Beginning the Nurture Neuroscience Practitioner Journey: Why the Nurture Revolution Matters to Me

Striving to become the practitioner I needed as a new mum...

Earlier this week, I had the privilege of beginning the Nurture Neuroscience Practitioner Certification training course, alongside a group of like-minded peers from a range of professions (many of whom are also relatively new mums and similarly came to this work through Dr Greer's Nurture Revolution mission). It was incredibly powerful, exciting, and inspiring to be in a space of shared values and shared purpose.

The opening ceremony invited us to slow down (a rare and welcome invitation!), reflect on why we are here, and clarify our intentions for the journey ahead…

As part of this process, we were asked to identify our 'north star' for this work - so here it goes:

At its heart, my intention is to spread the word - and the power - of nurture!

I wish to deepen my own, and others’, trust in instinctive, responsive, attuned, sensitive, attachment-focused nurtured parenting practices. Parenting that is grounded in both neuroscience-informed research and ancestral wisdom (aka pre-app, pre-baby monitors, pre-internet, and pre-social media... She says as a well-practised 3am Googler in the early days/weeks, when I had no idea what I was doing!). Parenting that supports relational security, nervous system regulation, and stress resilience - the protective foundations for lifelong mental health.

I hope to grow the confidence and courage of new parents - empowering them to trust what they already know (even when Dr Google and mainstream parenting advice disagrees) - to lean into their intuition and block out all the noise from our low-nurture culture (even when that comes from well-meaning professionals, friends, and family, despite their best intentions...). I want to give parents permission to go against societal norms (e.g. when 'detachment' advice or separation-based strategies feel instinctively wrong), so they do not experience the same levels of doubt, critique, conflict, confusion, pressure, stigma, overwhelm, sleep deprivation (I could go on), and consequent post-partum anxiety that I did as a new mum.

I also wish to advocate for, and speak on behalf of, all babies - so that emotional connection, physical closeness, dependence, and responsive care (day and night) are recognised as biologically-normal infant needs and expectations, of course alongside the understanding that parents require appropriate support, care, and containment (and sleep!) too to meet their own needs. Ultimately, I hope families feel supported to make fully-informed parenting decisions that are not based on harmful myths around infant care. In many ways, it's about becoming the practitioner I needed, both as a baby and later as a new mother.

Beyond this, I would love to see tribes of nurturing parent support groups grow ('it takes a village' - because parenting was never meant to be done alone) - spaces that care not only for babies, but for mumas too. Spaces that nurture nervous systems (including my own!), and remind us that self-care and rest are essential in nurturing ourselves and our babies (I still have to remind myself of this one on a daily basis!).

Further from a professional perspective, my work as a psychologist initially led me into the area of developmental trauma and the neurobiological impact of adverse early life experiences, such as how early chronic stress shapes brain development and functioning (e.g. through trauma-informed approaches such as the Neurosequential Model in Education) - an area I remain deeply passionate about. However, with the current mental health crisis facing our children today, and the realities of the world they are growing up in, increasingly, I find myself asking - how can we work more preventatively? Accordingly, I hope this training strengthens my commitment to early intervention - proactively supporting families from the very beginning, during sensitive periods of brain development, to promote resilient (rather than sensitised) stress-response systems, and, in turn, long-term mental health resilience.

On a more personal level, I am also drawn to the idea of my own healing and nervous system regulation alongside professional learning – aka 'healing the wounds of the past' and breaking cycles of intergenerational trauma (there's a reason I became a psychologist..!). I also wish to continue growing my capacity to lead with compassion rather than judgement - holding in mind that everyone did their best/is doing the best they can with the information they had/have available to them at the time. You only need to look into the history of sleep training to see that much of this advice emerged from early, male-dominated, behaviourist research and was not grounded in an understanding of babies' (or mothers') nervous systems, attachment needs, or emotional development. Infant distress was historically framed as 'protesting' and parental responsiveness as 'spoiling' (current neuroscience research now shows - you can't spoil a baby!). As a result, behaviour change was prioritised over supporting sleep through attachment, safety, connection, and coregulation. Many argue that certain methods (e.g. 'cry-it-out') just teaches babies not to signal (e.g. that communicating their needs does not bring a response, and what is sometimes described as 'self-soothing' may actually reflect a dissociative 'freeze' response) - a distinction many parents are not made aware of, and one that could carry potential long-term implications for attachment security, relational trust, and the developing stress system.

But I digress! Again, no judgement here - many of us have been there, navigating torturous half-hourly wake ups, operating in survival mode, desperately wishing for that magic wand (spoiler alert - there isn't one!). And this doesn't even touch on the broader societal and systemic pressures (/failures!) that push parents towards quick-fix solutions that promise rest in a system that offers minimal support, such as limited parental leave (especially for fathers and the self-employed), financial pressures to return to work, lack of community and extended family support systems etc... But maybe I'll save that discussion for another blog post!

I don’t/won't have all the answers here (I am always learning and very much a work in progress) and I am far from perfect (she writes, after having a meltdown alongside her two-year-old this morning) - none of us are, nor will be. This mission is not about perfection, it's about permission, connection, and support, as well as reflection, growth, and self-compassion - recognising that the inevitable 'rupture-and-repair' cycle is essential for healthy attachment (something I have to practise often!). Through this, I hope other new parents can move beyond merely surviving, and be supported to thrive.

So there it is - no quick answer..! But this feels like the right time and place to begin an important journey, both personally and professionally. I’m looking forward to seeing where it takes me. Watch this space!