June, 2020 - Live Event

Bio

Over the course of the last decade, sleep coaching expert Jen Varela has helped more than 3,750 families find the sweet sleep they’ve been deprived of and desperately needed. These families have benefited from her expertise at workshops and on phone consultations — and more than 700 of them in the U.S. and around the world have achieved their sleep goals through private one-on-one coaching with Jen via her company, Sugar Night Night.

Jen received “on-the-job training” while teaching her son and daughter how to self-soothe and learn good sleep habits. Through her experience, she aims to provide other parents with solutions that bring hope and strategies that work with each child’s temperament. She is a member of the International Association of Child Sleep Consultants and a Certified Gentle Sleep Coach® trained by Kim West, The Sleep Lady®; she also trained with the Infant Mental Health Community Training Program–Hospital for Sick Kids. In addition, Jen holds a bachelor’s degree in Human Services with an emphasis in Counseling from California State University, Fullerton.

Jen has co-authored a book with Andrea Strang titled “Loved to Sleep.” The Loved to Sleep Method is a nurturing strategy that trades tears for time — parents invest time to reduce the amount of crying from their child and improve sleep. The “Loved to Sleep” e-book is available on Amazon. For more information, visit lovedtosleep.com.

Another passion of Jen’s is supporting families who are struggling with perinatal mood and anxiety disorders (PMADs). In 2020, she was named the first California chapter liaison of Postpartum Support International (PSI), which promotes greater awareness of perinatal mental health and supports families with PMADs and is a past President of Postpartum Health Alliance.

For more information on Jen, visit SugarNightNight.com.

Follow her on
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/SugarNightNight ,
Instagram: @SugarNightNight
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/jenvarela/ .

Bio

KIM WEST, LCSW-C, is a mother of two daughters and a Licensed Clinical Social Worker or child and family therapist for 27 years. Known as The Sleep Lady® by her clients, over the past twenty five years she has personally helped over 20,000 tired parents all over the world get a good night’s sleep without letting their children cry it out alone.

Kim has appeared on the Dr. Phil, Today Show, NBC Nightly News, Good Morning America, TLC’s Bringing Home Baby and CNN, and has been written about in a number of publications including The Wall Street Journal, Associated Press, Baby Talk, Parenting, The Baltimore Sun, USA Today, The Telegraph, The Irish Independent and the Washington Post.

Kim is the author of three books: “The Sleep Lady’s Good Night, Sleep Tight: Gentle Proven Solutions to Help Your Child Sleep Well and Wake Up Happy”, “ The Good Night, Sleep Tight Workbook” and “The Good Night, Sleep Tight Workbook for Children with Special Needs”. Her first book “The Sleep Lady’s Good Night, Sleep Tight” is in its 3 edition and has sold over 120,000 paperback copies and is available in 4 languages.

Dedicated to providing tired parents with excellent sleep advice and coaching while knowing Kim could not help everyone herself, she started the Gentle Sleep Coach® Training and Certification program in 2010--the first and most comprehensive training program in the world. This program was the start to what is now a now a global industry- Baby and Child Sleep Consultants. To date, the Gentle Sleep Coach Training and Certification program is available in 4 languages.

Bio

Andrea is a Pediatric Sleep Consultant, mom of 2 toddler boys, and an elementary teacher at heart. Her goal as a Sleep Consultant is to educate and empower moms to make the best choices for their babies' sleep.
Andrea grew up in many different places, mainly Mexico City, Mexico, São Paulo, Brazil, and Madrid, Spain. Throughout her life she met extremely different people, all with their own cultures, religions, thoughts, and opinions, and thus learned to truly respect, admire, and appreciate the differences in the world. She applies this to all moms: we all have our ways of doing everything, our core beliefs, and our parenting philosophies. We can all come together if we all accept our own ways as well as the differences in each person.

Bio

Stephanie is a 30 year old mother of 4; a full-time stay-at-home-mom who stumbled into being a blogger a few years back. She has been married for 12 years to the first boy she fell in love with; he is now a cop. Her goal on social media is to encourage, uplift, and inspire women no mater what stage of life they find themselves in.

Bio

Erika has been working in childcare for nearly a decade. She’s worked with newborns, toddlers, special needs children, multiples… and everything in between. Her curiosity in guiding babies to sleep began in 2012, and she quickly read every book she could get her hands on. She then completed qualified training courses in various sleep training techniques. Over the years, she would help out friends and families, before she took her growing passion and turned it into The Sleep Dept.

Erika has created her own gentle techniques that have been used by hundreds of families all over the world.

Erika is based in Sydney but regularly travels interstate to work with families all over Australia. She also works remotely with international clients.

Bio

Eliza’s work helping babies (and parents) sleep better revolves around her respect for babies and toddlers as whole people who enter the world aware, desiring to communicate and learn, and with the ability to process and self-heal within relationships.

Her Conscious Baby practice employs unique approaches to non-cry-it-out sleep, baby-led milestone development, healing birth trauma, and parental attunement to non-verbal cues and crying.

As a certified Aware Parenting Instructor, Infant Developmental Movement Educator, Body-Mind Centering® Practitioner, and trained Feldenkrais® practitioner, Eliza’s life-changing perspectives and respectful solutions toward common parenting challenges transcend “typical” parenting advice. She’s from North Carolina, lives in Austin TX, and works online with families all over the world.

Bio

Dr. Michael Merzenich is the Francis Sooy Professor (Emeritus) in Neuroscience and Otolaryngology at the University of California at San Francisco, and a Founder and Chief Science Officer of three brain plasticity-based therapeutics companies, Scientific Learning, Posit Science, and Stronger Brains. Merzenich led research teams that created the modern cochlear implant,
and that initially translated the science of brain plasticity into game-like tools designed to improve the brain health and brain powers of struggling child and adult populations. He has authored nearly 400 research reports and several books and has been awarded more than 60 US patents. He has received many international awards for his work, including the Edison, Ibsen, Zülch, Russ and Kavli prizes, and is a member of both the National Academy of Science, and National Academy of Medicine.

The information presented in “Your Thriving Baby” interview series is for educational purposes only and is not intended to diagnose or prescribe any medical or psychological condition, nor to treat, mitigate or cure such conditions. The information contained herein is not intended to replace a one-on-one relationship with a doctor or qualified healthcare practitioner. The information is a sharing of knowledge based on research, experience and professional opinion. The opinions expressed by each speaker are their own and are not necessarily endorsed by any other speaker, or the opinion of the host of this event.
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