Elaine Halligan

The London director of The Parent Practice, Elaine has been a parenting facilitator since 2006, leading hundreds of parenting classes and doing private consultations, having been trained as an Effective Parenting Educator with Bonnie Harris.

She works in schools and nurseries, coordinates a corporate and business seminar programme and works with special educational needs such as dyslexia, dyspraxia and dyscalculia.

She regularly appears on SKY news; speaks on BBC local radio and is quoted in the broadsheet press regularly. She contributes to monthly Q and A as the parenting expert to Smallish Magazine.

Raised in Edinburgh, she qualified in law and as a chartered accountant with ICAS. She worked in corporate finance with Coopers and Lybrand and taught business management and business finance – motivating students to pass professional exams. She lives in Wimbledon with New Zealand husband Tony, her son and daughter and her therapy dog, a working cocker spaniel.

Elaine came into parenting thinking she should instinctively know how to parent. She felt guilty when she thought she had done a ‘bad job’ and ashamed when she saw someone else parenting the way she wished she could. She sought parenting advice when one of her children was diagnosed with Pathological Demand Avoidance and severe dyslexia and had been excluded from three schools by the age of 7. Her son since has finished his schooling and in spite of predictions that he would never be able to complete exams, he completed his A levels; secured a place at University and finished school as Head Boy.

Being a parent is the most demanding job she has ever done but equally it is a role filled with joy.
Elaine has helped hundreds of families to understand their child’s unique temperament and motivates parents to bring out the best in children and teenagers to ensure they have the opportunity to lead fulfilling lives and be able to cope with life’s knocks. She helps parents ensure their children have a strong sense of self worth and have good emotional intelligence, to enable them to blossom and enter into adult life successfully

www.theparentpractice.com