Melissa Hood                                 

Melissa was born in Australia but has lived in Singapore, the Philippines and Australia. She was educated in Singapore (primary school) and Australia (secondary school and university) and in 1982 married John, and later moved to London where she has lived with her family since 1986. She is a mother of three, a girl now aged 22 and two boys aged 20 and 18.

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.

Melissa discovered parenting classes 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 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.

Melissa trained with The New Learning Centre in their Calmer, Easier, Happier Parenting methods. Having completed the Teacher Training Programme in 1998 she was a teacher in the Time Out Programme at the centre in West Hampstead for six years until this programme closed in July 2004. She began running parent services; Parenting Skills Classes, Parent Workshops and Parent and Family Sessions, from her home at Clapham South in 2000 as The New Learning Centre South. Camilla McGill joined her in 2002 and the business evolved to become The Parent Practice in 2004. In 2005 Melissa successfully completed a certificate course in Family Therapy run by the Institute of Family Therapy at Birkbeck College. She is a certified practitioner in Neuro Linguistic Programming and has completed training in Group Mastery, a non-verbal communication skills course. Melissa has also trained with the Centre for Separated Families to help families through the difficult process of separation. 

Melissa brings wisdom, a wealth of experience and sensitivity to her work with parents. She is head of training at The Parent Practice and has just trained several new facilitators.

 

 

Camilla McGill

Camilla McGill (nee Style) was born and raised in London, the youngest of 4 children. She lives in London and has four children, two boys aged 12 and 10yrs and two girls aged 6 and 4yrs.

She was educated at Godolphin and Latymer Girls school in Hammersmith after which she lived Paris studying French Language and Literature.  She then studied and worked as a Reflexologist and Nutrition Consultant running a thriving practice in London. She went on to study many different areas of communication including Neurolinguistic Programming, Hypnotherapy and Counselling.

She formed NiceStyle Training Workshops in 1992 and ran a training and development consultancy working with the staff within a number of large banks and management consultancies including Goldman Sachs and McKinsey & Co. Her work was with individuals and teams, teaching them ways to increase personal effectiveness and motivation to improve their productivity.

She wound down her consultancy work after her second child was born and was looking for a course to train to be a better parent.  Having discovered that Melissa Hood was running the Calmer Easier Happier parenting programme in Clapham South she began it immediately. Both her husband, Paul, and Camilla were struggling to manage their eldest child who was nearly 3 years old at the time. Whilst at times delightful and entertaining, he could be defiant, un-cooperative and aggressive. Camilla felt that the pleasure and joy of being a parent was severely lacking from her experience. The skills she learnt in the classes proved absolutely invaluable. Over a period of three months their son transformed.  The change in his behaviour was marked and the teachers at his nursery school were intrigued to witness it. 

Soon after joining the class Camilla felt drawn to training to be a parent leader. Her background in training and development with professionals dovetailed perfectly with working with parents. She trained with Melissa and at the New Learning Centre in West Hampstead where she also taught children in the Time Out Programme prior to having her third child.  She is passionate about the work she does and feels immensely grateful to be involved in work that is inspiring and life-changing. Camilla loves working with parents of children of all ages, inspiring them to make positive changes in their lives and the lives of their children. Having used the principles with her children from a very young age she really enjoys helping parents of the under 5s especially around bedtime routines, mealtimes and food, adapting to nursery and adapting to new siblings. Like all the facilitators, Camilla is completely non-judgemental and has a great sense of humour.

 

 

Sue Kumleben 

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 husband Paul.

They now have three children, two boys aged 15 and 13 and a 10 year old girl. While pregnant with her third, Sue earned a Masters in Voluntary Sector work at the LSE in expectation of shifting careers.

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Sue moved into the parenting field in 2002 when she took the Parenting Skills course through The New Learning Centre (“TNLC”). She was so impressed by the skills and their affect on her own family that she took TNLC’s Teacher Training Programme, teaching at their school until it ceased offering classes in 2004. Sue joined The Parent Practice team in 2003.  

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Why did she get involved in parenting in the first place? Sue says she wished she could brag that she recognised how useful such training could be for a parent. In fact, her eldest child was very temperamentally challenging at home and  had been so unhappy at school that he was being home-tutored. 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. Sue’s other two children have also benefited enormously from the calmer atmosphere at home and from the skills that she is now able to teach them.

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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. 

 

 Elaine Halligan

Elaine Halligan was raised in Edinburgh, Scotland and completed a law degree at Edinburgh University in 1988. She spent a year travelling and working in Southern Africa where she met her husband Tony, a New Zealander. After qualifying as a chartered accountant with Deloitte Haskins and Sells in Edinburgh, she moved to Coopers and Lybrand corporate Finance department in London, where she now lives with her husband and two children: a boy aged 13 and a girl aged 10.

 

In 1998 to 2003 Elaine worked as a lecturer with Accountancy Tuition Centre in London and taught Business Management and Business Finance to a wide range of clients from Arthur Andersen to KPMG. Her work was in the classroom working with individuals and motivating them to pass their ACA professional exams.

 

She joined The Parent Practice after undergoing an intensive two year behaviour programme at The New Learning Centre in 2002, in order to help her son who was struggling to find a suitable school placement. The skills and techniques the whole family has learnt have dramatically transformed life for everyone and are making the teenage years manageable. Elaine joined the Parent Practice team in 2004 and teaches regular classes, together with workshops in both school and corporate settings.  Elaine is a down-to-earth and empathetic teacher. She brings humour and energy into her work and has a particular interest in special educational needs both from dealing with her dyslexic son and from working with many parents.