Blended-Families.com Ask The Experts

Jane Massengill

Director of "Gremlin Taming Institute"

If you ran a single thread through Jane’s career as a social worker and professional coach, one common strand would be her passion for bringing out the best in people. That’s why, after working 18 years in medical centers and mental health practices as a clinical social worker, she enthusiastically grabbed onto the young profession of coaching and created an active practice specializing in adults with Attention Deficit Disorder, entrepreneurs, musicians, and coaches in training.

“Jane is a gift to all of us, and gifted. It thrills my soul that she has embraced the Gremlin-Taming Method like she has. And I guarantee you she has learned it from the inside out – through courageous self-scrutiny inspired by her unbounded commitment to her own growth and to giving her clients her all.”
Rick Carson
TamingYourGremlin.com

For Jane, professional coaching coupled with her background in social work was a natural fit. Then she discovered Taming Your Gremlin® and the picture was completed. Rick’s work offered Jane a specific method to help guide people in gaining control over their awareness, a tool that is tremendously helpful for anyone who struggles with issues of attention.

"Jane has a wealth of experience with children and their parents and with adults and kids with Attention Deficit Disorder, but because her talent lies in her ability to work with people, not labels – regardless of your age, concepts about yourself or world-view -- your time spent with Jane will be time very well spent."
Rick Carson
TamingYourGremlin.com

Jane’s passion for gremlin-taming has grown from her own personal practice of the Gremlin Taming Method™. Having experienced just how powerful it was in her own life, she played with introducing it to her sons who have now become two of our youngest and best little gremlin tamers in their own right! It was from Jane’s experience with her sons that Gremlin Taming for Kids™ was created.

Jane became the Director of The Gremlin Taming Institute™ in October 2002 after ending over a decade of work as an independent contractor at the Amen Clinics for Behavioral Medicine in Fairfield, California. She maintains an active practice coaching adults with Attention Deficit Disorder as well as giving private lessons in Gremlin Taming™ to parents. She has developed a unique style of inspiring her clients to action, stemming from their own gremlin-taming experiences. Jane also introduces gremlin-taming in K-12 classrooms and teaches parents through teleclasses and presentations how to use this method with their children. You’ll find her assisting Rick in workshops and training programs as well as coordinating with various professional groups to provide training opportunities. She is the host of the monthly “Ask the Gremlin Tamer” teleclass and last, but definitely not least, is working on a parent guide book with Rick.


Submit Your Toughest Parenting Question
for Jane Massengill


Gremlin Taming for Kids!

As a parent, you are the best role model of gremlin-taming for your children. How you practice the method yourself will make all the difference in successfully introducing it to your children. Here are a few tips to help you along:

1. Before introducing gremlin-taming™ to your child, notice your own gremlin. Name it, draw it, put it on a leash and take it for a walk. Get to know your gremlin and the intimate conversations he/she/it wants to have with you. Notice your own habits of how you have been responding to these conversations up to this point.

2. Read Taming Your Gremlin® by Rick Carson. Re-read it, again and again. Do the exercises in it and really give yourself some time to sink into your experiences as you go through them. Consider listening to one of his tape series such as Taming Your Gremlin®: The Art of Graceful Change. You will undoubtedly pick up ideas you may have bypassed when read the book.

3. Share with your kids some moments when you catch your gremlin in the act. You might feel a little vulnerable doing this but you will also be creating a safe environment for your child to do the same thing. I can’t say it too often: the more you model gremlin-taming for your kids, the more they will learn it. We teach our kids to talk by talking, how to have good manners by having them ourselves, how to practice gremlin-taming by being gremlin-tamers in our own lives.

4. Catching, taming, noticing…. these are some of the gentle actions involved in gremlin-taming. Don’t encourage killing, hurting, or anything harsh. Gremlin taming is a gentle process, not a torture chamber. Kids naturally want to be the victors. Show them how victorious they can be without inflicting pain. Invite them to think of creative things to do with their gremlin using humor and playfulness. The learning will translate into dealing with difficult peer issues down the road.

For more Gremlin Taming Tips from Jane, register for one of her teleclasses, work with her in private lessons or book her for a speaking engagement in person or through the Gremlin Taming Institute’s twenty-five-person telephone conference line. Watch for her upcoming book, co-authored with Rick Carson: Taming Your Gremlin® for Kids who are Hard on Themselves: A Guide for Parents.


Submit Your Toughest Parenting Question
for Jane Massengill