Meet Jessica Elder

Today we’d like to introduce you to Jessica Elder.

Hi Jessica, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
Hello! I’m a mother of four, social worker, and author! I live in Scottsdale, AZ but was born and raised in Pittsburgh, Pa. I attended the University of Pittsburgh to study psychology and also ended up meeting the person I would eventually marry while in college. I had always dreamed about living in New York City and decided to move there in 2002 to attend Columbia University’s School of Social Work. I had an amazing experience living there and decided to stay for a while (almost 9 years!) to develop my career.

My first job as a clinical social worker was at an NYC hospital supporting children diagnosed with cancer and blood disorders, and their families. This job was life-changing and influenced my perspective on life and parenting in many positive ways. I loved working directly with children and teens. I decided to attend a five year post-graduate training program at the Institute for Psychoanalytic Training and Research and obtained a certificate in child and adolescent psychotherapy.

I got married in 2009 and eventually took a program development position with an NYC based non-profit called Children’s Brain Tumor Foundation.

I still work as a consultant for them today, although I moved to Scottsdale in 2011! We decided to move to Scottsdale because we were in need of a lifestyle change and felt ready to try somewhere new as we began to think about starting a family.

In addition to helping children affected by illness, I spent years providing early intervention services, and three years working as a team manager for a child development agency in Phoenix, AZ. The program’s training and focus on child development was not only beneficial for families, but also for me as I worked in this position prior to becoming a parent. When I had my first child in 2014, I only continued to work as an at-home consultant for Children’s Brain Tumor Foundation since I wanted to spend most hours of the day directly parenting. I truly wanted to be home, but I also desired to use my social work skills and creativity to do something entrepreneurial.

Today, I am a mother of four children (and a rescue dog) working as a social worker and author, from home. My goals include developing a fun parenting course about using playtime as a parenting tool (in progress now!), and maybe writing more children’s books to help parents support children through transitions. My number one focus is parenting my young children and attempting to maintain balance in my life as I pursue my personal goals! I may work at a slower pace now due to having young children, but I am happy with my plan and love what I do.

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
I would not say that building a personal business has been a smooth road. I imagine that some of my struggles are similar to others who struggle while pursuing dreams. One of the first struggles I encountered was figuring out how I could continue to be creative and pursue personal goals while parenting as a stay-at-home-mom. I worked so hard to build my career as a social worker. I wanted to continue to make use of my degree while doing something entrepreneurial. I had always wanted to start a business of my own that allowed me to be creative, but for years I could not figure out what I wanted to do. It turns out that having children is what led me to figure out a creative path to take!

Becoming an author was not easy and it involved a lot of research and learning. This was difficult to do while parenting and I had to work at a very slow pace. Many times, I had to put the entire project on hold because I was ill or exhausted from pregnancies, or focused on parenting. Becoming an author was an exciting journey but also a scary one. Most authors worry about whether or not their book will be a success. I had to get past self-doubt at times. The very focused topic I wrote about was not of interest to publishing houses so I took a risk and published the book myself. I worried about the money I invested, and hoped I had made the right decision.

The author journey does not end once a book has been published. In order for people to learn about your book, you have to work on marketing through social media and your website (more new skills to learn). Fortunately, my book has been purchased by thousands of mothers and I can say that I am very glad I took the risk! I believe that if you carefully do your research, set realistic expectations, and work hard using the skills that you have, you have a good chance of being successful in many situations. Right now I am focusing on this statement as I work toward expanding my business and creating a new product that educates about play as a parenting tool.

Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I am a social worker and mother of four children. As I mentioned earlier, I work as a consultant for a wonderful non-profit, but I also work independently as an author and parent educator. Here I will be focusing on my author journey and personal business.

I enjoy combining my knowledge and experience as a social worker with my parenting experiences to provide education and inspiring information for other parents. This desire led to my decision to write a children’s book! I wrote a book to help mothers support their young children with weaning from breastfeeding. Weaning can be a very emotional experience for both mother and child. Through my book, website and social media, I support both mothers and children through weaning by providing a guide for communication and acknowledging the many emotions that come with weaning. My social media account includes gentle weaning tips and live talks about weaning. In addition, my website will soon include a free gentle weaning guide and night weaning plan to compliment my book! You will soon be able to sign up to receive it by visiting my website.

In addition to providing education about weaning, I educate parents about the power of play. As a social worker and former play therapist, I want to help parents understand the the many ways it can be used to support children with their social-emotional development. For example, I educate parents to help them understand how play can be a child’s chosen way to share and communicate inner thoughts, fears, and challenges.

I discuss how parents can participate in playtime in order to help prepare their children for transitions, or to observe and discover how their children are processing transitions. I share creative play videos that give parents an opportunity to use their own creative expression to design easy activities for their children. These activities can be used both for connection time, and for independent playtime! Finally, I discuss how children learn through play by sharing activities that can be used for practicing developmental skills, life skills, and general learning for home schooling parents. I hope my new online play course will be available within a few months, but in the meantime, parents can learn from my social media accounts.

At this time, I’m most proud of my ability to pursue personal dreams while parenting. I’m so happy that I can use my creativity and my many years of professional work experience and education to create a small business that aims to support parents. My own love and feelings for my children led to me discovering dreams I never knew I had. I often hear so many people worry that parenting will put personal dreams on hold. While this may be true for certain dreams, this doesn’t mean that a parent can’t discover new dreams when they allow themselves to be inspired by parenting. I hope that people will see my passion and my sincerity in wanting to help others.

So maybe we end on discussing what matters most to you and why?
My family matters most to me! I believe that overall happiness and satisfaction in life comes from personal relationships, connection and love. Like all parents, I’ve had some very stressful days…days full of challenges, exhaustion, and a variety of feelings and emotions. As I mentioned before, my experience as an oncology social worker affected my perspective on life and parenting. Therefore, no matter how hard of a day I have, no matter what difficult challenge is thrown my way, I know that the most valuable thing in life is to simply have the ones you love with you.

Unfortunately, life can change in an instant, and so every day I have with my loved ones is a good day to me. This does not take away the difficult moments or make certain parenting challenges any easier, but it allows me to look at every difficult moment with a certain perspective.

Pricing:

• Gentle Weaning Book: My Milk Will Go, Our Love Will Grow $11.99

Contact Info:

• Email: author@jessicaelder.com
• Website: www.jessicaelder.com
• Instagram: @jessicaelderauthor
• Facebook: @jessicaelderauthor

Image Credits
Madi Aldy Photography