About our Founder

Allison Edwards, LPC

I was an anxious kid who struggled to manage my feelings. I didn’t know what was happening inside of me so I was continually looking for ways to calm my mind and body. In college, I took a psychology class and learned there was a reason behind my fearful thoughts. As I began learning about my own brain, I realized how much I would have benefitted from learning coping strategies as a young child.

This desire to help children just like I was, led me to Vanderbilt University for graduate school where I studied Counseling. My first job was as an elementary school counselor where I began teaching young children how to manage emotions. I studied Play Therapy and went on to become a Registered Play Therapist as well as a Licensed Professional Counselor.

After eight years, I left the school setting and opened a private practice where I spent the next twenty years counseling children and adolescents, working with families and supervising other counselors. I also began teaching graduate counseling students at Vanderbilt University.

In 2013, I published my first book, Why Smart Kids Worry, and since have been writing children’s books, parent and counselor guides along with creating a line of products to help children regulate emotions. I have watched debilitated kids become empowered and this work has been my life’s purpose and mission. Now, as a parent of two kids, I am even more committed to teaching children how to manage emotions while they are young.

Today, I train counselors, educators and parents both nationally and internationally to empower kids at home and school. I am also helping kids, teenagers and young adults develop resilience, confidence and manage big emotions through counseling and coaching.

Embracing every moment, from counseling children individually, to speaking at a global conference, I am reminded of why I started this journey: to empower kids to become resilient, confident and accomplish more than they think is possible.