Eileen Henry
eileen.rie@gmail.com
Greetings! My name is Eileen and I am trained as an “educarer.” I am an advocate for children and teach a parent education program called RIE™ and have developed my program Compassionate Sleep Solutions based on the RIE™ approach to caring for the young child. By using this model of being an advocate for children the child has the opportunity to learn how to become a self advocate. An educarer views each child as a uniquely competent and capable individual. We try as much as possible to encourage the child to be an active participant in his/her care rather than a passive object. This takes slowing down and being truly present and mindful in the care giving routine.
The care giving routine is anytime we are involved in feeding, bathing, dressing or transitioning our child from one activity to another, as in the transition to sleep. These are the times that Magda Gerber, the founder of RIE, believed we need to be in 100% relationship with the child. At other times the child can be experiencing autonomous and uninterrupted play or autonomous and uninterrupted sleep. In RIE we encourage child initiated and child directed learning. By using this philosophy and model of care the child learns about their own inner states. The child knows when he/she is hungry, sleepy and will ask for what they need. They will also ask for what they want and those are a million in request. It is the adults job to distinguish between want and need. Through the RIE principal of "sensitive observation" we can begin to understand the infant and young child's authentic needs.
By nature I am not a slow person. I am energetic and feel somewhat rushed even when I am sitting still. Every week I would try not to rush to my RIE class with my son in tow. I’d pull up my car and start slowing down. I would walk slowly into class and start breathing…for the first time in my day. Doing this once a week for two years changed my life. Not to mention my oxygen starved brain. I remember one day in class when my teacher said this, “Children learn to need what they get.” That was my light bulb moment. What was my child learning to need and what had I learned to need?
Much of RIE and Compassionate Sleep Solutions simply put is learning what we call the 3 R’s: respect, reflect and then respond. Out of habit most of us react. What might happen in the moment where we slow down and become more mindful in our actions or response? In this space we allow the child to teach us about who they are and what their authentic needs may be around sleep, food, attunement, and development. As Magda said,
"Who better knows how to be a baby,
than a baby."
Child Sleep Solutions &
RIE Parent/Infant Classes
Eileen Henry is a RIE™ Associate and the mother of two excellent sleepers.
She received her training at the Resources for Infant Educarers (RIE™) Center in
Los Angeles, California.
She receives her life training from her son and daugther.
"We are raising children for the future. Our information is already obsolete. What might be the qualities we want them to possess for this great unknown?"
~ Magda Gerber
