About Sandy
I wake up every day knowing that my mission is to help people like you, heal your past, take charge of your future, and “Breakthrough to Happy.”
I’ve experienced more life challenges than I could have ever imagined. I first discovered the power in storytelling when I wrote my book, Rosey…the Imperfect Angel after the birth of my daughter. Julianne was born with a severe facial defect, a bilateral cleft lip and gum. It would take numerous surgeries to repair her face and through the process I learned life can throw the unexpected your way, but that's how we navigate life.
The fairy tale caught the attention of news media throughout the country. My daughter and I appeared on national television talk shows, national morning news shows (including ABC, NBC and Fox), radio programs, and in newspaper articles and magazines throughout the U.S.
Rosey…the Imperfect Angel was recorded as a CD, produced by Tony Award Winner, Michael Alden, who also wrote the music, recorded by the Moscow Symphony Orchestra. It starred the voice of actress, Melissa Gilbert, best known for her portrayal as Laura Ingalls in Little House on the Prairie. The CD made it all the way to the Grammy Ballot in 2009!
Story telling and fairy tales are a predominate theme in my life. I worked closely with my late husband, David Peckinpah, who was the executive producer and writer of numerous television series including the Emmy nominated CBS series Beauty and the Beast, Sci-Fi’s Sliders, and USA Network’s Silk Stalkings, along with numerous television movies and the Disney box office hit, Man of the House.
I was fortunate to study acting with two of the great teachers, Jeff Corey and Stella Adler. (You can see me pop up occasionally in re-runs of the sci-fi, Sliders, or a few tv movies I did.) I was even in the pilot episode of the remake of the Mary Tyler Moore show!
Acting gave me an insight to developing characters, but also it was perspective on my ability to create my own character…me! As actors we delve deeply into cause and effect of a character’s past and how it shapes who they are. I realized this is exactly what shapes us in real life!
Never was I more tested in character and strength than when I suffered the worst that could happen. I tragically lost my 16 year old son. My book, How to Survive the Worst that Could Happen was inspired by my own story, woven with research and experience to offer way for parents struggling with loss, to shift the odyssey of grief from passive submission into active recovery. In the process, I learned to help others rise up from life’s most challenging and difficult transitions. I took it a step further and became a Certified Grief Recovery Specialist® from the Grief Recovery Institute in Los Angeles®.
My love for helping others led to another project with my lifelong childhood friend and interior designer, Paula McChesney. We created a radio show called Passion By Design, a show about designing and living a life of 
passion. It aired in Northern California on AM Talk Radio.
I love sharing my message, skills, lifetips, and expertise! I have done over 300 livestream broadcasts online and have developed an incredible audience who are on the journey of inspiration and transformation! Join me Monday through Thursday at 5:00 pm Pacific Time online here: http://Periscope.tv/SandyPeckinpah
I enjoy working with people who are serious about creating their future. I know my system works. It has enlightened and guided others to discover how the hidden magic of their own unique story, no matter how tragic, can awaken the future of possibility.
I now live in sunny Southern California with my remarkable new husband Jim de Girolamo whom I met for the first time when I was just 16…but that’s another fairy tale! (Visualization does work!) My 4 beautiful adult children, who are my everything, live nearby.
I’m so grateful for my life and the lessons I’ve learned…I’d like to help you now. It’s my passion.
Fun Facts:
When I was young…
I traveled the world at the age of 16 with the show Up With People. The show was a song and dance “musical ambassador,” performing in a vast array of countries and cultures. We learned the entire show in the language of the countries we visited. Ask me to sing a song in Lingala…
Who is my support group of friends?
I’m so fortunate to have friends who have carried me through the toughest times and celebrated with me in the best of times. I don’t take them for granted and frankly don’t know how I could have survived without them!
My best friend is Melissa Gilbert from “Little House on the Prairie.” We’ve been friends for over 25 years and we’ve shared a lot of “life stories” together. Melissa was my Maid of Honor at my wedding! Melissa says this about our friendship:
“What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. It’s so true. My best friend and I have talked about this and we boiled it down. We came up with the idea that life is like a pearl necklace. In between each pearl is a knot. Without the knots, the pearls would fall away. The pearls are the good times in life—births, celebrations, marriages, and joys…the knots are the hard times, but they hold it all together. You can’t have one without the other.”
I also have an incredible circle of girlfriends who surround me with friendship… some, like Paula McChesney, I’ve known since I was 12! She was a lifeline many times in my life. As for the value in a circle of friends, remind me to tell you the elephant story. Or maybe you’ve read it in one of my books!
Guilty Pleasure…
Opera Music and a cappuccino while I write in the early evening hours.
Biggest Indulgence…
Food! I passionately love to cook… especially Italian food. Oops! I married an Italian, too!
Greatest family delight…
Christmas morning with my children. I still fill stockings and wrap piles and piles of presents, even though they are young adults.
I love to travel! Luckily the man in my life does too! In the last few years we've been to Italy, France, and Mexico, in addition to several states in the US.
Most surprising Life Event…
Finding love in the second act of my life… After 25 years of marriage and the untimely loss of my husband, I reconnected years later with a man I had met in Up With People when I was just 16! We married in 2011 and I plan on living happily ever after…
With love…
