For exhausted parents struggling with broken nights, stressful bedtimes or early starts, Wiltshire-based sleep coach Sophie Haselton-Viney offers a gentle alternative to traditional sleep training through her business, Rooted & Rested.
Sophie provides holistic sleep coaching for families with children from five months through to primary school age, helping parents understand why their child is sleeping the way they are and make realistic changes that work for the whole family.
Rather than focusing only on bedtime routines, blackout blinds or sleep schedules, holistic sleep coaching looks at the wider factors that can influence sleep, including development, temperament, health, nutrition, feeding, sensory needs, relationships and family circumstances.
Sophie discovered holistic sleep coaching through her own experience of exhaustion while balancing a corporate HR career with family life.
“I was the mum lying awake at 2am, doing the maths on how little sleep I could survive on,” she said. “I was showing up for work, for my child and for everyone except myself, and I was running on empty.”
That experience prompted a career change and training through Lyndsey Hookway’s Holistic Sleep Coaching Programme, a Level 6 OCN-accredited qualification.
Sophie now runs Rooted & Rested under Lyndsey’s clinical supervision, supporting families across Wiltshire, Bath, Somerset and further afield. A key part of the approach is that parents are never asked to leave their child to cry alone.
“My holistic approach is attachment-led and 100% responsive,” Sophie said. “I look at development, temperament, health, diet and environment, as well as the parents’ own wellbeing, because that matters too.”
Families seek support for challenges including frequent night waking, long or stressful bedtimes, early rising, sleep regressions and major transitions such as starting nursery, moving into a bigger bed or welcoming a new sibling. Parents also often get in touch before returning to work, when broken sleep has become increasingly difficult to manage alongside the pressures of family and employment.
Rather than using rigid schedules or a one-size-fits-all programme, each plan is developed around the individual family.
“Parents know their child best, and support should feel like relief, not more pressure,” said Sophie.
Sophie is also particularly passionate about supporting breastfeeding mums who want to continue with their feeding goals while finding ways to improve sleep.
Some families may only need a single consultation and action plan, while others work with Rooted & Rested over around four weeks, with regular check-ins allowing plans to be adapted as circumstances change.
For parents, one of the biggest benefits can be understanding why their child is sleeping in a particular way.
“Parents come away understanding why their child sleeps the way they do, which takes away a lot of the guilt, stress and second-guessing,” she said.
Supporting working mums is an especially important part of her work.
“When I help them feel more rested and confident about their child’s sleep, I can take away some of their mental load,” she added. “They feel reassured that they really can have a career and be a mum, without having to choose between the two.”
Rooted & Rested consultations take place online, with follow-up support available by email or text.
A free 15-minute discovery call is also available for families who would like to find out more about the approach before committing to one-to-one support.
Find out more at www.rootedandrestedsleep.co.uk or follow @rootedandrested_sleep on Instagram.
