Author: Sarah Ockwell-Smith

Sarah Ockwell-Smith writes on parenting from a psychology degree rather than a clinical qualification. Her degree is a BSc in psychology from the University of Greenwich, and after her first child was born she trained as a paediatric homeopath, an antenatal teacher and a birth and postnatal doula, adding hypnotherapy and baby massage. She founded BabyCalm in 2007 and ToddlerCalm after it, businesses that sell classes and instructor training, and her blog and books have carried gentle parenting to a very large readership. The Gentle Discipline Book: How to raise co-operative, polite and helpful children appeared in 2017, the sixth in a run beginning with BabyCalm in 2012 and continuing through ToddlerCalm, The Gentle Sleep Book and The Gentle Parenting Book. Its argument is that punishment, time out and reward charts damage the very relationship a child's behaviour depends on. She lives in Essex and has four children.