About me

I'm so happy you've found my page. My name is Shani Mandel, and I am dedicated to changing the way we parent our children. I am certified in Dr. Ross Greene's Collaborative and Proactive Solutions model, which informs my approach heavily. I am also a Neurodivergent adult, and that lived experience greatly affects the work that I do too. My background is complex, and speaks to the personal journey that I have gone through. I entered this field through a Special Education Degree, and soon fell into the field of ABA (Applied Behavior Analysis). The goal was skills, and compliance was needed to get those skills. I had a quiet voice inside me for many years whispering that something was off about the way I was being trained. For a while, I ignored that voice. Over the years, it got louder and louder. The day that I left the ABA field was a testament to the personal journey that I had been through. In discovering my own neurodivergence, and learning to advocate for and accommodate my neurodivergent needs, the truth about what children really need became evident. What I realized, and what that little voice had been trying to tell me all along, was that how we make a child FEEL, is more important that any skill that we will teach them. I took over a year off from work to focus on simply learning. What are the other options out there to help children who are experiencing difficulties? How can we help children feel heard and understood? How we can we deal with even severe behavior challenges, in the most compassionate of ways? I am excited to work with you and share the knowledge that I have learned. The truth is, we don’t need punitive practices, we don’t need compliance training, and with the right knowledge at our side, we can also help children heal from the residual trauma of these unfortunate practices that they may have face. Parents can build strong bonds and bring a newfound lightheartedness to their relationship with their child - even if it has been filled with strife and difficulties in the past. When we work together, my approach will involve giving you a practical toolkit to wade through the difficulties you face, as well as helping you find the resources within yourSELF, to connect to your child on a whole new level. I look forward to meeting with you.