Online Parent Consultants
We know that parents often need support translating the material they have learned in our courses into the particular scenarios they face with their children. The parent consultants listed below are all dedicated and credentialed professionals with extensive training in Neufeld's attachment-based developmental approach and willing to offer their services online. Please consult their own professional websites for details and to make arrangements. If uncertain as to the best match for you or how to proceed, you are welcome to contact us for help.
Lori Abramowitz
Lori has worked with youth of all ages through a variety of programs in school, community, outpatient and inpatient hospital settings. Lori has been studying and applying Dr. Neufeld`s insight for over a decade and this has added depth to her work as a helping professional and has enriched her life as a mother of three. Lori has a private practice working with children, adolescents, families and parents in the Buffalo area. Please contact her for information regarding the parent consulting services she provides.
Tracy Azevedo
Tracy has worked with children and youth in various roles over the last twenty-plus years: as a mentor, youth leader, program director, educator, counsellor, and a mother. After her training with the Neufeld Institute as a Course Facilitator, she interned with Tamara Neufeld Strijack towards becoming an associate faculty member of the Neufeld Institute. Together with Tamara, she has taught Neufeld courses in college and seminary settings. She has a heart for troubled children and youth and enjoys equipping the adults involved with the needed insights to make sense of them. Please consult her website for information regarding the parent consulting services she provides.
Karen Bollman
Karen works to support families and their little ones, aged birth to three years. Although she is currently focused on early intervention, she has spent her entire career supporting families raising children, youth, and adults with special needs. Karen holds one of our most important faculty portfolios - anchoring our flagship course: Intensive One on Making Sense of Kids. She insists that Dr. Neufeld’s paradigm, and working with individuals from birth through the lifespan, continues to transform her. Please contact her for information regarding the parent consulting services she provides.
Joanna Bylinka
Joanna holds the all-important portfolio of research with the Neufeld Institute. Given her doctoral training in classical psychology, her experience as editor and publisher, and her love of the science of psychology, she is well-suited for the role. She not only collects published articles that support Neufeld's articulation of the attachment-based developmental approach but also helps guide graduate students and researchers who have made this approach the focus of their thesis or studies. She oversees a separate website dedicated to this task. Joanna is a mother of two children. Please contact her for information regarding the parent consulting services she provides.
Colleen Drobot
Colleen is a registered professional counsellor and parent consultant who works with adults for personal counselling and parents for parent consultation. Colleen has been an educator, bringing over 20 years` experience working with a variety of children with diverse challenges. She is a mother of two children. Colleen draws from her personal and professional experience to support parents and professionals in gaining insight, opening their hearts and leading by their intuition. Through stories and examples Colleen presents Dr. Neufeld`s approach with passion, humour, and compassion to deepen understanding and apply this approach to everyday life. Please consult her website for information regarding the parent consulting services she provides.
Andrea Dyck
Andrea Dyck holds a MA in Counselling Psychology. She is a professional counselling therapist and certified childbirth educator. Andrea is passionate about the Neufeld approach. Grateful for the way this insight has supported her own family story, she enjoys coming alongside parents in their journeys to support their children. Andrea applies this understanding of relationship and development both to supporting parents as well as emotional well-being for people of all ages in her counselling practice. She sees therapy as a relational support for the natural healing and growth process. Andrea is married with three children, two of whom are young adults. Please contact her for information regarding the parent consulting services she provides.
Jule Epp
While directing the German language program from Berlin where she has lived for over 25 years, Jule still finds time to teach and support courses in the English Program. Her experiences with her own hypersensitive son paved the way for her passion for the field of autism and play. Having worked directly for many years with children diagnosed with autism, Jule developed an expertise that is unparalleled, which was why Dr. Neufeld sought her out as a collaborator in creating the Neufeld Institute course on hypersensitivity. Jule is an engaging presenter and workshop leader, and continues to support parents and professionals, including online, who have children diagnosed with autism in their care. Please consult her website for information regarding the parent consulting services she provides regarding hypersensitive children.
Heather Ferguson
Heather has a special interest in the topics of resilience and neuroscience. She is available to speak in her region and to teach any of the Neufeld Institute courses in person. Besides parent consulting (including online) she also serves adults, adolescents and couples. A steadfast advocate for children and the adults who seek to understand them, Heather has a warm and playful approach. Adults leave her courses, presentations, and sessions heartened and ready to lead struggling children toward emotional health and well-being. Heather is married and a mother of two adult children. She is an avid gardener with a special flair for growing beautiful dahlia. Please consult her website for information regarding the parent consulting services she provides.
Sandy Hitchens
Sandy is the director of Neufeld Aotearoa, a regional Neufeld Institute that was established because of the special interest and culture of the area. She puts her Masters in Education to good use opening many doors, including those of school systems, academia, and treatment. She loves teaching, facilitating courses both in person and online. Her passion is the Troubled Kids material. Together with her husband she has four adult children and a granddaughter, all of whom she loves spending time with, cooking, drinking good coffee and dreaming up adventures. Please consult her website for information regarding the parent consulting services she provides.
Rebecca Janke
Rebecca is a registered social worker, with over 20 years’ experience working with people with disabilities, adoption, and a variety of family constellations. She has worked with people experiencing complex medical, physical and developmental needs for many years and understands the special delights and challenges this brings to parenting. She works in the Vancouver area with an adoption agency and in her private practice, where she offers private consultation for both biological and adoptive families. She teaches parenting courses and facilitates numerous Institute Courses. Please consult her website for information regarding the parent consulting services she provides.
Bree Jordan
Breanna considers herself fortunate to work in a clinic where the practice is heavily informed by the insights from the Neufeld paradigm. She also takes on private clients both in-person and online. Bree enjoys teaching, whether it is informally in consultation with parents and families, or more formally through delivering and supporting courses. Given her heart and aptitude with words, she has the special assignment of supporting our Intensive III course – Becoming Attached – where the focus is often adults and not just children. She is married to an elementary school teacher and she has two adolescent children. She can often be found hiking or milling about in her garden fussing over her plants or playing ukulele and making music with her family. Please contact her for information regarding the parent consulting services she provides.
Marla Klyne Kolomaya
Marla is particularly drawn to the warmth and intuitive caring of Dr. Neufeld’s developmental-relational approach as well as how right it feels to walk alongside parents as they face the many daunting challenges of raising children in today’s culture. She has found her life’s work in supporting families, educators, and professionals with an enthusiastic and unwavering belief that relationship is the answer for what ails us. Marla is available to offer online courses to groups including parents, educators and helping professionals who are yearning to make sense of complex problems and behaviours they are encountering with children and adolescents in their care. Please contact her for information regarding the parent consulting services she provides.
Deborah MacNamara
Deborah's PhD has been well put to use in opening doors for teaching at university, addressing esteemed institutions such as United Nations and the Dalai Lama Center, developing her own professional counselling clinic, and expressing herself through writing. She appears regularly on media channels as well as writes for parenting websites and magazines. She is the author of three books (one on Preschoolers, one on Attachment & Food and a children's book entitled the Sorry Plane) that are an integral part of the Neufeld Institute mission. She has an international reputation as a polished speaker and we are thrilled to have her as a senior member of our Faculty. Please consult her website for information regarding the parent consulting services she provides.
Ksienia Majznerová
Ksienia is a psychologist, therapist and mother of two, originally from Belarus. She co-founded (with Lina Vizelman) a project called Rodičovství Hrou (parenting through play) with the purpose of bringing the Neufeld paradigm to the parents, foster parents, teachers, and other professionals working with children in the Czech Republic and Slovakia. Ksienia comes to her role with a masters degree in economics and management as well as experience as a professional photographer. She is currently studying personally with Dr. Neufeld as a faculty intern. Please consult her website for information regarding the parent consulting services she provides.
Michele Maurer
Michele is a daughter, a sister, an aunt, a niece, a cousin, a wife, a mother and a singer. A Registered Marriage and Family Therapist, she works with couples, parents, youth and families of all ages in her private practice in Langley. Michele has 30 years experience providing counselling in mental health care and non-profit organizations. As part of her staff/faculty role, Michele leads our course support team as well as overseeing our in-house training and our support for helping professionals. Michele’s favourite material includes the marriage and therapy courses. Michele has experience presenting to larger audiences and is available to take requests as well as travel if needed. Please consult her website for information regarding the parent consulting services she provides.
Sue McIntosh
Sue McIntosh is a Certified Canadian Counsellor with additional training in both equine and animal assisted therapy and trauma therapy. Based near Calgary, Sue has been offering Neufeld informed services and resources over the past fifteen years through her private counselling and professional training program, Healing Hooves. Sue provides counselling, personal growth, parent consulting and attachment resources to individuals, parents, children and adolescents. Please consult her website for information regarding the parent consulting services she provides.
Dan Nault
Dan is a registered social worker with Lethbridge School Division where he works in the role of Family School Liaison Counsellor. Dan also maintains a small private practice where he provides in person and virtual parent consultation. In addition to his 20 + years of experience working alongside children, youth and their families, Dan brings personal experience putting Dr. Neufeld`s approach to the test in day-to-day parenting with his own, now adult children. Dan’s passion for this approach combined with his personal and professional experience with children, youth and their families enables him to effectively connect Dr. Neufeld`s material to everyday interactions with children. Please contact him for information regarding the parent consulting services he provides.
Tamara Strijack
Tamara Strijack is a Registered Clinical Counsellor and the Academic Dean of the Institute. Tamara has worked with children and adolescents in various roles over the last twenty-five years and now primarily offers parenting consulting, workshops and teaches university courses for teachers and counsellors in training. Connection and relationship continue to be central themes in all her roles, both personally and professionally. She is the mother of two young women. As Dr. Gordon Neufeld`s daughter, Tamara offers a unique inside view, bringing together her own experience and insight with her father`s theoretical material. Please consult her website for information regarding the parent consulting services she provides.
Lina Vizelman
Lina shares the leadership of the Czech and Slovak languages with Ksienia. She has a background in psychology and computer science and is a mother of two sons. She was raised in Georgia and has also lived in Israel. She co-founded a project called Rodičovství Hrou (parenting through play) with the purpose of bringing the Neufeld paradigm to the parents, foster parents, teachers, and other professionals working with children in the Czech Republic and Slovakia. She is currently studying personally with Dr. Neufeld as a faculty intern. Besides teaching courses, Lina also serves as marriage therapist and parent consultant. Please consult her website for information regarding the parent consulting services she provides.
Lisa Weiner
Lisa Weiner is a mother of two sons, a nurse practitioner, parent consultant and an inspiring teacher of the Neufeld paradigm. She loves walking alongside parents, teachers and helping professionals while they make sense of the children in their care through classes and her private parent consulting practice. She has a special passion for helping parents make sense of adolescents, alpha challenges and counterwill. Since Lisa first found the Neufeld Institute she has immersed herself in Dr. Neufeld`s attachment-based developmental paradigm and has found that it has deeply enriched her parenting, her understanding of herself and other adults, and her appreciation of the wonders of human development. Please consult her website for information regarding parent consulting services she provides.
Adrienne Wood
Adrienne Wood was the first Regional Director of the Neufeld Institute program in New Zealand and continues to serve on the Neufeld Aotearoa team. She is an experienced teacher of high-risk youth in multicultural New Zealand secondary schools. She is also a parent consultant, course facilitator, presenter and mother to two adolescents. Adrienne has a particular interest in children with complex behavioural needs. Adrienne naturally infuses play and music in her work. Please consult her website for information regarding parent consulting services she provides.
Urska Zugelj
Dr. Žugelj bridges the worlds of academia, therapy and parenthood. Being fluently multilingual and having lived in a number of cities in the Adriatic/Balkan region, she is well-suited to bring Neufeld's attachment-based developmental approach to parents and professionals into these languages. Now a faculty member, Urška's initial introduction to Dr. Neufeld was through her curiosity about his approach to attachment as a university professor of attachment herself. Urška helped execute Dr. Neufeld's very successful 2024 speaking tour in Slovenia, Serbia, Croatia, and Bosnia & Herzegovina, sponsored by the Novak Djokovic Foundation. She is a mother to four. She is currently studying with Dr. Neufeld as a faculty intern. Please consult her website for information regarding parent consulting services she provides.
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The Neufeld Institute is a registered Canadian charitable organization under the name Neufeld Institute Foundation and is also registered as a NPO in British Columbia. If you would like to make a contribution to us, please go to our donation page.
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