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Transforming Lives: Dr. Catherine Kizana’s Journey from Emergency Medicine to Parenting Coach

Jai Institute for Parenting • July 23, 2024

Dr. Catherine Kizana, an accomplished emergency physician, never imagined her career path would lead her to become a parenting coach. Her story is one of profound personal transformation, resilience, and dedication to improving the lives of parents and their children.

ABC Parenting

Dr. Kizana resides in Sydney, Australia, where she has established her coaching business, ABC Parenting. Her journey into parenting coaching was unconventional, rooted in her experiences as an emergency physician. The name of her company, ABC Parenting, is a nod to the life-saving framework used in emergency medicine—Airway, Breathing, and Circulation.

This framework helps calm chaotic situations and allowed medical professionals to focus on the essentials. Dr. Kizana applied this structured approach to parent coaching, seeking to provide a similar sense of calm and focus for parents. She shares, “It always helped calm everyone down and kept me focused on what's really important despite the chaos. And when I was coming into the parenting space, I was like, we need that for parents – or I needed it.”

The ABC framework in her coaching stands for Attachment, Brain Development, and Curiosity. These principles guide parents through understanding their own attachment styles and those of their children, recognizing the stages of brain development and nervous system regulation, and fostering a sense of curiosity about their children's behaviors and needs. Catherine’s goal was to offer parents a grounding framework to navigate the often chaotic parenting moments.

From Emergency Medicine to Parenting Coaching

Before stepping into parenting coaching, Catherine had a significant career shift prompted by personal challenges. After the birth of her daughter, she experienced severe postnatal anxiety, which led to a four-week inpatient stay at a psychiatric hospital. During this time, she first encountered the concept of how parenting styles and experiences shape individuals. This revelation sparked her interest in parenting and mental health.

Despite her medical training and extensive experience, Catherine realized that the medical community often overlooks the profound impact of parenting on mental and emotional health. Determined to change her approach to parenting and to help others, she delved into the world of parenting education and coaching. She found inspiration in figures like Alita Blanchard, a prominent parenting coach in Australia, and eventually enrolled in the Jai Institute’s coaching program.

Catherine shares, “My experience in the psychiatric hospital and learning how the way I was parented had contributed to why I was there, obviously multifactorial, it really sparked my interest in how much parenting influences other health outcomes. And I really did a complete 180 in myself internally once I'd done the Jai course.”

Integrating Medical Expertise with Parenting Coaching

Catherine’s background as a physician provided her with unique insights into the critical role parenting plays in children's overall health outcomes. Her experience in the psychiatric hospital highlighted the connection between emotional dysregulation, chronic illness, and suppressed emotions. This understanding compelled her to move away from the traditional medical model, which often separates the mind and body, and to embrace a more holistic approach.

The Jai Institute’s seven-month training program was transformative for Catherine. Initially skeptical and eager to reach the end goal, she quickly realized the profound impact the program would have on her parenting journey. The program's first phase, which focused on personal development as a parent, exceeded her expectations and deeply influenced her life and parenting style. She says, “It's hard to put into words how much it transformed my life and my parenting that first bit where you do it as a parent.”

The subsequent phases, involving trial clients and group coaching, allowed Catherine to hone her skills and apply her medical communication expertise to her new role. The program’s comprehensive curriculum, including business training and client enrollment strategies, equipped her with the tools to launch and grow her parent coaching practice. She adds, “When we then moved forward with the trial client and were doing group coaching, that was just fantastic because we got to practice our skills.”

Growing a Parenting Coaching Business

After graduating from the Jai Institute, Catherine embraced the mindset of defining her success. She prioritized balancing her professional ambitions with her personal well-being and her desire to be present for her daughter. This meant redefining success to include small achievements, such as sending emails or posting social media content, rather than solely focusing on financial metrics.

Catherine shares, “After I graduated, I really tried to adopt the mindset of ‘I get to choose what success is.’ And, I also had to remind myself, ‘if you wanted to work 10 hour shifts and earn a lot of money, you can stay doing the job you were doing.’ And so there's a reason you change. There's a reason and you need to hold on very closely to that.”

One of the most significant steps in growing her business was diversifying her approach to client acquisition. Catherine’s most exciting collaboration has been with a pediatric telehealth company. Through a Facebook post in a group for doctors with unconventional careers, she connected with a pediatrician who had personally benefited from parent coaching and was eager to integrate it into her practice. This partnership allowed Catherine to provide parent coaching as part of a comprehensive package for families undergoing assessments for ADHD.

This collaboration was particularly meaningful for Catherine as it represented a return to the medical community she had left behind. It also underscored the growing recognition of the importance of parent coaching in supporting families and addressing the root causes of behavioral and emotional challenges.

The Impact and Vision for the Future

Catherine’s work as a parenting coach has a profound ripple effect. By helping parents understand their attachment styles and emotional regulation, she improves their relationships with their children and influences future generations. “Nobody links to their childhood until something happens that makes us go on that journey and reflect,” says Catherine. Her clients, particularly those in the medical field, often experience transformative insights that change how they parent and, subsequently, how they practice medicine.

Working with clients who are doctors has been especially rewarding for Catherine. She recalls moments when pediatricians, reflecting on their own parenting and professional advice, realize the limitations of traditional behaviorist approaches and embrace the deeper, emotional work that parent coaching offers. These revelations can potentially transform medical practices and improve patient outcomes on a broader scale.

Looking ahead, Catherine envisions a future where she continues to make a meaningful impact through one-on-one coaching. While the idea of expanding her reach and speaking internationally is appealing, she remains grounded in her commitment to creating a balanced life for herself and her daughter. She focuses on providing deep, transformative experiences for her clients rather than pursuing rapid business growth.

In conclusion, Dr. Catherine Kizana’s journey from emergency medicine to parenting coaching highlights the profound impact of empowered parenting and how powerful personal transformation can be. Her unique background and holistic approach have allowed her to build a successful coaching business that not only supports individual families but also has the potential to influence broader medical practices. Catherine’s dedication to redefining success and prioritizing meaningful, impactful work inspires those seeking to make a difference in their own lives and the lives of others.