Coach Marina

11/06/2026

🫶🏽 The Choose to Heal, Come Home to Yourself. A Day of Self Compassion, Community and the Healing Justice We All Need Now. An ofrenda — a full day offered with intention, with love, and for our community.

Every session, every voice, every moment of this summit is a gift laid at the altar of collective healing. And I am humbled and honored to be part of it.

I'll be presenting Elijo Sanar from 1:35–2:35 PM EST — a session about what it looks like to choose healing not as a task, but as a practice you can return to, again and again.

This work is rooted in the heart of two communities I carry with me:

La Cocina is a Denver-based, immigrant and Latine-founded organization that dared to move mental health care out of clinics and into the spaces where our communities already live and trust.

La Red is the only community of practice for Latine supervisors weaving together early relational health, Social Justice, and the radical belief that we heal better together than alone.

This summit is for the holders. The healers. The ones who pour out and are learning to pour back in. 🌻

Come. This day was made with you in mind.

🔗 https://lared-tejedoras.com/elige-choose

June 30th, 2026

30/04/2026

As I look out this window, I think about—oh the places I’ve been. I’m reminded that much of my life has lived in the in-between, somewhere between where I’ve been and where I’m headed.

There’s something about this view that invites reflection and also a quiet knowing. That what we’re building doesn’t just wait for us in the future…we participate in shaping it, moment by moment, in relationship with others.

I’m on my way to New Mexico, carrying the next chapter of the Care Catalysts Collective (3C).

A body of work that isn’t a fixed model or a finished product. It’s work that’s co-created alongside educator leaders—shaped over time through real relationships, real practice, and the fluid distillation of what we’ve learned together.

It holds the wisdom of those who do this work every day. And it continues to evolve.

In New Mexico, we’ll be in community with educators and allied staff—listening closely, being shaped by what becomes, and tending the work together in real time.

This is how it grows. Not in isolation, but in relationship. Not in theory alone—in practice, reflection, and return.

A special thank you to the organizations who prioritize and invest in this work—National Women's Law Center, Trust for Learning Growing Up New Mexico and ofc, All Our Kin, Inc.

I’ve experienced firsthand what becomes possible when we work in community—when we see one another clearly and move with shared purpose.

Grateful to be part of something built with educators, for educators, and alongside those who stand with them.




Aulet Mara

22/03/2026

16/03/2026

The Woman Who Shaped My Work—Without Ever Calling It a Career

On International Women’s Day, Linkedin has asked us to name a woman who shaped our careers. My answer came quickly: my mother.

My mother didn’t shape my career because she talked about careers or leadership. She didn’t. She was busy surviving.

She raised us as a single mother, carrying more responsibility than anyone should have to carry alone. There were moments of warmth and deep care, and there were also moments of exhaustion, stress, and the sharp edges that come from living with too much pressure and too little support.

As a kid, I experienced all of it.
The care and companion. The limitations. The perseverance.

Looking back now, I see that those experiences shaped the way I understand people. They taught me early that human beings are rarely just one thing. We are strong and fragile, generous and overwhelmed, loving and imperfect—all at the same time.

Long before I studied child development, attachment, or reflective practice, I was learning something fundamental: people make sense when we understand the conditions around them.

My mother showed me what it looks like to keep going anyway. To work hard, to hold a family together, to endure more than was fair and still move forward.

She may not have had the language (jargon) of resilience, mental health, or relational leadership. But she lived the questions that now guide my work:

What does it take for people to thrive?
What support do caregivers need?
What happens when the people holding families together are themselves carrying too much?

In many ways, the work I do today—supporting educators and leaders, centering relationships, and honoring the dignity of caregiving—grew from those early observations.

My mother did not set out to shape my career. But she shaped the way I see people. And that has guided everything.

Today I celebrate her—and the many women whose perseverance quietly shapes futures they may never fully see. ❤️‍🔥

14/03/2026

Un sistema de cuidado infantil también es un sistema de salud mental. Cuando el acceso es limitado, la estabilidad de la fuerza laboral es frágil y los programas están subfinanciados, las condiciones relacionales que apoyan el desarrollo temprano del cerebro se ven comprometidas.

Coach Marina ~

10/03/2026

Sharing gratitude for the nourishment and the gracious souls who gathered over the weekend at the First Up Conference in Philadelphia to learn, connect, celebrate, and strengthen their communities in service of children and families.

During the session I facilitated, we shaped the space together through our stories. I carry with me the voices of so many women of color honoring legacy to strengthen the future—and the gentleman in the room who spoke with intention about bringing power to the collective voice.

I am also grateful to my colleague Kelly Ramsey, who brought her own story and inspiring voice to the space, holding the room with care and gentleness.

What stayed with me most is this: the power in our voices and in our stories. When we know them, honor them, and share them, they rise—and they bring others with them. This is leadership.

Deep gratitude to First Up’s remarkable leadership, beginning with their deeply rooted in humble leadership, CEO Carol Austin and the Early Learning and Equity Advancement team—Lisa Browne and Kendra Thomas to name a few, for creating spaces where the early childhood workforce can gather, learn, and rise together. I felt welcomed and seen, you all did that!

And thank you to All Our Kin, Inc. for the partnership that continues to strengthen the leadership of family child care educators and the communities they serve.

With gratitude.

18/02/2026

Si tienes un bebé en tu vida—asegúrate que ese bebé sepa que estás loco/a por el/ella. Los bebés más que nada necesitan afecto, le puedes hablar, cantar, leer, e incluso cuando te estás hablando a ti—les puedes incluir en la conversación.

Si tu bebé llora, cárgalo. El tiempo pasa tan rapido—dale la leche y mirale en en sus ojos. Por muchas décadas se le ha trasmitido a las familias que si sujetas o le respondes al llanto de un bebé lo malcrías. Un bebé llora por necesidad. Cuando tú defines que el bebé está llorando por manipulación—lo que estás haciendo es proyectado tú propia inseguridad. Que probablemente la heredaste de tú familia por qué estos mensajes se tranfieren en cadena intergeneracional.

Así que, la próxima vez que tu bebé llore, si estás ocupada/o solo un simple, “voy por ahí amor. Se que me necesitas”— le ayuda a comenzar a regular su sistema nervioso y fortalecer un vínculo apego seguro.

El bebé crea la identidad que será para toda su vida basado en la necesidad que le pudiste llenar o las que le ignoraste. Y esto crea un apego seguro o inseguro. Y queremos fomentar apegos seguros. Recuerda, el apego no es un problema—lo dificil es un apego desorganizado.

Para más información o si deseas una charla acerca de cómo forjar apegos seguros con tu seres queridos, escríbeme.
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If you have a baby in your life—mate sure that baby knows that you are crazy about him/her. Babies need affection more than anything, you can talk to them, sing, read, and even when you are talking to them—you can include them in the conversation.

If your baby cries, charge him. Time goes by so fast—give him the milk and look him in the eyes. For many decades it has been transmitted to families that if you subject or respond to the crying of a baby you spoil him. A baby cries out of necessity. When you define that the baby is crying for manipulation—what you are doing is projected your own insecurity. That you probably inherited it from your family because these messages are transferred in an intergenerational chain.

So, the next time your baby cries, if you're busy/or just a simple, "I'll go around love. I know you need me"— it helps him start regulating his nervous system and strengthen a secure attachment bond.

The baby creates the identity that will be for his whole life based on the need that you could fill him or those that you ignored. And this creates a safe or insecure attachment. And we want to foster secure attachments. Remember, attachment is not a problem—the difficult thing is a disorganized attachment.

For more information or if you want a talk about how to forge safe attachments with your loved ones, write to me.

18/02/2026

An inspiring evening in San Juan, Puerto Rico 🇵🇷 — in the company of people committed to imagining and practicing new ways of being in relationship.

Deep gratitude to Janina E. Fariñas, Ph.D. for the intentional connection to Tonia M. Spence — a bridge that opened space for meaningful dialogue with creative social justice leaders across the island.

🫶🏽☀️💫

Relationship is the work. Community is the strategy.

18/02/2026

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