Meet Gwen Fernau,
Certified Parent Coach

Hi, I’m Gwen! I’m a coach, educator, and parent on a mission to change the world, one securely attached human at a time.

My parenting journey began long before I actually became a parent. Have you ever had (or been) that friend who sees a baby and instead of ooing and ahhing goes, “eesh, yikes, no thank you.” Well for a long time that was me. I knew I wanted to have kids “one day”, but it wasn’t until my mid twenties when something shifted, and suddenly I found myself gazing longingly at pregnant bellies and baby strollers on the street.

On the one hand, I was thinking, “wow, great! Love this for me.” And on the other hand I was thinking… “OH, NO!” Why? Because accepting that I was finally ready to plan for parenthood brought me face to face with the terrifying reality that, I was absolutely not ready to be a parent.

To me, being a parent was (and is) a really, really big deal and I wanted to go into it being as prepared as humanly possible (ha, ha, right?). Somehow I intuitively knew that while reading all the books and following all the instagram accounts was a good start to intellectually preparing myself, that wasn’t going to truly make a difference in my ability to be a great mom. I knew that in order to do that, I needed to look within.

So, like a lot of people do, I went to therapy and began to heal my relationship with my own parents. This was a powerful shift for me, but my progress quickly began to feel stagnant. I was still carrying around a lot of pain, and I was still struggling to show up the way I wanted to in my relationship.

Fast forward a few years, and my son was now here! I was officially a parent and I had fully immersed myself in the world of “gentle parenting.” I knew the “right” things to say, I understood that I needed to regulate myself first, I was even putting co-regulation and emotional validation into practice as I helped raise my niece who has lived with us for the past 4 years. I felt really confident in my parenting skills. And yet, I was still struggling with constant defensiveness, overwhelm and lashing out at my partner. There was a missing piece that I couldn’t figure out.

At the end of 2024, just a few months postpartum, I finally had the opportunity to follow a dream of mine and complete my coaching certification with the Jai Institute for Parenting, one of the top-rated certification courses in the world. It was only then, through the Transformational Parenting Course, that I had my big “aha” moment. Even though I theoretically knew what I needed to do to be regulated, until my body believed it was truly safe, I was never going to be able to let go of my conditioned behaviors and limiting beliefs. Our past not only influences our present, our nervous system literally carries all of the wounds we’ve experienced during our whole life. Only once I was able to consistently and lovingly embrace my inner child and soothe her into safety did I begin to see real changes in my behavior and my capacity for conscious, fully present communication. And I would never have been able to do this on my own.

This is the gift I want to bring to as many people as possible. The incredible unfolding and evolution that comes when you combine behavioral knowledge and practical strategies with profound inner work and nervous system regulation.

Everyone’s path is unique, and I would be honored to walk yours with you as we explore together how to step into your power as the leader of your family and become the role model your child will learn to emulate. I promise to guide you with compassion, absolutely zero judgement, and practical tools that can work for any family.

True transformation is NOT about being perfect. It’s about being brave enough to show up and try something new, over and over and over again.