When a nugget isn't enough
The Village Coaching Program
Walk with you, side by side, on your journey to the parent you want to be.
Sometimes a monthly gathering gives you exactly what you needed. Sometimes you leave thinking, I need more than a nugget — I need a plan for my family.
That's what this is. Three months. Six sessions. One-on-one with Michele, or together if you're parenting with a partner.
You already know the moment
Parents don't come to coaching because something catastrophic happened. They come because of something small that keeps happening.
"I know what I'm supposed to do. I just can't do it at 7pm when I'm running on nothing."
"We've read the books. We've tried the thing. It works for four days and then we're back."
"My partner and I handle this completely differently, and our kid knows it."
"I hear my own parents coming out of my mouth and I swore I'd never do that."
If one of those landed, you're in the right place. None of it means you're failing. It means you've hit the edge of what general advice can do, and you need something built for your actual house.
How the program moves
Six sessions, spaced so there's real life in between. The order matters — each stage sets up the next.
Get specific
Not "communication" or "behavior" in the abstract. The actual moment in your actual house that keeps going sideways — bedtime, the car, homework, Sunday nights. We name the real thing, and we look at what's underneath it.
Try, adjust, try again
You leave each session with something concrete to try. We open the next one with what actually happened — what worked, what fell apart, what surprised you. Then we adjust. This is the part that separates coaching from advice.
Make it stick
The goal isn't for you to need a coach indefinitely. It's for the new thing to become the normal thing — steady enough to hold on a bad week, not just a good one.
Accountability that's real
The sessions matter, but the change happens in the days between them — tired, in your own kitchen, with a kid who didn't agree to any of this. You're not doing that stretch alone.
Behavior-based, brain-based
What's actually happening
We start with the observable thing — the pattern, the trigger, the sequence that repeats. Concrete enough that you can see it coming next time instead of only recognizing it afterward.
What's happening underneath
Then we look at what's going on developmentally. Kids usually aren't giving you a hard time — they're having one, and it's coming out sideways. Once you can tell which you're dealing with, your response changes almost on its own.
Michele and Beth
The same two people who run The Village every month. This is where those conversations stop being general and start being about your family.
Michele McDonough, LCPC
Clinical Director · Program Lead
Michele is a Licensed Clinical Professional Counselor and Clinical Director at The Centered Life. She brings 15+ years as a parent coach and 10 years as a childcare provider, and she specializes in parent guidance and support — helping parents understand where their child actually is developmentally, and how to respond to behavior more effectively because of it.
Her approach is behavioral and goal-oriented, drawing on REBT, CBT, ACT, and solution-focused techniques. What she's known for around the practice is a gentle nudge — the conviction that the real work happens outside the session, during the week. That belief is the reason this program is built the way it is.
She leads the coaching program, and she's the one you'd meet for your consultation.
Beth Schweitzer
Clinical Intern · Neurodivergent-Affirming Care
Beth is a Clinical Intern at The Centered Life, practicing under clinical supervision, with specialized training in neurodivergent-affirming care — including a micro-accreditation in Autistic Centered Therapy for clients of all ages. She works with parents, teens, and young adults.
She also brings both sides of it. Beth is neurodivergent herself and is raising a neurodivergent child, so she knows the version of this that happens at home, not just the version in the training. If you're parenting a kid whose brain doesn't work the way the parenting books assume, that's the ground she stands on.
She co-facilitates The Village alongside Michele — and the coaching program grew directly out of what parents kept saying after those conversations.
Coaching isn't only for the little years
We work with parents across every developmental stage, and with family shapes that don't fit a standard parenting book.
Is this coaching, or is this therapy?
They're genuinely different things, and we'd rather you know before you sign up than after.
Coaching
- Forward-facing and practical
- Starts with what you want to change
- Builds a plan and holds you to it
- Focused on your parenting and your family system
- Skills, strategy, consistency, follow-through
Therapy
- Clinical treatment
- Diagnoses and treats mental health conditions
- Often works backward as much as forward
- Reaches history and patterns that strategy alone won't
- Available through The Centered Life's clinical team
Most parents who come to us want the first one. Some need the second, and some benefit from both. If it becomes clear during your consultation that what you're describing calls for therapy — for you, your child, or your family — Michele will tell you that directly rather than sell you a coaching package.
What it costs
You'd rather hear this here than go looking for it.
The full three-month program — all six sessions, plus the support in between them.
For families who come to us through a speaking event or through The Village. We built that in on purpose — parents who show up to a gathering and realize they need more shouldn't hit a wall when they get there.
If you want continued support after the three months, ongoing sessions are $250 per hour. No package, no obligation, no auto-renew — plenty of families finish the program and don't need anything else, which is the point.
Before you reach out
What ages do you work with?
Are sessions in person or online?
Can my partner join?
How is this different from a parenting class?
What qualifications do the coaches have?
Do I need to attend The Village first?
What happens after I fill out the form?
Sign up for parent coaching
Fill this out and it goes straight to Michele. She'll follow up personally to set up your consultation — no commitment, no pressure.
Submissions go directly to Michele McDonough, LCPC, with Beth copied. If you're in crisis or need immediate support, please call 988 or go to your nearest emergency room — this form isn't monitored around the clock.
You don't need to be a perfect parent.
You need a village.
Not ready for one-on-one? The Village gathers monthly on Zoom — a real conversation built around a real parent question, for a fraction of this.
Visit The Village