Hi I’m Nicola. Mother of, Registered Nurse and Certified Sleep Consultant and I am studying a Post Gradate in Developmental Psychology. 

I began helping families achieve better sleep 3.5 years ago. After having 2 children close together and a FIFO husband I struggled with sleep with my second child for too many months before seeking help. I figured I am a second time mum and a smart woman, surely I can figure this all out. With underlying feeding issues and non existing sleep we were all stressed and miserable.

At my breaking point my husband encouraged me to see a psychologist. We were all feeling the massive side effects of no sleep and the changes of a new addition to the family. She listened, allowed me to cry and vent and in the end she kindly said “You need to get some sleep so we can really know what is going on here. We have no idea what is your baseline right now because you are so sleep deprived”. I left there feeling validated. Yes this was not normal and not healthy for us and it is OK to seek help for this. Seeking help with sleep was something I had considered but kept putting off in the hope things would improve.

I contacted a sleep consultant and although sleep did improve I was still stressed and so was my baby for a few months while I worked on things and did my own research. I left this experience wondering and constantly thinking there must be a better way – I way I could have felt more supported and to see improvements much faster for all of us. This lead to studying to become a Sleep Consultant. Unfortunately, this still wasn’t enough – I was again left with the feeling there was something missing. My education still didn’t feel like it gave me enough knowledge to support families how I had hoped for.

This is when I contacted Tara. I knew our philosophy around sleep and family aligned, like myself she has a strong background in health and is a mother herself. Saying I was lucky is an understatement but when Tara had the ability to begin to expand TGSS I was ecstatic to join. Tara mentored and trained me and finally it all fell into place. These were the pieces that were missing that in my gut I knew there was so much more to creating lasting and purposeful changes to families.

Since beginning with Tara at The Gentle Sleep Specialist I have worked with hundreds of families and I am constantly learning from every family I work with. Families are my why. I am so passionate about not having parents just “survive” these early years. There should not be an expectation that we must accept that we will have broken sleep year after year and accept the impact it has on our parenting, our relationships and the joy in life.

I do not accept this for myself and I would never accept it for my children. They deserve to flourish and have healthy sleep foundations set for them in the early years. I have been able to see how establishing these in my own family has allowed my children to thrive, myself to return to working, changing careers, study, manage a FIFO family and relationship and truly enjoy all of it. 

Seeing families thrive is why I do what I do and I am lucky enough to be able to do it with the best in the business here at The Gentle Sleep Specialist.
Nic xx