Testimonials

Discovering a unique opportunity to be part of a revolution that has the staying power and clinical magnitude necessary to support parents and caregivers to develop the skills needed to build the resilience of children along with their own resilience is a rare event. As a social worker with over 20 years’ experience in the field of behavioral health and child welfare and a key member of the governing administrative teams of agencies with national reputations (AspenPointe and Mosaic), I have a keen understanding of the needs of families and how many families remain underserved. To be clear, many efforts try to meet the needs but do not have the outcomes; instead, the interventions are oftentimes not aligned to the motivation needs of the caregivers (or of the children). Containment of behaviors and distraction may be an important model of intervention in crisis situations but does not actually build the ongoing capacities of families to be healthy and well.

However, imagine, being upstream as a support to families in a culturally responsive, easily understood and dynamic training and support program that can be activated day one in the home. In my humble estimation, there is no longer a need to imagine because Sandra Kwesell and her program Pillars for Success is available now to the field of behavioral health and child welfare.

Working alongside Sandra Kwesell, Founder and Owner of the Pillars for Success has been a professional and personal highlight in my career. Her level of commitment is unmatched related to building the capacities of caregivers to be the most effective in their roles. She has demonstrated the ability to effectively meet the needs of children through her tireless efforts to support children with intellectual and developmental disabilities that were further complicated by challenging behaviors ranging from mild to severe.

Not only is Sandra’s experience based on working in a wide variety of settings in which she created and directed programs for children and youth with every diagnosis and range of behavior, but she has also fostered children of this description in her home for 30 years. In all of these settings her focus on positive change and healing always included both children and parents (or those in a parenting role.) From those experiences, Sandra has formulated the interventions that have served her, the children in her care and the families of those children—and created the Pillars for Success program. Her pragmatic efforts are based on tools and interventions that effectively support children to grow, learn, and become productive citizens into adulthood. The parenting program she developed teaches parents and caregivers the complementary skills that create the foundation for this positive growth to occur. Moreover, she has aligned her efforts to clinically sound, theoretical foundations that have statistically valid and reliable evidence to demonstrate efficacy. The Pillars for Success teaches adults the skills to help children overcome the effects of Adverse Childhood Experiences and uses a multi- generational lens to support growth and healing. Incorporating foundational aspects of brain science, building resilience, and lessening the impact of adverse child experiences, the training she created enables children and their families to experience healing, build boundaries around the past and experience growth that leads to satisfying relationships.

Jason DeaBueno, CRT Silver Key, President/CEO
FRM AspenPointe, VP Healthcare Services
FRM Mosaic, Executive Director

Sandra Kwesell is compassionate, knowledgeable, resourceful, and outright brilliant when it comes to helping families create new strategies for dealing with their children’s behaviors. The resources she teaches are not only realistic but they are life-changing. The Pillars for Success program she created is rich with insights, rules, and tools that challenge and inspire parents to understand behavior from a new perspective and learn techniques that lead to positive change.

Sandra has such a calm and reassuring demeanor when she works with parents, and her methods work! Families have happily shared that:

“When I learned how to use behavioral instructions my children responded much more cooperatively.”

“My children are eager to cooperate now that I offer them choices and calmly state my expectations.”

“I use words like ‘outcomes’ instead of ‘consequences’ to avoid trigger words for arguments.”

“I now understand that there cannot be a war without two willing parties.”

Sandra has been a huge blessing to our organization because she has given our parents tools and resources that are helping them create peace and harmony in their households. She is the biggest cheerleader for parents and provides encouragement for them to continue trying the techniques until they find the ones that work for their household. Sandra reminds us that our “adult behaviors” have been built over a lifetime and are part of our family scripts, and it is important to change and build new scripts to develop new behaviors.

Sandra is a strong teacher, coach, and mentor. I recommend her training and parental expertise to anyone wanting to improve the lives of their children and families.

If you have not taken her Pillars for Success class, make it a priority to attend because you will learn how to create changes you did not think were possible.

Deborah Hendrix, Executive Director, Parent’s Challenge

Pillars for Success is a powerful workshop series that teaches parents about child behavior and helps them to understand what motivates children to behave as they do. It gives parents tools to combat misbehavior and provides techniques to avoid power struggles. This class is excellent for parents who need some tips for age-appropriate defiance or for those who have children with more severe behavior problems. The information and strategies can be used on children of any age, from toddlers to teens and is appropriate for professionals who work with children. Sandi Kwesell has a wealth of experience which she shares in a straightforward way with easy to apply techniques. I highly recommend this class for any parent or professional that wants to understand what drives children’s behavior.

Sandi is an outstanding instructor who consistently receives positive feedback from parents who participate in the Pillars for Success training. She has developed a methodology for teaching parents the complexities of human behavior, growth and development in a manner that is it easily understood and results in repeatedly successful outcomes for families. Bringing her expertise as a teacher, a child development expert and a counselor results in her ability to help parents overcome any guilt and frustration they feel as a result of the challenges they have faced in parenting their children while simultaneously empowering them with information that leads to successful parenting outcomes. She is supportive but realistic in helping parents identify effective techniques to work with their children more effectively. Sandi shares concrete experiences with parents and encourages them to utilize what will work for them to improve their relationships with their children. Sandi is a very genuine, caring individual who is committed to helping children and their parents reach the goals they desire. Every family she is able to assist brings her great joy and she always remains focused on their success.

I have never attended a class like Pillars for Success. Not only did I come away with so many different techniques that work successfully with my children but I also learned the skills I may some day need to deal with future challenges. Sandra is positive, kind, a great teacher and a funny lady who not only shares her lessons but also gifts her audience with compassion, caring and a new way to understand behavior and the solutions that are possible. She helps us to not feel bad about the mistakes we may have made and also to remember that, as she says, “Today is the first day of the rest of your life.”

Parenting is complicated for everyone, even under the best circumstances. For many the pleasure of parenting is lost when conflict and challenging behaviors take over the parent child relationship and turn it into a daily struggle for power. Pillars for Success is a proven approach to clarifying roles and empowering children to be children and parents to be parents. The program has been transformational for families who have had the opportunity to participate and has now been adapted into a format accessible to all.

One of the most important elements of any successful program is to understand both the overarching rules of human behavior while honoring the individual needs of each person; parent and child. This program has been designed to achieve this and has been beneficial for parents facing a range of needs, from the simple desire to strengthen a parent child relationship and reduce conflict to the overwhelming challenges of parenting children with complex needs and serious behavioral issues.

Sandra Kwesell is an educator, counselor, family advocate, and foster parent and is active in shaping community approaches to support families and children. She has developed this program from a wealth of experience and compassion for families in order to help parents and children thrive.

When I came to Sandra’s class, Pillars for Success, I had tried just about every parenting class. I had recently finished one of the another parenting course with six weeks of classes with no effect what so ever on my child’s behavior.  He wanted to be the boss of the house. Everything I asked of him was a battle that turned into a screaming match. He would never just do even a simple thing like brushing his teeth. Our house was a battlefield with no winner and lots of stress. Despite my frustration with that parenting class, I figured “What do I have to lose?”

The Pillars for Success classes started out like most other parenting classes, but I decided to give two or three classes a chance before giving up. By the third class I saw a huge difference in the parenting techniques Sandra was sharing with us. I  followed her advice and I started to see a huge difference in my child’s behavior.  What Sandra was teaching the group was working at my home.  I was amazed! Our home became a calmer, happier one. No more screaming matches. My child was actually taking to me and sharing his needs. This program really works.  The marveling of the child had a great impact on both of our lives. All of the Pillars for Success techniques I used saw wonderful results. Both my child and myself are talking calmly, no more shouting matches or stress. My child has responded to all the techniques and actually does everything I ask of him. We both have a loving, calm relationship now. I am so impressed with the results that I highly recommend every parent take Sandra’s classes.