Elizabeth is a parenting specialist who appears on BBC TV and Radio. She was interviewed recently on BBC Breakfast and talks on the BBC about parenting issues on numerous radio shows.

She is an approved educator for the Parent Practice, London and an accredited coach for the Parent Gym, and runs Parenting courses in deprived areas of London.

Elizabeth is qualified to run Webster-Stratton’s Incredible Years’ parenting courses and is also trained to run the ‘Solihull Approach’ parenting course which is the course preferred in West Sussex.

She has over five years’ experience training and supervising Home-Start volunteers who visit families experiencing difficulties.

Elizabeth is trained in delivering adult education with a Certificate in Teaching in the Lifelong Learning Sector (CTLLS).

She started running parenting courses in 2000 and currently runs three parenting courses a week. She has a huge wealth of experience helping parents with their parenting  difficulties.

Elizabeth worked as a parenting specialist for the YMCA working with parents-to-be who had had abuse or neglect in the past to break the cycle.

She has four children of her own, with over 20 years’ parenting experience. She has first hand experience of dealing with the demands of providing 24 hour care for children and all their challenges. She has used the techniques she teaches with all her children, and their achievements are a testimony to the success of the skills she can now pass on to you.

Elizabeth is a member of Parenting UK.

A bit of background

Elizabeth lives with her husband, Maurice, near Horsham. She has four children, Emily, 16, Sophie, 18, George, 21 and Katie, 22. When her youngest child was born she had children aged 0, 2, 4 and 6, and has experienced first-hand the difficulties of

• fussy eaters,
• morning mayhem,
• bedtime battles,
• sleep problems
• and tantrums.

Born in Wimbledon, Elizabeth was raised in Chertsey, Surrey. After completing her degree in Nursing at Kings College, London, she worked as a nurse. She became a Nursing Sister at Dulwich hospital, before taking a career break to raise her four children.

Elizabeth reports

‘I always knew I wanted to be at home with the children, but I found it much more tiring, frustrating and difficult than I had imagined. I knew that I wanted to be the best mother I could to my four children, so read loads of parenting books so I could develop my own skills as a mother’.

Elizabeth went on to teach Positively Parenting classes in 2000, and returned to nursing helping nurses back to the NHS, and working in Accident and Emergency. She then worked for over five years for Home-Start, a charity providing volunteers to give support and friendship to families experiencing difficulties with children under 5. Elizabeth currently works at the YMCA Crawley Family Focus providing parenting courses in deprived schools in Crawley and giving 1:1 support to families under stress and parents-to-be who have had abuse or neglect in the past, break the cycle.

‘In March 2010 I was made redundant and within a fortnight needed an emergency back operation. During that time I decided that I wanted to follow the biggest passion in my life – Enabling parents to be the parents they want to be and have close, lasting  relationships with their children. People have started to realise the sort of value I can offer to their family. So much so that the BBC now call on me as a parenting advisor to help’.

Helping Parents

Elizabeth focusses on helping parents develop their skills to help handle children’s behaviour and to put the fun back into family life. She loves leading parents on a journey during the course which helps them realise the values and attributes they want to pass on to their children and how they can be the family they want to be. She wants to help parents raise children with confidence, self-reliance, self-esteem and who can achieve their full potential. She teaches very practical skills to encourage cooperation, ensure good relationships between parent and child and manage challenging behaviour.

In May 2011 Elizabeth linked with the Parent Practice in London. She took their 10-week course and liked their approach and material so much she is now a Parent Practice Certified Educator, with a licence to teach their materials in Surrey and Sussex.

Elizabeth has also trained with The Parent Gym in London (linked with the Mind Gym). She currently volunteers to provide free parenting courses to parents in London.

Elizabeth’s hope is to give parents in Sussex and Surrey access to some amazingly effective skills and techniques that will make a huge difference to their family lives.