About the Conference
Ten years ago, our roots were established as the Family Life Coaching Association. Since this time, we have reached new heights. We have helped the family life coaching field grow and develop through professional development, the Certified Family Life Coach credential, and recently, FLCA’s founders have released a new Family Life Coaching Handbook, among other milestones.
Come and celebrate our roots and heights, create new connections, and nourish your coaching knowledge and practice!
Tickets grant access to the live sessions and to the recordings after the conference.
Conference Speakers
Morning Keynote Speaker
Rooted in the themes of her bestselling book UnFollow, Melissa Wiggins invites family coaches, therapists, and educators to explore how generational trauma and unquestioned patterns quietly shape family systems—and how transformative questions can change the legacy. Through personal storytelling and real-life tools, Melissa equips professionals to guide families from survival mode to team-based, values-driven connection. Attendees will learn how to hold space for imperfection, model grace over guilt, and create practical frameworks that empower families to heal and grow. Whether you’re supporting families through conflict, identity shifts, or generational healing, this session offers a blend of inspiration and tangible coaching strategies. Expect to walk away with a renewed perspective—and better questions.
About Melissa Wiggins
Melissa Wiggins is a former trial lawyer turned Master Certified Life Coach, keynote speaker, and two-time author—including her #1 bestseller UnFollow: Question Everything With Excitement in Family Life and Personal Growth. She is the host of the top 10% globally rated podcast UnFollow: Question Everything, where she challenges listeners to rewrite the stories that no longer serve them. Melissa is a biological, adoptive, and stepmother of five, and has parented through pediatric cancer—experiences that anchor her coaching with both grit and grace. Known for her no-fluff approach to growth, Melissa specializes in helping families and teams live by their values and operate with intention. At the core of her work is the belief that the right questions—asked at the right time—can change everything.
This session will help Family Life Coaches (FLC) learn how to energize, collaborate, and enhance well-being using Hope. There have been nearly 2,000 published studies related to hope throughout the past decade. Using research-based information, this session gives background on Hope Theory and how hope can be used as a tool for well-being. Highlights of the session include:
1. Energize and Empower: By learning how to energize and empower themselves and their clients using Hope Theory, coaches can foster more proactive and growth mindsets.
2. Collaboration: Hope Theory emphasizes collaboration, and coaches can use these principles to create stronger connections and support networks.
3. Skill Application: This session teaches skill application related to Hope Theory to improve FLCs practices. By integrating Hope Theory as a tool for well-being, FLCs can become more effective and empowered both personally and professionally.
About Amber Allen
Amber Allen is a Human Development & Family Science Field Specialist at the University of Missouri Extension, serving ten counties in Southwest Missouri. She holds a Bachelor’s in Child and Family Development from Missouri State University and a Master’s in Nonprofit and Civic Leadership from Drury University. Currently, Amber is pursuing her Doctor of Education in Educational Leadership from the University of Missouri. She also holds Missouri Advanced Prevention Specialist and Certified Family Life Educator credentials. With over a decade in community education experience, Amber works with individuals and families through prevention-focused programming on subjects around human development, family science, mental health, aging, and early childhood education. Guided by the mantra “bloom where you are planted”, Amber is committed to fostering resilience and inspiring positive change in her community, creating a lasting impact through collaboration and engagement.
Coaches can be unsure of how to handle clients’ emotions—big and small. I am a pioneer in training coaches how to foster “emotional growth” with families. Drawing on the latest discoveries in neuroscience and elsewhere, I will show in practice how coaches can support clients to break out of outdated assumptions about emotions and achieve their parenting, family, individual transformation, and well-being goals.
About Carrie Sackett
Carrie Sackett, MS, PCC, MSTC specializes in family, couples and group work and coaching method innovation.
For over 25 years, she has practiced a boldly transformative approach to emotional resilience and personal growth. Social Therapeutic Coaching is a group-based approach which empowers parents, children and multi-generational families to build deeper connection and emotional intimacy–while navigating challenging family issues like neurodivergence, abuse, addiction, loss, financial instability, trauma and divorce. In 2023, Carrie founded a training company, The Center for Group and Couples Coaching, to offer coaches of all types next generation tools that empower clients to transform their lives, their families and their communities.
She authored Social Therapeutic Coaching: A Practical Guide to Group and Couples Work (Routledge, 2024) and has appeared in leading coach magazines and podcasts.
Afternoon Keynote Speaker
In today’s fast-evolving world, families are struggling to maintain identity, legacy, and strong relational bonds across generations. I will be sharing the Family Systems Engineering model: a practical framework for building family governance structures that systemize values, culture, communication, legacy planning, and intergenerational wealth. Families do not thrive by love alone; they thrive by systems that define expectations, protect the family brand, and ensure the virtues that shaped one generation are seamlessly transferred to the next. Attendees will discover how to design an effective family constitution, set up leadership pipelines, and create rituals that preserve what matters most. This session will inspire every coach and practitioner to guide their clients not just to heal broken relationships, but to architect family empires that stand tall for generations.
About Praise Fowowe
Praise Fowowe is a pioneer and the creator of the Family Systems Engineering™ model—a groundbreaking framework that empowers families to design values-based, legacy-sustaining structures across generations. With over two decades of experience coaching, training, and consulting across Africa, Europe, and North America, Praise has equipped thousands of leaders and family life practitioners to transition from reactive family management to proactive family architecture. He is the Founder of the Institute of Family Engineering and Development Africa, and his intellectual property is used by professionals in 24 countries. Widely respected as a leading
Family Life Strategist, Praise was honored with the U.S. Presidential Lifetime Achievement Award (2024) by President Joe Biden for his global contributions to family transformation.
This presentation offers coach educators, mentors, and practicing coaches a chance to reflect on the deeper lessons that emerge over time. Lessons that can’t be found in a textbook but are essential for long-term impact. Drawing from nearly ten years of training life and family coaches, I’ll share ten key insights that have shaped my approach to developing ethically grounded, relationally attuned, and reflective practitioners.
Attendees will gain tools to reconnect with their why, language to articulate their values as coaches, and renewed inspiration for meaningful and enduring practice. Whether they are new
to the field or seasoned educators, participants will leave with strategies to foster legacy-level transformation in the families and communities they serve.
About Katy Priestley
Katy Priestley, LMFTA, BCC Katy Priestley is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist Associate, Board Certified Coach, and founder of Aspen Family Wellness Center and the Gateway Training Center. With a background in university-level teaching and a passion for experiential learning, Katy designs transformative programs that blend evidence-based practices with creative tools for growth. She is the creator of the Foundations Life Coaching and Family Life Coaching programs that train new coaches in the ethics of coaching, assessment, relational dynamics, and strengths-based development. Known for her innovative tools—like guided journals and card decks—Katy brings soul and strategy together in everything she teaches. Katy trains life coaches nationally, often consulting with government agencies and wellness organizations. Her work is deeply inspired by her love for the country, her own journey as a cancer survivor, and her vision of a world where healing, connection, and hope converge.
Session for Professionals
Many families are doing their best with what they know—but unresolved trauma, generational patterns, and high-stress transitions can keep them stuck in survival mode. As life coaches and
wellness professionals, we play a pivotal role in guiding families toward healing, resilience, and intentional change.
In this transformative session, participants will explore how trauma-informed family coaching can shift family dynamics, support parental regulation, and build lasting emotional connections.
Grounded in attachment theory, narrative work, and solution-focused strategies, this session equips coaches to compassionately navigate family pain points while honoring their clients’ strengths, stories, and cultural values.
About Queen-Ella Pringle
Queen-Ella Pringle MFT, CFLE, LPCA, PMH, is a trauma-informed Family Therapist, Parent Coach, and healing-centered workshop leader and owner of Sankofa Family Counseling and Wellness AND Cornerstone Visionaries Consulting and Coaching, located in Goose Creek, South Carolina. With over a decade of experience supporting families through transitions, parenting stress, and intergenerational trauma, Queen brings warmth, clinical depth, and culturally responsive strategies to every space she holds. Her mission: to help families heal, connect, and grow—one conversation at a time. In her free time, Queen-Ella values rest! With two teenagers in travel sports, there’s very little of it.
About Charity Anderson
Charity Anderson is a seasoned prevention and support services professional with a strong foundation in family wellness, recovery, and coaching. She holds a Master’s in Prevention Science and a Graduate Certificate in Family Life Education and Coaching, advanced studies that shape her evidence-informed, client-centered approach. In addition to her academic training, Charity is a Certified Prevention Specialist, Peer Support Specialist, Family Life Coach, and Recovery Coach.
As the founder of U2B Ultimate Coaching & Design, LLC, Charity provides a range of services including family life coaching, peer and recovery support, and substance use prevention education. Her work focuses on helping clients grow, make informed decisions, and build self-awareness while also equipping professionals and organizations with tools for stigma reduction, prevention awareness, and creating healthier environments.
A mother of three teenagers, Charity brings both professional insight and lived experience to her coaching. She contributes content to American Addiction Centers and remains actively involved in professional communities such as NAADAC, Addiction Professionals of North Carolina, the Family Life Coaching Association, and the National Parenting Education Network—ensuring her clients benefit from the latest knowledge and best practices in the field.
About Heidi Hackney
Heidi Hackney holds a master’s degree in Human Development and is a certified ICF coach, mentor coach, and coaching instructor. With lived experience in a neurodiverse family—her husband is on the autism spectrum and her teenage daughter navigates life with ADHD—Heidi brings deep empathy and insight to her coaching practice.
In addition to her private coaching work, Heidi is the co-founder of Autistic Voiceover Artists (AVA), a nonprofit organization dedicated to providing affordable and accessible voiceover training to autistic adults with a passion for performance. Her work at AVA is rooted in a commitment to inclusion, creativity, and empowerment.
Outside of her professional life, Heidi is an avid downhill skier and enjoys working as a ski instructor whenever time and snow conditions allow.
About Tiffany Burnette
Tiffany Burnette is a neurologic music therapist who specializes in working with children and adults to strengthen their neurodevelopment and relationships. While she practices part-time providing music-based treatment and/or family life coaching and education through her business, Rhythm and Cadence, she is employed full-time as a Certified Alcohol and Drug Counselor (CADC-I) for those recovering from opioid use disorder, where she is able to utilize her current knowledge and skills and the ones she is gaining through her master’s program in Family and Community Sciences at NC State University and her certification as a Prevention Specialist. As you can see, she loves to pave her own path and is grateful for every opportunity to grow.
Tiffany helped to establish and continues to be involved in the FLCA Mentorship Program and is excited to share her experience and advice as well as answer any questions that students have as they pave their own way toward their professional lives.
Breakout Session Topics
The Dad Factor: How to Engage the New Generation of Fathers // Steve Makofka, MDiv, CFLE, MCLC, CFLC
Destressing the Stressed-Out Family // Dollnita Winston, MSW
Building a Strong Relationship with Yourself // Becca Stackhouse-Morson, M.S, CFLE
Using Question-Based Mapping to Facilitate Family Connection // Sean Mitton
Elevating Family Life Coaching Through Extraordinary Podcast Narratives // Amy Stackhouse
Balancing Act: Understanding Parenting Styles and Their Impact on Teens // Je’toya Robinson, M.R, CFLC
Combating Social Isolation in Children: The Physical Superheroes Intervention Empowering Family Life Coaches to Build Social Superpowers // Nnenne Ben-Ekechukwu
Restorative Parenting for Building, Maintaining and Healing Our Relationships with Children // Dr. Sal Corbin and Chardonney Johnson, MSW
Family as a Team: Using Clifton Strengths Team Grid // Chris Allen
No ‘Right’ Way: The Many Roads to Family Life Coaching // Dr. Autumn Cano-Guin, Dr. Kimberly Allen, Dr. Margaret Machara, Tiffany Burnette, Paula Reif
Coaching Parents and Training Parent Coaches – Fostering Healthy Primary Relationships // Tina Feigal, M.S., Ed.
How to Use Joy as a Tool For Liberation // Fiona Allen
Strengthening Family Communication through Symbolic Interactionism (SI) // Dr. Jacki Fitzpatrick
Advocate Your Worth: Crafting a Powerful Personal Statement for Family Life Coaches // Felisha Burleson, MA, CFLE
Coaching the Journey: Transformative Travel for Strengths-Based Parenting, ADHD, and Family Growth // Christi Howard
Balancing the Expert and the Beginner Mindset with Clients // Monica Danielle Brown
Using My Strengths to Navigate Grief, Estate Planning, and Family Support // Deidra Craig and Dr. Autumn Cano-Guin
Session information is subject to change.
Session & Panel Speakers
help us reach new heights!
Please consider supporting the FLCA in one of these ways:
Volunteer
Hello, FLCA community; we are seeking volunteers for this year's conference. We have many roles to fill, including:
- Timekeepers
- Virtual session help
- Greeters
- Set up/clean up team
- Snack organizer
- Purchase items
If you sign up to volunteer, you will only have to pay the special rate of $50 for the conference. Please get in touch with FLCA at familylcassociation@gmail.com for more information.
Tickets and Location
Holiday Inn Express Raleigh SW NCSU: Rates are $140 per night; available options are June 19th, 20th, and 21st.
To make reservations, call 919-854-0001 Ext 1 for reservations or 1-800-HOLIDAY. Please request group code ALS or NCSU College of Agriculture & Life Sciences. You can also make reservations online (please keep in mind that the link does not always work on mobile devices).
**Once you confirm your reservation with a valid credit card, you will have until 6 p.m. one day before arrival to make changes or cancel without penalty. **
Shuttle service between hotel and venue will be provided
Who Will Attend?
At FLCA, we dream of a world where all families can receive the support they need to live happy and healthy lives. The 2025 conference brings together those who serve families whether as a home visitor, a family life coach or a family life educator.
- Family Life Coaches
- Home Visitors
- Reflective Supervisors
- Early Childhood Educators
- Family Life Educators
- Coaches in Training
- Parents of Young Children
- Community Service Organizations
- Wellness Organizations
- Researchers
- Undergraduate and Graduate Students in Helping Fields/Disciplines
- Institutions of Higher Learning
- Mental Health Organizations
- Directors and Administrators of Programs Serving Young Children and Families
Topics
Coaching in the home
Coaching at-risk individual and families
Coaching to promote well-being
Strengths and challenges of coaching
Interface of Family Life Coaching and home visiting Interface of Family Life Coaches
Family Life Educators Interface of home visiting and Family Life Educators
Early childhood home visiting
Coaching professionals
Professionals coaching families and individuals
Keynote Speakers
Become A Member
Benefits of Membership:
- Build your skills and connect with colleagues in coaching and the family life sciences.
- Free attendance to all monthly webinars
- A chance to host your own webinar
- A spot in our Coach Directory to advertise your business
- A chance to serve on a committee dedicated to the future of FLCA coaches and students, and healthy families.
- Participate in our Emerging Coaches Mentorship Program
- Access recordings of past events
About FLCA
The Family Life Coaching Association was founded in 2015.
Our vision is to establish the most effective family life coaching resource for families to receive the support they need to live happy and healthy lives.
Our mission is to elevate the practice of family life coaching by serving coaches and our community through education, research, advocacy, and collaboration for the well-being of families globally.
