I’m Lotte, the first Certified Gentle Sleep Coach® in Greece.
My background; I studied Social work and Communication but my work experience is mostly in the field of HR.
I’m a happy and very proud mother of a beautiful, smart, stubborn and funny daughter (2022) & son (2020). I’m Dutch, fluent in English and currently working on improving my Greek so I can coach and help families in 3 languages.
Why did I start as a Gentle Sleep Coach?
After my oldest son was born I had no idea of the world of ‘sleep coaching’. To be honest I didn’t need it. There came my daughter. A, what we term, very alert baby. I was aware there would be short nights during the first months while breastfeeding, as this had been my experience with my oldest. I also knew that it would and should end within a reasonable period of time.
When time was passing and a ‘schedule’ was not happening as I thought it would, I had the feeling of going backwards instead of forward. My daughter was happy during daytime, but when it came to sleeping, I didn’t know what to do anymore.
To get her to fall asleep? feeding, rocking, co sleeping and so on. As long as she was touched and not being left alone. Putting her awake in her bed and leaving the room? Impossible!
Google became my enemy. So much information online but where to begin and what coaching method suited our family? I tried ‘cry it out’ and ‘gradual extinction’ because I did not know better. These methods failed, and just made me feel worse.
Time to try something better: I heard about The Shuffle Method by Kim West, aka the Sleep Lady®. I started reading more and applied small changes and things were improving. Finally, after more than one year I was able to say it out loud; "She is sleeping through the night!". I was now able to put her to bed and leave the room, knowing that she would settle herself to sleep. WE DID IT!
Why did I not discover The Shuffle Method earlier, and saved our family many sleepless nights? The experience with my daughter has taught me a lot. It was a wake-up call (excuse the pun) of how important sleep is, and how the lack of sleep impacts the entire family. It was during and because of these struggles my interest and new passion were born where my goal is to support other families in getting the sleep they need.
If you would like to see if sleep coaching will help your tired family, click here to arrange a free 15 minute call...
