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45 minutes for FREE

Please click here to learn about my FREE 45 minute INTRODUCTORY CONSULTATION,
and why I believe it is essential to offer them ...

Client Testimonials

Please  click here to read a sample of the testimonials The Baby Calmer has received from recent clients.
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ANNOUNCING OUR NEW CLINIC LOCATION:
 
Anne Thistleton: The Baby Calmer and Anne Thistleton Counselling are now operating from Sadliers Crossing, Ipswich. 
 
Home visiting (within the Ipswich, Brisbane, Gold Coast, Sunshine Coast and Toowoomba areas) and zoom sessions (worldwide) are still available, however, all face-to-face clinic sessions will now be held in our new Ipswich rooms. 
 
Our postal address remains the same: PO Box 627, Mount Ommaney, QLD, 4074.
 
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Having arrived at this website, chances are that something is calling you to seek help or support, to learn more about parenting and relationships, or to look at ways to heal or transform aspects of your life that currently impact on you and/or your whole family.  Whatever it is that brought you here - Welcome!

Why Choose Anne Thistleton: The Baby Calmer?

  • Are you feeling overwhelmed by the plethora of conflicting parenting information and advice currently available online and offered within your local community?
  • Are you unwilling to potentially expose your baby, toddler or young child to punitive parenting practices or philosophies that do not honour the attachment and bonding process between parents and their children?
  • Are you seeking qualified parenting support that embraces the most current holistic research, and accurately shares and supports what we know to be the 'optimal' conditions for infant and early years development?
  • Are you struggling to find a parenting support service that provides and guarantees safe, gentle, emotion-focused, attachment theory based sleep advice?
  • Are you open to cutting edge early parenting information, advice and support? 
  • Are you willing to step into a process that will help guide you towards the most developmentally appropriate and therapeutically beneficial options, to enhance your parenting skills and capacity, and create a significant positive difference to your current parenting concerns and / or your baby, toddler or young child's current presenting issues?
Hello, I'm Anne Thistleton (B.Ed; M.REd; M.Couns; Grad. Dip. Nut Med - MHealth; Cert EF & TTh; Cert SP & SW; CIMI) aka The Baby Calmer and Anne Thistleton Counselling. 
 
HUG Your Baby - Anne Thistleton Image
The services that I currently offer, aim to support infants, toddlers, young children, teenagers and adults.  I predominantly support new parents and families as an Infant and Early Years Sleep Therapist, Infant and Early Years Parenting Consultant and Educator, and in my work as a qualified Psychotherapist.   I specialise in supporting families through a range of challenges that might occur during the pre, peri and postnatal period ... in particular early parenting challenges, pre and post natal depression, birth trauma for parents, babies, children, adults and birth workers, PTSD, bonding and attachment disruption, marital/relationship stress, family conflict, etc, along with helping individuals who present with: grief and loss issues, challenging and misunderstood behaviours (in particular, for young children and adolescents), ADD/ADHD, ASD, and experiences of school/workplace bullying & harassment.  As a qualified Mental Health Nutritionist, I assist clients who are seeking to support their mental health with nutritional medicine.
 
My parenting support, advice and information is predominantly based on current neuroscience, attachment theory and research, epigenitics, neurobiology, psycho-neuroimmunology, sociology, pre and perinatal psychology, emotion-focused frameworks and philosophies and our basic, human biologcial and emotional needs.  And whilst all this science is important, I also aim to support clients to return to their own inner guidance, and their own unique way ... towards calmer parenting, calmer children, calmer families, calmer relationships and calmer lives.
 
My counselling services are offered within a framework that includes practical support and advice, including talking therapy ... as well as paying attention to somatic processes and responses, and emotional and meaning making processes and responses (utilising somatic experiencing, sandplay therapy, aromatherapy and craniosacral therapy).  This helps clients to 'get to places' that talking doesn't reach. 
 
The full range of services I offer (click here for more details)

My qualifications and training (click here to learn more about me) afford me the opportunity to offer clients the benefits of over sixteen years of extensive tertiary, university and post grad training in the fields of education, counselling, emotion focused and transpersonal therapy, sandplay therapy, nutritional medicine, pre and perinatal psychology; clinical birth trauma therapy; aromatherapy; somatic experiencing; and craniosacral therapy, along with almost thirty years of employment and clinical experience supporting children, parents and families in a range of educational and therapeutic contexts.

In my clinical practice, I am professionally supervised and mentored by some of the world's leading experts in early parenting, bonding and attachment; infant and early years development; pre and perinatal psychology, and clinical birth trauma therapy.

Once again, I would like to welcome you to this website, and I look forward to offering a safe space, and an empathic and non-judgemental listening ear, to help support you and carry you through this challenging time?

Warmly,
Anne Thistleton
 
 
 

How Can The Baby Calmer Help?

The Baby Calmer offers a unique range of clinic, telephone, email, skype and in-home services, to provide safe, gentle, emotion focussed approaches, practical guidance, effective solutions and therapeutically nurturing support, to parents of infants, toddlers and young children who are seeking assistance with one or more of the following:

  • an infant, toddler or young child’s sleep challenges - such as difficulty falling or staying asleep, multiple night wakings, disorganised sleep patterns, nightmares, night terrors, head banging and/or body rocking, fear of sleep,  fear of sleep space, day and/or night separation issues.
  • an inconsolable (crying), fussy, colicky, unsettled, reflux or high needs baby, breast and/or bottle feeding rejection, car travelling issues, separation anxiety.
  • a toddler or young child’s behaviour challenges – such as food and eating issues, toileting issues, sibling rivalry, new baby jealousy, tantrums, biting, hitting, head banging, whinging, aggression, obsessions, social skills.
  • counselling services for parents affected by the impact of a traumatic or unexpected birth experience, pre and post-natal depression, PTSD.
  • individual, family or parenting support, education, counselling and/or mentoring services.

Please click on the toolbar at the top of the page titled 'The Baby Calmer's Services' for a more comprehensive overview.

Click here to learn how to arrange your COMPLIMENTARY, personalised, 45-minute, introductory telephone consultation with The Baby Calmer  ... TODAY!

 

 

NO Controlled Crying - Guaranteed!

Clients can be assured that The Baby Calmer will NEVER recommend, teach or use any forms of controlled crying, controlled comforting, comfort settling, responsvie settling, spaced soothing, self-settling, self soothing or any other ignoring strategies when working with families.  The Baby Calmer DOES NOT TEACH SLEEP TRAINING to parents.  Rather, The Baby Calmer offers an emotion-focused, therapeutic sleep support service. 

Any practitioner with an appropriate understanding of the workings of the mother-infant attachment and bonding process, the neuropsychobiology of infant development and the impact of early trauma, would never recommend any form of ‘sleep training techniques’ to parents. Although the idea behind cry-it-out, controlled crying, controlled comforting, spaced soothing, comfort settling or responsive settling is to teach babies to learn how to to ‘self-settle’ or ‘self-soothe’ themselves to sleep, what parents aren’t being told by ‘sleep trainers’ is not only are these sleep training methods harmful to infant and early years development, but also, that babies need and rely on external regulation and support from caregivers to help them to sleep, especially during the first three years of life.

The Baby Calmer's professional philosophies and approaches to supporting and guiding parents and their babies, toddlers and young children are very much based on over a decade of university training, further post grad study and professional development, sound research, attachment theory, emotion-focused and therapeutic frameworks, and current insights into best practice for infant and early years development and the mother-infant attachment and bonding process.  As such, a strong focus is placed on supporting, fostering and preserving both the attachment process as well as the physical and emotional bonding and connection that occurs between parents and their baby, toddler or young child. 

A baby, toddler or young child's cry is ALWAYS worthy of a caregiver's immediate response.  No baby, toddler or young child is ever left alone to cry when working with The Baby Calmer.  It simply won't happen ... GUARANTEED!

The Baby Calmer's Sleep Centre

The Baby Calmer's Sleep Centre provides a more economical option for parents who feel comfortable exploring the theoretical and practical aspects of facilitating 'Gentle, Peaceful, Therapeutic Sleep" for their baby, toddler or young child in a therapeutically educational setting, whilst independently implementing their learnings once they return to their own home environment. 

Day Stay - "Sleep Well" Consultations at The Baby Calmer's Sleep Centre are currently available Monday to Saturday.  "Sleep Well" half day consultations (up to 4 hours commencing at 9.30 am or 1.30 pm) are available for parents of newborns (birth to 12 weeks) and full day consultations are available fo parents of newborns and all other age babies, toddlers and young children (approximately 6-8 hours, commencing at 9.30 am).

Overnighters and Residential Retreat Support Packages are available for mothers and babies outside of the Brisbane area, or for those who are seeking more intensive support.

Click here to learn more ...

The Baby Calmer's Newborn Clinic

The Baby Calmer's Newborn Clinic caters for parents and babies aged from birth to twelve weeks, and is available as a half or full day-stay clinic visit, a residential overnighter or extended retreat package, a six hour in-home consultation or via extended in-home support packages, hospital to home support packages, or as a skype and/or telephone consultation.  The Baby Calmer's Newborn Clinic services can be tailored to meet your individual needs.  The Baby Calmer's Newborn Clinic provides therapeutic support and resolution to the following issues:

Newborn Sleep Challanges
Attachment and Bonding Disruption
Inconsolable Crying
Breast and Bottle Feeding Rejection
Car Seat Crying
Separation Anxiety
PTSD/Postnatal Depression

Additional Newborn Clinic Services Include:

Birth Story Listening and Birth Story Healing - for Parents, Babies and Professionals
Prenatal, Perinatal, Postnatal and Birth Trauma Counselling and Support - for Parents, Babies, Toddlers and Young Children
Pre and Postnatal Depression Counselling
Infant Massage Classes.

  ... click here to learn more.

Calm Connections

Gentle Parenting Support and Mentoring Group for New Mothers: Are you a new mother who is seeking support, mentoring and companionship?  Look no further than Calm Connections!

Facilitated by The Baby Calmer aka Anne Thistleton (BEd MREd MCouns), Calm Connections is a 'Mother's Support and Mentoring Group' that aims to meet the needs of new mothers who are seeking companionship, support and mentoring within a gentle parenting framework.

Next 'Calm Connections' ... T.B.A   ... read more