About Me

I was born and raised in Ontario, and came to the West Coast 15 years ago to complete my Bachelor of Music from the University of Victoria. I have spent the last decade and a half living and working on Vancouver Island, and in the Fraser Valley, where I currently reside with my 4 young children. When my children were younger, I founded an international company that continues to operate in the juvenile products manufacturing industry, while pursuing my passion of working with and supporting families and children. I've been grateful to have had the opportunity to remain involved in this field over the last decade, through my work as a birth doula, mentor, RDI consultant and alpine ski coach. In my free time, you will typically find me pursuing my love of adventure in and around the incredible mountain ranges in BC, as well as skiing with my kids, marathon training, cycling, camping, ski-touring, and generally finding any way I can to keep myself outside enjoying the gorgeous outdoors we have at our doorsteps!

I first became involved in the Autism world when one of my own children was diagnosed with ASD. As a family, we found ourselves in crisis, overwhelmed and confused, faced with much uncertainty and a distinct lack of support. We experienced incredible challenges with education for our child, and I found it overwhelming and exhausting navigating the system, while also processing through the intense grief that often comes along with such diagnoses. With no road map for moving forward (and, spoiler alert: one doesn’t exist because every child is unique!) naturally, I took a deep breath and dove head first into tackling the challenge the best way I knew how: by educating myself and immersing myself in the Autism world to try to understand everything I could about this diagnosis, and the supports and therapies available. During that time, I trained as an RDI consultant, took various courses through Autism BC, as well as training in the Triple P (Positive Parenting Program) for kids with disabilities. I also took a few of Master's level psychology courses, while homeschooling my 4 children, to gain more skills in navigating this new path. After working as an RDI consultant for a year, I learned that the most effective approach with families is through combining the skills and knowledge that I have gained in all of these areas, and catering them to each family's unique needs. My ultimate goal is to empower parents, as ultimately they are the most effective teacher to their own children.

I feel quite humbled and privileged in my role as consultant to families, to be able to walk with others down this path, and be able to help ease their burden, provide support and comfort, and reignite dreams that sometimes feel have been extinguished during the early days after diagnosis. For my own children, having a few key support people who helped us along our journey allowed me to move through the crisis mindset, and into growth and learning with my children. Fiinally I was able to begin to put the pieces back together, and create an environment at home and school that was supportive to all of my children's development and learning. I’ve observed huge growth and learning in the ways in which I've been trained to support children in developing skills to manage their ability to self-regulate, as well as increasing their joint attention and starting to learn how to build and maintain meaningful relationships. As result, I wanted to continue to be able to provide this opportunity to families on a consulting basis, and hence Beyond Limits Autism Consulting was born! I am so grateful to each family for inviting me into their lives and allowing me to journey with them, while encouraging their children to grow and flourish in a way that is most authentic to them!