SLEEPTALK TESTIMONIALS

Dear Joan,

Dajana my sister, is a Down syndrome child born with faulty heart and lungs.

My sister has difficulties in understanding complex tasks and need to be spoken to in simple language, she also requires assistance with bathing and at meal times. Unfortunately Dajana needs to be supervised as due to her disabilities as she is not able to look after her self all that well.

Dajana is a very difficult child to manage as her cognitive comprehension is low, and as a double whammy her body could never be healthy either.

We took this child from doctor to doctor for assistance, but as the nature of the beast is that there was not much you can do with this condition.

We also went to all types of different kinds of churches, looking for any kind of help and or answers. We tried everything and nothing was working.

The child was always very ill, and no matter what we did, her health could only be improved to a certain point and that is all you could do.

My Mum was very frustrated, as no matter what you did with Dajana, she could not grow mentally, nor could she progress cognitively.

My Mum was very ill with cancer and she also tried everything to help this child, but all of her strength efforts and frustration's were in vain as well. Eventually my Mum died battling with cancer for over 10 years and Dad & I were left with this child "my sister" to cope.

Exhausting all possibilities, we eventually come to meet Joan & Jim Goulding.

It took us a while to work out what SleepTalk was about.

SleepTalk was a strange concept to us, and we were still battling deep grief of Mum's slow cancer progression and eventual death.

Dad & I "her brother", used Sleep talk with Dajana to help her with going to the toilet as my sister, even though she was in her 20's was still peeing and soiling herself.

To be quite frank, in my heart I did not believe that SleepTalk would work. I believed that it would be hard to use, and it would take ages for it to work, and I imagined that I would get minimal or hardly measurable results.

Needles to say on all accounts I was wrong.

After speaking with Joan and using the SleepTalk kit, we found an immediate change.

Initially the child was confused, but then we saw an immediate progression of change for the better.

If I can give anybody advice I would say is this:

After purchasing the SleepTalk kit, read it a few times so you understand the concept. Listen to the CD a few times so you are familiar with it as well.

It is imperative that you work closely with a therapist. (This is really important)

This is so you are guided and mentored in your progress or should you loose focus like I did many times. There were other countless other issues that we were made bare to face each day, and this detracted from us and our abilities.

Now that I'm a therapist in training my self, looking back I wish we were mentored.

The reason why we did not get mentoring was because our case was very embarrassing and it was juts too much to cope with on top of all that we already had.

Mentoring would have made our lives a lot easier and in the face of working with my sister, as well as dealing with the devastating grief of the loss of my Mum to cancer.
In my experience from using sleep talk, it was easy and it worked.
From then on in rare occasions did we encounter issues where my sister did pee or soiled her self after we administered SleepTalk.

Recently my sister Dajana has passed away at the age 30. On the eve of her passing, it destroyed me watching my sister in so much pain and distress. She was struggling for breath, due to her hart and lungs were now giving out.

In all my tiredness and distress as I was looking after her and watching over her, I looked into her eyes I said to her the Foundation Statement.

My sister immediately understood those words very well, and she calmed immediately.

Shortly after in the small hours in the morning my sister passed away.

In our time with Dajana our lives were greatly touched and improved by SleepTalk.

Even tough our lives are a hard and tough, our lives were much tougher and harsher without SleepTalk. We are still yet have to grieve and put our lives back together.

To sum up what sleep talk did for us was, to take away the added stress and worry of already very bad situation. SleepTalk helped a down syndrome child with toilet training and us to no longer deal with the difficulties and embarrassment of a child peeing soiling it self.

Kindest Regards
Nenad Stanojevic


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Some parts of this testimonial/case history have been edited.



Although my son M. has generally always been a happy child with an affectionate disposition, my reason for commencing Sleeptalk was when I started to note some negative changes in M's behaviour that given a chance, I could see developing into behavioural problems later on. 

My instinct told me that my son was possibly feeling confused and insecure as a result of a turbulent and violent marriage split up. I wanted to address these issues without using the usual punishment/consequences method but rather, get to the cause.

I searched for what was available to me and I saw something in Sleeptalk that I knew immediately my son would benefit from. It struck a cord with me as well, and took me on my own life changing personal journey to help me come to terms with the fact that I had basically grown up feeling unloved and unlovable. But that's another story. 

I knew I couldn't change the past. But what I did know was that Sleeptalk could shape not only M's future, but my own as well, in safe, positive and empowering way.

The Case study for M.

M. is a 5-year-old boy who resides with his mother, the custodial parent.  M's parents divorced when he was 2½ years old.

The father is in a stable relationship with a new partner and her daughter. The mother has had one significant relationship since the marriage breakdown that lasted two years and ended when M was 5 years old.

The mother's main concern is for M's emotional well being and positive sense of self. It is the mother's belief that as a result of the divorce and living in separate households, M has developed some separation anxiety and can sometimes have temper tantrums that have undermined his self-esteem.

Both parents have very different parenting styles and this has been a source of anxiety to the mother, who would like there to be more consistency in the way M is parented.  Given that this is unlikely to happen, the mother saw the importance of at least one parent offering the stability and consistency that children growing up thrive on.

21/08/04 When we first started this process, M was an anxious and insecure little boy who could be very demanding and prone to tantrums. At this time he was regularly getting constipated during his father's contact weekend, as he would not go to the toilet whilst he was there.  This caused both M and his mother some distress upon his return home because he was in physical pain and he was obviously bottling things up and holding on to issues.

The foundation was started and the results were immediate.  At first M started acting in a rebellious way. He became moodier, more sensitive and was crying a lot more.  He also became quite needy and craved affection from his mother.  Despite this, he was able to regain control quicker and get back into a happy mood.  He seemed to be going from one extreme to another.  e.g. When he was kind, he was really kind and when he was mean, he was really mean! 

25/09/04 The support statement: 'You can control your behaviour' was introduced.

Following this support statement, M's behaviour seemed to sort itself out and he became more balanced.  He also began expressing his feelings and needs and was able to explain 'why' he felt the way he did.  He appeared to be more focused and attentive and was able to sustain conversations in which issues were discussed and opinions expressed.  This was impressive for a 5 year old.  He seemed to retain information better and the improvement in his vocabulary and in the way he articulated himself was evident.

Also, there were fewer extremes in his behaviour after he returned home from his contact visits.  There was much development in the way M managed living between two or more different households. He no longer fretted about when he was going to see the other parent again. It was obvious that M was becoming much calmer and more secure within himself. 

17/06/05 We changed the support statement to: 'You are calm confident and safe' because M would often complain about his father bullying him.  Eventually M started to stand up to his father and others who picked on him. The change was remarkable; he is becoming quite an articulate, opinionated and assertive young boy!

When the 5th 'Where does my child stand now?' questionnaire was completed, M showed signs of suffering from 'fear of failure'.  In particular, he was afraid of tackling physical activities, especially sports that he had not played before that might involve ridicule from his peers. Such as, his fear of riding a bike.

After introducing: 'You enjoy learning new things, it's good interesting and fun' this area improved over night and he seemed to be ready to take more risks. In only one session after which M himself decided to get on his bike, he got on and rode it perfectly.

Not only did M start conquering other fears such as swimming, he willing wanted to attend after school sports twice a week and has been doing so for the past year and a half. It's great to see him not being afraid to get out there and give it a go, especially with sports.

Academically M has also shown improvement. For instance, M's reading, writing and spelling was at a lower level compared to his close friends (who are actually exceptional bright for their age) and although M was developing at the expected level for his age, he saw himself as 'dumb' compared to them and would say this of himself often. At this point I implemented another support statement:' Your reading, writing and spelling is getting better and better every day'. The improvement in his English was evident shortly afterwards, as were his higher levels of self-confidence and self-assuredness. Gradually, M started moving up each level in his readers and he continues to make ongoing progress.

26/04/06 M handled the death of our beloved Dog with maturity and respect.  He was a great support to me during my own mourning period, which took me quite by surprise.  He is so mature for his age.

07/07/06 After almost 2 years of M being involved in the Sleeptalk process, he has grown onto a sensitive and wise young boy. He has a happy disposition and a positive outlook of life.  At 7 years of age he already has fixed opinions on issues and he is not afraid to voice them. 
He is now far more relaxed and accepting of our divorce because he is happier and secure within himself. Prior to Sleeptalk, M would suffer from separation anxiety after contact visits with his father and would be 'angry' for some time afterwards.

For me as a parent, I can only say that I attribute 100% of these magnificent changes in M to Sleeptalk. 

The thing I like best is that I can see M growing up not being afraid to question things or stand up for what he believes in. M knows he has choices and that his opinions count.

In addition to this, he is always happy, sees the brighter side in all situations and is able to handle conflict in a less aggressive and more conducive manner. 

Lastly, he is so lovable and he is able to love those around him unconditionally.


Thank you Sleeptalk!


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