens can think more clearly, communicate more effectively, make better decisions, and respond more productively.
Some situations require clearer communication. Others require stronger boundaries, better decisions, greater emotional steadiness, or a different understanding of what is happening. Often, several of those things are involved at once.
The purpose of coaching is to understand what this particular situation requires—and help you develop the ability to respond accordingly.
What You Can Expect From Me
Whether I am coaching a parent or a teen, you can expect the work to be thoughtful, direct, practical, and shaped around the situation you are actually facing.
I will help you look more clearly at what is happening, identify the patterns that may be making things harder, and determine what could lead to a more productive response. We will develop language, strategies, and next steps you can use in real conversations, decisions, boundaries, and moments of pressure—not simply discuss ideas that sound good in theory.
You can also expect honesty. I will be supportive, but I will not simply agree with everything you say. When it would be helpful, I will respectfully challenge an assumption, point out a pattern, or invite you to consider another perspective.
My goal is to help you become clearer about what is happening, more confident in how you respond, and better able to handle difficult situations on your own.
The goal is not only to help someone through the immediate situation. It is to strengthen the judgment, self-understanding, communication, and confidence they can continue using as new challenges arise.
Listening
Guidance
Continued Growth
A Personal Understanding of
Families, Performance, and Pressure
My understanding of parents, teens, and families has not come
only from my professional work.
I have been married for more than 34 years. I am the father of three adult children and a grandfather. Like many families, ours has experienced serious illness, disability, major uncertainty, achievement, disappointment, and the challenge and privilege of raising three very different children.
They have also reinforced something I have seen repeatedly in my work:
parents and teens do not need to handle every moment perfectly.
What matters is whether they can understand what happened,
learn from it, repair when necessary, and respond more
effectively the next time.
A Personal Understanding of Families, Performance, and Pressure
I am a father and grandfather. Family life has taught me that people can care deeply about one another and still misunderstand each other, react too quickly, or get stuck in the same conversation.
My wife and son are both cancer survivors. One of my sons has a disability. Our family knows that challenges can show up without warning—and that strength is often quieter than people realize.
My daughter is a professional singer, and my son played college baseball. My brother played and coached Division I basketball for many years. My own background includes college athletics and youth coaching. I have seen up close how drive and talent can open doors—and how pressure, injury, setbacks, and expectations can make the path complicated for young people and the adults who love them.
They shape how I coach: with patience, curiosity, honesty, and respect, and with a commitment to understanding as fully as I can what is really happening before deciding what might help.
What Those Experiences Reinforce
Connection matters
A difficult moment is easier to handle when the relationship still feels safe enough for honesty.
Pressure changes behavior
People do not always have full access to their best judgment when emotion or expectations rise.
Growth takes practice
Insight helps. Repetition, reflection, and trying again are what make change more reliable.
These experiences continue to remind me that insight, patience, and steady support can help families and teens move forward together.
Beyond My Coaching Work
The ocean has been an important part of my life for many years. Through long-term involvement with marine mammal research and conservation, I have supported field work focused on understanding and protecting marine life.
During marine mammal field work
Humpback whales approaching the zodiac
Blue whale alongside the research boat
Start With a Complementary Consultation
Talk through what is happening, what you would like to see change, and which coaching pathway may be the right fit.
Experience and Perspective
I hold a master’s degree in psychology and am a Certified Master Coach, with additional certifications in executive, life, and youth and family coaching. My work is also informed by continued study in decision-making, emotional regulation, communication, positive psychology, neuroscience, leadership, and human performance.
I have been married for more than three decades, am the father of three grown children, and recently became a grandfather.
Outside of coaching, I have always been drawn to the outdoors. Since childhood, I have been fascinated by whales and other marine mammals, and I now serve on the board of the Mingan Island Cetacean Study.
I have had the privilege of participating directly in its research, including the thrill of traveling in a 15-foot Zodiac alongside a 100-foot blue whale.
The natural world continually reminds me to slow down, pay attention, remain curious, and respect how much may be happening beyond what we immediately see. I believe the same is true in families. Much can be missed when we react too quickly. Much can change when we pause long enough to understand more clearly.