Gentle Sleep Meets Gentle Potty Training: The Story Behind Our New Course

Gentle Sleep Meets Gentle Potty Training: The Story Behind Our New Course

For years and years as The Sleep Lady, I’ve been asked by my clients and then later my Gentle Sleep Coaches to also become “The Potty Lady”. Well, I won’t necessarily be changing into the “Potty Lady”, but I am excited to share that I will be offering a gentle approach to potty training that I created with my team – the Gentle Potty Coaching course.  

 

The Need for Gentle Potty Training

I discovered that once parents are introduced to Gentle Parenting tactics like gentle sleep training, they want to implement the “gentle” approach for all major transitions in their child’s life –  including potty training. As The Sleep Lady, I have a large network of child experts I have referred to, and I had a hard time finding someone who taught gentle potty training methods. There were definitely a couple of great options out there, but they didn’t have the space or time to take on the number of clients that were asking me for potty training help. 

As I started training more and more Gentle Sleep Coaches, they also began to have requests from their sleep clients to help with potty training. Many parents would try potty training approaches that were very “boot camp” oriented and it wasn’t the right fit for their family. Some of my sleep coaches even tried to become potty coaches through other programs, only to find out that those courses didn’t factor in important lessons like temperament, sensory differences, etc. 

 

My Wake-Up Call

I honestly kept putting off the requests for a potty training course, thinking that there were gentle approaches available for parents somewhere. But then, I heard that certain potty training methods were telling parents that if they didn’t night train their child, the bladder muscles would atrophy and the child will struggle “indefinitely with bedwetting”. I couldn’t believe it! I even verified this false information with my pediatric medical doctor colleagues who all agreed that this claim was false. I couldn’t believe this was what most potty courses were teaching – and that most parents had to deal with this worry! 

The Creation of The Gentle Potty Coaching Course

This time I didn’t want to create a gentle potty course all on my own so I reached out to a fellow social worker who was also one of my Gentle Sleep Coaches. Brandi Jordan, MSW, IBCLC was the perfect fit to help me create what I think is truly the first Gentle Potty Coaching Course. Brandi was already familiar with my gentle sleep methods, and couldn’t agree more with my views of the harmful existing potty training “expert” advice. We knew parents needed a gentle, less “boot-camp”  approach to potty training. We rolled up our sleeves and created the Gentle Potty Coaching course as an intuitive toilet learning method.  We created the course to be: 

• Stress-free
• Non-punitive 
• Shame free
• Culturally competent
• Gender Inclusive 
• Temperament based
  

Together, Brandi and I trained our first small group of coaches to become Gentle Potty Coaches. I kept going back to one coach, in particular, Alexis, who as a Gentle Sleep Coach was begging for me to train her in potty methods. As a parent, Alexis had tried and failed with the boot camp methods of potty training and agreed the world needed a more gentle potty approach that considered a child’s temperament and sensory differences.

Alexis added Gentle Potty Coaching to her sleep coaching business and it exploded! We are using her real-world experience to help guide you thru this course so that you can feel calm and confident in your potty coaching plan!

You Don’t Need to Fear Potty Training

When most parents hear “potty training” they automatically think “struggle.” We asked parents what one word or emotion comes to mind with potty training. We heard everything from anxiety, panic, stress, fear, failure and so many more. 

Our goal is to offer an alternative to the frustrating, rigid, and one-size-fits-all potty training techniques that have become mainstream! We want to break through the overwhelm and provide parents with a proven, scientifically-backed, gentle process that WORKS. We want you to feel calm and confident in your potty plan so no child or parent feels “behind” or like they’re getting it all wrong and instead can use this milestone as a time of growth, enrichment and celebration!

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