About Me
Hello, I am Claire, a married mum of two. I became a mum in 2019 and quickly began to truly appreciate the importance of sleep; not only for a child, but for the whole family unit.
I soon realised that I, along with so many of my friends with children, struggled with the sleep of our children and ourselves...or more importantly, the lack of sleep! It was having a significant impact on relationships, on engagement in everyday tasks and on maternal and paternal mental wellbeing. We had taken a good, restful nights sleep completely for granted!
Over the next few months I became consumed by how to get a few more hours sleep for us all. How to stop early rising and reduce the night feeds; get naps in the cot; prevent dummy-runs. The advice and recommended strategies were conflicting, confusing, at times upsetting; only adding to the exhaustion and anxiety. Add to this well-meaning but outdated advice from friends and family.
I turned to the support of a sleep consultant following a recommendation....it was transformative to me and my little girl. I became a much happier person and wife! My anxiety around naps and bedtime significantly reduced and I re-gained precious time to do other things again. I also, crucially, was able to spend time re-charging my own batteries, helping me to be a better mummy. I needed that. For my little girl, it supported her to start sleeping through the night; that wasn't the intended goal, but was certainly a welcomed bi-product! We established a great routine around naps and bedtime and the whole activity became one to enjoy rather than one I dreaded. She became more content and engaged in tasks during the day and personally we both seemed to like the structure and certainty it gave to the day (especially during the pandemic). However, on reflection the main impact was that I felt more in control, and empowered, when managing my little girl's sleep. It helped me to keep calm, and I was able to tweak plans and routines as needed. I felt more informed regarding infant sleep and more confident to address it.
Professional I have been working as a qualified occupational therapist for over 15 years in the NHS. The theme of sleep, and the management of it, has been recurring throughout my career. I currently work as a highly specialist paediatric and teenage occupational therapist, with those who are requiring specialist cancer treatment. Issues such as fatigue management and sleep are common interventions.
My role as an occupational therapist is to support a patient and family to be able to work on the occupations that are important to them, completing a holistic assessment and reviewing the person, the environment and the occupations that need to be completed. These areas can all impact on a person’s occupational performance. These also combine as the perfect skill-set for holistic, family centred sleep consulting!
I have a passion for supporting families to feel empowered and able to make small, manageable changes that can have a long term impact. Every family is unique and brings its very own set of circumstances.
When falling pregnant for the second time in 2022 I decided to take the leap and train to become a child sleep consultant. I have now completed EDS Level 6 OCN Advanced SLeep TRaining for Professional, BabyEm Level 4 OCN training in Gentle Sleep Coaching (2022), a Diploma in Family Centred Infant Sleep from Settled Petals which is accredited by FEDANT (2023) and ESD Sleep Training for Occupational Therapists (2024).