My story
Hello, my name is Aspa Kandyli and I’m an expat mama living in the Netherlands. I was born and raised in Athens, Greece. In 2012, I moved to the Netherlands. I live in Loosdrecht with my husband, my daughter, and our little dog.
From a young age, I knew I would pursue a career in helping and supporting people. I could see myself working in a position like a teacher, a therapist, a mentor. My eagerness to learn and to expand my horizons led me to pursue a career in teaching. I graduated from the department of English Language and Literature from the University of Athens. I spent the next years in teaching positions, working closely with students ages 5-18 and their parents.
Wanting to delve deeper into how culture, race, and ethnicity influence our personal decisions and the ways we perceive the world, I got my Master’s degree in American Studies from the University of Utrecht. My area of study was on how people experience their identity, how they take up new identities, and what shifts happen to how first, second and third-generation immigrants experience their identity. Little did I know, I would come to live this experience myself in a few years’ time, becoming a real-life example of the theories I was studying.
In 2017, my daughter was born. This was a pivotal experience for me on so many levels. The birth of my daughter (and of myself as her mother) triggered a set of reactions in the ways I thought about parenting, myself, my childhood, and my teaching. Not an area in my life was left untouched by the changes this event brought about. I came to re-study the theories of child development and developmental psychology. Within the last decades, this field has burst with new findings and insights. I came to realize how many of my long-held beliefs in these fields were now being challenged and I was excited to explore these new theories that emerged or re-study the old ones and gain new insights.
Being an expat who lived between two cultures and having an academic background on how multiculturalism affects… basically every area of our lives, I also came to challenge the information I found on parenting practices and child development. Having this insight gave the research findings more color and nuance.
Once aware of these important lessons, my path finally made sense to me. I wanted to share this knowledge with other parents who are facing similar struggles. I focused on the area of sleep and responsive parenting because these are both areas where parents mostly struggle with and also these are important aspects of a child’s optimal child mental health development.
My goal now is to educate families on the importance of their relationship with their child and to support them while they are adapting to their role as a parent. I do this by offering coaching sessions, webinars, short courses, and guides.
My degrees, certifications, and experience
My path to my professional development
BA in Education, The National and Kapodistrian University of Athens
I graduated from this bachelor’s program in 2011. I am a licensed teacher in two countries (in Greece and in the Netherlands) and have worked in various educational settings, such as private tutoring, schools, language schools, and homework support, among others. Most of my hands-on experience comes from working with children of various ages (0-18 years old), most often with ages 0-6 and 12-18. I also have quite a lot of experience in teaching children and adults of various cultures and backgrounds.
MA in American Studies, Utrecht University
My master’s degree focused on identity formation, race, culture, and ethnicity of the people of the United States. I worked on how identity, race, and ethnicity manifest through the use of language, how it is experienced by the people, and the contemporary theories on immigration studies, third culture kids, and on how culture affects every sphere of our lives from our habits, to the pop culture we consume, to politics.
Child and parent sleep consultant, International Parenting and Health Institute (IMPI)
My interest in sleep started in my early years as a teacher, with the realization that many of my students were not sleeping sufficiently. I was certified by the IMPI in 2019 and I chose this particular program because of its holistic approach to sleep and the fact that it provided me with a wide range of tools to work with, instead of a specific multiple step approach to use with each and every family.
Lifestyle Medicine Advisor, European Lifestyle Medicine Organization (ELMO)
Wanting to sharpen my evidence-based knowledge of how different areas in our lives (such as diet and nutrition, exercise, sleep, stress reduction, positive social relationships, avoidance of tobacco, alcohol, and other addictive substances) influence our overall health and well-being, I received my certification from the ELMO in 2020. In November 2020, I took part in the 1st Virtual Conference called “The European Lifestyle Medicine: Between Education and Practice”, at the chapter for children and families. I discussed what teachers, school leaders, and other educators can do to help promote health literacy in children and adolescents. You can view my presentation here (the video starts at 40:45).
Attached at the Heart Parent Educator, Attachment Parenting International (API)
Ever since I started coaching parents, my approach was influenced by the theory of attachment and positive discipline. In 2021, received my certification as a Parent Educator with the API.
Breastfeeding Educator, International Parenting and Health Institute (IMPI)
I received this certification from the IMPI in 2019, after I had been volunteering for years in breastfeeding peer support groups. It gave me the opportunity to delve deeper into lactation and how it affects sleep, mental health, and parenting practices. Nowadays, I mostly work with families with older babies and children. I help parents navigate toddler nursing, night weaning, and weaning from breastfeeding.
My Approach
Combining my background in education and social studies, the theory of attachment, as well as my work in promoting trauma-informed practices, the support I offer is relationship-focused, culturally sensitive, and trauma-informed. My mission is to help you feel confident in your relationship with your child and yourself as a parent so that both of you can thrive.