Testimonials

Feedback left by parents and schools

What Parents have said

We went to see Anne to gain some advice regarding our 9 year old daughter. We felt we had tried all the techniques advised in the books and on the internet to try and prevent tantrums and shouting, but nothing seemed to be working. After just 1 hour session with Anne and armed with new advice our lives completely turned around and most importantly, our daughter began to learn how to calm down independently. 1 year on and we are still using the same techniques (needed much less) and they still work… in summary, Anne provides you with techniques that empower you and your children to soothe and calm themselves, something they can take with them into adulthood. Anne made us realise, we were doing nothing wrong and that our daughter was just a little misunderstood and very clever. Once we recognised this, we found it so much easier to stand our ground and follow through with the techniques. It was the best money we have ever spent and I would NOT HESITATE to go and see Anne again should we require.

"We contacted Anne as we were struggling to deal with our 6 year old boy's behaviour and meltdowns. The meltdowns were becoming more regular and lasting longer. Despite researching ways to improve things, whatever we tried didn't seem to work and we were getting more concerned about the future. We got in touch with Anne after seeing one of her videos on Facebook. We had an initial phone discussion, then four online meeting sessions. From the beginning we found Anne friendly, approachable and non-judgemental. She identified some strategies we could quickly put in place and we saw improvements in our son's behaviour immediately. Over the next sessions we discussed the issue in more depth and Anne identifed ways we could reduce and avoid the meltdowns and deal with them better when they occurred. We continued to see great improvements and when we struggled with certain aspects, Anne gave alternative solutions and got us back on track. After four sessions my son's meltdowns can normally now be avoided and we can deal with them much better if they occur. Our relationship with him has improved lots too. It has been so helpful to talk things through with Anne and get her expert advice. We now have the tools and techniques to deal with things ourselves. Without Anne's help, we would still have been struggling. I feel so glad we were able to get support from Anne and would definitely recommend her services."

Just wanted to write to say thank you for the work you've done with me for my son. Going from a place where I felt like a bad parent and couldn't cope to now having a great bond with him is amazing. Obviously with him having special needs it's still hard but the strategies we've been able to put in place with your input have been invaluable. It's always great working with you as you have a very calming manner and I think because of all your vast experience I just feel in good hands and that you understand. With you, anything can be worked through. I know at times I've come on to my session with you ready to give up on myself as a mum bu t the way you guide me through things and we come up with actionable steps has really turned things around for us.

I was struggling to manage my 2 and a half year olds behaviour and was facing daily problems. This was effecting us as a family, my relationship with my little boy and my parenting confidence. I felt I had lost my way. We found Anne's advice and support so simple to follow, so well suited to our child and so effective. Without ever meeting our son it felt like Anne knew him so well. She renewed my confidence and helped strengthened mine and my partners relationship with our beautiful boy and his behaviour greatly improved. We will use the advice and techniques Anne gave us for many years to come.

We got in touch with Anne as we needed some help with managing the emotions of our two children. After our initial chat, we felt that Anne really understood our struggles and we soon signed up to four sessions with her. Anne was really great at unpicking the problems and offering tailored solutions for us. She came up with strategies and tactics to use as well as helping us to gain an insight into why they felt this way. After only our first session with Anne we start to see a difference in our children's Behaviour. We felt more in control of how to manage our son's explosive tantrums and as a result he has become less angry and the tantrums don't last for half as long! We found Anne to be extremely knowledgeable about the psychology of children's behaviour and she offered us various solutions for a range of issues we were dealing with. Her advice on getting them to go to bed early and how to reward for positive behaviour has been invaluable for what has seemed like an endless battle over several months. Would highly recommend using Anne's services for quick and long last results.

Anne was recommended to us after we were experiencing difficult behaviour from our 4 year old. His behaviour had become erratic after starting school and I was very worried avout what was causing this. Anne was very caring and understanding and helped us to feel at ease. She gave us helpful and achievable techniques to use with him and we've already started to see a positive change. Anne has really helped us as a family, she was flexible with us too during this unpredictable time. We can't thank her enough.

We are thrilled with the progression our son has made in self settling and sleeping better at night since we spoke to Anne. Our initial consultation was a relaxed talk in which she provided options for a change in route that we agreed on together. After putting the work in at home, Anne followed up with phone calls weekly until we were satisfied we could continue as we were. She was a wonderful support for us and we highly recommend her services to other tired parents! We didn't think it would be possible for our now 3 year old to go to sleep alone and bedtime to be so quick or for him to sleep through the night!

Anne came to our daughters school to give a talk and we were really impressed so asked her for help with both our young children. Anne was able to 'get us' straight away and understand the actual problems, having been there herself. She is a breath of fresh air and says it how it is. She gave us loads of advice on sleeping which we implemented straight away and it worked, straight away! She was able to put our minds at ease over food and meal times. We feel she has really supported us and made our house a much happier place to live in. You can't put a price on sleep! We would definitely recommend Anne.

As a parent of a 14 year old child with complex difficulties I have found Anne to be a great listener. She has provided support and valuable constructive suggestions which have enabled us as a family to find some calmness in our lives. I would have no hesitation in recommending her for any area of parental and family support particularly if you are looking for a non-judgemental solution with a very caring approach, to increase confidence and understanding.

“We sought Anne’s help for our 8 year old son who was showing signs of being severely distressed and anxious during the lock down period. This included withdrawal from us and his wider family, weight loss, constant tummy aches, heightened emotions and expressing a desire to die, coupled with excessive screen time. Anne was immensely reassuring, kind and calm. She helped us break down the issues into manageable chunks with clear objectives to achieve, by offering practical advice, clear boundaries, behaviour changes and suggestions that we could implement. With Anne’s help, our son has made huge strides in a short time period to overcome the worst of his anxieties. We continue to use Anne’s techniques and our son is still benefiting from this.”

Anne came to our daughter’s school to give a talk and we were really impressed so asked her for help with both our young children. Anne was able able to 'get us' straight away and understand the actual problems. She is a breath of fresh air and says it how it is. She gave us loads of advice on sleeping which we implemented straight away and it worked, straight away! She was able to put our minds at ease over food and meal times. We feel she has really supported us and made our house a much happier place to live in. You can't put a price on sleep! We would definitely recommend Anne.

I met Anne today and was a big help. Non judgmental, great advice and a lovely lady. Going to put the tips in place, and here's to sleeping through the night.

We've seen Anne for sleep and parenting advice and have seen improvements every time. Anne is reassuring, non-judgmental and makes you totally at east. I've recommended Anne to several friends who have all had a similar experience.

It's been great working with you over the last few months. We've really appreciated your support and help and i know we've all benefited greatly. My daughter was finding the transition to year 7 difficult. Friendships were changing and becoming much more complicated. I didn't know how to maintain our normal family boundaries amidst all of this change and as a result the interaction between my daughter and myself was becoming difficult and draining for all. These issues were discussed in a calm and accepting way and as a result i feel much more confident in my ability to help her cope with difficult times. our interactions are calmer and i am better able to defuse the intensity and focus more on support and understanding. It's been helpful to reflect on what I've learnt and what changes have come about because of this.

I found Anne at just the right time, my little girl was 6 years old when we started work together. She had always been a very headstrong character with very high emotions and I put it down to me not being a very good mum, her seeing too much negativity between her father and I, which i felt dreadful about and her just being quite frankly a bit of a diva. I remember being on the phone to Anne for the initial introduction and she was screaming at me and so distraught. From that moment Anne opened my eyes as to my little one being quite an unhappy with her own self a lost soul with too many emotions that she did not know how to deal with and that my confidence as a parent had disappeared out of the window. I have quite bad anxiety and depression and her father has a very short tempter and lack of patience, and i discovered from Anne that she was trying to mirror us both - poor thing. We spent several session of her coaching me on how to be around her, how to praise her and keep calm, ignore the things that i would usually react to learn to adjust how i spoke into positive commands and things slowly but surely changed. A miracle happened to the point where when she 'acts up' it is a shock to me now. It is still work in progress but the gentle teaching, reminding and praising from Anne - I cannot recommend her enough. I am a much happier parent and the prize is a happier little girl - who still can be very testing but i have the tools now to work with, I just have to keep on top of it, remind myself and get on with life in a much better position. I know that Anne is there for me for anything else that may crop up in the future and i know that if i do have to go back to her, it is not because i have failed, it is because I need to get back to the basics and refresh on my newly learned skills. Thank you Anne.

We worked with Anne to help us deal with our son who wasn’t attending school. This was an incredibly frustrating and stressful time for us as parents, but with Anne’s help, we changed our approach as to how we handled the whole situation. It took lots of time, patience (and deep breaths), and it wasn’t an overnight transition from him not attending to attending. But we have finally got there, and we owe a huge amount of thanks to Anne for her guidance and help with managing our own actions, thoughts and behaviors towards him.

We came to Anne through a professional recommendation as we needed urgent advice to give ourselves and our son the right tools to cope with his emotions. It is always a pleasure to speak with Anne - who helped our family enormously throughout our sessions. She has a calming and considered approach which allowed us to not only feel at ease, but helped to get what we needed out of each session.

"We had been having sleep issues with our 8 year daughter that had been getting progressively worse over the last couple of years. We had reached a stage where our daughter was refusing to go to bed, waking us up several times throughout the night, refusing to go back to her bed and wanting to sleep in our bed. This was happening every night and we were so exhausted and unsure as to how to deal with it that we decided we had to get some help. From the initial meeting, Anne was able to reassure us that this was not an uncommon problem and she really helped to put us at ease, letting us know that we weren't really doing anything wrong but just needed some guidance as to how to deal with it. She was able to immediately identify issues that we just couldn't see for ourselves, and she came up with some excellent strategies to deal with them. We were both really impressed with Anne's knowledge and experience and everything she was saying to us made so much sense. Before speaking to Anne, we were at the stage where we thought we were never going to be able to improve our daughter's sleep problems or be able to get a full night's sleep ourselves. However, in just 4 weeks, with Anne's help and guidance, we managed to get to a stage where our daughter was only getting up once a night and would then go straight back to sleep. Our own sleep improved so much as a result. We have even had nights of uninterrupted sleep now, something which hasn't happened for years. Our daughter is clearly less tired and a lot happier as well, knowing that she is actually able to settle herself independently. Overall, Anne helped us to recognise the issues and provide us with the tools and the confidence to be able to deal with them. We are both so glad that we decided to seek Anne's help and we would highly recommend her."

What Schools have said

It has been a pleasure to work In partnership with Anne who has provided excellent parent workshops and training for teaching assistants. She has provided invaluable support, listening and responding to the needs of individuals. Sometimes, an independent, highly skilled, empathetic voice is just what parents want and need. We have been fortunate to have found this in Anne. She is flexible in her working approaches and works to understand and meet the specific needs of the school. I can’t recommend her highly enough!

Anne has undertaken parenting workshops on stand-alone subjects for up to 50 parents and run courses over eight sessions on different topics that address the direct needs of my parents. Feedback from parents has been extremely positive from "an excellent session" to "very helpful and reassuring session which didn't patronise in any way". Anne's approach is relaxed and non-threatening, encouraging participants to share their views, experiences and the challenges they face of being a parent and through discussion receiving a new perspective or approach. Highly recommended!

Anne has delivered two parenting seminars for us: Parenting Your Anxious child and parenting (and surviving) Teens. Both sessions were well prepared and well delivered. They were also extremely well received by the many, many parents in attendance; the opportunity for Q&A at the end was particularly appreciated. Anne's calm, level-headed and warm approach meant there was no awkwardness and no feeling of 'trainer and trainees'; rather, it was like talking to - and picking the brains of - a good friend with a particular skill set! We will definitely ve invited Anne back to Bramhall High in the near future.

Anne is so knowledgeable and experience in all aspects of parenting. She genuinely listen then offers realistic support, advice and guidance. She is one of the most caring professionals I've ever had the pleasure to work alongside.

Workplace & Academic Feedback

Anne gave two presentations to our workforce about sleep management. The feedback was really positive, with many saying how knowledgeable she was, how interesting, clear, valuable and insightful the presentation was and that it provided lots of food for thought and some great ideas to try.

Anne makes valuable contributions to the MA Social Work at the University of Manchester. She teaches on both the Life Course and Social Work Interventions with Adults, families and children course units, specifically brain development in children and adolescents and The Incredible Years as a form of early intervention with children and families. She brings together both her practise experience and research knowledge in her teaching, making it relevant, to date and engaging. Her input is always evaluated positively by students.

Anne Creswell is an excellent lecturer who has consistently delivered high quality teaching and learning to experienced and qualified health and social care professionals at both Manchester Metropolitan and University of Manchester. I have no hesitation recommending Anne as she ably commands respect from learners due to her considerable professional practise experience and her in depth academic knowledge.

Anne's caring nature combined with her many years' experience make her an excellent Parenting Coach. She gives practical and effective support, and when I have referred to her families who were having problems with children's sleep patterns, they have always been very pleased with her guidance.

“The training was really useful and thought-provoking, and I will definitely be bringing what I have learned into both my childminding and personal interactions with people. I particularly found it useful to learn about how we develop neural pathways through our experiences as children and ‘prune’ those which are not useful. Also, fully understanding the benefits of being actively listened to (containment). Anne was a very clear, engaging and knowledgeable course leader.”

I'd like to say 'thank you' for providing me with excellent supervision and support for the past 3 years. From the moment I met you I felt comfortable and safe to talk about, and process, my practice, actions, thoughts and feelings. Supervision in social care, particularly in the child protection arena, is an important activity but one which is difficult to delve into if it is not carried out with the right person. I realise that I would have not managed to move the New Beginnings project on from the tiny pilot it was to the growing charity it is today if it were not for your constant and consistent support and care. You picked me up at times when I felt I had nothing left to give and you also helped me to see solutions when I felt there were none. You have always believed in me even when there were times I didn't in myself. There are no words that can express how grateful I feel for those moments. I truly hope our paths will cross again one day in the future.

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