About Us

Transformative Parenting is a team of counselors, trainers and coaches in Marin County, California, who work with parents and educators to help solve the growing problems facing them today.

The team, which includes Todd Sarner and Jennifer Mitchell, is highly regarded for their work in counseling, social work, and coaching. They recently joined together to form Transformative Parenting to better serve families and educators in their community.

Transformative Parenting programs and services are based on the team’s deep experience working with families and kids, coupled with the revolutionary insights of Dr. Gordon Neufeld, an extraordinary developmental psychologist and colleague in Canada, whose work they are introducing in the United States.

Our story

Todd and Jennifer were introduced to Dr. Neufeld’s work as a result of their own frustration as new parents. As trained therapists and counselors, they felt they had a “leg up” on parenting and knowing how to rear their son. But they sensed something was missing; something was fundamentally wrong with parenting today. They began intense research to find answers, which led them to reading a new book each week and interesting conversations on Internet message boards.

One day a mother in an online community recommended Dr. Neufeld’s book, Hold On To Your Kids. Because several other mothers raved about it, Jennifer decided to order the book, at that time available only from Canada. She devoured it within days and insisted that Todd read it. They knew what Dr. Neufeld said was the missing piece. It connected the dots. It provided the context to understand what was going on and pointed them back to intuitive parenting.

Eventually they contacted Dr. Neufeld, developed a personal and working relationship, and now are among a select few who have been intensively trained by Dr. Neufeld. The Transformative Parenting team is also honored to be involved in helping Dr. Neufeld further develop his training programs.

Meet the team

Todd Sarner, MA MFT. Director & Co-Founder
todd (at) transformativeparenting.com

Todd Sarner Todd has wanted to be a psychotherapist working with kids and their families since he was thirteen years old. He received his master’s degree in Counseling Psychology from the California Institute of Integral Studies in San Francisco and spent the first several years of his counseling career at the Integral Counseling Center in San Francisco as well as the Center for Psychological & Spiritual Health, where he also served as the Director of Outreach.

Later he worked with severely emotionally disturbed kids at the Full Circle Residential Program. When the program closed, Todd took a position as both a Mentor and In-Home Counselor for St. Vincents Foster and Adoptive Services in San Rafael, California. This gave him the chance to continue the relationships he had formed with many of the kids he worked with previously.

The only thing in the world Todd loves more than working with children and their families to help create positive change is being a father himself. He loves to teach and to train parents and professionals how to make better sense of children and themselves so that they can grow into their own unique potential.

Jennifer Mitchell, MA, Co-Founder
jennifer (at) transformativeparenting.com

Jennifer brings a diverse blend of life and professional experience to Transformative Parenting. She served as Director of the Community Companions program at Humboldt State University, whose goal was to reduce stigmas and misconceptions about mental illness. She also worked as a counselor at Crestwood Manor Behavioral Services in Eureka, California. At the Sunny Hills Children’s Garden orphanage and school in San Anselmo, California, she helped children with emotional problems.

Jennifer received her master’s degree in Counseling Psychology at the California Institute of Integral Studies in San Francisco. Her first counseling position was at the Integral Counseling Center in Noe Valley, which is where she and Todd met.

In 2003, Jennifer and Todd welcomed their son Benjamin to the family. The experience of motherhood has helped Jennifer discover one of her passions in life — to help educate and counsel parents about pre- and post-natal and early childhood issues that can affect their children for life, as well as broader issues having to do with raising children.