A wife and the mother of two spirited boys, Sonya Bowman Dunlap is a school counselor in beautiful West Virginia who has worked with over 4000 school children.

Like most mothers and counselors with the desire to change the world for children, Sonya has come to respect the complexity of achieving such aspirations. We all want children to grow into successful adults with good character. However, as she learned early in her counseling career, some children are reluctant to listen to instructions from adults due to the slightest nuances in tone of voice, non-verbal cues, or setting in which these instructions come. This problem hit home even more deeply as her little boys grew into school age and began to misbehave. Thus began Sonya’s quest for a way of getting children to “hear.”

She spent many hours trying to find the magic words that could show a child how easy it is to simply follow a rule because that choice meant there would be good consequences.  Through her own struggles as a mother, she felt the embarrassment and ensuing despair when she saw her children misbehave—in a store where she was forced to leave when redirection didn’t work; in a restaurant where she was forced to take the meal home in a doggy bag to maintain the peace; and at school where she mourned the loss of playtime and other rewards her children missed because they didn’t follow a rule or finish an assignment.  Just like any parent or educator who has run out of ideas, she was so frustrated she began to feel like a failure. 

So she started looking for another way to reach her children. She found it in nature.  Sonya and her family live on over ninety acres full of wildlife.  The natural order of things is so easy to see with animals, and her children responded wonderfully to stories about migrating birds, the protection of a mother for her babies, and the survival behaviors of the young.  The common sense of nature stepped in and made all the difference in her two rambunctious boys.  

Of course she couldn’t bring every school child to her home to teach them these lessons. She decided to write the lessons and natural truths down so she could share them wherever they were needed.  From this inspiration, Responza the Bull was born.  

Using the book has helped her become a better counselor and mother.  Her children and students calmly listen to the stories with a new understanding.  “The way things are” makes sense when they see them from the natural point of view.  Boys and girls relate to the personalities of the animals, which lead to discussions about human behavior, choices, and consequences.  Responza’s tales can help parents and educators teach life’s lessons without feeling like the mean old bad guys. 

Sonya graduated from Marshall University with a Master of Arts degree in Counseling in 1996.  She and her husband Jay love children, and find blessings and joy in their two sons, Weston and Gavin.