CEDAR HILLS — Donna Weighill was popular at the recent Brigham Young University Campus Education Week, where she taught a series on blended family dynamics.

Because divorce is so rampant, blended families are in the majority, said Weighill, who is a life coach.

It takes an average of five years for a blended family to reach harmony, yet blended families break up, on average, within 5 1/2 years.

"My passion is to stop the epidemic of divorce," Weighill said.

Couples risk divorcing when they stop dating, stop praying together and become out of tune both spiritually and emotionally, she said. Life is not about the trial or the challenge. Rather it's the attitude in coping with life's challenges, she said.

People shouldn't have to face life's challenges alone, Weighill said.

Yet most are between being able to handle their crisis themselves and being so overcome with stress that they need a professional counselor.

"I come in the middle somewhere," she said.

In her business, "Tall Talk Personal Life Coaching," she coaches people to "come to a space of peace."

One of her clients, Michelle, said she went to Weighill to clear emotional blocks that were hurting her ability to manage her money. Her life was in crisis, she said.

She learned not to stress about her financing every day (she was self-employed), but to set just one day a week aside for that.

"It allowed me to focus on life instead of paying bills," she said. "It gave me so much peace. She is helping the law of attraction work in my life."

Weighill has been attracting people with issues all her life.

"It's a gift, something I was born with and have chosen to polish," she said.

She obtained her doctorate from Rio Verde University with campuses in Texas and New Mexico. Another campus is planned for Utah County.

Weighill, however, completed her degree in pastoral counseling — counseling based on the scriptures — through online and distance learning studies.

She began her education in Canada at Lethbridge University, then after she was widowed she transferred to Brigham Young University where she graduated in psychology. Later she moved to Boone, N.C., where she obtained a master of arts at Appalachian State. For a year, she worked in Arizona as a mental health counselor. More recently she relocated to Utah.

The difference between mental health counselors and coaching is that she doesn't diagnose.

"I tailor the experience to the client," she said. "We work on specific points they would like to change. I'm their cheerleader and their support."

Her method is to work with "truth" and help clients understand that a truth has both negative and positive aspects.

"It all starts with our attitude and thoughts," she said.

She works with all faiths and backgrounds. She teaches self-care (people can't take care of others if they don't take care of themselves) and to avoid judgment.

"Judgment comes from insecurity, (from the fear of) losing what they have," she said.

People who are judgmental of others don't have as strong a faith in their own belief system as they purport to have, Weighill said.

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E-mail: rodger@desnews.com