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 Trevor Bridgewater, 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.

Todd told his colleague Trevor, who shared his deep interest and passion for helping kids and families, about the book. Trevor, who had been working with at-risk teens for more than 15 years, was already intuitively practicing positive 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

Trevor Bridgewater, Co-Director
trevor@transformativeparenting.com

Trevor has dedicated himself to helping children and their families for most of his adult life. As a young man he spent time working with children in the remote villages of Jamaica, working with individuals and facilitating groups on team building, leadership, and motivation.

Several years later, he began volunteering with organizations in Marin County, California, working with at-risk children. Trevor worked for over 12 years at the Full Circle Residential Program in Bolinas, California, where he became the Residential Director.

When the program was shut down due to lack of funding, Trevor took a position with the Full Circle Corporate Office as the Behavioral Services Manager for their Vesta Family Preservation Project, providing comprehensive services for families in their homes.

In addition to a great deal of experience, Trevor brings to Transformative Parenting a passion for working with children and their families to affect change in their home and in our communities. He has a special love of storytelling and creating rituals that help us to learn more about ourselves and to heal.

Todd Sarner, MA, Co-Director
todd@transformativeparenting.com

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, where he met Trevor Bridgewater and started having the conversations that served as the catalyst for Transformative Parenting. 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, Associate
jennifer@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.

Contact us for a complimentary consultation or to set up a speaking engagement at your school, group or business.