Who am I

I’m Dr. Lonna Gordon, MD, PharmD —I help parents and youth serving professionals discover how they miss opportunities to connect and communicate with the adolescents in their lives.  This missed opportunity causes them to have reactions they regret to the challenges that adolescents bring them, rather than respond in a way that deepens trust. I coach using the enneagram to close that gap.

 

As a Pediatrician, Adolescent Medicine Specialist, Obesity Medicine Specialist, and Culinary Medicine Specialist & Certified Enneagram Coach, I blend medical science with human connection — creating practical, compassionate tools for real-life challenges.

 

Why I Do This Work

Five years ago I was sitting in exam room with an adolescent going through a really tough time, disclosing her high-risk behavior to her mother, and watching the look of distress, disbelief and anger on her mom’s face as she yelled at her teen about behavior she could not understand and felt powerless to change. I realized that mom’s response was natural, understandable and exactly what her adolescent did NOT need in that moment to get the exact outcome they both wanted.  That family was at a threshold moment and experiencing a connection gap and in the exam room I did not have the tools to support the adolescent AND the parent.

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That weekend, I went online and looked up parenting coaches and realized that most of the coaches did not focus on the typical challenges of adolescence and the ones that did emphasized fixing the teen rather than supporting the parent. I knew this approach did not honor the gifts of adolescence but found it hard to translate adolescent brain development into something parents could easily use under stress.

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Learning the enneagram and how core motivations and fears shift behaviors under stress and resilience provided the lens of how to clearly teach any parent how to respond to their adolescent’s challenges rather than react using 4 easy to remember steps. My passion for helping adolescents and caring adults in their lives at threshold moments did not change, my approach did, supporting them in developing presence grounded in self-knowledge.  If you have adolescents in your life who you want to respond to their needs instead of reacting to their behaviors – that’s exactly why I do this work. Your discovery call is waiting. Book it and let’s go to work.

 

My Philosophy

• Every threshold moment deserves a witness

• Belief in the power of self-knowledge

• The adolescent always returns to the adult who pauses, connects, opens the door, and is secure 

 

​My Approach

Empathy, evidence, and experience guide everything I do.

I combine insights from medicine, coaching, and personality dynamics to create transformational, practical growth for families, youth-serving professionals and organizations alike.