Hi! I'm Elisa
I'm originally from Spain, but I have been living in Japan since 2017, after living around the USA for a few years. When I became a mum I struggled a lot with my baby's sleep. She was a colicky baby who cried for hours and her sleep was all over the place. While I was in the trenches of early motherhood, with sleep deprivation and postpartum anxiety, I realized how important sleep is and how the lack of it can affect every aspect of our life. I trained as a Biologist (BSc, MSc), so my scientific background kicked in when I was trying to figure out my child's wake windows and wading through the overwhelming sea of information about child's sleep I found from my paediatrician and online. Eventually, it was a holistic child's sleep consultant who took my hand, guided me, and helped me push through it all while tending to my child's needs, helping me find the balance and parenting philosophy that has worked for my family for years. My own experience inspired me to start this new career, as I am determined to help other families to also feel empowered and prepared in the face of their children's sleep challenges. "Oyasumi" means "good night" in Japanese, and the word encompasses all the hopes I hold for your family to achieve a good, restful sleep.
My holistic approach to child sleep
My approach is NOT about:
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- Sleep training: I don't believe in crying-it-out, and I don't use pre-made, behavioral sleep training methods or quick fixes. I believe that every child and every family is unique, and that a full assessment and personalized plan must be made to address the sleep challenge.
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- The "no-tears" approach: I do not make any guarantees that your baby or child will not cry; this is because no-tears approaches don't take into consideration the optimal development of a child's emotional wellbeing. The “No-tears” sleep approaches are behavioural approaches that want to keep the baby or child from crying, without fully addressing the underlying issues. Your work with me is about identifying what is getting in the way of sleep, and these may be physical, developmental, social, emotional and/or environmental factors.
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My approach IS about:
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- Developing and supporting lifelong healthy sleep habits and healthy relationships between parents and children.
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- Identifying what is getting in the way of sleep and eliminating those barriers, while addressing and meeting the child’s needs for emotional and physical wellbeing.
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- My approach to sleep is holistic, and the foundations include supporting the child’s emotional expression and emotional crying, a solid routine, play and connection and other factors related to each family.
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Crying is not a bad thing per se or something we should prevent/avoid at all costs. Babies and children cry when they have unmet physical needs, and also to release tension and stress, or to heal from previous difficult experiences, just as adults do. As long as all immediate needs are met, foundations are in place, and a child is physically well, we accept crying as normal and healthy, and we ensure that big, emotional crying happens within the connection and support of the child's parents.