Dr. Alexandra Pensiero built her career from the ground up, which started in the classroom, then as a school psychologist, co-directing a mental health initiative, and ultimately into state-level leadership supporting hundreds of organizations and leaders.
Since her first daughter was born in 2017, she has earned three additional degrees, including a doctorate in Organizational Leadership, Learning and Innovation, and an ICF-coaching certification. All while raising two girls and refusing to believe that ambition and motherhood were ever in competition.
← All profilesPerfectionism is not a personality trait. It's a trauma response. I was treating it in my patients for years before I recognised it in myself.
— Dr. Alexandra Pensiero, Wellspring Coaching
Read it the way it ran in print.
"Growth through imperfection." That's the line that opens her feature in the June 2026 issue, pages 16–22. Below is the actual spread, page for page, exactly as it appears in print.
You've said failure is not the opposite of growth, it is the condition for it. What does that look like in your own life as a mother and leader?
I fail every day: in motherhood, in my work, in small ways and big ones. Since my first daughter was born in 2017, I have earned three degrees, navigated two career shifts, and launched a business. Not because I had it figured out, but because I refused to believe that ambition and motherhood were in competition. Those two girls don't need me to be perfect. They need me to be present, honest, and willing to keep going. That is the model I hope resonates with them.
How has motherhood deepened the way you show up in your coaching work?
My purpose has not changed so much as it has expanded. Motherhood has brought a softer side of me forward. I am far more attuned now to the invisible weight people carry, the mental load of doing all the things, being all the things, and still trying to show up fully. That awareness doesn't leave the room when I am coaching. It broadens the reality of my client's context. And honestly? I get to practice it every single day at home.
Read the full feature in the June 2026 issue.
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