My name is Marsha Finkelstein and I am the owner of Moving Beyond Coaching & Consulting. I am a life coach and parent educator. As the youngest of seven children, I found it difficult to talk with my parents about my problems and have often joked that they were too tired to deal with me by the time I came along. But, a wonderful thing happened to me when I was about 12-13 years old that changed my life forever.

I had begun to emulate the behavior of my older sister, who frequently cut class and eventually dropped out of school altogether. My school arranged for me to see a counselor who helped me focus on staying in school. She was one of the first caring adults I remember feeling comfortable talking to outside my family. I felt like she really listened and helped me solve my problems without judgment or fear of being punished. I also realized many, many years later that my life paralleled the path that she had taken. As a result of her positive influence, I ended up working for many years in human services and eventually started running youth development programs for teens. This led to my decision to become a parent coach.

I saw numerous programs that dealt with teens problems, be they academic, social, etc. but none that I could identify dealt directly with the most important people in the lives of teens – their parents. That lead me to conduct some of my own research, showed me what I already knew intuitively – that parents are the keys to prevention, and that positive parental involvement can significantly decrease all sorts of risky behaviors, including drug/alcohol use, early teen sexual activity and pregnancy, delinquency, etc. I learned that many studies supported the importance of positive parental involvement and it motivated me even more to bring this approach to parents – both locally and globally.

"Having worked with Marsha, I experienced her dedication and sincere desire to help not only today's youth but also giving parents valuable advice and motivation in getting actively involved in their children's lives, utilizing communication skills and resources."

~Lucy Corchado, Parent, Neighborhood Activist, and former Ward 1 City Councillor

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