Introduction to Isabelle Edmondson

"Sleep is to the mind what food is to the body" I.E.

On this page you can read about Isabelle Edmondson’s story, her views on children sleep and a few important points about her working ways.  Isabelle is the founder and only consultant at Good Sleepers.  She is the person you would be dealing with every single time when it comes to sleep. Regardless of whether they are free introductory calls, preventative consultations,  recovery consultations, workshops or   corporate talks, every intervention is done by Isabelle. If you prefer to go straight to a price list or the highlights of what to expect when working with her, you can access the links below, otherwise, please scroll down and let Isabelle introduce herself.

My name is Isabelle Edmondson. I am a behaviourist and focus my work on supporting parents with the sleep of their children. I am the proud mother of 3 incredibly different children: a pre-teen, a teen and a young adult. My priority number one in life is to help them grow into secure, happy and responsible beings.  Throughout my childhood, I travelled a lot . I got to discover, adapt to and respect a variety of cultures. Now I live in Cambridge, UK and I support parents all-over the world, thanks to Zoom meetings.  I started helping parents with the sleep of their children over 20 years ago and made it my profession in 2011. Beforehand, I was an Engineer. My interest  in early childhood development, parental behaviours and the science of sleep started in the 1990s and rapidly grew into a passion alongside my engineering career.  After about 10 years of  growing my knowledge, experience and confidence in paediatric sleep related subjects, I took a professional right hand turn and founded Good Sleepers in 2011 . I have found a definite common ground between the two careers, mainly with relations to skill transfer, situational analysis and troubleshooting difficult situations. For the past ten years, My researches and areas of development have been focused of neuropsychology, cognitive development throughout childhood, attachment styles and their effects on coping strategies.

Here is my outlook on supporting parents and children:

When a child’s needs are respected, and the parents are confident and knowledgeable, the rest falls into place. Each family is unique, with different dynamics and needs. The physical, emotional and cognitive development of your child, your personalities and beliefs are just a few of the criteria that will influence my advice to support your family. I do not focus on or advocate one specific technique. What fits one child might not fit another. There is a myriad of elements that influence a child sleep and I need to have a clear understanding of the whole situation to advise you in the best possible way. That’s the reason why I have a free introductory call with every family who is in crisis. This call helps me identify the root of the problem and I can hit the ground running if we decide to work together. When troubleshooting crisis situations,  I use a holistic approach to make sure the parenting plans put in place are sustainable and durable. I find it preferable to work with both parents whenever possible. At the heart of my philosophy is respect, towards both parents and children.

Here are a few things  that I  disagree with when teaching a child to become an independent sleeper:

I don’t agree with rushing : If a situation is critically out of norm, you cannot expect to fix it in a few days. If you’re in a crisis and want to have your child’s sleep all fixed up in a fortnight, I am not the right person for you.

I don’t agree with pushing a child too far out of their comfort zone when they don’t have the internal resources to support the efforts needed. If we work together, as long as your child can giggle (These giggles tell me about your baby’s neurological maturity)  we’ll focus on building those coping mechanisms before we even change anything related to their sleep.

I don’t agree with teaching a baby or child to fall asleep by letting them cry in their cot or bed for a certain amount of time, then picking them up, then putting them back down again at regular time intervals and repeating until they fall asleep (pass out crying usually). Regardless of whether the child is alone or a parent is sat nearby,  I find this method traumatising for parents and children, incredibly confusing for babies and not conducive to a feeling of trust and comfort related to sleep. Unfortunately, this is the primary method pushed forward by most sleep consultants these days.

I don’t agree in enforcing a clock driven sleep schedule right away in order to fix a baby’s sleep. Of course a timely structure will eventually need to be put in place to support and emphasise your baby’s body-clock, but that phase needs to be implemented after the ability to self settle has been consolidated.

I don’t agree with putting a baby in their cot or leaving a child in their bedroom until they are ready for it. That means until they have acquired the ability to let go of the day, let go of their carers and fall sleep independently meaning without any parent induced sensory input.  I believe the best place for a child to learn anything difficult is to be close (even in contact to start with ) to a carer full of love, patience and good intentions. This way, their need for protection is cared for until they have developed enough skills and confidence to move away. As babies / children become more capable, they can take their distance and eventually be placed in a cot or a bed independently. I quite regularly ask the parents to take a step back and co-sleep for a  while to capitalise on rest and  regulate everybody’s nervous system. This is just a phase. Co-sleeping is not the end game, unless that’s what you want to do.

A few last random bits about me:

I am not attached to any franchise and I don’t wish to be -/-  My driving forces are science, common sense and a strong intrinsic motivation to help others -/- I am a hyper-sensitive person, it helps me do my job well  but it also means I can have tears in my eyes easily. Don’t let this worry you one bit -/- Your national health governing body and the World Health Organisation are very good at producing guidelines and regulations. Their job is to safeguard the populations, especially the most vulnerable of people. I leave that job to them. Instead, I try to help parents re-establish an element of intuition in their parenting practices and stop making decisions purely based on fear factors  -/-  I have a special interest in twins – I am very fortunate to have my very own identical twin sister -/- I am French and have spent most of my adult life in England -/- I am edging close to 50 years of age -/- Sometimes I swear, but not much 🙂 -/- I have a dog named Polka who might appear on zoom calls from time to time -/- I am a swimmer – and I loooove plants and flowers.

There we go, now you have a better idea of who I am. Isabelle x

Isabelle Edmondson  +447888204374  –  [email protected]