Helping single mothers navigate high-conflict co-parenting with emotional regulation and practical leadership strategies.
In conversations about high-conflict co-parenting, the focus often centers on custody battles, communication breakdowns, and power struggles. What’s rarely discussed is the leadership gap.
For many single mothers navigating emotionally charged environments, survival becomes the default operating system. Decisions are reactive. Communication is defensive. Energy is spent trying to “win” interactions rather than stabilize outcomes. But true influence in high-conflict dynamics does not come from overpowering the other party, it comes from regulation.
Kristina Garis understands this firsthand.
The Mission and the Birth of Break Free With Kris
As a single mother facing high-conflict co-parenting and emotional adversity, Garis dealt with the chronic stress, isolation, and pressure to appear strong while operating in survival mode. While there were crisis resources and legal processes available, she found that there was no structured roadmap for rebuilding stability or leading through intense challenges.
Rather than simply reacting to the circumstances, Garis made a choice to understand the system she was living in. She pursued a Bachelor of Science in Psychology and became a certified professional life coach, focusing on emotional regulation, attachment patterns, and leadership. This personal journey of rebuilding her own life laid the foundation for something larger—a framework designed to help others navigate similar struggles.
Garis’s story is a powerful example of turning personal adversity into a structured system for empowerment, helping others regain control, build resilience, and lead with clarity and strength.
That framework became Guided Courage LLC and its platform, Break Free with Kris.
A Strategy Rooted in Peace and Leadership
Her philosophy is simple but disruptive: peace over power.
“When you choose peace, you stop fighting to win and start leading to stabilize.”
Rather than positioning mothers as victims of circumstance or warriors in constant battle, Garis reframes them as household leaders. Leadership is not about controlling the other parent. It is about controlling response, maintaining clarity under pressure, and making decisions that protect long-term stability over short-term validation.
This approach challenges two dominant narratives in the personal development space. On one end are purely clinical models that focus on healing but rarely address daily implementation. On the other are motivational platforms that encourage empowerment without structure. Break Free with Krisoperates between those extremes, offering psychology-informed, education-based tools designed for immediate application.
The model emphasizes regulated communication, disciplined boundary enforcement, strategic decision-making, and emotional clarity in legal and parenting systems. It is not therapy, and it is not inspiration for inspiration’s sake. It is applied leadership for mothers navigating complex environments.
The Key Differentiator: Structured, Scalable, and Actionable
Why does this matter beyond the individual?
Because leadership within the home shapes generational outcomes.
When a mother shifts from reactive to regulated, the emotional climate of the household shifts with her. Stability compounds. Conflict de-escalates. Children experience greater consistency and security. The ripple effect extends far beyond a single custody exchange.
Garis believes single mothers navigating high-conflict dynamics are already leading, they simply lack frameworks that recognize and refine that leadership.
Her long-term vision for Guided Courage LLC is to build a scalable ecosystem that supports this evolution nationally, expanding access through structured digital education and strategic partnerships.
In a culture that often equates strength with domination, choosing peace can sound passive. Garis reframes it as a disciplined strategy.
Peace over power is not surrender.
It is leadership under control.
And for single mothers navigating high-conflict systems, it may be the most powerful breakthrough of all.
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