From E's Parent

“In the simplest terms, Zach Morris helped heal my relationship with my son (E), and heal our E's relationship with learning. From his earliest days in preschool, it was clear that E learned differently. A bright kid, he taught himself how to multiply numbers before he entered kindergarten. Yet, participating in group activities and managing relationships were extremely difficult. As E advanced through elementary and middle school, the traditional classroom became less engaging and more uncomfortable for him. He could master material, but struggled with timed tests. E began to doubt his own abilities and developed anxiety.

As parents, we were not sure how to support him; it seemed every conversation about school ended in a shouting match. When I was a child, I thrived in a regular classroom, so I had a particularly hard time understanding my son's learning style. I volunteered at school, met regularly with teachers, counselors, and principals. I thought I was doing everything I could, but E was still struggling.

By the time we met Zach, E was in 8th grade and we were all desperate for help. Zach introduced us to student-directed learning - putting E at the center of his education, instead of all those teachers and tests. Zach helped us improve our communication and reduce conflict at home. Zach's mentorship gave E opportunities to explore different interests and ways of learning. Zach recognized that E learns best when he chooses his subject and his timeline. Zach mentors E by being a sounding board for ideas and suggesting methods of inquiry. Zach helps E tackle big ideas in bite size chunks, reducing his anxiety and giving him many opportunities for success. Zach also coaches E through interpersonal conflicts and uncomfortable situations, building his confidence to manage relationships.

Today, E better understands his own strengths and can articulate his needs. I am better able to help him meet those needs. And, thanks to Zach, we both understand that a successful educational experience doesn't look the same for everybody."

From B's Parent

"I am thrilled to write a testimonial for Zachary Morris. Zach’s mentorship and work with our son was a game changer and continues to serve as a foundation for his personal development. Zach is extraordinarily knowledgeable and nuanced in his understanding of neurodiversity in children and the impact on student learning and self esteem. His approach rehabilitated our son’s badly damaged relationship to learning through his consistently warm and encouraging manner and through his utilization and teaching of NonViolent Communication principles. Zach not only worked with our son but with us as a family to improve our communication and understanding of each other. Zach’s name comes up frequently in our home. I feel extremely lucky to have found Zach. He is one person you definitely want in your village."

From D

"Meeting Jen and working with her has changed our lives; she is a light in the darkness. For years, we felt like failures as parents because all the advice we got felt wrong, didn’t work, or it was advice from a 1972 Good Housekeeping article for some simple kid with two Ikea instruction parents that could use chore charts for motivation.

But our daughter is not a general case study; she is a force of nature: mysterious, powerful, and magical. Jen taught us how life was from behind her eyes, how her brain works, and how this drives behavior. This allowed us to turn confusion and frustration into calm support and creative solutions. Through her coaching, we realized that some of our actions were not failures but intelligently picking our battles and leaning on our intuition. She restored our confidence in our parental instincts, and although our daily life cannot be called easy, it can be called a worthy and exciting struggle. Because of Jen's help, we have a hopeful future for ourselves and our family."

From S's Parent

"Jen Whitley is a godsend to our family. Our daughter S(16) began meeting with Jen in 7th grade.  She had just been diagnosed with clinical OCD. She was struggling to keep up with her schoolwork and it was beginning to affect her in many other areas, including socially.  She would spend hours doing homework but never seemed to catch up.  We were looking for someone to help her with executive functioning skills.  We had no idea how much more Jen would offer.  When Jen began working with her, S was stressed out and overwhelmed, constantly worried about school assignments and deadlines.  Our normally very happy outgoing child was quickly becoming depressed and withdrawn with high anxiety and even panic attacks. We had reached out to school personnel but although there were programs in place for ADHD and other more common learning differences, they had no idea how to help a child with OCD.

Jen began working with S, at first only once a week, and she immediately connected. She spent time getting to know her and what she is passionate about, she developed a trusting relationship with her that allowed S to focus on her strengths and develop a self confidence that has enabled her to flourish in high school with great grades, extracurriculars, and a full social life. 

Our daughter is thriving, entering her senior year, challenging herself with confidence in the most difficult classes. S still looks forward to her regular, meetings with Jen who is helping her prepare for college, but these meetings are much more than coach-student meetings, sometimes they sound like best friends or older sister meetings.  Jen has truly been on the life journey through these most difficult years, supporting in trying times and celebrating her many accomplishments.  It’s obvious that she cares, and loves what she does and her friendship and guidance has been invaluable to all of us. "

From W's Parent

"Jen has been the most important person we have found in helping our family understand our son's neurodivergence and advising us on best practices to assist him with school. She was able to build an instant rapport with our son, gain his buy-in, and provide the tools he needs to be successful academically, emotionally, and socially. I do not know what we would have done without her guidance and expertise these past three years. Jen is simply the best."

From H's Parent

"When schools went to distance learning, I knew it would not work for my 14 and 15 year old boys. Thankfully, I had heard Zach on a podcast or two and also consulted with him about my older son previously. Neither kid thrived in school before it went online. Both are brilliant. I started re-thinking how we learn and what will be most important in setting them up for life. My younger son needs connection and I knew he would need some kind of mentor if I was to actually “unschool” him for a school year (or more). We set him up with Zach. His relationship and experience with Zach this year absolutely saved him. His mental health is better than ever, he is actually re-discovering all of the enthusiasm and curiosity school beat out of him. He is writing, exploring, and recently reading for pleasure! He is reconnecting to his interests and most importantly, had a guide this year to talk to and connect with who wasn’t a parent. He. Games. Less.

Zach knows how to gently and authentically help teens find out what they are willing to do. He understands how to help them find intrinsic motivation. And he is patient. It takes time. I am constantly so grateful and relieved that my son had this experience with someone like Zach this year. I suspect he is better set up for building a life than kids who stayed in school. He knows himself. Zach helped him reconnect to the parts of himself traditional school forced out of him and it is such a pleasure to see him turn into the young man he intends to be. I could not recommend working with Zach more highly."

From T’s Parent

"Zach is a transformational leader both as an educator and as a visionary for innovative advancements in education.   His work with our son T(17) has been nothing short of life changing.   

T has a neurodivergent learning profile and traditional school had been a significant challenge.  For most of his secondary education his ability to simply attend school was markedly diminished because his needs could not be met. The impact to him was profound and while we worked with many great medical and other educational professionals that were helpful, we still could not find a learning environment that truly met his needs.  T tried so hard to make traditional school work.  He wanted to learn and be in school, and he loved being part of the community.  But over and over again he experienced failure.  He tried several special education placements which failed as well.  Needless to say, after 6 years of a very tough journey we were tapped out and incredibly frustrated.  T had given up on school and we were very concerned that we would be unable to help him find a path forward that would help him realize his potential. 

In what felt like a never-ending quest to find options for T and learn more about some aspects of T’s neurological profile, I attended a conference where Zach was speaking.  As he talked about his approach it really resonated with me because it focused on making a genuine connection with the student and creating a foundation and place where the student is able to freely imagine themselves and successfully advance themselves in a direction that is meaningful to them.  

T has been working with Zach for several months now and what we are observing is that he is, at last ……learning, growing and developing and it is absolutely incredible to see.  The feeling of safety, connection and purposeful work that Zach cultivates in the learning experience is amazing.  In the space and experience that Zach creates, T has been able to finally learn in a way that works for him and we can literally see him developing exponentially in all the ways that we, and most importantly T, had hoped for (engagement, curiosity, communication, executive function, etc).   For us, we finally feel that T is on a path forward and is exceeding what even we thought to be his potential.  It is truly a profound transformation.

One of the additional interesting learnings we have had in working with Zach, is that his approach and thinking is clearly applicable to all learning environments.  After we started our work, it didn’t take long to understand that every school, its teachers, students, and administration would benefit significantly by implementing some of the tenants of his work, particularly as it relates to communication and relationships, which the importance of cannot possibly be understated and yet is so often overlooked.  Moreover, his innovative teaching methods and vision for learning are truly inspiring and it is exciting to imagine what schools could do with this thinking in their work to implement whole student learning which is, thankfully, increasingly becoming the centerpiece of their mission."

"I am thrilled to write a testimonial for Zachary Morris. Zach’s mentorship and work with our son was a game changer and continues to serve as a foundation for his personal development. Zach is extraordinarily knowledgeable and nuanced in his understanding of neurodiversity in children and the impact on student learning and self esteem. His approach rehabilitated our son’s badly damaged relationship to learning through his consistently warm and encouraging manner and through his utilization and teaching of NonViolent Communication principles. Zach not only worked with our son but with us as a family to improve our communication and understanding of each other. Zach’s name comes up frequently in our home. I feel extremely lucky to have found Zach. He is one person you definitely want in your village."