Do you need a certification to be a baby sleep consultant?
Updated: Oct 28, 2023
THIS is a loaded question.
The sleep consulting profession is not regulated. This means that, technically, anyone can practice as a sleep consultant.
If that doesn’t make your eyeballs pop from their sockets I don’t know what would!
(And because it’s not a regulated field, we (Ashley Olson and Katelyn Thompson) started The Collective for Family Rest and Wellness, because we saw a need for QUALITY, EVIDENCE-BASED programs in the market. More on this later…)
Obviously, we have thoughts and opinions about why we think anyone who is considering becoming a sleep consultant should become certified first. We will get into all our reasoning in this post. Time to spill the tea…
most parents want to know you have formal and thorough training as a certified sleep consultant before hiring you to work with their child.
Any parent in their right mind would NOT hire someone to work with their baby or young child if they did not have the proper training.
As a parent, you don’t trust just anyone with your precious child, especially when it comes to something as personal as sleep.
When we sleep we are in a most vulnerable state. When we focus on the thought of our baby getting enough sleep, or even the thought that they might cry during the process! Oh my! Parents need someone who can educate them and guide them because they have the proper knowledge and education…
…from a sleep consultant certification program.
Having a professional badge and credentials indicating you are a certified sleep consultant will allow potential clients to know that you take your profession seriously.
As parents, we search for the best OBGYNs, the best pediatricians, and the best pediatric dentists…why not the best sleep consultants??
Having the credentials and education and visual proof on your website shows parents that you are a credible resource and take the sleep consulting profession seriously.
Even when it comes to things like teachers, whom we know our children will have a new one each year throughout their schooling, we ask the administration that our child be placed in Mrs. So-and-So’s class next year because she has a reputation and her master’s degree in reading and she’s the best second-grade teacher at XYZ school.
And if your prospective client really does their homework and they’re trying to learn more about you and your education and WHY you’re to be trusted with their child’s sleep, they may even look up the badge you have displayed on your website to see what your training all consisted of and if it aligns with their values as a parent.
Not to toot our own horn, but we think know our evidence-based sleep consultant certification is the only one of its kind on the market. We will share more about what makes our program different (and THE BEST sleep consultant certification program in the market).
Working with postpartum families and children is an important job and you want to make sure you're giving out accurate advice as a certified sleep consultant.
There’s a lot that goes into sleep, and if you aren’t aware of all the pieces of the sleep puzzle, you won’t be able to help families as best as you can.
You don’t know what you don’t know!
Postpartum families, especially, can be tricky to work with. There are hormones involved. There’s development involved. There is this added layer of complexities that sleep consultants may have to work through to help a family be successful in reaching their sleep goals for their child.
This is serious stuff.
We make sure to cover all of these different complexities that may arise with your clients, including parenting styles, child temperaments, Postpartum Mood or Anxiety Disorders, cultural differences, and feeding styles. All of these things can affect sleep itself or the process of a family teaching their child to sleep independently.
There can be liability issues in practicing as a sleep consultant without any formal training.
For obvious reasons, we recommend that all sleep consultants obtain liability insurance when they start their business.
Many insurance companies won’t issue you an insurance policy without proof that you’ve been through formal and thorough training in the form of a sleep consultant certification program.
And not having insurance is too risky. Especially when it comes to working with babies and young children. It’s just not worth it.
The value of a community and mentors to support you and your sleep consulting business can make all the difference in your practice.
Most sleep consultant certification programs will have some form of community. Ours is a private student and graduate Facebook group that you’d have lifetime access to, along with quarterly continuing education.
Because sleep is rooted in science and is constantly being researched, we know the importance of keeping up with the latest findings. Anytime we add anything new to any of our courses, it is announced in the group. Anytime we add continuing education to the program, it is announced to the group.
The group of women in The Collective for Family Rest and Wellness are all supportive of one another as well, helping each other troubleshoot various sleep issues their clients are experiencing. Two brains are always better than one.
With The Collective’s sleep consultant certification program specifically, you can practice with our paid internship hours before working with one-on-one clients.
We want you to be successful and we also want you to make your investment back as soon as you can after completing the sleep consultant certification course.
Our graduates all have the opportunity to work as a certified sleep consultant in our private Facebook group, Raising Happy Sleepers, helping parents navigate their child’s sleep with professional, evidence-based information. They can do this before they start working with clients in a one-on-one coaching capacity or do both simultaneously. Either way, you can literally be making money from day one of graduation from the Sleep Consultant Academy.
Other Sleep Consultant Certification Course Highlights
We’ve mentioned a few of these perks earlier in this article, but we wanted to dive deeper, especially if we’ve got your attention.
Evidence-based Curriculum
Our goal with starting The Collective for Family Rest and Wellness has always been to elevate the field of sleep consulting. And since the launch of our course in 2021, we’ve been doing just that!
The curriculum in our sleep consultant certification program was organized in a way that share the information in a digestible way, but also provides the research to support the information we’ve shared. We want you to know what you need to know, but we also want you to know WHY you need to know it.
The deeper you can go into the scope, the better you’ll be able to serve families. And the best part is, you can come back and refresh yourself at any time! You always have access to the course and we’re always updating the information and research as needed.
Taught by Experts
We recognize that we are just a couple of moms and sleep consultants with a lot of experience. We know A LOT about sleep. And a little about everything else that’s necessary for you to start and run your own successful sleep consulting business.
So we brought in 20 different experts who help us cover everything along with and beyond sleep. You’ll learn everything you need to know from prerequisite knowledge to age considerations, to starting a brand and business, to protecting your brand and business. And everything in between.
You can read more about all the featured experts and their course trainings here.
Community Over Competition
We’d already mentioned how amazing the community of students and course graduates we have is, but it’s worth mentioning again because they really are that great!
These women lean on each other, help each other, and share the same love of learning and sleep.
Want to chat with a founder in the group?? Simply tag us in your post and we’re there to help!
We believe that each student and graduate has their own unique journey as they’re becoming a certified sleep consultant, launching and building a business or joining someone else’s, and striving to meet their professional goals. Whatever your journey will be, we are here for you.
Once you’re in, you’re in - and you have access to all course updates for a lifetime.
This bit is also worth mentioning again. The Sleep Consultant Academy from The Collective for Family Rest and Wellness will NEVER go out of date. We constantly refine the research that’s provided and share updates with all of our students and graduates.
We’re kind of obsessed with anything that has to do with sleep science. We even call ourselves “sleep nerds” and rightly so - we’re signed up to receive notifications for any new research that is released in professional databases. Yes, we’re really that into it.
If you think you might be a sleep nerd too, it’s time to join us. Once you’re in, you’ll always have access to everything in the course and the private student and graduate Facebook group.
Why wouldn’t you become a certified sleep consultant? The cost of certification programs.
We know becoming a certified sleep consultant is an investment. In fact, it’s more than just a monetary investment. We shared all about it in one of our other blogs:
“If you’re the kind of person who can count on yourself, you’re in the right place.
We often hear that our online sleep consultant course, the Sleep Consultant Academy, is “quite an investment.”
And it is!
It’s an investment in yourself.
It’s an investment in your family.
It’s an investment in the well-being of families everywhere.
It’s a financial investment.
It’s an investment of time.”
Sleep consulting certification programs aren’t cheap (and if they are, steer clear).
Luckily, at The Collective for Family Rest and Wellness, we have payment programs available. Choose what works best for you:
A one-time payment
A 6-month payment plan
A 12-month payment plan
And we said it so eloquently in the blog linked above:
“Yes, becoming a certified sleep consultant is not cheap. Nor should it be. This is a very specific type of knowledge that you need to have. Within our program, we compare the level of content to that of a grad program. What would you pay for a semester of college tuition?
If this type of financial investment is one of the things that makes you pause, consider a program with a paid internship. This opportunity allows you to start making your investment back before you even start working with clients. Technically, you don’t even have to have a business up and running to work as a certified sleep consultant. You can work for other sleep consultants, or, like we previously mentioned, in our paid internship program.”
We also have sales and promotions on a regular basis.
If becoming a certified sleep consultant is a goal of yours, we highly recommend you get on our email list and follow us on social media so you can see anytime there is a sale.
Is this sleep consultant certification program right for you?
We like to make things as easy as possible for you.
Our program is for you if:
You’re ready for a new career or side hustle
You’re obsessed with sleep, specifically pediatric sleep
You’re passionate about educating others and helping families navigate difficult sleep issues
You like the idea of a sleep consultant certification course that can be done in your own time, at your own pace
You want something for yourself that supports your family without sacrificing your family life or another job
You’re committed to putting in the work to learn evidence-based practices and methods for helping babies (and their parents!) get better sleep
We hope you found this article enlightening, and even more so, we hope to see you inside the Sleep Consultant Academy very soon!
