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oanne Stern, PhD has been a psychotherapist in private practice for more than twenty years, dedicated to helping individuals, couples, groups, families and teens to learn, heal, change and grow. In 2002, she became an EEG neurofeedback practitioner, working with kids and their families in a wide variety of childhood issues, including attention deficit disorder, anxiety and depression. Teacher and Consultant. Dr. Stern has taught college-level parenting courses focused on topics such as communication, discipline, drugs and alcohol, and self-esteem. She has also taught PAIRS, an intensive 120-hour relationship course for couples, and has held workshops on drugs and alcohol, eating disorders and grief and loss. In addition, Dr. Stern has consulted with local and international corporations and nonprofit organizations in team building, mission and strategy planning, and conflict resolution. She is a certified addictions counselor and uses both MBTI (Myers Briggs Type Indicator), a personality assessment, and the Virginia Satir concepts for therapy and personal growth in her private practice as well as her work with organizations. |
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Even though you may have read my formal bio, I wanted to give you a better sense of who I am and what my life and career has been about. I hope this gives you a clearer picture of how I came to write my book, Parenting Is a Contact Sport. I grew up in a tiny town in Illinois and was part of a cozy, loving family. But when I became an adolescent, my world closed in on me because I didn’t feel comfortable sharing my feelings, my questions or my curiosities with my family or my friends. Then I went to Northwestern University, where I experienced first hand what it felt like to be a fish out of water. I was truly a naïve, small-town girl floundering to find my identity among my sophisticated peers. I still remember what it felt like to not fit in, to be the odd one out—and to struggle alone, not having anyone to talk with me about my problems. A bachelor’s and master’s degree later, I began working with kids and parents in my first career as a German teacher and advisor to groups of high school girls in the northern suburbs of Chicago. For the five years that I taught, I spent a great deal of time talking with students about their personal struggles: school, friends, family—even health problems |
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