Become a Certified Sleep Counselor!
🌜Support Newborn to 5 years, and their parents.
🌜The ONLY program that is evidence-based AND lactation & feeding sciences-informed, built on attachment theory.
🌜Neurologist & Psychologist approved approach!
🌜Developmentally appropriate, highly tailored and flexible.
🌜Learn Counseling Skills for maximum parent alignment, comfort and effectiveness and success!
🌜The only program with unlimited one-on-one mentorship at times that work for you! (plus classroom, case studies workshops, weekly group office hours).
Fall Cohort Now Enrolling! We begin Sept 27th!
Register NOW, spots in the cohort are limited.
Who Can Become a Certified Sleep Counselor?
🌕 Postpartum/Perinatal Counselors and Psychotherapists
🌖Postpartum Doulas
🌗Lactation Consultants and Counselors
🌘 Family Doctors, Naturopaths, Midwives
🌑 Parent-Baby class facilitators and Peer Support
🌒 Newborn Care Specialists
🌓 Parents who had challenging sleep journeys and want to help others.
Add to your services or start a whole new career that is ethical, lucrative and fulfilling. Upon completion of SCI Certification, you will be not only competent but confident in this revolutionary work! Direct one-on-one Mentorship is the key!
Sleep deprivation and postpartum mood disorders are bosom buddies.
Join me in helping families balance parental mental health with supporting infant and child growth and development!
Why Sleep Counseling?
Help Families Dramatically Improve Sleep in Just 4 Nights!
Parents must be fully HEARD and SEEN in their unique struggles (often including tears, confusion and frustration and doubt) and goals before any advice or can be given, and that plan is always tailored to the family. They need to feel emotionally aligned with and confident in any plan we give them. Parents also deserve a sleep professional who will support the parent’s mindset and mental well-being throughout the sleep plan, alongside supporting baby’s wellness.
We’ve never believed in a plug-n-play template for every family with a child of a certain age.
Clients often have three or four major parenting decisions to make as part of the sleep plan co-creative process, and these should be mindful, informed choices. Caregivers deserve evidence-based information and hear what to expect with each option, to help them make these important decisions.
Add counseling skills to the mix and SNAP!
The outcome?
Unprecedented success. Improved parenting confidence for your clients.
Stellar testimonials. Constant drip of referrals.
This is Sleep Counseling.
This certification course and mentorship program guides you through an 8-Phase (like the moon!) tailored process to guide you in supporting families through their unique sleep challenges. It starts with listening and compassion.
Moorea Malatt (M.S., LMHCA, PMH-C, CLC, CLE) is the Director of the Sleep Counseling Institute and has been supporting families for over 23 years. She’s a survivor of extreme postpartum sleep deprivation in early motherhood and has been providing evidence-based sleep education to professionals for the last 11 years.
Moorea combines the biological and behavioral sciences, lactation/ feeding science, attachment theory, mental health awareness and a highly tailored, empathetic touch.
With a Master of Science in Marriage and Family Counseling, it has become clear to her exactly what makes the work she’s done with parents for 15 years (and with professional students over 11 years) so different from other models, and so successful. It actually isn’t just sleep consulting.
This is sleep counseling.
More about your mentor: Prior to counseling work and parent consulting, Moorea was a preschool director with an Early Childhood Development degree and Infant Mental Health certificate, BA in Psychology, and was a certification as a Life and Career Coach, a postpartum doula (so many overnights!) and a lactation counselor. Her life’s mission is to support you in preventing and alleviating the sleep-deprivation-induced mental illness that brought her to a parenting and mental health rock bottom with her first child 16 years ago! She got the nickname The Sleep Witch from a few clients who all gave her that nickname until it stuck (and is her Instagram handle!) Moorea has a private therapy practice for individuals and couples in WA State, lives in the forest on a little island, and has kids 16 and 8 and her wife is also a family therapist. She’s also an auntie and a “Witchy Godmother”, a dog mom and cat mom.
I am unbelievably grateful for the mentorship that Moorea provided through this course. Moorea is the only sleep professional educator I found who was really “speaking my language” when it came to working with infants and families. I am a pediatric occupational therapist and put a lot of stock into the business of co-regulation and general child development knowledge. Moorea does too. And more than that, her work is as evidence based as is possible in this field. I now feel very well equipped to be tackling sleep issues with infants and toddlers.
I cannot say enough wonderful things about this course and having Moorea as a mentor. I have felt so supported in my work with families this past year of being certified thanks to her incredible ongoing mentorship. She has 22 years of working with families with sleep, lactation, counseling, and in so many other capacities and she is an incredibly knowledgeable person to learn from. Love being able to support all kinds of families including co-sleeping!
When it comes to sleep, there’s no one Is rather learn from than Moorea. Her energy is calm, her pacing is easily absorbable, and her sense of humor makes an otherwise-overwhelming topic approachable and (dare I say) fun! This is the kind of energy that helps sleep deprived parents find courage and follow their intuition, and was exactly the kind of modeling we need to see as students. Thanks for a fantastic, individualized mentorship approach to this topic and training - it’s inspiring on every level.
This is the BEST baby sleep certification program out there! Moorea has been my mentor for 10 years and I am stil completely aligned with her method. If you want to be the best of the best in baby/family sleep support, this certification program is for you
You will be prepared to:
🌕 Hold space with deep listening, and supportive questioning techniques to meet families where they’re at, and then offering highly tailored solutions.
🌖Provide sleep education to expecting and new parents in your own classes, workshops and newborn groups
🌗 Virtually support sleep-deprived parents effectively and ethically through unique tailored plans you co-create with them according to their goals, needs, and values – newborn through 6 years!
🌘 Support families in-home (if you wish) from the newborn weeks, helping them skillfully navigate the challenging 0-6 month period, and guide them through gradual, developmentally appropriate, sanity-saving plans.
🌑 Add biological, developmental, and behavioral sleep expertise and counseling skills to your current work, or create a new whole business adventure. Feel confident explaining and providing the science and research around infant and child sleep.
🌒 Serve families in heart-warming work you feel deeply appreciated for and for which you are well-paid! (You’ll relish the testimonials! You do NOT need social media ads!)
Your course is roughly 45 hours of study, including
self-paced online instruction, a few group case studies calls (always recorded) and plenty of one-on-one practicum mentorship access.
Course Content
Module 1 A & 1 B: Self-study (Online video modules plus slides)
🌙 Comprehensive infant biology, cultural anthropology of human sleep, history of infant sleep
⭐ Behavioral psychology of infant, toddler and preschooler sleeping Newborn to 5 years!
🌙 The stages of secure attachment formation and how they relate to sleep.
⭐ Sleep environments, positions, and transitions as they relate to both lactation and formula feeding.
🌙 Techniques for dramatically better sleep whether families are Co-sleeping, Bed-sharing, or Crib-Sleeping.
⭐ Communicate to families the tenets of safer sleep – balancing divergent AAP and Academy of Breastfeeding Medicine guidelines and a critical discussion of sleep products available.
🌙 Optimal Infant nutrition as it relates to infant sleep and balance with parent need for sleep.
⭐ “Colic” and Reflux as they relate to the intersections of sleep, lactation and formula feeding.
🌙 Developmental assessment thoughts and strength-building recommendations (from an Occupational Therapist!) for safer, successful and more comfortable sleep for baby!
⭐ Recognizing and assessing for possible sleep disorders and other medical concerns in infants and children before you begin a plan with a family as well as how and where to refer out to get clearance on these before sleep work begins.
🌙 Common external and developmental sleep disruptors and preventions.
⭐ Challenging sleep signals (associations) and their solutions.
🌙 Infant instincts and behaviors with sleep throughout the months and growth periods (an alternate perspective to help families through “regressions”)
⭐ Creating 24hr sleep rhythms and increase innate melatonin with circadian rhythm protocol and set babies and toddlers up hormonally for sleep success!
🌙 Special considerations for families of multiples and those with older children / sibling and siblings rooming together.
⭐ Considerations for serving bottle feeding, formula-feeding and exclusively-pumping families. Plus tips for bottle and feeding preferences!
🌙 Learn our Attachment-Building Method for respectfully teaching toddlers/ preschoolers to fall asleep and stay asleep in their own room.
⭐ Help parents make decisions about when to night wean gradually, help create a night weaning or full weaning plan and provide guidance on maintaining breast/chest health during the process.
🌙 How to work with two parents with divergent views on the sleep, without trying to become their couple’s counselor. You’ll be learning tips from couples therapists!
⭐ For those working overnights- set up families to thrive without you when you’re gone and facilitate parenting confidence- and raise your rate for your gentle, respectful expertise and quick results.
🌙 How to get in touch with your intuition for sleep consulting unique individuals and ditch the one-side-fits-all age-based approach.
⭐ Discuss updated sleep research from the last 20 years and as new research arrives! You’ll be able to provide links to data to back up every recommendation you make to a family for their sleep!
Module 1C Presentation: Postpartum Mood and Anxiety Disorders and Sleep
🌙 Learn when and how to support families through sleep-deprivation-induced mental health crisis as the sleep support part their care team and how to help families form this care team before jumping into sleep work.
⭐ How and why mental health challenges related to sleep can be more prevalent and challenging for lactating families and how to help families make important and difficult choices around sleep and feeding.
🌙 How to balance parent and baby sleep needs with parent lactation goals and values to prevent and alleviate postpartum mood challenge symptoms.
⭐ How to recognize symptoms and histories which are likely to make a client unable to follow through with a sleep plan– and what to help to refer them to instead! (Plus, learn how to give a preliminary evaluation/test for perinatal mental health challenges.)
Module 1D: Solo Sleep for Toddlers and Preschoolers
⭐ The evolution of security: The Attachment Building Process
🌙 Sleep Skills and common behaviors surrounding bedtime, naps and sleep.
⭐ Weaning away from pacifiers and thumb sucking when families are ready.
🌙 Supporting parents in choosing, setting and consistently keeping boundaries.
⭐ Safe and developmentally appropriate sleep environment choices for toddler and preschoolers.
🌙 Sibling room-sharing challenges and solutions.
⭐ Establishing stress-free naps and quiet times and preventing challenging early mornings.
Module 1E: Deep Listening and Strategic Questioning
Counseling skills geared toward common sleep challenges and parent hopes, fear and feelings are provided as online content, then integrated into our Case Studies calls and continued in your practicum mentorship calls.
Module 2 A-E: Family Sleep Case Studies (Schedule Inside)
We will meet on Zoom calls to workshop 10 predetermined case studies over 5 Case Studies calls-so that you can start practicing sleep counseling with and get into the groove of sleep assessment and creating sleep plans in a low-pressure way! Show up with your creativity, intuition, beginners mind and willingness to guess.
All calls are recorded. Please attend 3 out of 5 calls with us LIVE. The rest you can watch later, if you wish. Times are varied to accommodate various professional schedules. If you have a challenge with the set times or are international, please just email me and we can work it out.
Module 3: Sleep as Your Practice & Guest Speakers
Webinar / Zoom format workshop calls, Tutorial Videos, Documents and Q & A.
🌙 Templates for intakes and plan creation, printable for quick note-taking while you chat with clients.
⭐ How to decide when you are under scope of sleep counselor versus your other work as a postpartum doula or night nurse or lactation support. What kind of sleep help comes from a counselor / therapist? You can either bring sleep education and support into your current work and raise your rates or create a whole new sleep counseling business!
🌙 Understanding the most current marketing approaches/methods and easy ways to get started and build your biz.
⭐ Learn about support contracts, legal concerns, liability insurance and professional associations.
🌙 How to price your services to your value and create your unique packages.
⭐ How to draw in ideal clients and weed out those who are not aligned or ready.
🌙 Develop confidence in your work and set sustainable boundaries/ prevent burnout!
⭐ How to create a lucrative sleep support biz and how to make sure your clients keep referring you to friends.
🌙 We will also mentor you through any interpersonal, biz or boundary challenges you come across or have experienced in the past with working with families.
⭐ Guest speakers on working with couples who do not agree, challenging personalities, when and how to refer to occupational therapy, and more!
Module 4: Practicum with Families
⭐ 24+ hrs Working professionally with 3+ families during this program. (You will charge a package fee, Moorea will teach you how to find and support these practice clients.) Up to one year to complete this.
🌙 Mentorship one-on-one from Moorea through each practicum case you take on. They are getting two consultants for the price of one. And you don’t need to be nervous to jump in, I’m with you!
⭐ Support and help editing your written plans, zoom calls and text access to Moorea when you’re working with practicum clients.
Ongoing
⭐ Weekly Office Hours (called “Rocking It!”) to support your clients and your biz (and to learn from others!)
⭐ Personal coaching by your mentor, Moorea Malatt, and workshop time with your peers through Zoom and the private Facebook group.
🌙 Comprehensive, customizable intake and plan documents to share with your clients.
⭐ Access to examples of successful sleep call recordings and family sleep plans.
🌙 Lifetime access to Module Videos, slides to show your clients, videos, PDFs etc.
⭐ The very latest sleep information and topics and peer cases regularly brought to you via Facebook group.
🌙 PDF Certificate and badges for your website upon completion, continual access to office hours.
Free Bonuses
⭐ Zombie Prevention Skills for Overnight Professionals (science to help you arrange your own sleep for optimal health if you’re currently working overnights.)
🌙 NEW: My soothing pre-sleep visualization recording for parents and children (can be shared with your clients).
⭐Better Biz Boundaries workshop recording.
🌙 Making Friends with Imposter Syndrome Workshop – access to live event and recording.
Receiving Your Certification:
🌓 You’ll attended 3 case studies calls LIVE and watch the recordings of those you could not attend.
🌔 You’ll have absorbed the online learning materials in the classroom at your own pace, demonstrated ongoing engagement with the material, and taken responsibility for your learning.
🌕 You’ll have worked with at least 3 families (with your mentor always supporting you!) and submitted practicum case final summaries: this is total of 10-15 pages of the work you’ve already compiled along the way. (Intake form, final plan and wrap-up summary for each of three client families).
🌖 We will have a 30min wrap-up meeting so Moorea can answer any last questions, including any last support with marketing and business.
🌗 You will have 1 year from their enrollment date to finish all requirements of the program, unless you let me know about a hardship. d
This course could be completed in as little as 3 months. This is at your pace.
🌘 You’ll receive a printable PDF of your Certification as well as a badge and banner for your website and other marketing materials.
🌑 Receive continuing education for free whenever I add a training or workshop. You’ll also continue to receive ongoing mentorship and peer support through our private group (Facebook).
Questions? Schedule a free 15min meeting with me HERE.
Your tax-deductible investment is $2,400 (single payment option)
PayPal Financing Available for Single Payment Option.
Many of my students have a return on investment within the first 5 months, or earlier.
No annual fees, re-certification fees, and no fees for ongoing access to your mentor.
My main reason for signing up for this course was to support families even if/ whether they are planning to bed share, find bed sharing helpful once baby is born, or for occasional bed sharing and removing the fear and misinformation about it. I found the group discussions and case studies helpful for real-world applications of what we were learning. The ongoing mentoring aspect of the training, especially when I have practicum clients to apply it with was another big draw over a program that ends on the final day of class. The marketing session I also found really helpful for considering how to offer these services in addition to the other doula related services I offer.
I'm starting to get more sleep work than I know what to do with! I have had major success with clients and people keep recommending me!
Thank you for the really great edits and suggestions on the sleep plan. I am already learning so much in your program and am very thankful to have found you! The level of mentorship support I am receiving in this program is exactly what I was looking for and is helping me gain the confidence to move forward with my business.
This course was so very informative. I learned many different types of strategies for different ages. Moorea is very knowledgeable and very supportive. In other words, the course is just awesome.
Schedule:
Plan to attend at least 3 out of 5 of these Case Studies calls LIVE:
Orientation video and classroom access upon enrollment.
Sunday, Sept 27th 4pm Pacific/ 7pm Eastern
Monday, Oct 5th, 8am Pacific/ 11am Eastern
Tues, Oct 13th, 1pm Pacific/ 4pm Eastern
Sat, Oct 24th, 9am Pacific/ 3pm Eastern
Thurs, Oct. 29th, 10am Pacific/ 1pm Eastern
Another Make-up time TBD supports anyone who couldn’t make 3 calls live.
All calls are recorded and sent to you whether you attend that session, or not.
Cohort case studies workshop calls are each 2 hours long. We learn, practice, & laugh.
Calls are generally aligned chronologically with online module learning.
Your learning of the online materials will be determined by your own pace and schedule.
Between your studies and our zoom calls, you’ll be putting in just about 4 hours per week, for about 5 weeks.
Some students choose to begin with practicum clients immediately, some after the cohort calls are over.
Work with each of your 3 practicum families will be about 4-5 hours per week once you feel ready.
Moorea supports you through supporting your client- they get two caring sleep professionals!
Already have clients who need your sleep support?
You can receive Moorea’s support with any current clients immediately upon registration!
Learn more about your mentor, Moorea Malatt, HERE.
Want to meet me and ask questions about this program?
Schedule a FREE 15 min call with Moorea here.
This is the BEST baby sleep certification program out there! Moorea has been my mentor for 10 years and I am stil completely aligned with her method. If you want to be the best of the best in baby/family sleep support, this certification program is for you
I took a while researching different certifying courses. I felt right away after coming across Sleep Savvy, that this was the right course for me. I have a more attachment based philosophy when it comes to infant care and Sleep Savvy fit exactly my way of thinking. I am very excited to see how sleep consulting becomes a part of my career.
Many students have a return on investment within 5 months of completion, or even in as little as a few months after starting. You will be charging your practicum clients as part of completion of this certification.
FAQ 1: Does this make me a licensed mental health counselor?
No. “Counselor” is not a regulated term. It is a word bestowed upon an individual from various organizations. There are financial counselors, camp counselors, peer counselors, addiction counselors, garden counselors. This certification does not entitle you to practice as or call yourself a “Licensed Mental Health Counselor” or “Licensed Professional Counselor” in your state, simply Certified Sleep Counselor. (There is also no universal regulating body for sleep consulting.) This is a certificate, not a pre-licensure or clinical mental health program.
FAQ 2: Do you teach Cry-It-Out methods?
The Sleep Counseling Institute always aims to minimize tears and prioritize secure attachment. The basis for our philosophy is a stay-present method where babies do not cry alone as they learn new sleep skills, though there may always be some tears as infants learn and adapt to changes in their caregiving, this method is responsive and loving. We may also work with families who have a reason to require a check-in approach or who are already doing so and we meet them where they are at and create a unique plan for that family. Even so, that child will always be reminded that when they are awake, someone is very near. Secure attachment does not mean zero tears. Our philosophy is that even very young children should be allowed to express feelings through tears, but that they should be loved and supported through their frustrations. We support the prioritization of feeding, bonding and sleep education for the first 10 weeks over any sleep modifications.
FAQ 3: Do you approve of bed sharing for infants?
Yes. We take a harm-reduction approach to bed sharing and teach “safer” bed sharing recommendations for infants fed exclusively human milk, according to the International Academy of Breastfeeding Medicine’s protocol #6. We know this not in alignment with the American Academy of Pediatrics and we work on helping parents understand both perspectives and recommendations and make a choice for themselves. We have unique and effective ways of working with families to get tremendously better sleep even while bed-sharing and “breast-sleeping” We do not recommend that students work with families who are formula feeding and want to share a bed if baby is under 12 months.
I've absolutely loved the one on one component of your course. It's impossible to get real support from real humans these days and I've found your support to be a critical part of my sleep support journey. Thank you for being available for questions, suggestions and overall guidance.
Learning from Moorea 100% made me a better sleep consultant, especially for families feeling real tenderness around breastfeeding, bed sharing, and their own mental health. I loved being able to talk through how to approach common client situations together with my peers. Plus the focus on how baby sleep affects parental mental health and how closely connected feeding and sleep often are (or at least feel to parents) was extremely insightful!
This program was formerly known as Sleep Savvy Certification (prior to 2024).
Please feel free to drop us any questions you have about this course here
or drop your email to receive alerts about cohort dates and other offers: