Author: Aly Pain

Growing up, Aly was the smart, fun girl on the outside and a frantic, anxious mess on the inside. She spent years healing the pain of dysfunctional family relationships, including eating disorders and a suicide attempt to break the cycle raising her own teen boys. Aly's passion is empowering parents to build healthy, respectful relationships with their teens without giving up or giving up, even if they've tried everything and are at their wits end. She's built an online audience of over 560K followers and has been featured in the New York Post, ABC Nightly News and the Rachael Ray Show.

3 Things Your Teen Wishes You Knew

Here are three things that your teenager wishes you knew. They can’t always clearly describe what it is they’re feeling or thinking, even though it’s coming out of them and maybe driving you crazy. Validate them, don’t make them wrong for it. They really are doing their best and it drives them crazy too! Stop […]

A Recipe for Conflict

This past weekend I was at a sports tournament with my son. Unfortunately, it was one of the worst tournaments I’ve been to as a parent. Not because of the players or refs, wining or loosing, there was no drunken brawl between parents or bench clearing fight, or parents yelling and swearing at officials (I […]

My Name is Aly and I’m a Hugger

Hugging isn’t just something I love to do, it’s part of my brand. My primary love language is touch and hugging is how I constructively (not in a creepy way!) meet that need within my family, friends, colleagues and clients. As technology allows us to live more and more in virtual relationships without ever needing […]

The Dream:Do Ratio

I’ve been learning a thing or two over the last two weeks after deciding to create a new website and offering based on some important shifts I’ve had in my thinking. Those include how much I’m capable of writing (my least favorite thing) and accomplishing in a day, and how energized I can feel with […]

Just when I thought I had it all figured out

In October of 2006, I sat in a classroom at the University of Calgary with 26 others about to embark on our training as Life Coaches. After that first course, I learned that I was capable of so much more than I imagined, and the tools I was learning were honing me to support others […]

Where Everybody Knows Your Name

We moved almost 4 years ago based primarily on the lifestyle we wanted for our family. We’re happy with our decision, in spite of the relational challenge it posed that I did not expect nor prepare myself for. In fact, I set myself up to fail. For the first few year I was travelling back […]

Are You Too Cool for Crazy?

The privilege of working with some very talented and successful corporations over the last 10 years helped me to grow my network my and career. However, I was told early on that no one would take me seriously because I’m an extroverted blond so I learned to lock down my crazy and play up my […]

It Isn’t Them You Don’t Trust

You know when trust is present in a relationship when you don’t give much thought to what the other person (or people) are doing. You have peace of mind that they are going to do what they say they will, while keeping your best interest at heart. You’re coming to the table as equals because […]