With a bachelor’s degree in Psychology, certification in REBT and a master’s degree in Special Education, Deana Cerniglia first became an inter-city teacher and from there has spent years studying how people learn, grow, change, and overcome what she has coined as patterns (behaviors we’ve started) or generational cycles and challenges that are passed down. Raised by a single, teen mother - she was determined to show others a journey to freedom. 

Her work took on a deeper purpose when she launched a program for single mothers centered on accountability and practical life skills. Through that experience, she saw firsthand that lasting transformation requires more than information—it requires self-awareness, practical tools, personal responsibility, encouragement, GOD’s law, and a safe place to grow.

That work became the foundation for the programs she has created for the Breaking Cycles Institute. The four programs: Behavior Changer, Life Skill Rebuilder, The Team Builder (support and growth for women’s work/volunteer teams) and The Transformer (foundational Bible Study). All her programs are designed with a 5 Module (8 classes each) format. Each experience was designed to help individuals recognize patterns and cycles, strengthen essential skills, deepen connections, and take meaningful steps toward lasting change.

Now, Deana is bringing these experiences together in a beautiful retreat setting where women and teams can step away from everyday distractions, slow down, connect, learn, and transform through the curriculum workshops. Her hope is to expand the work that began with one program for single mothers and create opportunities for even more people to experience the power of accountability, practical growth, meaningful connection, and transformation.

Deana believes that when people are given the right tools, GOD’s law, the right environment, and the opportunity to truly see what is possible, change doesn’t have to end with them—it can change what comes next.