I’m Ali — Educator, Coach, Psychotherapist and Founder of Common Jeans.
For 10 years, I taught inside youth justice centres, working with children who carried enormous emotional weight into the classroom.
I saw what family conflict, instability, separation, addiction and trauma does to a child’s inner world.
I also lived it — as a child in a complex divorce, and as an adult navigating blended family dynamics.
I know what it means to:
- hold yourself together when the home is falling apart
- try to protect a child from adult pain
- make decisions through guilt, fear, loyalty and love
- want a peaceful future but not know how to build it
Common Jeans was born from that place —
a space for parents who want to do family life and separation differently.
I bring:
- a Master of Teaching
- a double diploma in Art Therapy & Counselling
- 10 years of experience teaching in youth justice
- trauma-informed, culturally safe practice
- lived experience from both sides of divorce
- a deeply relational, emotionally intelligent approach
- 20 years experience of working with children and parents inside and outside of the home
You deserve guidance that honours your story.
Your children deserve a soft landing place.
Your future deserves to be whole.
I create dynamic spaces for parents to feel safe and supported, as well as guided and purposeful. We build goals, plans and strategies together, in order to help you feel confident in actioning the information shared in our sessions. You’ll leave a coaching session with resources, goals, confidence and a “Mary Poppins bag” full of strategies to help you build the relationships and life you want with your children, partners and co-parents.