Speakers
Find out more about our amazing Sleeposium2021 speakers below!
Dr. Kendall-Tackett is a health psychologist and International Board Certified Lactation Consultant, and the Owner and Editor-in-Chief of Praeclarus Press, a small press specializing in women's health. Dr. Kendall-Tackett is Editor-in-Chief of the journal, Psychological Trauma and was Founding Editor-in-Chief of Clinical Lactation, a position she held for 11 years. She is a Fellow of the American Psychological Association in Health and Trauma Psychology, Past President of the APA Division of Trauma Psychology, and a member of APA’s Publications and Communications Board.
Dr. Kendall-Tackett specializes in women's-health research including breastfeeding, depression, trauma, and health psychology, and has won many awards for her work including the 2019 President’s Award for Outstanding Contributions to the Field of Trauma Psychology from the American Psychological Association. Dr. Kendall-Tackett has authored more than 470 articles or chapters and is author or editor of 39 books. Her most recent books include Depression in New Mothers, 3rd Edition (2017, Routledge UK), Women’s Mental Health Across the Lifespan (2017, Routledge US, with Lesia Ruglass), and The Phantom of the Opera: A Social History of the World’s Most Popular Musical (2018, Praeclarus). Her forthcoming book is called Breastfeeding Doesn’t Have to Suck (in press, American Psychological Association). Google Scholar link
Presentation: The Effect of Depression and PTSD on Mother-Infant Sleep
Dr Greer Kirshenbaum, PhD is a neuroscientist, infant and family sleep specialist, and doula. Greer’s company, Nurture Neuroscience, is on a mission to transform the future of health with a Nurture Revolution. Greer wants families and perinatal practitioners to understand how early caregiving experience can boost mental wellness by shaping babies’ brains through simple intuitive enriching experiences in pregnancy, birth, and infancy. Greer works with families to support infant sleep, teaches courses, provides consultations in pregnancy and infancy, and is a birth and postpartum doula. She is currently facilitating an Infant Sleep Educator Certification with Bebo Mia.
Greer has a BSc in Neuroscience from Dalhousie University and a PhD in Medical Science and Neuroscience from the University of Toronto. Greer completed a postdoctoral fellowship and was an assistant professor at Columbia University and the New York State Psychiatric Institute. Greer studied psychodynamic thinking and practice at New York University Medical School's Institute for Psychoanalytic Education. She took courses in infant-parent relationships and mental health at Yale University Child Study Center Minding the Baby Program, The Toronto Psychoanalytic Institute, and The Hospital for Sick Children. Greer trained as a Maternal Support Practitioner with Bebo Mia and a birth and postpartum doula with DONA International. She also is trained as a life coach with the Center for Applied Neuroscience.
Presentation: The Unique Infant Brain and Sleep
Dr. Deborah MacNamara is a Clinical Counsellor and Developmentalist. She is on Faculty at the Neufeld Institute and Director of Kid’s Best Bet: a counselling centre for families. She is author of the best-selling book Rest, Play, Grow: Making Sense of Preschoolers (or anyone who acts like one),
Deborah completed a two-year post doctoral internship with Dr. Gordon Neufeld, is an award winning researcher, and has over 20 years experience as a teacher and counsellor working with leading institutions such as the University of British Columbia, Kwantlen Polytechnic University, the Canadian Mental Health Association, and the Vancouver School Board. Deborah regularly appears on radio and TV, her articles appear in parenting magazines, websites, and newsletters across Canada and internationally. She resides in Vancouver, British Columbia with her family and consciously works to create an attachment village for her children to grow up in.
Presentation: The Dance of Sleep and Separation
Dr. Dennis Rosen, M.D., is a pediatric pulmonologist and sleep specialist at Boston Children's Hospital, and Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School. He received his M.D. from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, did pediatric residency training at Kaplan Medical Center in Rehovot, Israel, and did additional pediatric training, a pediatric pulmonary fellowship, and advanced training in sleep medicine at Boston Children's Hospital. He is the author of Vital Conversations: Improving Communication between Doctors and Patients.
Presentation: (Other) Things that Go Bump in the Night: When to Refer a Child with Sleep Disturbances to a Physician
Dr. Reshma Amin is a staff Respirologist and Sleep Physician at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, Canada. She is the Director of the Long-term Ventilation (LTV) Program and an Associate Professor at the University of Toronto. She is also the Program Director for the Sleep Medicine and Long-term Ventilation training program. She is lead author for the Canadian Guidelines for Pediatric Long-term Mechanical Ventilation at home. Her research focuses on improving the impact of LTV on the patient, family and the healthcare system. She is also interested in the diagnosis and treatment of sleep disordered breathing on children with comorbidities.
Presentation: Evaluation and Management of Common Behavioral Sleep Problems in Children; When to Worry
Macall holds a Master’s degree in Applied Psychology from Antioch University, Seattle with a specialization in infant mental health, including attachment theory, the development of emotional regulation, and parenting psychology (including transition to parenthood, postpartum depression, etc.). She also has a BS in Human Biology from Stanford University. She is currently a Senior Lecturer in Antioch's graduate Counseling Psychology program where she teaches research methods.
She has conducted and presented research at infant and child development conferences around the world. Her research includes a critical literature review on the use of extinction in infants under a year, and large parent surveys on experiences with sleep advice, the “upsides” of a “difficult” temperament, and the impact of temperament on parents’ experiences with sleep and sleep training.
As a certified Gentle Sleep Coach, she specializes in working with parents of children who are more intense/sensitive/persistent and who require a different approach to sleep. She comes to this work as a mother of two incredible young adults who used to be intense, sensitive, persistent non-sleeping babies.
Presentation: How Temperament Affects Sleep, Sleep Coaching, and Everything Else
Shannon has enjoyed working with adults and children across the healthcare continuum since graduating from the University of British Columbia’s Master of Occupational Therapy program in 2010. She has experience in home and community settings, as well as hospitals and private clinics where she has worked with people of all ages toward greater competence and independence in their most valued activities.
Shannon’s greatest passion has always been pediatrics where she loves helping children and their families learn and grow in ways that help them to be their best at home and at school.
Presentation: Monsters in the Closet: Practical Strategies for Children’s Anxiety and Nighttime Worries
Emma Dewey is the owner of the postnatal maternity training agency Babyem, and co-founder of the Holistic Sleep Coaching Program educating health, lactation, and sleep professionals in the importance of gentle, evidence-based childcare. Over the last 10 years Emma has also worked with childcare organisations internationally, supporting them to build and market their training programs. She has since created the Babyem Business Academy: a membership program that supports childcare and health practitioners to build successful value driven businesses. The program provides intense support from a team of marketing specialists. Prior to Babyem, Emma began her career working in marketing promoting global brands, before retraining and working for a humanitarian aid agency and children services for 10 years.
Presentation: Connection over Information: How to Stand Out and be the Go-to Sleep Coach in Your Niche
Kaili Ets is a mother of two, an entrepreneur, a digital course creator, natural wellness guru, & founder of Kaili Ets Family Wellness. She is on a mission to reduce the overwhelm of motherhood, one mother at a time. She helps moms feel confident in their baby’s sleep and development, so that they can stop the worry and be a well-rested family. Kaili brings her 12+ years of training and experience as a pediatric occupational therapist and her advanced certifications as Baby-Led Sleep & Wellbeing Specialist as well in reflux, into her work with all her clients. She also has a passion for toxin free living and using natural alternatives to health & enjoys empowering families to support their own wellness.
Presentation: Reflux as a Symptom of Underlying Issues
Heather is a private practice occupational therapist from Niagara, Ontario and the mother of three boys. She provides virtual consulting to families who are experiencing challenges with infant sleep, parenting, and infant development. Heather takes a developmental- and attachment-based approach to supporting families by helping parents change perspectives and change the sleep environment, rather than change the nature of the child.
Presentation: Designing a Sleep Sanctuary: Indoor Air, EMF, and Health
Maisie is a Psychiatric Nurse, with a Bachelor’s Degree in Psychology, Holistic Sleep Certification, and Accreditation as an Infant Sleep Educator. She has spent the last 15 years educating and counselling families through sleep, mental health, and behavioural difficulties. She uses a holistic and evidence-informed approach to parenting that promotes sleep while also supporting the parent-child relationship, child development, and family wellness.
Maisie runs an international practice from her home in British Columbia, Canada offering individual and group support to families struggling with sleep and related parenting challenges. She specializes in working with big kids (toddlers through to school-aged littles), multiples, and children with neurodevelopmental and cognitive disabilities. Maisie helps give parents the skills and confidence needed to take the fight (and stress) out of bedtime, so that everyone gets the rest they need. She is also the parent to twin boys - so she gets how overwhelming and exhausting it can all be!
Presentation: How to Holistically Support Twins & Multiples with Sleep
Andrea is a mother of three, a trained Holistic and Gentle Sleep Consultant, educator, and author. She did her training in a variety of programs including: Holistic Sleep Coaching, Gentle Sleep Coaching, Naturally Nurturing, Infant Sleep Education, CBT for Insomnia, and Sleep:Neurobiology & Society. She has a certificate in Infant Mental Health and she also holds three university certificates in Advanced Marriage and Family Functioning, Human Relations, and Home and Family.
She has spent the past nine years training and mentoring Sleep Consultants and Night Coaches. She is an instructor in the UK-based Holistic Sleep Coach and Gentle Sleep Educator Programs, as well as the Child Sleep Institute's Night Coach Certification Program. In 2020, Andrea founded the Sleep Coach Collective membership program, where she provides advanced training and mentorship for Sleep Consultants.
Andrea started her sleep practice in 2004 after supporting families as a Birth and Postpartum Doula. Since then she has helped over 10,000 families get better sleep. She also has extensive hands-on experience working with babies throughout the night, which has given her unique learning experiences and perspectives. Andrea is the author of Gentle Night Weaning the Kinder Way, The Kinder Method, and co-author with Jen Varela of Loved to Sleep. Andrea is the Founder of the Child Sleep Institute and the Program Chair of the Sleeposium series of Sleep Conferences, now in their 4th year.