Hello!
When I first started practicing Aware Parenting, 15 years ago, I knew one person who practiced it.
Now, 15 years later, I have many many Aware Parenting friends and colleagues both locally and all over the world.
I had moved from the U.K. to Australia, so as I ran local Aware Parenting groups as a mother (I wasn’t yet an instructor back then), I made friends, and so all my local friends practice Aware Parenting.
I am grateful to say that I have dear dear friends all over Australia and the world, and many of those in Australia I have met in person.
And today, I would love to celebrate those who are Aware Parenting instructors.
Everyone on this list has become a dear friend. Many of them are in Australia, but there are also people from elsewhere in the world.
What I love about Aware Parenting is how it fosters an environment of compassion and support and collaboration.
The other thing I love is that each person who practices it, and each person who becomes an Instructor, has their own flavour.
We each bring our own life experiences and our own backgrounds, interests and passions, and that means each Aware Parenting Instructor is unique.
I am going to share some things that each Instructor has written.
I’ve also added a few who haven’t written anything yet – I will share more about them another time!
Before I do, I want to remind you that there are many more Aware Parenting instructors than this ~ you can find them all HERE.
AND there are many more people who are just on the cusp of being an Instructor, many whom I know, and am excited to tell you about them in a future one of these!
I also want to acknowledge the amazing work of Aletha Solter, the founder of Aware Parenting. Her work has changed my life, the lives of my children, and many many people around the world.
So, here we go!
I see my area of expertise being working with parents who want to find empathic and playful ways of supporting children who are experiencing anxiety (fears, phobias, obsessions, compulsions, worry).
I also love working with attachment parents who come to aware parenting when their children are 1-2 years, seeking different ways with breastfeeding, sleep, biting/pinching, etc.
herewithyouparenting@gmail.com
My vision is to work mostly with parents who have babies and young children. I would also love to offer workshops to parents to be and offer new parents early support.
I guess this vision comes from what I’ve experienced so far with my own children and from supporting friends with babies and young children.
All those beautiful workshops that I participated in with you Marion over the years and the empathy support groups that I’ve been involved in as a result of your offerings has also given me a vision to offer more of this sort of thing to parents too ie a space to listen to parents and offer an empathetic ear.
parentingthroughconnection@gmail.com
I love the ecology of relating within the immediate family, intimacy imprinting (with an Aware Parenting flavour) and Aware Dads.
I love working with all aspects of Aware parenting but my main flavour is working with Aware Parenting and teenagers.
I have two teenagers that I have used aware parenting with for over 10 years and see what a magnificent asset it is in regards to our relationship and how they interact with the world.
I am passionate about bringing Aware Parenting to the mainstream world that teenagers interact with. Working with issues around sexuality, friendships, schooling, online influences and most importantly the story we as parents bring to the teenage years.
I also love teaching and running Aware Parenting workshops and am always up for speaking at groups, kindergartens, schools etc.
Website : http://www.birthworkshops.com.au
Email : lael@aboutbirth.com.au
I love supporting parents with those everyday parenting challenges which we all face – such as aggression, separation anxiety, sibling rivalry, school, bedtimes, sleep, etc, etc! I have an 8 year old and a 2 year old and have been parenting this way since my eldest was 10 months old. So I love the theory and I really know the reality!
I specialise in parenting from birth to 9 years old and am available for 1:1 consultations, in-person groups and through my online courses:
– ANNOYING to AMAZING! (www.annoyingtoamazing.com)
– Transform Your Family with PLAY in just 7 Days
– Listening to Your Crying Baby
– Aware Parenting Babies (which I developed with the fabulous Marion Rose) (www.awareparentingbabies.com)
Originally from England, I now live in Sydney’s Northern Beaches. For more information, please visit www.birthandparenting.com.au
I am passionate also about guiding mothers to evolve, transform and awaken through motherhood into their most authentic selves and to support them to hold themselves with more compassion. I help mothers heal their attachment wounds through inner parts healing which ripples out into their relationships with their children ??
My flavour would be helping AWP parents heal their attachment and trauma wounds through inner child work.
Also helping children with anxiety, sensory sensitivities, supporting children to heal from trauma and supporting children through medical procedures. I also have a special interest in supporting parents to be curious and explore all the needs beneath challenging behaviours, including biomedical and nutritional support available.
My passions have been shaped by my journey as a mother and the incredible path it has opened up for me to explore.
I am passionate about supporting families who start with Aware Parenting once their children are past toddlerhood, because I know from personal experience the subtle differences and added challenges that this brings.
I am also passionate about Aware Parenting ourselves. Having always been into personal growth, AwP has added a level of compassion, gentleness and tender acceptance of my-self that was missing before. So useful and necessary to parent my children!
And lastly, I am passionate about applying Aware Parenting to our partner relationships. It is, in my own life, bringing my marriage to the depth and intimacy I had always longed for. I have always been fascinated with intimacy and communication, which led me to many Tantra and “Sex, love and intimacy” workshops, and to personal and couples coaching.
Every intimate relationship brings up our deepest wounds: those from our childhood. That’s why applying Aware Parenting to our romantic relationships, Aware Parenting our little wounded inner children that seek healing in the relationship with our partner, is an extremely useful and effective tool for healing and aware relating.
e-mail: maira@inspiredparenting.org
website www.inspiredparenting.org
For me I would say that my flavour arrives from culmination of the many jobs and skills I have acquired over the years focused into an AWP lens.
I see my flavour(s) having a few branches. I am very excited about the diving deep, reflecting and searching for insights, I also see AWP as spiritual practice of finding and mirroring our true nature to our children, partners, family and the wider world. While healing pain and lovingly accepting the pain of others.
I am interested in also demonstrating how AWP is a form of relationship investment with our children for an entire lifetime, taking the scope further out than the present moment and adding the multi-spectrums of their future as adults, our past as children and the many relationships in between and their potential for joy.
Funnily enough for many years I pondered why I had completed a degree in gender studies and never really used it! Recently after receiving my certification it all clicked into place! The skills I have in cultural awareness, gender theory, social justice and AWP have also arisen a passion in me to share aware parenting with people of all culturally or LGBTIQ backgrounds.
The last branch I’ll mention is related to the gendered differences of how boys are raised and men are treated. I have a strong calling to support mothers with their expectations of fathers and partners when practicing AWP. That’s me in a nutshell!
Here are what I have determined to be my “areas,”
● Personal development/growth and philosophical, physiological, spiritual, cultural, and moral exploration.
● Intimate relationships, dynamics, and cycles.
● Aware Parenting in general (or as I call it “Aware Being” when thinking about it philosophically), but also applied to self and adult relationships. To use Brett’s term above, the “family ecology.”
● Communal shifts, in finding ways to share information objectively, empathically, and without judgment.
e-mail: info@ourconnectingplace.com
website www.ourconnectingplace.com
I see my flavour as personal transformation through parenting! I’m still developing this idea, but through my own experience of listening time, and seeing parenting as my spiritual practice, I’ve come to realise this is what I’m passionate about!
e-mail: support@lyralestrange.com
website www.lyralestrange.com
Geraldine van Boxmeer
My name is Géraldine and i am a mum of 2 girls aged 4 and 1, I love being a mum but have learned a lot since becoming one about all the feelings and experiences it can bring. I am passionate about aware parenting, it has transformed my experience to a big positive learning curve and makes me appreciate all that children and relationships can bring.
I work a little bit as an Osteopath and see many mums in my practice. I love helping mums realising that as tensions in their body diminish with treatments, body awareness and self care it is easier to embrace motherhood more and more fully and have the best time ever being a mum!
Josha VanBaalen
One of my main passions about Aware Parenting is the fact it can help parents and their children become so understanding of each other and their emotions. I have heard time and time again from parents that they feel like their children are “trying to be annoying” or “deliberately doing things that I don’t want them to do” or “overreacting” etc.
I think that with Aware Parenting it is so incredibly helpful for parents to actually understand what is going on for their children. That they don’t want to act in annoying ways just to upset their parents.
I would love to help parents see what the underlying reasons are for that type of behaviour. Because I think that when parents understand the underlying reasons, a shift can happen and they can see things in a different light which is crucial for change to occur. And wouldn’t it be amazing if after that shift in awareness happens, there can be a parent/child relationship which is full of love, compassion and understanding?
My contact details are:
Phone: 0418914622
Email: joshavanbaalen@gmail.com
Rebecca Sheik
I am passionate about all aspects of AwP and love the way it helps you grow in a deep personal way. Supporting parents to develop strong attachments with their babies and children is so rewarding. I am also excited about supporting parents in sleep! Yes sleep! I didnt sleep for many years with my first child but using the Aware Parenting principles with my second child I can see how these support her in her sleep as well as my first child (who now sleeps!)
I know how vital sleep is to be the parent you want to be. Another aspect of AwP that I love to share and support parents with is the healing aspect of crying. I know raging and laughter is also helpful in this area but what I find in the UK is that many parents find it very difficult to listen to crying and I love helping parents see how valuable and beautiful it is to listen to your baby your child cry.
As an ex teacher I also feel a deep need to share the idea of discipline without rewards and punishments. I would like to share these ideas with schools, nurseries and children’s centres and support them using more playful methods to help children access their true helpful co-operative selves.
My website is www.flourishingchildhood.com
Shana Michele Matheson
I love love love supporting Mums with new borns or older babies, to feel comfortable with in arms crying. I’m so comfortable to hold space for them, check in with mum as bub cries and offer her empathy. Check in with mum that she believes baby is comfortable and fed etc. Allow mum to distract bub if she needs to, then support her to feel safe to allow more crying if she’s ready to. Balance of attention stuff. Also we note how when she does give bub her full attention more crying usually ensues.
It’s so miraculous to watch what happens. To see the dawning realisation in mum that it’s safe for baby to cry and she need do no more than be present and listen. The recognition that she is deeply listening to, and bonding with her baby, the emerging trust in herself and the wonder of getting to know her baby via deep listening.
I do dream of creating an in arms crying clinic, maybe as a once a month gathering where mums can discuss in arms crying and if it so happens, have a supported in arms crying session. A little down the track I think…
Stephanie Fleeton
The areas I am passionate about at this point in time (I’m always evolving as I learn and experience more) is Aware Parenting in an Early Childhood Education & Care setting; incorporating Awareness into all aspects of one’s life – as in a holistic approach to living in an aware and present way; and using Aware Parenting on oneself.
I’m also finding myself really interested about how our own childhood influences the way we react and express ourselves once we become parents.
So inner child work. I find this fascinating because I love practising AwP, however, since moving in with my parents and when my cup in empty I find myself saying things to my son in the same way they were said to me by my parents.
Parenting Counsellor & Coach
www.facebook.com/ConnectLoveInspire
Angela Hill
Angela is an Aware Parenting Instructor and Somatic Therapist with training in Craniosacral Therapy, The Hakomi Method of Somatic Psychotherapy and is currently training as an Infant Developmental Movement Educator.
She is interested in weaving Aware Parenting with current brain science and mindfulness practices. She believes that the co-regulation of parent and child is essential to the healing process.
From her own background of early childhood trauma and loss as well as parenting a child with sensory and anxiety issues that have been overcome through an integrated approach to Aware Parenting, she is interested in supporting families where parents have a history of early trauma and/or who have children with neurological differences such as ASD, sensory issues, anxiety or developmental challenges.
Angela’s primary areas of expertise are movement and the body, and she believes that we learn through our relationships and through movement.
Connection, crying, laughter and play are all healthy forms of nervous system regulation that can facilitate well being for the whole family.
https://www.facebook.com/Kinnect
Georgie Bancroft
I am passionate about ALL things Aware Parenting!! I absolutely love and adore sharing my love of Aware Parenting with both parents and professionals.
I am currently a registered Psychologist with non-practicing registration. However I plan to re-register again and would love to be able to support parents and professionals who have a need for a Psychologist with a deep knowledge, love, practice and understanding of Aware Parenting.
My background has provided me with skills in helping parents with a range of presenting problems including anxiety, trauma, sleep and aggression.
My areas of interest include working with parents during the perinatal period as well as helping parents with babies, infants, toddlers, pre-schoolers and school age children.
My website is www.georgiebancroft.com
e-mail: info@georgiebancroft.com
xooxo
Jo Clark
Jo specialises in working with Aware Parenting with babies.
e-mail: joclark@infantcaresupport.com.au
website infantcaresupport.com.au
Emma Mason
e-mail: oneinspiredheart@gmail.com
Kate Baltrotsky
e-mail: katebassett@gmail.com
website: www.katesurfs.com/category/aware-parenting-2/
Martina Tyleckova
Martina offers workshops in Australia and the Czech Republic
e-mail: martina.tyleckova@gmail.com
e-mail: martina@awareparenting.cz
website: www.awareparenting.cz
Vivian Viester
My name is Vivian Viester and I am a mother of a 6 year old boy. I am Dutch, but am currently living in Switzerland.
So what is my flavour? What am I passionate about?
The first 3 things that come to mind are: Attachment Play, Unconditional Love, and Compassion.
Attachment Play ~ I love attachment play!
I think it can be such a powerful way to explore and express feelings without being overwhelmed by them. It can also be used in situations when people do not feel comfortable with crying (yet) as we are not used to that in our society.
Playing out the way we feel can bring such a feeling of acceptance of where we are at that moment. It can also help us feel safe to explore our deeper feelings.
I believe playing is a gateway into our child’s world. I cannot imagine a young child that would not want to play with you when offered the choice of having your undivided attention. To me playing with your child is like being invited into their world, having a peek inside what is going on for him or her at that time.
Play can also be a great way to prepare your child for certain things or situations.
I love to play with you and I also love to help you think of attachment play games to use for a specific situation.
Unconditional love ~ I love and am passionate about offering you a safe space to explore within.
I love to support you in working on your inner relationships, to help, support and encourage you to listen within and to encourage you to trust yourself and your intuition.
I love holding a space for feelings that might come up. I love offering a listening ear full of compassion and understanding for what is happening for you.
Compassion ~ I love listening to you with compassion and love.
Compassion and love for who you are now, how you once were and how you would like to be in the future. I am passionate about offering you compassion and love in every area.
I would also love to help and support you to look at the world and ourselves through our child’s eyes, to gain information and clarity and to find more compassion within for yourself, your children and the people around you.
So what led me to these passions?
I think one passion is attachment play because I myself still carry some issues and feelings which I find uncomfortable to really connect with. Playing them out, or playing about those things, can feel very freeing, accepting and loving too I find.
I can so imagine that play is the way to get to the hearts of our children, so they feel loved and accepted when we connect with them in their world, in their play. Who wouldn’t enjoy having mum’s presence in doing something you love, or have dad joining in your game; to have control over one of your parents for some time and getting to say what she or he has to do, or seeing your mum or dad being really silly?! I would!!
My passion for offering a space with unconditional love and compassion comes from my own experiences of needing those things in order to heal certain parts within myself. I personally love getting the sense of trust and capability in my own journey, which is also something I would love to give to you.
I found it really difficult to describe my unique passion or flavour. Perhaps it will become easier with time as I am quite new to this journey.
I began giving skype sessions a couple of months ago, which I love and feel very excited about! I really enjoy talking via skype and responding to your sharing or questions by email.
I do not mind talking with parents who have just started or who have been practicing Aware Parenting for some time already. My son is 6 so that is where my personal experience lies. I came across Aware Parenting when he was 3 months old.
I am always open to answer any questions you have about me. If you would like an introductory talk on skype to see if I am able to support you, or to see if you feel comfortable and willing to work with me, please feel free to contact me.
I love to listen with unconditional love and compassion to anyone who feels willing to share and explore themselves; to ponder together on situations where you feel a bit stuck, or to find clarity for you in different ways like for example looking at the situation through your child’s eyes together.
I look forward to meeting and supporting you on your journey in Aware Parenting and also in Aware Parenting yourself.
With love, Vivian.
My email address is: vivian_viester@hotmail.com
I also just started a facebook site which is called: Vivian Viester, Heart to Heart Mothering Support
I feel so touched reading all of these! I LOVE all of these people! I love thinking of them, I love connecting with them, I love their own unique flavours and the unique gifts they bring to the world!
Oops! I nearly forgot to write about my flavour!
What are my passions? Well, I particularly love supporting people who want to become Aware Parenting Instructors. I love working with mothers who want to practice Aware Parenting and crying-in-arms from birth. And I LOVE LOVE LOVE supporting, encouraging, and inspiring mothers who want to practice Aware Parenting with themselves as well as their children!
I LOVE being a part of the Aware Parenting community!
And I love that there are so many of us Instructors, so that we can each offer our own gifts.
I love knowing that I can refer parents on to my colleagues.
I love knowing that there are so many other instructors out there who have experience, wisdom and knowledge about areas of parenting which I don’t have experience with – like medical procedures, anxiety in children, and school experiences.
And if you want to find out more about my Aware Parenting Instructor Mentoring Course (which doesn’t certify you as an Instructor but can help you on your journey to feel confident to be one), you can do that HERE.
Love,
Marion
xxx