About Shawna
There's a reason I do this work.
It starts with eight children, a lot of hard days, and the slow realization that the change I was looking for had to begin with me.
Where it began
I know what it feels like from the inside.
I'm Shawna Morrissey — a mother of eight, a certified life and parenting coach, and someone who has lived every version of the parenting struggle you're in right now.
I've had the days where I said things I regretted before breakfast. I've felt the gap between the parent I wanted to be and the parent I was actually being. I've read the books, tried the strategies, and still found myself losing it over something small.
What I didn't understand then — and what I now help parents see — is that the problem was never the behavior. It was the gap between who I believed I was and who I was trying to become.
The change I was looking for had to begin with me. Not with my children.
The unexpected path
I went looking for answers in an unusual place.
Alongside raising my family, I earned a master's degree in history and researched the history of success literature and philosophy. I spent years reading the thinkers who shaped how we understand human behavior, discipline, identity, and change.
What I found wasn't a parenting manual. It was something deeper: a framework for understanding why people do what they do, and what it actually takes to change.
Those ideas — about identity, belief, and the nature of lasting transformation — are woven into everything I do as a coach today.
The whole picture
I brought everything together.
I became an Advanced Certified Life and Parenting Coach. I trained as a certified yoga and mindfulness teacher, which gave me practical tools for the nervous system — for the moments when your body is already in reaction before your mind has caught up.
I built a coaching approach that draws on all of it: the philosophy, the science, the lived experience of raising eight children, and the deep belief that you are not broken. You are a parent who is carrying a lot — and who is capable of far more than you currently believe.
You are not broken. You are a parent who is carrying a lot — and who is capable of far more than you currently believe.
Shawna Morrissey — parenting coach, mother of eight, and the heart behind Peaceful Warrior Parenting
Training & credentials
My work is grounded in formal training, lived experience, and years of study.
Advanced Certified Life and Parenting Coach
Comprehensive training in coaching methodology, behavior change, and identity-based transformation.
Master's Degree in History
Extensive study of success literature and philosophy — the foundations of discipline, identity, and human behavior.
Certified Yoga & Mindfulness Teacher
Practical nervous system and emotional regulation tools woven into every coaching session.
Mother of Eight
Not a credential you earn in a classroom — but perhaps the most relevant one I have.
How I think about this work
I don't believe in scripts. I believe in identity.
Most parenting advice focuses on what to do differently. Say this instead of that. Use this consequence instead of that one. Follow this routine.
That advice isn't wrong. But it's incomplete. Because behavior follows belief. And until you shift how you see yourself as a parent — until you start acting from a new identity rather than trying to force new habits onto an old one — the change doesn't stick.
My coaching is built on that insight. We work on you first. We work on how you see yourself, how you interpret your child's behavior, and how you respond when things get hard.
When you change from the inside, everything around you begins to shift.
01
Your calm is the foundation
Everything else builds from your ability to regulate yourself. We start there — not because it's easy, but because it's the most important thing.
02
Identity before behavior
Lasting change comes from who you're becoming, not just what you're doing differently. We work on the belief before the behavior.
03
Connection before correction
Children cooperate when they feel connected. We build that bridge intentionally — and it changes everything.
04
Real life, not theory
Every session gives you something you can use today. Not someday. Today.
Let's talk
If any of this resonates with you, I'd love to meet.
Your first call is free. There's no pressure and no pitch. Just a conversation about where you are, where you want to be, and whether working together makes sense.