Kerri Smith

About Me

I’m the perimenopausal single mother of a teen daughter, and I know how hard it is to parent out of alignment with my own values, defaulting to yelling and punishing in order to see different behavior in my "willful" child, which always left me full of regret and shame. I was in therapy and reading all the books - what was wrong with me?!?

I became a parenting coach because I experienced firsthand the transformation of the Jai curriculum. Coaching at Jai helped me to put my knowledge and desires together and translate them into action: I learned how to parent in alignment with my values of unconditional love, collaboration, and mutual respect. I've healed old wounds. I go to sleep now without regret and shame, and I want other parents to experience that peace as well.

Before coming to coaching, I was a writing professor for more than two decades. When I’m not coaching, I’m writing historical fiction as Kerri Maher; from my years as a writer, I am comfortable with public speaking and plumbing the depths of the human heart.