The Parent Practice has been established in SW London since 2004. Our skills are based on ideas drawn from many different sources, including Neuro Linguistic programming and Systemic Family Therapy.

Everyone who works at The Parent Practice is a parent, encountering the everyday challenges that all parents face. Whilst none of us is a perfect parent, our own family lives have been enriched, and for many of us transformed, so we are all passionate about passing on the skills and strategies.

Melissa Hood

Melissa did her initial parenting training at The New Learning Centre in London. Having completed their Teacher Training Programme in 1998 she was a parenting facilitator and teacher in their tutorial programme for six years until it closed in July 2004. She began running parent services; Parenting Skills Classes, Parent Workshops and Parent and Family Consultations in Clapham in 2000. Camilla McGill joined her in 2002 and the business evolved to become The Parent Practice in 2004. Melissa supplemented her parenting training with a certificate in Family Therapy from the Institute of Family Therapy at Birkbeck College. She has also trained in Neuro Linguistic Programming, Group dynamics and Non-verbal communication (through International Teaching Seminars and NVI International) and trained in supporting separated families with the Centre for Separated Families.

Melissa brings wisdom, a wealth of experience and sensitivity to her work with parents. As well as being responsible for design and development Melissa is head of training at The Parent Practice. She currently heads up The Parent Practice Australia but is still very involved in the London operation and often makes guest appearances.

Melissa had sought help with her own parenting when her middle child was diagnosed with dyslexia, in 1997. He had frequently been in trouble at school through impulsive, aggressive and disruptive behaviour and Melissa and her husband John wanted to address this behaviour as well as helping him academically. The skills they learnt at the Parenting Skills Classes transformed their family life as they learnt how to communicate more positively and to improve each of the children's confidence.

Born in Australia, Melissa was educated in Singapore and Australia and moved to London with her husband in 1986. She is a mother of three, a daughter now aged 26 and two sons aged 24 and 21. She started her working life as a solicitor but stopped when her youngest child was born to spend more time as a parent. She then worked part time as a decorative painter satisfying latent creative urges at the same time as being a hands-on mother.

Elaine Halligan

Elaine came into parenting thinking she should innately know how to do it? Often felt guilty when she thought she had done a bad job? Often felt ashamed when she saw someone else parenting the way she wished she could? Being a parent is for her one of the most demanding jobs she has ever done but equally it is a role filled with joy.

Elaine is a mother of a 14 year old boy and an 11 year old girl and is passionate about helping families bring out the best in their children and teenagers to help them have good self esteem and value themselves for who they are. “Encouraging good behaviour and knowing how to ensure your children feel good about themselves is essential for a happy home and calm family.”

She has been a parenting facilitator for 6 years with The Parent Practice having trained at The New Learning Centre in London in 2002-2004; done work with the Landmark Forum and also trained under Bonnie Harris in “Connective Parenting”. She has helped hundreds of families by teaching very practical skills and strategies to encourage cooperation; raise self esteem; encourage self reliance and ensure great communication between parent and child. Managing challenging behaviour;

temper tantrums and grunting teenagers can be a thing of the past as she helps clients understand their children’s temperament and how to work with it. Has a special interest in a variety of Special Educational Needs including dsylexia; dyspraxia and discalculia.

Raised in Edinburgh and after completing a law degree qualified as a Scottish Chartered Accountant with Deloitte Haskins and Sells before joining Coopers and Lybrand Corporate Finance department. Spent time with Accountancy Tuition Centres teaching Business Management and Business Finance – motivating students to pass their ACA professional exams. Now motivating parents to bring out the best in their children. Lives in London with New Zealand husband Tony and 2 ADHD cocker spaniels.

Sue Kumleben

Sue has been working in the parenting field since 2002. She was trained at The New Learning Centre in Northwest London where she taught until 2004, helping children who had been excluded from school learn strategies that would allow them to return to main stream education. Sue joined The Parent Practice team in 2003. She has done work with The Landmark Forum and has trained under Bonnie Harris, earning a certificate as an “Effective Parenting Educator”.

Perhaps her most practical education has come through her own experience as a parent. Sue’s eldest child was very temperamentally challenging at home and was so unhappy at school that he was home-tutored for two years from the age of 7. The strategies that Sue and her husband developed using The Parent Practice skills enabled him to return to full time school. He is now a remarkably confident, gentle, hardworking teenager who was accepted into Westminster for 6th Form. Sue’s other two children, a 15 year old son and 12 year old daughter, have also benefited enormously from the calmer atmosphere at home and from the skills that she is now able to teach them. Sue reports that she loves the changes that have happened in her own life; “I am now more likely to burst out laughing when something goes wrong than blow my top. Much better for everyone.”

Sue was born and raised in the U.S. From early days an Anglophile, she financed several trips to Europe by teaching figure skating. After graduating from Williams College, Sue took a law degree from the University of Virginia. In 1992, after two years each at a Wall Street law firm and Remy Martin, she moved to London with her South African husband Paul. While pregnant with their third child, Sue earned a Masters in Voluntary Sector work at the LSE.

Sue is a warm, inspirational teacher who brings empathy and thoroughness to her teaching. She is constantly reading and studying around the field of parenting and frequently brings fresh ideas and new material to the whole Parent Practice team. Her dedication to her students is second to none. Sue is also seeing how the skills can be applied from birth as her nanny Paula brings her toddler to the house three days a week.

Linda Stevens

Linda founded The Stevens Company in 1989 and the firm became one of the most successful Recruitment and Career Consultancies operating in the media and communications industry of the last two decades.  Linda has worked with hundreds of  blue-chip companies such as BBC, Channel 4, Coca-Cola, ITV, Microsoft and WPP in the UK and Overseas and found graduates, middle managers and chief executives their dream roles.

In October 2010 The Parent Practice Media was launched as a JV between The Parent Practice Media and The Stevens Company.  Linda's vision of the new operation is to help working parents achieve equal success at home and in the workplace and to create the work-life balance they aspire to.  She believes employers will also benefit from the service as studies show that motivation, performance and the bottom-line improve with Employer Supported Parenting Programmes.

Trying to juggle a demanding media career with children is tough and can sometimes become an impossibility and Linda knows exactly how difficult this is as she recalls the relentless challenges and sometimes heartache of balancing the needs of her three children, family life and the demands of a growing career.  Prior to setting up The Stevens Company Linda held a number of senior roles in the london media industry and was Joint Sales Contoller of Thames Televsion, the first ever female Media Director of Geers Gross and Group Sales Manager, Granada Television.

Throughout her working career Linda was fortunate enough to benefit from a vast array of business training courses to develop leadership and conflict management skills, presentation and public speaking capabilites and team building talents.  All excellent career-building courses but like a football game her life was made up of two important halves and none of these courses addressed the other half, her desire to be a better mum and to do the very best job she could for her children. With this in mind, Linda attended a Parenting Programme run by The New Learning Centre in 1998 and with The Parent Practice in 2005 and she describes the results as life-changing.

"The communication skills, tools and techniques I acquired on the courses were so powerful. I came away inspired and fully equipped to give of my best to Lucy, James and Daisy. Without doubt, the courses enabled us to build the strong, lasting and effective relationships we enjoy today and for them to be 'comfortable in their own skin'. Lucy (28) is a Manager at Sky Media, James (25) is working in Australia and Daisy (21) is in her final year reading Politics at Leeds University and to quote them "As Mum's go, you're done a pretty good job!" I guess it doesn't get much better than that!".

In May/June 2010, Linda completed The Parent Practice Training for Trainers course and has demonstrated competence in parenting and facilitation skills. Linda is a volunteer at The Baytree Centre, an Educational Charity based in Brixton where she is a mentor of the PEACH programme (Parents Education Achievement and Character) and is taking The Parent Practice skills and knowledge to help less fortunate teenage girls and their parents.  She is a member of The Baytree Fundraising and Events Team and was recognised as The Baytree Centre Mentor of The Year in June 2010.

Linda has been involved in helping people achieve their potential in one form or another for most of her adult life. She is currently taking the International Teaching Seminars NLP Practitioner Certification Programme run by Ian McDermott, the world's foremost authority on NLP Coaching. Linda is passionate about taking her NLP coaching skills and making an even bigger difference to the lives of parents and children from all walks of life.

Linda and Daisy live together in South London with their two rag-doll cats and an ever-increasing number of wonderful friends and family who 'dip in and dip out'!

Jenny Robinson

Jenny was introduced to the Parent Practice in 2010 when she participated on the Facilitators Course.  She came with a background in psychology, with a Psychology degree from Bristol University.  'Whilst doing my degree I was absolutely fascinated in how the human brain develops, how our personality is formed and what is nature vs nuture'.  Her thesis was in Child Development.  Post university Jenny became a corporate finance banker and worked for Barclays and Credit Suisse first in London and in Hong Kong.  She and her husband then spent five years living in Japan.  It was when she had quit work so she could bring up her four young children that her interest in psychology was re-ignited.  'With four children aged 6, 4, 2 and newborn, I felt a strong desire to make sure that I had the right parenting tool kit to ensure that I bought my children up in a calm household, that enabled them to become capable, independent people, with a strong sense of self worth, a passion for life and an ability to relate well to other people.  Since this time Jenny has attended numerous other Parent Practice and other parenting courses.

Lizzie Nicholson

Having trained initially as a teacher, Lizzie assumed that bringing up children would be second nature. “My first two children arrived just a year apart and by the time they were toddlers, I was tearing my hair out and had become the exasperated shouting mother I had never wanted to be. I went to seek help from the Parent Practice and the skills they imparted revolutionised my home life. The biggest change has been in the morning routine. I used to feel like a nag getting everyone out of the door in the morning, but now I can employ methods to make sure things go calmly with a splash of humour thrown in! The effects are thrilling and the work is a driving force in my family life. – I feel so lucky to have found this!’

Lizzie was born in the Derbyshire Peak Districtand went to teacher training college to do a BA (QTS).  She graduated as a teacher in 1997 and moved to London to teach in prep schools first in Fulham and later in Putney. In 2003, Lizzie put her teaching career on hold in order to have children of her own. She now lives in Fulham with her husband Dan and her three children Lucinda 9, Theo 8 and Trinity, 3 and is involved with the Fulham branch of The Parent Practice. 

She brings to the work enormous enthusiasm and empathy and having been both a parent and teacher enables her to understand particularly well the difficulties parents sometimes have in supporting their children in education. She has unique insights into how to establish productive relationships with schools to create the kind of partnership that will really support children. She is also incredibly creative and has a real knack for using the skills at home in new and effective ways.

Juliet Richards

Juliet has been a facilitator at TPP since 2008 and first came as a parent in 2004. At that time, she enrolled on the Positive Parenting Course desperately seeking any effective way to keep her pre-school sons either still or quiet. Although she did not make a lot of progress on the volume and speed issues, she did find many skills and techniques which helped her in other areas, and a much greater understanding about her children's development. In particular, she relished the effect of creating a positive atmosphere, and notes the difference between her first son's first words which were "no" "stop" and "down" to her second son's first words which were "marmite" and "tractor". The skills have enabled her to feel that she is on the same side as the boys, and she and her husband are able to actively pass on the values that they feel are important. And when things start to get tough, she feels she has resources and ideas to draw on, which have enabled everyone in the family to gain in confidence.....

Juliet was born and brought up in Kent, and was educated there and in London. She now lives in Clapham with her husband Paul and their two sons, aged 7 and 8 years old. After formal education, she worked at various financial advertising agencies, before joining a PR firm in the City.

From there, she worked at NatWest Markets and J.P. Morgan helping manage their marketing communications programmes. The communication skills acquired in her former working life stand Juliet in good stead as a facilitator and her presenting style is clear, empathetic and humorous.

Ann Magalhaes

Ann is the latest addition to the Parent Practice facilitation team.  She came to The Parent Practice in 2008 on the advice of two friends who knew that she would love the work so much that she would quite possibly go on to teach it!  She didn't feel that she was experiencing significant challenges with her daughter, but she did know that she could definitely be parenting in a much more effective way. “Four years on, I’m really seeing the results. It feels so great to have skills to manage all the challenges that each stage of parenting keeps throwing my way!”  An avid reader of books about parenting and leadership, she brings a wealth of experience and creativity to her work.

John Hood

John joined The Parent Practice at its inception helping with its creation in 2003 and thereafter running the office and being the first point of contact for clients. In 2009 John also took the facilitators training and then started to facilitate courses and workshops – especially those for fathers where John could bring a male point of view to the teaching.

John is married to Melissa Hood one of the co-founders of the business. They have three children, a daughter of 25 and two sons of 22 and 20. John initially become involved with positive parenting techniques in the late 1990’s when he attended a series of courses at The New Learning Centre in North London.

John was born and brought up in London and Dorset. He now lives in Clapham with Melissa. After formal education, he worked first as a civil engineer in both Sydney and then London and then in 1992 moved into finance with Chemical Bank. John thereafter worked for Chase Manhattan and JP Morgan until 2003 and has since worked on a freelance basis as well as with The Parent Practice.

Eleanor Potter

El joined The Parent Practice in April 2010 as our Office Manager, and she is most likely the person you will speak to when you call us.

She was brought up and educated in Surrey and after completing a marketing degree in Bristol she worked in various marketing agencies in London. She then took a career break and went travelling around the world, and returned seeking a more fulfilling line of work, which led her to The Parent Practice.

She now lives in Chiswick with her husband David. She is a very hands on Auntie to her 2 year old nephew and 6 month old niece who, along with TPP, are standing her in great stead for the future.

Her agency background puts El in a great position to manage our busy office, and to be the friendly reassuring voice on the end of the phone.”