Theresa’s unique approach and insights result from nearly two decades of experience in the fields of public education and self-development, in addition to the study of human potential. Her passion, ambition, and dedication are fueled by her witnessing thousands of individuals -- including elementary and university students, parents, professional educators, workshop attendees, and individual clients -- becoming awakened, if not transformed, by the self-empowerment gained through her facilitation. “I believe we all showed up with a true purpose,” explains Theresa, “and I love waking people up to the possibilities that exist within themselves.”
At the age of five, Theresa regularly sat in her bedroom dialoguing with a menagerie of dolls and stuffed animals while other kids were outside playing. I’m going to be a teacher, but different from mine at school,? she proclaimed to her students. Her life purpose was revealing itself to her at an early age!
Following her earlier "knowing," Theresa attended the University of Wisconsin - Platteville, a school known for its teacher education program. Her summers were spent working as a program director for a children's summer camp, where her focus included fostering self-concept and leadership with inner city children.
Following University, she taught elementary school for eight years, while also serving as a consultant within her own school district, neighboring districts, several Universities, and the Wisconsin Department of Instruction. “I wasn’t the only consultant involved, as my fourth-grade students were an important part of the team! We video-taped our classroom in action, and then I ‘took the show on the road,’ while the class kept their self-led learning process going in the classroom. The substitute was only there in case of emergency,” muses Theresa, or “Mrs. Stuesser,” as the students called her -- except when she showed up to class costumed as a storybook character or the brainy “Professor PHEOC,” who helped students through the scientific process of problem, hypothesis, experiment, observation, and conclusion.
Theresa’s graduate studies and professional development focused on whole child-centered classrooms and included her authoring of a national publication through the Minnesota High Success Consortium. The publication was a non-linear curriculum that allowed students to learn through choice as they developed their own natural interests and abilities. The students applied the skills and concepts taught to produce real-life projects and experiences such as a full-running publishing house and theater.
Nominated and selected to attend the prestigious Sally Ride Academy, Theresa led fellow educators in cutting-edge, hands-on science approaches for implementation in the classroom. “I really found satisfaction in allowing children to use both the left and right side of their brains, as well as their conscious and subconscious minds, while fostering their natural inquiry about the way the universe works. For a society that is only using something like 20% of its brains, I felt that this was vitally important,” adds Theresa.
During her latter years in public education, Theresa was a charter member of a very successful charter school in Arizona where she held the position of Elementary Assistant Principal, specializing in conflict resolution and community building. While working with the charter school, Theresa was interviewed and featured as a successful educator by PBS’s Morrow Report that focused on the charter school movement in the United States.
Theresa left the education field in June 2000 to pursue her spiritual path, start a family, and discover more fully her own human potential. This life-changing move came as a result of her decision to live in integrity with her inner guidance -- at all times and in every situation.
This leap of faith led her to the work of Dr. Doreen Virtue, from whom she received the AngelTherapy® Practitioner (ATP) certification in January 2001. “A fourth-generation metaphysician, Doreen helped me to better understand the mind-body-spirit workings of my own life experience, as well as that of the world around me. A quantum leap in consciousness occurred for me as I began to apply these new understandings. This allowed me to more fully access my own inner wisdom and see the highest potential in myself and others, while guiding clients and students to do the same.”
In addition to her preparations for launching her Mosaic of Self ™ Independent Study and Home-Group Study programs in early 2005 -- which will be facilitated via the Internet, teleconferences, and written support materials -- Theresa currently serves clients in several countries as a Life Coach via email and private telephone sessions. She also serves as Spiritual Coach to nearly 100 students enrolled in the “Seminary of Spiritual Peacemaking,” an Internet-based offering of James Twyman’s Beloved Community, based in Ashland, Oregon.
“The expression of my life is my attempt to live my full potential. Meditation, an amazingly supportive husband and life- partner, faith instilled by my parents, and the inspiration I receive on a daily basis while ‘working’ with so many incredible individuals -- including my preschool daughter -- really help me keep it all together,” says Theresa. “Conscious intention and self-discipline are also key ingredients,” she adds, smiling, “as are fun and play!
My mission has always been to educate, empower, and enlighten. Further, my aim is to assist people (from infants to elders) in realizing their full potential -- while also encouraging them to do the same for others -- in order to create a world that supports the fulfillment of our collective highest potential. In this process, I believe we will "be the change" that causes the quantum leap "we wish to see in the world."*
* Inspired by the words of Gandhi
