Meet Katie
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Certified Trauma Informed Cleft Coach, Teacher and Artist
Helping you raise a resilient, independent and confident child with full cleft support
"I loved the sessions so much and how they made me feel. I was feeling a little broken and now I'm feeling wholesome. Katie you are a remarkable teacher and coach!"
Megan, Cleft Confidence Programme Participant
I’ve walked in your shoes and I know exactly what you need
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I know how it feels to receive a cleft diagnosis for your baby and feel like your world has come crashing down. To feel like the future you’d imagined has been ripped away from your family.
I understand the fear that your hopes and dreams for your child are slipping away, and the confusion around exactly what to do next or where to turn for the right support.
And there’s also that sense of guilt and wondering what you might have done to cause this. We always blame ourselves as mothers, don’t we?
Eighteen years ago, I was you. My beautiful daughter Ella was born with a bilateral cleft lip and palate. It was Earth-shattering at the time. I felt lost, scared, guilty, and so anxious about the future.
Despite getting what cleft support I could (which was limited at that time), these feelings resurfaced over the years.
They manifested in destructive behaviours, like projecting all my fears onto Ella, framing our family’s cleft experience negatively against others’, and berating myself with constant negative self-talk.
I was stuck in a cycle, unable to understand that I was traumatised and how not being able to work through that was impacting my child.
But, once I had this awareness of how my unconscious emotional responses were affecting Ella’s ability to grow and flourish, everything changed.
I trained as an Integrated Trauma Informed Coach through the Caroline Strawson school of post-traumatic growth and committed to a lifetime of learning about cleft and its ongoing implications.
Now, I share my learnings with parents of children born with cleft and teach them how to become that safe space for their child so they too can thrive and reach their potential.
Value-driven Cleft Coaching
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The work I do to support cleft families is driven by four core values I’ve adopted over the years:
COURAGE
As parents of children born with cleft, we’re tasked with making big decisions for our families, and it takes bravery to step up in that way.
To be seen in our vulnerability and honesty, to empower ourselves with the knowledge and understanding that informs these important choices, and to trust ourselves to guide our children to their wonderful future. I try to embody courage in everything I do and teach.
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HOPE
It can be hard to sustain hope when it feels like everything is stacked against you and life is full of hoops to jump through.
But doing that deep internal work for ourselves and our families instils a sense of trust in the process and everyone who supports us - and ultimately faith in our children and their unlimited potential.
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PEACE
The cleft journey can be unpredictable and it can feel like you’re not in control. But I know how important it is as a parent of a child with cleft to feel grounded, calm and centred. To have safety and reliability as key facets of your life if you want your child and your whole family to grow and thrive.
That’s why my cleft support focuses on helping you work through your trauma so you can achieve this state of inner peace and resilience, whatever the future brings.
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CONNECTION
You are not alone. Many other parents, including me, walk on this journey with you. We are part of a community of brave people fighting for our children’s futures. But you need to know this and to be able to access this community so you feel heard and seen.
Feeling connected in this way brings joy and warmth, and a sense of alignment with the world and everyone in it, including your unique child. It’s also about reconnecting with yourself and re-establishing self-trust.
If we’re not connected to ourselves, how can we inspire our children to follow their own internal guidance systems? Alignment with yourself first, and confidence in your decisions, is the key.
“I honestly can’t thank you enough for how you have changed my life already - I feel like something has just clicked in the last couple of weeks and like I’ve had an epiphany or something! I’m sure I have a long way to go still but I’m definitely starting to live life with this new perspective and awareness.”
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Membership Participant
Cleft support, community and art
After honing my skills and expertise over the years, I now offer a few different options for parents of children born with cleft to get the support you need:
✔ 1:1 personalised coaching for clients with trauma, cleft-related and non-cleft-related.
✔ Cleft Crisis to Cleft Confidence 6-week group programme to help you understand how trauma impacts us alongside a group of fellow parents of cleft-born children, with guidance and tools to support you and your child
✔ A membership community of mothers who want to embrace my teachings and learn for themselves how to deeply support their children through informed compassion and guidance
✔ Personalised art commissions celebrating the beauty of difference and the uniqueness of your amazing child.
Through all my work I aim to empower mothers with knowledge, skills and awareness about their implicit imprinting and how this unconsciously runs our lives.
I also educate parents around the specific traumatic responses that arise from the cleft journey - unconscious reactions that govern our behaviour as we try to navigate our way through this crisis.
This is about expansion and nervous system flexibility. Not toxic positivity and glossing over the hard bits. It’s about embodying our unique authenticity so we can walk alongside our children as they discover theirs.
This is achieved through the unique integration of trauma informed methods and techniques in the cleft support I offer.
Using tools such as Brainspotting and positive psychology we can identify and challenge the parts of us that try to protect us from pain but ultimately prevent us from connecting with our authentic self.
I’m here to help you feel confident as the parent of a child with cleft. To help you become the embodiment of peace and self-trust when it comes to your thoughts and decisions around your child and your family’s future.
You’ll feel less lonely in this journey, and resilient and hopeful. And you’ll be able to preserve the precious family dynamic that can feel like it’s threatened throughout the cleft journey.
And ultimately you’ll know with unwavering certainty that you are enough for your child.