Nakiba Tuggle

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Nakiba Tuggle, M.S. — a Behavioral Wellness Coach and the founder of Ground Up Coaching.I help mothers of adolescents, teens, and young adults build real, sustainable behavior systems at home — not another program that demands willpower they don't have time for. My work centers on emotional regulation, structured routines, and identity-based habit change, drawing on trauma-informed care, motivational interviewing, and my own experience raising two now-young-adult children, including a son with autism.Coaching isn't therapy. I'm not here to diagnose or treat — I'm here to help you build the systems that make consistency possible, so the behaviors that feel unmanageable start to feel workable.What Moms Can ExpectMothers who work with me learn how to:Build daily behavior systems that don't rely on motivation alone.
Respond calmly and consistently during difficult moments
Set up routines and environments that make good behavior the default. Strengthen communication with a teen or young adult who's pulling away. Support independence without losing structure at home.These systems create calmer homes and stronger relationships — one small, repeatable habit at a time.

Is This You?You're a mom raising an adolescent, teen, or young adult who:Is neurodivergent or has a developmental challenge
Struggles with behaviors that feel maladaptive — but don't require clinical treatment
Needs more structure and consistency than motivation alone can provide
Has you feeling exhausted, reactive, or unsure what actually works anymoreYou don't need another diagnosis. You need a system.My Approach / Behavior SystemsWhat Is Behavior Systems Coaching?Most families don't fail because they lack motivation — they fail because they lack a system. Ground Up Coaching teaches the practical architecture of behavior change: how to make good habits obvious, reduce friction, and build routines that hold up even on hard days.Coaching is present- and future-focused, not past-focused. I'm not here to ask "why" — I'm here to help you and your family design what happens next.Core areas we work on together:Identity-based habit change
Environment design (making good behavior the easy default)
Habit tracking and stacking
Implementation planning — exact times, places, and backup plans
Relapse prevention and long-term consistency

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Practical strategies for moms building structure at home.

Why "Just Try Harder" Never Actually WorksLet's be honest about something. You've probably been told to "just try harder" more times than you can count. Try harder to remember your homework. Try harder to keep your room clean. Try harder to control your temper, your phone use, your mornings. And maybe for a day or two, it works. Then it doesn't. And it's easy to start thinking something is wrong with you.Here's the truth: nothing is wrong with you. Trying harder was never going to work long-term, because willpower runs out. It's not built to last. What actually works is having a system — a simple, repeatable way of doing things that doesn't depend on how motivated you feel that day.Think about it like this. You don't brush your teeth every morning because you feel inspired to. You do it because it's just what happens after you wake up. It's automatic. That's the goal for anything else you want to change — not forcing yourself through sheer effort, but building a routine so simple and so automatic that it barely takes any willpower at all.Start ridiculously small. If you want to start reading more, don't commit to a chapter a night. Commit to one page. If you want to get better at managing your mornings, don't try to overhaul your whole routine. Just pick one thing — like setting out your clothes the night before — and do only that, consistently, for a week. Small wins build real momentum. Big, ambitious plans usually collapse in about three days.Attach new habits to things you already do. This is one of the easiest tricks that actually works. If you already brush your teeth every night, that's a habit you can build onto. After I brush my teeth, I'll lay out tomorrow's clothes. After I get home from school, I'll put my phone in another room for twenty minutes. You're not trying to remember a new habit out of nowhere — you're just adding one small step onto something you already do without thinking.Make the good choice the easy choice. If you're trying to stop scrolling right before bed, don't rely on willpower to resist it. Charge your phone in another room. If you're trying to read more, leave the book on your pillow, not in a drawer. Your environment is doing a lot more work than your motivation ever will. Set it up to make the thing you want easier than the thing you don't.Expect to mess up, and have a plan for it. You will skip a day. Everyone does. The people who actually build lasting habits aren't the ones who never slip — they're the ones who don't let one missed day turn into two weeks of giving up completely. If you miss a day, the only rule that matters is: don't miss two in a row. That's it. That's the whole comeback plan.You are not lazy, and you are not the problem. You just haven't had the system yet. Once you build one — even a tiny one — you'll be surprised how much easier things start to feel.Ground Up Coaching
Behavior Systems Coaching

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