Coaching with Clio

Coaching with Clio I’m a certified integrative health coach and mom to two beautiful boys.

My mission is to help parents prioritize themselves and feel less overwhelm and more joy in their parenting.

Perhaps one of my greatest mindset shifts of the past year has been readjusting my expectations. Our two-week school vac...
01/06/2026

Perhaps one of my greatest mindset shifts of the past year has been readjusting my expectations. Our two-week school vacation over the holidays was exactly what I anticipated—a mix of highs and lows, moments of joy alongside some incredibly difficult ones.

Before the break, I got some great advice from parent coach : have everyone in the family write down what they’d like to happen over the holidays. That could be favorite foods, activities, or more general hopes. I wrote down quality 1:1 time with my kids, watching a movie, singing music with other people, going to church, and making foods that felt special.

By resetting my expectations—specifically, letting go of the idea that we’d spend during the break together in perfect harmony—those things did happen, and I felt a lot more peace. The hard moments were still really hard, and we’re very much in the process of figuring out the big and small changes we need to help everyone in our family thrive. But showing up with realistic expectations felt like a game changer.

How were your holidays?

This morning started with sibling conflict, which led to almost two hours of me being on high alert as I tried to preven...
12/19/2025

This morning started with sibling conflict, which led to almost two hours of me being on high alert as I tried to prevent more from happening. By the time we left for school, I was out of energy and patience and feeling pretty grumpy. Luckily, the bike ride helped me calm down and reset (and it always helps the kids, too!)
There are a couple of important points I want to highlight here:

1. Parental bandwidth is finite.
Running out of patience doesn’t mean there’s something wrong with us, or that we’re doing a bad job. We’re human—and caring for PDA or neurodivergent kids can be incredibly demanding. It’s normal to run out of bandwidth. When we can recognize that it’s happening and respond with kindness and self-compassion, we can also start to notice patterns and make changes that help us avoid getting stuck in this really hard place as often.

2. Being on high alert is exhausting—and it’s usually reactive.
Living in a constant state of vigilance takes a huge toll. A lot of my work with parents focuses on identifying proactive strategies that reduce how often families end up there. This isn’t about criticism or guilt—sometimes reactive parenting is the only option while you’re still finding the right supports and resources. And even with proactive strategies, it will still happen sometimes. But small, thoughtful changes add up, and every bit of work toward what supports your family truly matters.

What drains your bandwidth the fastest right now?

This change wasn’t simply about organization. It was about reducing demands—for us and for our kids.What’s one small tas...
12/16/2025

This change wasn’t simply about organization. It was about reducing demands—for us and for our kids.

What’s one small task you could simplify or remove to give yourself more bandwidth?

This year, we’re approaching the holidays with a healthy dose of realism.After a long stretch of reacting to challenges ...
12/12/2025

This year, we’re approaching the holidays with a healthy dose of realism.

After a long stretch of reacting to challenges as they came up, we’re finally gaining insight into what’s been driving some of our family’s hardest moments—particularly related to PDA and nervous system stress. That understanding has allowed us to step back, re-think our expectations, and plan a holiday season that prioritizes regulation and capacity over tradition for tradition’s sake.

For us, that means:
• more 1:1, child-directed time
• more separation when needed
• more structure during an otherwise unstructured season
• and letting go of the idea that “together” automatically equals “quality”

It’s been both hard and freeing to release the holidays I imagined and make space for what actually works for our family right now.

I wrote more about this—including sibling dynamics and how we’re shifting our approach—on Substack. https://open.substack.com/pub/coachingwithclio/p/approaching-the-holidays-with-a-healthy?r=22lae5&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true

If the holidays are feeling daunting for your family, I’m also currently taking a small number of reduced-rate coaching clients as part of my certification process. If you’d like space and support to think through what shifts might help, you’re welcome to reach out or book time with me here: https://calendly.com/coachingwithclio/30min

12/10/2025

Home tour part 2!

With home tour part 2, I'm also going to go through and describe how each support helps.

Morning and evening schedules – These help reduce demands and shift power dynamics. I go through and check off each part of our morning routine until “teeth” is the only thing left. Then I use declarative language to make an observation about it—this makes it less of a demand coming from me and more about something we simply do every day.

Weighted lap pad – My son sleeps with a weighted blanket, and the lap pad seems to help him feel calmer by providing proprioceptive sensory support.

The Ultimate Book of Cross-Sections – This is his current calming activity of choice, and it’s been a favorite for a few years. His amazing autistic brain has always been curious about how things work and what things look like inside, and this book is 100% about that.

Cat tower – We got a cat about a year ago in hopes that having another calm nervous system in the house might help everyone. Shadow (our emotional support animal) definitely provides us with a model of how to relax, and now that he’s grown into a very furry 15 pounds, he also provides lots of weighted cuddles.

E-bike – If nothing else, this just makes me happy! Not driving in rush hour every morning helps me stay more resourced and calm. It also helps that our route to school is basically the same every day and always takes the same amount of time. Driving with traffic and parking would vary daily. Plus, being outdoors has always been hugely regulating for our son.

Crash pad – Another great way to get proprioceptive input (he likes to get squished under it or jump onto it).

Swing (from ) – Probably the most used sensory support in our house. Breaks during dinner? Unwinding after school? The swing is #1. What’s funny is we’ve had it for years, but it wasn’t until we opened up more floor space in the living room that the kids really started using it.

12/09/2025

I thought I’d do a quick home tour today, especially since I just spent two hours cleaning after the weekend. 😅 (Backstory: I teach private music lessons Mon–Wed, so this is usually my big weekly reset—otherwise I’m not sure I’d find the motivation!)

With our kids needing a lot of supervision and 1:1 time—and one of them being PDA—cleaning and tidying just doesn’t happen much these days when they’re home. At least not in this season. But I did want to show you some of the supports we’ve put in place around the house for our autistic, PDA son, because the home environment makes such a huge difference in reducing his stress.

What are some of the supports that are helping your family right now?

Do you feel like parenting adds a level of stress that’s hard to manage? Does your child’s dysregulation lead to daily m...
12/05/2025

Do you feel like parenting adds a level of stress that’s hard to manage? Does your child’s dysregulation lead to daily meltdowns, sibling conflict, or make simple tasks feel like climbing Mt. Everest? If so, you are definitely not alone.

A few years ago, I began the journey of understanding my older son’s autism. Like so many parents, I felt overwhelmed and isolated at first—doing my best to understand what he needed, wondering why typical advice didn’t apply, and feeling disconnected from the parenting experiences many of my friends were having. After that initial learning curve, things have gotten easier as we’ve learned more about who he is and how to best support him, and accepted that our path just looks different. It’s been a journey with ups and downs, periods that are easier followed by ones that are more challenging. But through it all, our son, in all his unique awesomeness, has been our guide as we work to be neurodiversity-affirming in our parenting. I am always trying to understand the root cause of any challenges that come up, knowing that this is how we can best support him and his mental health.

All of this led me to become a Neurodiverse Family Coach, through the International Coaching Federation (ICF), and I’m now finishing my certification. While I complete my hours, I’m offering reduced-rate parent coaching for parents of neurodivergent kids.

My coaching isn’t about “fixing” kids—it’s about supporting you, the parent, in finding root causes and strategies to create lasting change. Together, we can work on:

✨ Emotional and sensory regulation
✨ Behavioral challenges and sibling dynamics
✨ Routines that work for your family
✨ Staying more regulated and resourced yourself
✨ Understanding your child’s profile and advocating for them
✨ Building connection through their strengths and interests

I believe every parent is already resourceful, competent, and whole. My role is simply to help you uncover what works best for your unique child and family.
If this feels like the support you’ve been looking for, feel free to get in touch via DM or sign up for a free 30 min consult here: https://calendly.com/coachingwithclio/30min
https://www.coachingwithclio.com/workwithme

You don’t have to do this alone. 💛

12/04/2025

(video is a high-speed snippet of a family walk in the redwoods)⁠
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The holidays are here, and while this season brings connection, celebration, and moments of joy… it can also be challenging, especially when raising neurodivergent kids. ⁠
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For us, breaks from school are both a welcome respite and a departure from our routines, which is tough. It’s taken me a while, but I’ve come to realize that being together as a family of 4 can be really hard. It means that my PDA son has to share parental attention with his brother, and we have to manage his need to feel equal to or above others to feel safe. It’s a lot and continues to challenge my assumptions and expectations. It also feels so freeing to let go of things that aren’t working.⁠
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We’re doing our best to juggle everyone’s needs at once—managing our own expectations, staying attuned to our kids’ capacities, and remembering to care for ourselves along the way.⁠
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If this season feels complicated for you too, you’re not alone. You’re doing incredibly meaningful work in ways that often go unseen.⁠
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I’ll be sharing more resources and support for ND families in the coming days. Sending love to everyone navigating joy and challenge at the same time. 💛

Parenting a neurodivergent child takes so much energy—and when we’re stretched thin, it’s hard to show up as the calm, s...
08/29/2025

Parenting a neurodivergent child takes so much energy—and when we’re stretched thin, it’s hard to show up as the calm, steady presence our kids need. In my latest Substack, I share why showing up well-resourced matters and some small ways to make it more possible.

Here are a few ideas I explore:

Emotions → journaling, therapy, naming your feelings out loud, or leaning on trusted support

Sensory → noticing what overwhelms you and adding supports like quiet breaks, earplugs, movement, or time in nature

Micro-breaks → savoring a hot shower, 1–2 minutes of breathing, or sharing mindfulness practices with your kids

Read the full post for more on why your regulation is the foundation for co-regulation with your child: https://open.substack.com/pub/coachingwithclio/p/why-showing-up-well-resourced-and?r=22lae5&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true

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