Course Facilitators at Large
In addition to our Course Support Team, we also have other trained course facilitators who have been carefully selected for listing after demonstrating their mastery of the approach and suitability for the task. Some are facilitating Neufeld Institute courses in their specific regions, but all are currently involved in furthering the approach in some way. Many are available for online courses. They can be contacted through our main office.
Janet Arsenault
Alberta, Canada
Janet is a Registered Clinical Social Worker in Calgary, where she works both in the health care system and runs her own counselling practice. She has over 20 years of experience working with children, adolescents and their families in a variety of settings. Her professional practice is informed by Dr. Neufeld’s paradigm, but even more importantly, this approach helps her on the journey of raising her two sons. She offers consultation to schools, agencies and families as well as providing courses and presentations at conferences and other community events.
Fern Banner
Ontario, Canada
Fern is a Registered Psychotherapist in private practice in London, Ontario, with a Master’s degree in Marriage and Family Counseling. Fern brings an integrative, developmental, attachment approach to all her work with individuals, teens, couples, and families. Her passions lie with those suffering from complex trauma. As a mother of two adult children, she is actively using the Neufeld paradigm both at home and at work.
Nikita Bhatty Avdic
British Columbia, Canada
Nikita is a School Psychologist in Delta, BC and a mother of two young adults. She has also been a general education and special education teacher for many years. It has become clear to Nikita that the best way to succeed as an educator is to have the hearts of your students. To this end she enjoys offering courses to parents and teachers in her community.
Richard Bolduc
Ontario, Canada
Richard followed graduate studies in criminology with a Ph.D. in counselling psychology from McGill University and a clinical internship at Montreal General Hospital. He is registered as a psychologist in both Quebec and Ontario. Past experience includes working in prisons, hospitals and youth protection services. He has worked as a school psychologist for over 25 years and currently serves school boards in the Ottawa area.
Maureen Bright
Montana, USA
Maureen has a B.A. in Early Childhood/Elementary Education and is a Montessori Teacher and Director. Her understanding has evolved from over 25 years of daily experience of the joys and challenges of being a parent and teacher. Maureen is passionate about her work as a Neufeld Course Facilitator. Most importantly, Maureen is a mother and grandmother, putting Dr. Neufeld`s approach into practice in her everyday life.
Sara Cole
Seattle, Washington
As an adoptive parent herself, Sara Cole helps other adoptive parents create more cooperation and ease in their homes, while growing deeper, stronger relationships with their kids. Sara has been passionate about attachment and development since before the birth of her first child in 2000. After several years leading the Seattle chapter of Attachment Parenting International, she discovered and fell in love with Dr. Gordon Neufeld`s attachment-based developmental model.
Pat Currie
British Columbia, Canada
For Pat, the strength of Dr. Neufeld`s attachment paradigm is that it gives words and affirmation to her instincts. Pat credits these instincts to her grandmother, whom she saw build a family and community through truly connecting with all whom she met. This deep appreciation for her grandmother`s natural ability to connect with people inspires Pat in her facilitation, work, and parenting. As a Child and Youth Care worker in an elementary school and the parent of two young adults, Pat is continually engaged in this attachment paradigm.
Debbie Cybulski
British Columbia, Canada
Debbie is a Registered Social Worker and is currently the Executive Director of the LDABC (Learning Disabilities Association of BC at The Learning Curve in Victoria, BC. She has worked, volunteered, played alongside, and cared for children and their families in various capacities for 30 years. Regardless of her role, she believes that every child she meets is capable of reaching their full human potential. Dr. Neufeld`s developmental theory is implemented into The Learning Curve’s programs and workshops.
Carmen Daines
Alberta, Canada
Carmen currently resides and teaches in Red Deer , Alberta. Carmen is a certified teacher with 12 years experience in the classroom working with students from grades 1-9. She is mother to 2 beautiful young women. She was introduced to Dr. Neufeld’s paradigm fourteen years ago by a colleague and fellow student of the Neufeld Institute and has been profoundly impacted by it both professionally and personally ever since. Carmen is excited to share Dr. Neufeld’s insights with fellow educators and parents.
Rosie Griffiths
New Zealand
Rosie Griffiths has a background in Education including Primary teaching, adult English language teaching (Unitec) and running a Home Tutor programme for refugees. In addition, she has homeschooled her own five children through the primary and intermediate years. More recently she has become involved in parent education through the Neufeld Aotearoa (New Zealand ) Region, where she is an integral part of the team, helping to bring Dr. Neufeld’s insights to this region.
Rebecca Janke
British Columbia, Canada
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.
Katarina Larsson
British Columbia, Canada
Katarina is a Registered Clinical Counsellor (RCC) in the Vancouver area working in private practice. Katarina has experience working in hospital and community settings, and she now works with individuals, couples and parents. Her education includes a BSc in Dietetics and a MA in Counselling Psychology. She grew up on a farm in Sweden and moved to Canada as a teenager. Katarina, a mother of two young adults, is passionate about sharing Dr. Neufeld`s approach with other parents and about using it in her own parenting and grand-parenting.
Meghan Leahy
Maryland, USA
Meghan received her education at The Catholic University of America and John Hopkins University. She is a mother of three daughters and a weekly columnist for ‘On Parenting Section’ for The Washington Post. Formerly a high school teacher and school counsellor, she now devotes her time to coaching parents, writing and offering parenting classes. With her relatable and quick humour, Meghan is a strong supporter of child-parent relationships.
Sue McIntosh
Aberta, Canada
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.
Kaye McKean
New Zealand
Kaye McKean is director of a bespoke Early Childhood Centre in Auckland, New Zealand where she is working with her team to create an attachment rich, nature infused experience for preschoolers and their families. Translating the Neufeld Approach to this setting is her current life work. Kaye has history as a secondary school teacher, guidance counsellor and parent consultant. She is mother to two boys and step mother to another two. Kaye completed a research based Masters degree in Social Welfare at Otago University using a Neufeld approach to Teachability in her thesis. She offers Neufeld courses to both teachers and families and loves sharing the life changing paradigm.
Isabel Melo
Quebec, Canada
Isabel Melo is a licensed Couple and Family Therapist and Psychotherapist in private practice in Montreal, Quebec. She is the owner and director of Couple and Family Therapy Montreal, a multi-clinician relationship centre. She brings an integrated emotionally focused, developmental, attachment-based approach to her work with individuals, couples, parents and families. As a mother of two children, she applies the Neufeld paradigm both personally and professionally.
Betty Miller
Alberta, Canada
Betty has retired from active employment and now enjoys having more time for family, friends and gardening. Her career included over 18 years of experience in the Human Services field. Betty is a Neufeld Course Facilitator in Grande Prairie and area where she has facilitated groups for parents, foster parents and professionals with enthusiasm for several years. With her warmth and ability to create a comfortable learning environment, course participants keep coming back for more. Betty is a mother and grandmother, who puts Dr. Neufeld's approach to use in her personal and public life.
Bridgett Miller
British Columbia, Canada
Bridgett is a teacher, remedial therapist, and author with a background in education, special education, and psychology. She is an authorized Neufeld Facilitator and the author of What Young Children NEED You to Know, a book rooted in a developmental and attachment-based approach to parenting. Bridgett offers workshops, talks, and private consultations for parents and educators seeking to better understand the children in their lives. Originally from South Africa, she now lives in BC with her family and two dachshunds. As a mother of two daughters, Bridgett has found Dr. Neufeld’s work profoundly influential in her own parenting journey.
Dan Nault
Alberta, Canada
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.
Betty Parker
Alberta, Canada
Betty works in the Heartland of Alberta supporting parents, children and families. She has a long history of this work for various agencies in both Alberta and her home province of Manitoba. She currently works in Stettler as an Education and Support worker for the Association of Communities Against Abuse. Betty’s love of teaching shines through as she delivers an exceptional number of Institute courses in her community. She is a mother and grandmother, and she cannot emphasize enough the impact for parents when they can make sense of their children from the inside out.
Jane Perkins Love
New Brunswick, Canada
Jane Perkins Love was first introduced to the work of Dr. Neufeld in 2011 and has been an enthusiastic follower of his attachment-based developmental paradigm ever since. Jane is a certified counsellor with the Canadian Counselling and Psychotherapy Association. When she retired from her full time guidance position at a large elementary school in 2014, Jane opened a private practice in her own home. She enjoys working with parents, children and groups. She offers courses to parents, educators and helping professionals in the greater Saint John area.
Laila Presotto
British Columbia, Canada
Laila Presotto holds an M.A. in Counselling Psychology, and is a Registered Clinical Counsellor. She works in private practice in the North Shore of Vancouver with a focus on couples and parenting relationships. Laila’s passion and enthusiasm for the attachment based developmental material shows in her commitment to helping parents and professionals understand the children in their lives from the inside out.
Flora Purcell
British Columbia, Canada
With a background in nursing, counselling, and group facilitation, Flora provides support and education to parents at the Mount Pleasant Family Centre in Vancouver. Flora is inspired to help parents recognize and satisfy their child`s developmental needs in order to promote healthy behaviour. By giving support to parents, Flora works to help parents feel generous in fulfilling their child`s emotional needs. Sharing in the delight of children`s growth is a daily goal. A long time resident of Vancouver, Canada, Flora has raised two daughters who are now young adults.
Eva Svensson
British Columbia, Canada
Eva is originally from Sweden and moved to Canada 30 years ago. Her career started in teaching where she specialized in Early Childhood Education and the Montessori approach. After completing a diploma in counseling in 2004 she changed directions and continues to work at West Side Family Place (WSFP) in Vancouver, a family resource centre to this day. Having experienced how isolating it can be to raise children without a natural attachment village; she is now deeply committed to supporting parents and helping them make sense of their children. She is a parent of three grown daughters and continues to be fascinated and delighted by the challenge.
Miriam Taylor
British Columbia, Canada
Miriam spent 25 years teaching in the Chilliwack School District. She began working with Dr. Neufeld`s approach in that profession and over the years has led numerous professional teacher development and parent seminars in the school, community and church. She spent 4 years in Warsaw, Poland bringing Dr. Neufeld`s approach in parenting and relationships to the international community. She is now living In Abbotsford, BC where she continues to influence and support parents and students in a homeschooling community as an online support teacher and coach.
Gabriella Toth
British Columbia, Canada
Gabriella is a Registered Traditional Chinese Medicine Practitioner in BC and a Registered Acupuncturist in Alberta. She works at a clinic in Castlegar, BC, supporting families and children seeking alternative approaches to health. Since discovering Dr. Neufeld’s work in 2010, Gabriella has drawn deeply from the developmental, attachment-based approach—both in her practice and in raising her two young daughters. Gabriella brings compassion, clarity, and personal storytelling to her work, helping others connect meaningfully with the material.
Barbara Zang
British Columbia, Canada
Barbara is a retired teacher/counsellor and has been presenting Dr. Neufeld`s courses for a number of years. She puts the course material into practice both in her work in the school and at home with her husband, two children, seven grandchildren and three great-grandchildren. Barbara believes that Dr. Neufeld`s approach fits with beliefs, instincts and intuition which makes it applicable to all situations. She is also watching the struggles of parents in the world today brought on not only by relationships within the family but the societal pressures on young families. Barbara offers courses in the Vanderhoof, Fraser Lake and Burns Lake areas.
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Charity & Non-Profit Status
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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