Anne Townsend Email & Phone Number

Coaching, collaboration and performance under stress have always been familiar to me, first as an athlete, then as a researcher and now as a social-emotional skills practitioner.As a master's student, my research focused on sports psychology and I explored how coaches impact the performance of their players. That's when I met one of my greatest mentors, Louise Guerney, Ph.D., who is a pioneer in relationship psychology. Dr. Guerney revolutionized my approach to counseling and taught me the skills that anchor Mariposa's approach today: Instead of training children or counselors, Dr. Guerney trained parents to manage their child's behavior by creating more substantive parent-child relationships rather than relying on rewards and punishment. As a result, my doctoral research shifted from coaches and players to adult caregivers and their children in family and educational systems. It focused on the impact of various parenting and teaching behaviors on early childhood development and academic achievement. Eventually, with Dr. Guerney’s support, I grew the developmental program she'd established into Mariposa Education. Mariposa is anchored in the five skills for lasting change that I learned from her and is rooted in my own understanding of how adults impact a child’s behavior, especially in times of high stress.

Listed skills include Program Development, Curriculum Design, Teaching, Psychology, and 20 others.