We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Amy Henry a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Amy , thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Let’s start with a story that highlights an important way in which your brand diverges from the industry standard.

The coaching industry as a whole tries to work within a “mold”. Instead, I recognize that each child and their family dynamic can be wildly different, and deserve to be treated as such. Big Picture Parenting works to truly understand families, honor their culture, and empathize with their unique set of circumstances. To this end, I started working with parents to help them reduce the chaos and yelling in their home, increase communication throughout the household, and parent with more joy and less stress. In order to better serve each family, I do a free in-depth discovery session before we even start working together to make sure I am the right person to help with their family’s current challenges. When I agree to work with a parent or family, I am making a commitment to walk together through what overwhelms them. I believe it’s paramount for me to earn the trust of both the children and parents, because the human brain learns best when it trusts. My goal is to use this trust to teach parents new ways to communicate, navigate conflict, and organize their home to help their entire family succeed while I am on this journey with them, and long after they are no longer utilizing my services.
I want families to know that they don’t have to fit inside a mold to deserve, seek, and receive help. It takes a village, and it’s important to me that families feel like Big Picture Parenting is a part of theirs.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

Professionally, I am a parenting coach. In entirety, I am a seeker of joy, an amateur baker, a mediocre but enthusiastic crafter, a cookie connoisseur, and an aspiring globetrotter. I started my journey to parent coaching as a nanny over 17 years ago. During my time nannying I moved all over the country, and got to work with a number of incredible, inspiring, and loving families. What I noticed was that no matter how wealthy, successful, or “put together” these families were they all still needed help. While they could have chosen anyone, they chose me to help them. After years of hearing “no one should ever have to raise a child without you” from one family after another, I started wondering how I could touch more families. I wanted to be able to use my experience, research, knowledge, and passion to help parents seize the joy of parenting instead of drowning in the chaos.

I’d like to say I dove in head first and immediately started my coaching practice, but the story isn’t that short or that easy. I spent years digging in deep, seeking out families with a variety of challenges (autism, same-sex families, single parents, professional athletes, ADHD, and a plethora of medical challenges), and researching for hundreds of hours. I wanted to make sure I was well equipped to advise and empathize with families in the trenches of their troubles. Finally I was ready to bring Big Picture Parenting to life. And what I have found is that Big Picture Parenting is actually bringing life to families. Families have opened their doors, and welcomed me into their homes and heart. They’ve trusted me to help them through the muck of parenting, and I have been able to do exactly that.

As a parenting coaching, I help parents reduce their stress level by teaching them phrases and techniques to use in everyday life that de-escalate conflict. I show parents ways to improve communication with their spouse and children so they are not just heard but understood. I help moms overcome crippling Mom Guilt, and teach children to be confident in themselves. I help parents navigate the waters of seeking a medical diagnosis for their child, and teach them ways to handle the stress that comes with that journey. I help professional athletes rebalance their home dynamic after retirement, and show overwhelmed stay-at-home moms how they can have a joyful life without feeling like they have to prove what they’ve “been doing all day”. Most importantly, I meet parents where they are in the mess, and help guide them back to the path they dreamed of when they embarked on the adventure that is parenthood.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

I had to unlearn a lot of the things I heard about myself from my childhood. You know, the things our parents’ generation said to us in the moment that they didn’t realize our subconscious would absorb and believe for years to come. “You’re so lazy.” I am not, in fact, anything close to being lazy. “Why do you insist on being so sneaky.” You mean, why do I avoid telling you things so I don’t have to manage your overreaction?

Mine may not be the same exact things you heard, but I can almost guarantee that there’s something similar brewing in your subconscious too. In the process of unlearning these speech patterns, I learned how we can better speak to our children. How we can teach them the lessons our parents were attempting to instill in us, while uplifting them to see more success and less therapy in their future.

Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?

I think the way I built my reputation within my market, and the most effective strategy for growing my clientele are almost indistinguishable. Be a good human, and forever pursue knowledge. It’s that simple. I work hard to be approachable, empathetic, and to listen to what people say and what they mean. I attempt to spread joy. I leave people and places better than they were when I arrived, and I’m not afraid to say I don’t know something. I’m always willing to do more research, and I’m humble enough to know I don’t know it all. When someone knows they can trust you with the most valuable things in life; their time and their family, they tell other people about you. For me, word-of-mouth is the absolute best marketing strategy.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.wedontsaycant.com
• Instagram: instagram.com/bigpictureparenting
• Facebook: https://facebook.com/bigpictureparenting

Image Credits
Main photo of me is by The Confetti Project