What is holistic sleep coaching?

You may have noticed I say I take a holistic approach to sleep, but what does that even mean and how can holistic sleep coaching help your child with getting better sleep?

Oxford Languages defines holistic as: “characterized by the treatment of the whole person, taking into account mental and social factors, rather than just the symptoms of a disease.”

Merriam Webster defines holistic as: “relating to or concerned with wholes or with complete systems rather than with the analysis of, treatment of, or dissection into parts”

Okay, so really, what does this mean?

Let’s talk about it. Taking a holistic approach to sleep means that I look at the big picture. So, if you tell me your child is waking 3 times at night, I can’t just give you strategies to eliminate the wakings. I mean, technically yes, I could give you strategies to use and sure they may work for some time, however we wouldn’t be addressing why these wakings are happening.

When I work with a family, I am going to assess the whole child. I have a detailed intake form that is multiple pages. I’m going to ask you questions about everything from pregnancy and birth, to developmental milestones, to family dynamics, to the sleep environment and more.

I know you are tired, and I understand this can seem excessive, but it is important. With a holistic approach, we work together to get to the why. The underlying reason why your child is having issues with sleep.

At the same time, I take developmental expectations and biological norms into consideration around sleep. Again, what does this mean? If you have a newborn who is waking up three times overnight, then that is normal. We can talk about how to set up healthy sleep habits and optimize sleep, but there are many things with newborn sleep that are both challenging and normal.

With a holistic sleep coaching, we are going to dig deep. 

We are going to look at the overall schedule, the routines, the daily activities, and so much more. I’m going to ask about things that you may not think are important to sleep, but there’s a reason I’m asking. 

Since I take a holistic approach, it makes it really hard to hand out general advice.

Every family and child is truly unique. The factors causing a sleep issue for one family can be different for another. Also, the strategies and changes that will work can vary for each family. 

Keeping with the example of night wakings, there are so many things that can cause wakings overnight. As mentioned, they can be developmentally normal based on age. In fact, they are truly normal for everyone as we all wake between sleep cycles, we just don’t remember it. For another child, night wakings could be due to too much day sleep. Another child, they could need more day sleep. For another child, issues with nutrition could lead to night wakings. Light exposure could also affect night wakings. These are just a few examples of different factors that could contribute to this one issue of night wakings. Many times, too, it can be a combination of factors. 

In my experiences, there are usually a combination of adjustments that need to be made along with strategies for responding to whatever it is we are working on. This is why I value a holistc approach to sleep so that we can work to get to the root of going on and make changes that will work

I recognize that every family is different, and a holistic approach may not be for everyone and I respect that. 

However, if holistic sleep coaching sounds like something you would be interested in, then let’s talk! You can schedule a free discovery call so that we can chat and get to know each other and figure out which package would be best for your family and I can also answer any questions about my approach and process that you may have.