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The Gentle Start Program

Your village, coming to you.

In-home support for families during the first three years of parenthood.

You’re not meant to do this alone.

The early years of parenting can be filled with love, connection, growth, and wonder—but they can also bring exhaustion, isolation, identity shifts, relationship strain, and the feeling that you’re simply trying to get through the day.

 

Gentle Start brings emotional, practical, and family support directly into your home.

Post Natal Emotional
and Mental Health Support 

Parenthood can bring emotions you weren’t expecting—or feelings that are difficult to put into words.

We can support you with:

  • Feeling overwhelmed, anxious, depleted, or disconnected

  • Identity shifts and changes in your sense of self

  • Grief around your old life

  • Postpartum emotional wellbeing

  • Trauma and difficult birth experiences

  • Nervous system regulation

  • Building confidence as a parent

  • Finding yourself again within your new role

YOUR BABY YOUR TODDLER

Led by a Registered Social Worker, Gentle Start supports the whole family—not just the baby—through one of life’s biggest transitions.

 

Whether you’re recovering from birth, adjusting to a newborn, welcoming another child, navigating toddler meltdowns, feeling disconnected from your partner, or simply stretched too thin, we meet you where you are.

You don’t need to be in crisis to deserve support.

YOUR BABY, YOUR TODDLER

Understanding the little person you’re raising

Sometimes the hardest part of parenting is understanding what your child is trying to communicate.

We can support you with:

  • Soothing and regulation

  • Sleep rhythms

  • Feeding and transitions, including weaning and bottle/breast transitions

  • Understanding developmental needs

  • Toddler tantrums and meltdowns

  • Co-regulation strategies

  • Daycare transitions and separation

  • Supporting developmental milestones

  • Building connection and attachment

The goal isn’t to give you another list of things you’re “supposed” to do.

It’s to help you understand your child—and feel more confident responding to them. 

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YOUR PARTNERSHIP

Becoming parents changes relationships.

Even strong relationships can feel different after a baby arrives.

There may be more conflict, less intimacy, resentment about the division of labour, or simply less time to connect.

Gentle Start can help with:

  • Communication

  • Conflict and repair

  • Resentment

  • Intimacy

  • Changing relationship roles

  • Division of responsibilities

  • Co-parenting alignment

  • Reconnecting with shared values

  • Partnership transitions

  • Blended family dynamics

You don’t have to wait until your relationship is in crisis to get support.

A new baby changes the whole family system. Older siblings may experience excitement, jealousy, regression, grief, or big emotions that are difficult to understand.

 

We can help with:

  • Preparing siblings for a new baby

  • Sibling jealousy and regression

  • Emotion coaching

  • Connection rituals

  • Sibling relationships

  • Toddler and preschool transitions

  • Extended-family dynamics

  • Boundaries

  • Big feelings and challenging transitions

 

Because supporting the baby also means supporting everyone around the baby. 

Reach out
let's see how we can help. 

Land Aknowledgement

I live and practice on the traditional territory of many nations, including the Mississaugas of the Credit, the Anishinaabeg, the Chippewa, the Haudenosaunee, and the Wendat peoples, in what is traditionally called Tkaronto, covered by Treaty 13 with the Mississaugas of the Credit. I honour the enduring presence, stewardship, and sovereignty of Indigenous peoples on these lands.

 

With deep gratitude to the First Peoples and their wisdom, I acknowledge both the ongoing impacts of colonization and the harms that the fields of social work and mental health have caused—and continue to cause—to Indigenous communities.

 

As a settler and uninvited guest, I take responsibility for continually learning, unlearning, and repairing. I commit to practicing in solidarity with Indigenous peoples, supporting justice, healing, and land back, and working toward relationships rooted in accountability and respect.

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