Millpond Team

Mandy Gurney is a registered nurse, midwife, health visitor and infant massage instructor.

During her 20 years working as a health professional with families in the NHS, she saw first-hand the many problems caused by sleep deprivation. This motivated her to set up one of the NHS's first children's sleep clinics.

The outstanding results encouraged her in 2000 to set up Millpond with co-founder Tracey Marshall.

It is now the country's leading children's sleep clinic and helps parents around the world.

Mandy is asked to head sleep seminars and workshops both in the public and private sector. She is consulted by the consumer press for expert comment and is the sleep expert for The Supernanny Parenting Forum. Mandy is regularly seen on television.

She is co-author of the sleep bible Teach Your Child to Sleep (Hamlyn, 2005), which has sold tens of thousands of copies worldwide.

"For me solving a child's sleep problem is like putting together a jigsaw. By taking parents through all the issues – however apparently small - that could be contributing to the problem, I find the missing piece. Together we put it in place, and completing the picture is often a transforming experience for the family – and the best job in the world for me!"

As a mother of two children, Mandy knows only too well how sleep deprivation can affect a family. Her first baby suffered from a variety of sleep problems, which is what ignited her interest in child sleep therapy.

Clair Lyons met Mandy when they ran baby massage classes. They went on to set up the NHS children's sleep clinic together.

She has worked with children in a variety of clinical settings, including a neo-natal intensive care unit and a paediatric ward.

She has a background in behavioural management and has many years' experience of treating children with behavioural problems within the family home. Clair is especially skilled at assessing how family dynamics affect babies' and children's behaviour.

‘Sleep has a really profound effect on daytime behaviour and it's good to be able to give parents the tools to change both – and then to hear how that's empowered them to change the daily life of the whole family,' says Clair, who has been at Millpond since its inception.

She has a five-year-old son, who had sleep problems as a toddler, and a new baby.

Jane Bloxsome is a registered nurse and health visitor. She worked in the NHS for 25 years, where she specialised in infant nutrition, child development, children's sleep management and breastfeeding.

Unicef trained, she is a breastfeeding lead in the NHS, where she supports a team of health visitors, staff nurses and nursery nurses to promote breastfeeding.

Her extensive health visiting background has given her an instinctive insight into how sleep problems and family dynamics affect each other. She is particularly knowledgeable about the interrelationship between feeding patterns and sleep problems.

'So often the problem isn't just about sleep – the one thing the parents are focusing on – but things like irregular feeding patterns. And once parents start to understand how those different things interrelate, it's very rewarding to watch them get control over the situation,' says Jane.

Jane is a mother of two children.

Cathy Madley-Dowd is a registered nurse, midwife, health visitor and infant massage instructor. She has also obtained a postgraduate diploma in promoting the mental health of young children.

Cathy has worked in the NHS for 26 years and more recently has specialised in working with families to promote the positive emotional wellbeing of parents and children.  This work has included offering support to families where behaviour issues have been identified and working with mothers with postnatal depression. 

Cathy has a wealth of experience working with families with sleep problems. She recognises how sleep deprivation can have such a negative impact on all aspects of family life. “For me working in close partnership with parents is imperative in helping them to resolve their child’s sleep problem”.

Cathy also works with Mandy delivering sleep workshops to professionals in the NHS and private sector.

Cathy is a mother of 2 children; her son experienced sleep problems. She understands through her own experience the difficulties sleep problems can bring to families but how with the right support a seemingly impossible scenario can be positively turned around.

Juliet Newson is a registered nurse, health visitor and infant massage instructor with 17 years experience in NHS and private healthcare settings.

She has worked in various clinical settings in the UK and internationally in Kathmandu, Nepal. She has followed her particular interests in infant nutrition, parenting programmes and behaviour management for younger children. Juliet’s strength is understanding and empathising with the pressures that sleep problems can bring to bear on parents and children.

‘Through my experiences of working with parents and young children, I recognise how important effective and adequate sleep is in establishing a positive environment to enable children to grow and develop. The impact of sleep difficulties on parents and families can be a hugely draining experience, effecting home life and the child’s behaviour. Helping parents resolve these problems is one of the most rewarding experiences I have had in healthcare’.

Juliet has 2 young children under 6 and a 3rd on the way!

Jackie Garwood is a community psychiatric nurse and health visitor.

She became a health visitor after finding that there was so little support for her when her first child developed a chronic sleep problem. Always interested in children's behavioural problems, she subsequently set up a behavioural and sleep clinic, which was enthusiastically supported by the local GP practices.

Her background in mental health nursing combined with a special interest in women's mental health have helped her develop particular expertise in emotional issues such as post-natal depression.

‘I had a very difficult time with my first child so I can fully understand mums who find parenting a real stress,' says Jackie. ‘It undermines their confidence hugely, especially if they're suffering from post-natal depression. But even in that situation we find simple strategies that work for them.'

Jackie is a mother of two.

Our Administrators

Val Godfrey met Mandy at ante-natal classes and later came to work for Millpond.  As a mother of three children, one of who had eczema so serious he had to sleep wrapped in wet bandages, she can relate to parents of children who don't sleep.

Carolyn Reynolds is a mother of two who knows how behavioural habits can influence a child's sleep profoundly.

With many years experience working for Millpond Val and Carolyn know how important it is for parent's first contact with the clinic to meet with a sympathetic ear.  They are also often the first to hear how life changing our results can be.

Tracey Marshall
We want to pay tribute to the memory of Tracey Marshall, Millpond's co-founder, who tragically passed away recently.  Her work and expertise will live on through Millpond.