Family Transformations: Parenting Coach Niurka Maldonado

What inspired you to become a parenting coach through The Jai Institute?

I had never considered coaching or parent coaching before. Some of the reading that I’ve been doing in the last year or two started to turn my head. Books that were part of the Jai curriculum.

I love that the program used books that I was already reading.

What obstacles or fears did you need to overcome to enroll in the training?

The main fear I had with enrolling is that, since my eldest daughter was born seven years ago, I hadn’t been working full time, and I wasn’t sure how it was going to look doing all of the research for the program and all of the graduation requirements for it while watching my kids full time.

That turned out to be a much more seamless process than I could have imagined, partly because many of the tools we were trained in, I could immediately put into use. I had the ability to peacefully communicate with them, whether it was about my need to concentrate or their need for connection.

So the obstacle was addressed with the actual work, which also came in handy for my training.

What was the best part of the training you received?

The opportunity to be a client before learning the techniques. Especially the part in the beginning where you’re delving into your parenting past and how you were parented.

It was super healing for me and gave me a lot of energy as a coach to give that to my client because I had the experience of it being such a game-changer for me.

Tell me about your business, how are you using what you learned?

My primary focus sort of happened organically. I’ve been working a lot with POC and immigrant populations, or 2nd generation Americans who have come from blended cultural backgrounds, struggling to reconcile their traditions with this American life.

It's been really great demonstrating to those parents these tools that are truly novel to a lot of people. It's sort of like fresh territory. In that sense, it’s been a really exciting time. That’s been my niche and my contribution.

I’ve also reached out extensively to the homeschooling community because I’m also a homeschooler. Balancing being a teacher and a mom or a dad or a grandparent is really tricky.

What are you most proud of accomplishing?

Putting myself out there and being super vulnerable and honest on social media.

It’s not in my nature to market myself in any way. I felt confident upon my graduation and certification to announce that Connected Kindred was here.

And that’s been a significant change for me and a real confidence booster for my life.