Meet The Team

Rita Al-Minyawi

• NBAS and NBO Trainer
• Profession – Neonatal Nursing
• Current Role – Retired Senior Neonatal Nurse with 30 years experience
• Trainer Since – 2013
• Why I love being a Brazelton Trainer: – I love seeing the passion and excitement in trainees at the start of their Brazelton journey!

I found the NBAS or it found me while doing a google search for Ballards ( a neonatal gestational assessment tool) in 2005 in Abu Dhabi at end of 2005. Brazelton and the NBAS seemed to have all the answers for enriching our work with babies and families. Within 4 months, our team two neonatologists and two neonatal nurses travelled to Cambridge and trained in the NBAS with Joanna at the Rosie hospital in 2006. We met Dr Brazelton the following year in Cambridge and received our NBAS certificates from him. Profound and life changing. Thank you Dr B!

I trained in the NBAS in 2006 while working in Abu Dhabi UAE certifying in 2007. With a team of neonatologists and neonatal nurses, we used the NBAS mainly as a supportive intervention on the neonatal unit. I facilitated training and workshops for the first time in UAE, with 8 NBAS certified and a further 12 trained in a 2-year period.

I moved to Cambridge in 2008 to take up a position on the Neonatal Unit at the Rosie Hospital and established a similar protocol of using the NBAS primarily with High Risk babies as a supportive early intervention prior to discharge home. Presentation of a poster at WAIHM Edinburgh 2014 highlighted this work.

My focus has been working with families using NBAS/NBO on the unit and advocating for more training. Up to 30 healthcare professionals have trained or are in training in NBAS/ NBO at the Rosie, ranging from consultant neonatologists to nursery nurses up to the time of my retirement in 2019.

As a trainer, through training days, workshops and seminars, I have been fortunate to be able to share this wonderful way of working with families in UK, Egypt and United Arab Emirates. With my interest in neurodevelopmental outcomes, I am also trained in Bayley Infant and Toddler Assessment Scale (3rd Edition). My current focus is on spreading NBAS training to Zimbabwe for the first time and supporting a small group of NBAS trainees in Egypt to certification.

Libi Deller

• NBO Trainer
• Profession – Psychologist (past Nursing and Midwifery)
• Current Role – Chartered Counselling Psychologist, specialising in Infant & Perinatal Mental Health
• Trainer Since – 2014
• Why I love being a trainer: – Sharing my knowledge and enthusiasm with other professionals who care for young families.

While training as a nurse, and then as a midwife in the 1980’s, I became aware of the general lack of focus on the psychological wellbeing of patients. I decided to retrain as a psychologist, although until 2012 continued to work (very part-time) as a midwife alongside working as a psychologist.

I was trained in and used the Brazelton NBAS in my PhD in the late 1990’s (looking at the impact of irritability on growth and development of babies born very prematurely). I then joined the Brazelton Centre UK as a trainer in 2014 after having trained in the NBO myself and realizing how helpful it could be for new parents and their babies.

Having worked in the NHS for many years, in adult, child & adolescent and specialist infant & perinatal services, I left in 2016 and now work solely in the private sector.

Megan Eccleson

• NBAS and NBO Trainer
• Profession – Health Visiting
• Current Role – Infant Parent Mental Health Specialist, Infant Parent Mental Health Specialist, Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service, Avon Wiltshire Partnership, Bristol
• Trainer Since – 2011

I come from a farming family in Shropshire originally, leaving home to venture off to Manchester University. My Degree was in Nursing, Health Visiting and District Nursing, over four years. With pauses to have three children I have worked for the NHS since 1984, in several different areas of England. While my own children were young, I qualified and worked as a volunteer Breastfeeding Counsellor with the National Childbirth Trust.

I learned about the Brazelton Approach after the Millennium, and was completely bowled over by how much sense it made. Having worked as a Health visitor for a long time, it was an absolute revolution to find out how ‘preventative’ health care had focused on physical well-being. We were not then thinking enough about the psychological aspects of life, especially around childbirth. Since then, this has been my great interest.

I studied for a Masters degree in infant Mental Health with the Tavistock and Portman NHS Trust from 2004, learning to put very detailed observation as a way of intervening to recognise and address care-giving needs for individual babies and their families.

in 2004 I became an Infant -Parent Mental Health Specialist within the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service in North Bristol. This work aims to intervene early to help parents with very young children understand and appreciate the human emotional connectedness their own children strive for, and which we all seek and need, so that they can enjoy positive, attuned relationships in their lives. With good supervision and support I continue to develop in this role.

It has been a great honour to work in the Brazelton Community in the UK. It amazes and humbles me constantly to learn about what babies can do – from their beginnings.

From 2011 I have been a Brazelton Trainer offering Newborn Behaviour Observation and Neonatal Behavioural Assessment Scale training. This gives the opportunity to meet committed people working with families in the transition to parenthood, all over the country, who want to understand how to support families in more effective and hopeful ways.

Deanna Gibbs

• NBO Trainer
• Profession – Occupational Therapy
• Current Role – Research Consultant for nurses, midwives and allied health professionals, Barts Health NHS
• Trainer Since – November 2014
• Why I love being a trainer – “Being involved in training is a wonderful opportunity to share with other professionals the richness of a baby’s language and how it can be used to strengthen parent-infant relationships.”

I am the Research Consultant for nursing, midwifery and allied health professionals and co-director of children’s research at Barts Health NHS Trust, and a visiting senior research fellow at City, University of London. I graduated as an occupational therapist from the University of Sydney, and have worked predominantly in acute paediatric settings, with a specific focus in neonatal intensive care. I have worked across a variety of acute paediatric settings in Australia, Ireland and the United Kingdom.

I completed my PhD at the University of South Australia in 2012. My research explored parenting occupations in neonatal intensive care. I am a senior trainer for The Brazelton Centre UK. I am also the international representative on the Neonatal Therapy National Certification Board.

In 2018, I was awarded a Merit Award from the Royal College of Occupational Therapists UK in recognition of my contribution to neonatal occupational therapy.

Melanie Gunning

• NBO Trainer
• Profession -Psychologist
• Current Role – Principal Psychologist: Maternity and Neonatal Psychological Interventions
• Trainer Since – 2009
• Why I love being a trainer – It means taking time to connect and listen to trainees as we begin to hear what babies tell us without words.  It also means feeling lucky to be part of a team of inspirational people who embody the Brazelton relationship building approach.

I currently works as a clinical psychologist in a child and adolescent mental health outpatients team in Lothian, Scotland. I also volunteer with Juno, a perinatal peer support group in Lothian.

I first trained in using the Neonatal Behavioural Assessment Scale (NBAS) in 1996 while working at the Winnicott Research Unit at the University of Reading. I completed my PhD in developmental psychopathology in 2002 while becoming a mother to my first daughter, a tiny but mighty wee smasher of a baby girl. Following this I had a second baby, a dynamo baby girl full of joi de vivre, in 2005 and used the NBAS as a research tool to observe newborn individual differences whilst I was a postdoctoral research fellow at Queen Margaret University, Edinburgh.

My third baby girl born with the fastest hands in the west in 2008 marked my move in to clinical work. I trained in the Neonatal Behavioural Observation (NBO) and as a clinical psychologist specialising in infant, child and adolescent mental health. I have delivered training for The Brazelton Centre UK since around 2009 and I would describe it as one of the areas of my working life I most look forward to. I value the Brazelton approach as a framework for hearing what is said through the language of attunement, containment and regulation.

Joanna Hawthorne

• NBAS and NBO Trainer
• Profession – Psychologist
• Current Role – NBO & NBAS Master Trainer
• Trainer since – Since 1995
• Why do you love being a trainer – I love to see the faces of practitioners and parents light up when they observe the amazing capabilities of babies.

Throughout my career, my work has focused on early intervention and supporting parent-infant relationships. I became a Montessori teacher in 1968 and taught for 4 years before completing my B.A. in Psychology at Boston University. My Ph.D. research at the University of Cambridge, was an intervention study enhancing support of parents and babies in neonatal units, using the NBAS as a measure in 1977. I worked in infant mental health in both the UK and USA, and received an Infant Specialist certificate from the Erikson Institute, Chicago in 1994.

In 1995, I became an International Trainer in the Neonatal Behavioural Assessment Scale (NBAS) and then in the Newborn Behavioural Observations (NBO) in 2009. I became a Master Trainer in 2015. I enrolled in the Brazelton Touchpoints Model (Individual course) in 1998 and 2014, I was a Senior Research Associate at the Centre for Family Research, University of Cambridge from 1995-2004 working on three different studies: ‘Antenatal scanning and maternal anxiety’, ‘Effects of divorce and separation on children’ and ‘Foretelling Futures: Dilemmas in Neonatal Neurology’, researching staff, parents’ and babies’ experiences in four neonatal units. I was the Director of the Brazelton Centre UK from 1997-2017 and I continue to teach the NBO and the NBAS worldwide, as well as provide consultation to the worldwide Brazelton network.

I am a Board Member of the Chicago Lying-In Hospital, a Council member of the Maternity and Newborn Forum, Royal Society of Medicine, a member of the World Association for Infant Mental Health (WAIMH), an alumni of Women of the Year, 2016, a peer reviewer, author and invited speaker. I am the mother of two married children, and grandmother to two boys.

Emily Hills

• NBO Trainer
• Profession – Occupational Therapy
• Current Role – Clinical Specialist Neonatal Occupational Therapist at Starlight Neonatal Unit, Barnet Hospital
• Trainer Since – July 2013
• Why you love being a trainer: – Becoming a Brazelton trainer has been a wonderful opportunity, it has enabled me to learn about clinical practices and meet different professionals across the United Kingdom. I learn something new on each course and am constantly reminded of the unique capabilities of each baby and their family

I am a Clinical Specialist Neonatal Occupational Therapist at Barnet Hospital part of Royal Free NHS Trust, where I lead on developmental care, neurodevelopmental assessment and developmental interventions; including follow-up after discharge.

I am passionate about sensory development, understanding baby behaviour and developmental care.  I am co-author and co-founder of Sensory Beginnings providing training courses for neonatal, perinatal and early intervention providers. I am also a lecturer for Family and Infant Neurodevelopmental Education (FINE) courses and am Advanced Practitioner in Sensory Integration (SI)

I am a certified neonatal therapist (CNT) and have completed a MSc in Advanced Neonatal Studies at Southampton University. I have completed both Neonatal Behavioural Assessment Scale (NBAS) and Newborn Behavioural Observation (NBO) certification and I am a senior trainer for the Brazelton Centre UK. I am certified in Neonatal Touch and massage (NTMC) and Newborn Individualised Developmental Care Assessment program (NIDCAP).  I have completed advanced training in The Prechtl General Movement Assessment.

Lisa Hodge

• NBO Trainer
• Profession – Health Visiting
• Current Role – Specialist Health Visitor with the Gwent Parent and Infant Mental Health Service
• Trainer Since – 2015
• Why I love being a trainer: – Being able to share the work of Dr Brazelton, which has transformed my own practise, is an honour. These are such amazing, positive tools, every one working with newborns and their families should be trained!

I am a Health Visitor, with previous experience of over 15 years as a midwife. Until 2021 I worked for Flying Start, a Welsh Government initiative, providing an enhanced Health Visiting Service to pre-school children and their families living in hard to reach communities. From July 2021 I have begun a new role as a Specialist Health Visitor with the Gwent Parent and Infant Mental Health Service (G-PIMHS).   This service supports the early parent-infant relationship, working with families antenatally and up to the age of 2 years.

Whilst working as a case holding Midwife back in 2007, I had the opportunity to undertake NBAS training, and certified in 2008. This was the catalyst that sparked my interest in observing, understanding and sharing newborn behaviours with families. I noticed how using the NBAS with families helped not only increase parent’s sensitivity to their babies, but also strengthened my own relationship with the families – I felt we could really connect through observing and understanding the meaning of the baby’s behaviour together.

I went on to work with Flying Start as a Midwife and then trained and qualified as a Health Visitor in 2011. In 2013 I undertook NBO training, and went on to re-certify in NBAS later that year, at which time I was invited by the Brazelton Centre UK to undertake the pathway to becoming a trainer. As well as using NBO with every family in my care, I provide support and offer refresher sessions locally to colleagues trained in NBO.

Betty Hutchon

• NBAS and NBO Trainer
• Profession – Occupational Therapy
• Current Role – Head of Paediatric Occupational Therapy and Physiotherapy for the Royal Free Hospital, London.
• Trainer Since – 1995
• Why I love being a trainer: – I love being a Brazelton trainer because the NBAS and NBO are wonderful tools which are clinically very relevant to working with high risk infants and it gives me great pleasure and satisfaction to pass this on to the next generation.

I was one of the co-founders of the Brazelton Centre in the UK and am one of 13 master trainers around the world for the NBAS and I am also one of two NBO master trainers in the UK.

I have worked with all ages, from birth to 18 years in hospital, home, school and community settings since qualifying in 1978 at the Ulster University in Belfast. I was awarded a Doctor of Science by Ulster University in July 2016 for my work in neurodevelopment and pioneering work in the follow up of preterm infants and infants with HIE. I also work as a Consultant Neurodevelopmental Therapist for University College London Hospital. I specialise in early neurodevelopmental assessment and early intervention. Following many years of working in the NICU with high risk infants my collaborators and myself have developed the EI SMART approach (www.eismart.co.uk) to improve the early intervention experience for parents of high risk infants using current evidence. This is my current passion working with the EI SMART team advocating an evidence based transdisciplinary approach to early intervention

I have been awarded three outstanding Achievement Awards during my time at the Royal Free. I have recently been the recipient of the Pioneering Award in Neonatal Therapy presented by NANT (National Association of neonatal therapists (USA).

I was part of a highly expert team of professionals and academics who worked on the NICE guidelines for developmental follow up of preterm infants published in 2017.

I was part of the small team of professionals and academics who wrote the practice guidelines for neonatal OT published in 2017 by the Royal College of Occupational Therapists.

Anulika Ifezue

• NBAS and NBO Trainer
• Profession – Health Visiting
• Current Role – Specialist Health Visitor and Lead for Perinatal and Infant mental Health
• Trainer since – 2019
• Why I love working as a trainer – It is rewarding to see trainees go from ‘not being so sure’ about NBO to understanding and developing the enthusiasm as they reflect on some of their families that would have benefited from the NBO and how they will use it in practice

I qualified as a nurse in 1990 and as a midwife in 1992. From the time I went into nursing school I took special interest in preventive health. Post qualification I worked for few years in acute care to consolidate my practice before going back to the university to study for a Bachelor’s degree in Public health Nursing and graduated in 1999. Post qualification I had the opportunity to work in the areas of health promotion, maternal and child health and hospital-based nursing.  In 2005 I went back to the University to study for a Master’s degree in Public Health Nursing specialising in Health Visiting. I have since worked as a health visitor, a Practice Teacher and currently as a specialist health visitor and lead for perinatal and infant mental health.

I came across professor Brazelton’s work while trying to understand the concept of Reciprocity during Solihull Approach training. I became a trainer in Solihull Approach in 2013 and have used a lot of the concepts developed by Professor Brazelton in delivering trainings and in my professional practice.

I trained on the New Born Assessment Scale (NBAS) in 2014 and I found it useful for supporting parents early through the journey of becoming new parents and getting to know and understand their babies. Subsequently I trained in the New Born Observation (NBO). Both NBO and NBAS transformed my practice.  I use both NBO and NBAS in professional and policy development. It is very useful in supporting practitioners to gain understanding of infant mental health, responsive parenting and early intervention.  Both NBO and NBAS are very easy to use in practice. It is strength based and allows for practitioner flexibility while still adhering to the core principles. As a health visitor I can say that the Brazelton Model shows so much about a baby which would have been missed if practitioners only talked and advised parents about their babies without allowing them to see what the babies are bringing into the relationship.

Elaine Mc Mahon

• NBO Trainer
• Profession – Occupational Therapy
• Current Role – Clinical Specialist Neonatal Occupational Therapist, Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust
• Trainer Since – Spring 2022
• Why I love being a trainer – “The Brazelton approach is a key part of my role as an occupational therapist. It is a privilege to be able to share the importance of this approach in shaping relationships and intervention in my everyday practice with a wide range of professionals.”

My role as Clinical Specialist Neonatal Occupational Therapist at Starlight Neonatal Unit involves close working with infants, families, and staff. My role encompasses assessment, observation and intervention to support a nurturing environment; developmentally appropriate opportunities and relationship-based care to meet the infants and families’ individual needs. I am part of the neurodevelopmental follow up programme for our high-risk infants and provide post-discharge intervention, including baby massage and early intervention approaches.

I have a special interest in the sensory development and the impact of the sensory environment on the everyday life for infants and families.  I have a PGCert & PgDIP in Sensory Integration and I am currently completing my Masters in this area related to early intervention. I have completed both my Neonatal Behavioural Assessment Scale (NBAS) and Newborn Behavioural Observation (NBO) training. I am certified in Advanced Prechtl General Movements Assessment (GMA) and Neonatal Touch Massage Certification (NTMC).

I am a committee member of the Royal College of Occupational Therapy Neonatal OT Forum. I am part of the working group updating the Royal College of Occupational Therapy, Practice Guidelines for Occupational Therapy in neonatal services and early intervention in the UK.

Inge Nickell

• NBAS and NBO Trainer
• Profession – Health Visiting
• Current Role – Infant mental Health Specialist Self Employed
• Trainer Since – 2009
• Why I love being a trainer: – There are many reasons why I love being a trainer for the Brazelton Centre UK. It gives me the opportunity to share this wonderful early intervention with other professionals, which makes such a difference to the way parents see their babies. It provides them with the manual for their baby! All parents should have access to the a professional who can share this wonderful method with them.

I qualified as a registered adult nurse in 1995 and later qualified as a specialist practitioner in health visiting in 2000. I very soon became very interested in the early relationship between parents and their babies as well as supporting women suffering from postnatal depression. This interest lead to studying my masters in infant mental health with the Tavistock Clinic in London. In 2004 I was offered a post to set up an infant mental health service within the local children’s centre. Here I delivered different groups for parents with babies including ‘Here’s Looking at You Baby’ – which is a group for parents and babies under six months of age, promoting a better understanding of how babies communicate, I also certified in the CARE-Index and was able to use this to support parents again with understanding their babies.

I first learned about the Brazelton Centre UK when I attended a conference to learn more about the earliest relationship. Joanna Hawthorne talked about the NBAS and I shortly after this attended the NBAS training in Bristol and certified a year later in 2006. It changed my practice and the way I saw babies. I was delighted to be able to offer this intervention to families and very soon also saw a change in the way they saw and responded to their babies.

In 2009 I returned to health visiting and there I continued to promote the parent-infant relationship delivering training in Solihull Approach and Perinatal Mental Health as well as offering the NBO or NBAS to families.

Katherine Pearce

• NBO Trainer
• Profession – Health Visiting
• Current Role – Health Visitor, Poynton Children’s Centre
• Trainer Since – 2017

For the last few years I have worked as the specialist health visitor in the Infant Parent Service in Stockport, Greater Manchester, a small team working to support the infant parent relationship. Recently, I moved to work as a health visitor in a semi-rural area in Cheshire.

I have been an NBO trainer since the beginning of 2017, and I have really enjoyed meeting colleagues in very different parts of the country, and working with fellow trainers who have such a tremendous range of knowledge and expertise.

I qualified in London firstly as a general nurse, and then a mental health nurse. After some time in school health and as a safeguarding specialist, I trained as a health visitor. I have worked with newborn babies in their families for the past 15 years. I have also taken time out to study academically mainly in London and Manchester, and have had specialist training opportunities in promoting healthy infant parent relationships, for example through The Anna Freud Centre.

Around 12 years ago I started using NBAS in my practice, and then later the NBO. This never fails to give me a fantastic way to support infant, families and colleagues, and I still feel excited to meet each newborn baby and see what he or she may tell us.

Jen Schooling

• NBO Trainer
• Profession – Physiotherapy
• Current Role – Neonatal Physiotherapist
• Trainer Since – 2015
• Why you love being a trainer: – The aspect I enjoy the most is to see trainees understanding more about babies’ communication via their behaviour, and an enthusiasm to start to incorporate this awareness into their practise.

I am Jennifer Schooling; a specialised neonatal physiotherapist, based at the Jessop Wing, level 3 neonatal unit in Sheffield. My background is in childhood neuro-disability in a variety of settings. My current role on the neonatal unit is Clinical Lead Neonatal Developmental Physiotherapist;  I have NIDCAP (Newborn Individualised Developmental Care and Assessment Programme) and NBO/NBAS certification and regularly use these approaches, alongside the medical model, with babies and families on the NICU and in follow up to 2 years. I work closely within multi professional teams based on the neonatal unit , the neonatal surgical unit at the Sheffield Children’s Hospital Trust and the Ryegate Child development centre to provide a comprehensive therapy service and smooth transition for babies and their families.

In addition to being a trainer with the Brazelton Centre I am on the faculty with FINE (Family and Infant Neurodevelopmental Education) to provide training for neonatal staff nationally and internationally. The FINE programme provides training at a variety of levels to a range of multi professional neonatal staff. The programme is holistic in its approach to promote caring for the preterm and sick newborn and their families, considering their individual and changing needs to support brain development, improved long term outcomes and family engagement. This programme compliments the Brazelton approach as it is founded on similar principles.

I thoroughly enjoy using the NBO on the neonatal unit and at early follow up in the clinic setting. It provides the opportunity to tune in to and learn about high-risk babies likes, preferences and personalities and supports their parents to learn more about their baby’s behaviour and their individual needs and competencies. As a strength based approach it is supportive in building parents confidence as they get to know their baby during this challenging time on the NICU and beyond.