Getting to Know Our Story

Hello! I'm Jessica, creator of Take Care Academy, a boutique coaching company created just for family caregivers. Our story began with an unexpected diagnosis. Sound familiar?

(Above, me and mom celebrating in our younger days.)

Within weeks, the world changed. My mother and I were launched into the scary, unknown world of cancer treatment and all the sudden changes it brings. I (lovely daughter) became full-time caretaker and Susan (awesome mom) became the reluctant patient. For the next several years, we faced ups and downs of treatment, the push and pull of a morphing relationship, and the unexpected personal growth that treatment demands from everyone in its wake.

No one really teaches you how to be a caregiver—or a patient. We both found that the general advice from hospitals and cancer groups was well meaning, but didn’t have much to do with the lived experience. Cancer blogs were dangerous emotional territory—full of personal first-hand accounts of the pain of treatment and then, of course, loss. But nowhere did we find concrete answers as to what to expect and how to prepare. So, we started fumbling towards the happiest, easiest, most joy-filled cancer treatment possible. We stumbled. We succeeded. We stumbled again. We both took lots of notes and pondered each week how we could improve upon the experience. (My former life was in organizational management, user experience and event planning -- I couldn't help myself.) So we refined and reviewed, failed and fumed, succeeded and celebrated.

After treatment concluded, I made a major career pivot and became a professional coach. Over the last several years I've had the honor of working with nearly a thousand clients from across the world. 

Personally, so far, #blessed #thankful --  our story is at a happy point. Things are on the mend. And now, we have collected all the notes and conversations to create the course we wish we’d had at the very beginning: Coaching and courses about the real, lived experience of care-taking. It looks NOTHING like all those schmaltzy TV movies, let’s be clear! It is one of the most human experiences you’ll ever have.​

The process of healing and tending is overwhelming. Our mission is to remove some of the burden and give some space as you do the important work of taking care.

We wish you well!

Jessica (daughter • caretaker) + Susan (mom • patient)