1 International Best-Selling Author, Neuro Parenting Coach, Educational Consultant and Presenter, Elizabeth Noske is an inspirational and transformational leader in the area of brain-based teaching and learning. As an educational practitioner and leader, Elizabeth has worked in her native country of Australia, but also in Indonesia, Germany, Canada, and China. Her current niche is guiding parents to develop parenting approaches and strategies that work with, and not against the brain – both theirs and their child’s. Elizabeth believes that the brain has a mind of its own and that the only behavior we can actually change, is our own. Her Mindfull Parent Turnaround Programs support parents through the process of knowing where they are now in their parenting, where they want to be, and how to get there using brain-compatible processes and practices. She is passionate about guiding parents through the many challenges involved in raising children, so they can experience satisfaction and joy in their family life, and develop a wonderfully loving, lifelong relationship with their child.
Elizabeth Noske, 1 International Best-Selling Author, Neuro Parenting Coach, Educational Consultant and Presenter
You’ve worn many different professional hats in your long career as an educator, what is it that has brought you to this point in your career?
It’s always interesting looking back and reflecting on some of the many turning points in life. Over the years I had worked as a classroom teacher, special education advisor, brain entrainment specialist, student counsellor and school-based leader, but it was not until I attended a day-long workshop on Learning With the Brain in Mind, presented by John Joseph of Focus Education, that I realised I had been teaching young children to read for decades, without actually knowing what was happening in their brain during the teaching and learning process. As a result, when things didn’t go according to plan, as they so often didn’t, it was ever so much more difficult to know how to fix it. That was the day I fell in love with brain-based teaching and learning. I eagerly completed the certification course that was offered to me and followed it up a few years later with an Executive Master’s Degree in NeuroLeadership. You know you’re hooked when you pass up on social invitations on a Saturday night in order to spend the evening doing research and completing assignments, with a smile on your face and a glass of red wine in your hand, but with your computer safely out of the spill zone.
While working in Shanghai, it became apparent that there was a demand from expat parents for quality training and expertise, so it made sense to combine my love of neuroscience with parenting tools and strategies that would really work. And so began a minor detour that has since grown into a new professional expressway.
You consider yourself an adventurous person. Tell us a little more about your interests and activities.
I grew up on a sheep farm in country Victoria, so a life in the outdoors was practically inevitable. As a child, I was limited to climbing tall trees and clambering onto the chicken shed roof, but as I became older, a plethora of opportunities opened up to me and I embraced as many as I could. SCUBA diving in the warm waters of tropical oceans remains a favorite holiday pass time; riding a motor bike across the United States of America is a feat that will not be repeated any time soon and jumping out of a perfectly good airplane could also be considered a once off.
Hiking along the stunning hillside trails of Nepal was a great experience, as was the overnight hike to the bottom of the incredible Grand Canyon. Getting there involved a two-week motorcycle ride from Tampa in Florida, with our final destination the BMW motorbike rally in Gillett, Wyoming. It was quite a feat for someone whose previous biking experience was a Honda 50 motor scooter 35 years before. The relentless heat of mid-summer and the stress of negotiating peak-hour traffic on the ring routes around Dallas and Phoenix pale into insignificance compared to riding through a sand storm as we approached the Grand Canyon. With the visibility down to around 30 meters and sand being blown horizontally, it was like being in a sand-blasting tunnel. It was too dangerous to continue, but equally dangerous to stop, as there was no way of knowing who was behind us and whether they could even see us. So, continue on we did… and I was picking sand out of every possible crease and orifice for the next few weeks.
But my most courageous activity in recent years is definitely committing to a new relationship after a few failed marriages and relationship false starts. Onward and upward!
You’ve worked in many different parts of the world. What are some of the personal highlights you have experienced?
Each overseas appointment brought with it professional challenges and successes, but I also embraced the cultural, geographical and lifestyle opportunities that significantly enriched my personal life in these countries.
In Indonesia, watching the sunrise over the Mount Bromo volcanic rim was quite spectacular, as was SCUBA diving through a scuttled WW2 warship in Bali, surrounded by dozens of magnificent tropical fish. But even this was nothing quite like the experience of snorkeling off the beach of Bunaken Island in northern Sulawesi, where the shallow continental shelf drops vertically and sensationally from just a few meters straight down to the seabed 1600 meters below. Breath-taking doesn’t even start to describe the incredible feeling, rather akin to floating off the top of a mile-high sky scraper.
In Germany, I ran my first and only full marathon. Visiting the unique Christmas Markets, held in all the villages, towns and major cities is a special memory, particularly for an Aussie, accustomed to heatwave Christmas seasons; a far cry from sipping hot glühwein as the snow falls gently on your head. Second only to watching an opera performance in the ancient Roman Colosseum just over the border in Verona, Italy.
During my six years in China, I ran eight half-marathons, four of them on the incredibly challenging course incorporating The Great Wall of China. Sailing along the Li River through the magnificent karst mountains of the Pearl River Basin of southern China was like experiencing pages out of the guide books. But no matter how long I gazed on the thousands of terracotta warriors buried near Xi’an around 210 BCE, I couldn’t quite visualize them as they would have been originally, in a blaze of bright, majestic colours.
In Canada I achieved my accreditation in neurofeedback, the most grueling course of study I have ever undertaken – and this includes my two master’s degrees: both easy in comparison to that particular one. In mid-winter I was privileged to travel on the transcontinental railroad, from Toronto to Vancouver. Another amazing trip for an Australian from a hot, dry, and relatively flat country.
You call yourself a Neuro Parenting Coach. How is this different to any other kind of parenting coach?
Neuro parenting uses approaches, techniques and strategies that are based on the neuroscience of human behavior, with a special focus on why kids do what they do. The more we, the adults understand the brain’s basic, but ancient drivers, triggers, and processes, the better we are able to react and respond to our children’s behavior. If we don’t make the conscious decision to parent mindfully, our default position is likely to be very similar to that of our own parents. In many cases, we tend to agree that we want to parent better than that.
What do you believe to be the Five Principles of Mind-Full Parenting?
ONE PURPOSE:
To provide the love, safety, stability, and stimulation your child needs to grow and flourish
TWO BASIC CONCEPTS:
The brain has a mind of its own
The only behavior you can change is your own
THREE KEYS TO SUCCESS:
Connect in their Downstairs Brain
Communicate with their Upstairs Brain
Relate to their holistic brain
FOUR IMPORTANT STEPS:
Know yourself: your strengths, weaknesses, characteristics, parenting style
Know your child: their stage of development, interests, hopes, fears, and challenges
Know what you want: what is the best possible version of your unique child and what kind of parent do you want to be?
Know how to get there: have a long-term plan, with a toolbox full of brain-compatible strategies
FIVE DRIVING BRAIN FORCES:
Protection: we all want to feel safe and secure
Participation: to join in and be welcomed by our ‘tribe’
Pleasure: to be happy and enjoy ourselves
Prediction: to know what might happen next
Purpose: to find life meaningful and satisfying
In what unique ways does this help your clients?
Showing parents how to solve a particular problem with their child is rather like playing a game of whack-a-mole. You eliminate one unacceptable behavior, but almost immediately another one pops up its head. After all, it’s a child’s job to be ‘childish’ because this is how they learn; and this will continue right through adolescence. Parents need to actively teach the behaviors they want their child to learn. My parenting system starts with understanding the neuroscience of why children behave as they do, why adults react and respond as we do, and how we can change their behavior by changing our own.
How can people find out more about how they can work with you?
I love working face-to-face with people, individually and in groups, but as this has recently become increasingly difficult for all but those in relatively close proximity to me, I offer my full range of services online. I am keen to reach out to as many parents as possible, so welcome opportunities to speak at functions and events, write for your publication or be a guest speaker on your podcast. I am also open to joint ventures and affiliate programs with compatible partners.
I am officially launching my Mindfull Parent Turnaround Programs in February, 2022. You can learn more about my programs at www.mindfullparent.com
For more information check her out on Linktree @elizabethnoske | Linktree
And follow Elizabeth on (20+) Mindfull Parenting | Facebook
Check out her best-selling book Mindfull Parent: Parenting With the Brain in Mind
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