As a tenured Pediatric Sleep Consultant, I believe that no parent should suffer because their child isn't sleeping through the night or taking quality naps. As a trained and certified Gentle Sleep Coach SM, I'm part of a worldwide network of sleep coaches who partner with pediatricians, doulas, and lactation specialists to care and support families just like yours. Because every family is unique, my training in infant, baby, and child sleep is comprehensive and ongoing, following the most current science and research in the fields of sleep medicine, behavioral science, child development, attachment theory and maternal support. I am proud to be recognized as one of the Top 200 Sleep Consultants in the US by Tuck. I am also a 3X published author who joined 30 other leading parenting experts to publish the #1 International Amazon Best Selling series: The One Thing Every Mom Should Know and The One Thing Every Mompreneur Needs to Know. It's my honor to help families achieve peaceful bedtimes, reliable naps, easier parenting, and marital harmony.
Bachelor of Arts:European Studies Scripps College, Claremont CA Graduated at top of class with Phi Beta Kappa honors (1992)
Gentle Sleep Coach® Trained and Certified, which is the most comprehensive and professional baby and child sleep coaching certification program currently available (2011)
One of the first 50 trained and certified sleep coaches in the U.S. (2011)
Over 11 years experience as a Pediatric Sleep Consultant (2011)
Helped over 1,000 families, that’s over 4,000 well-rested family members (2011)
Recognized as one of the Top 200 Sleep Consultants in the U.S. by Tuck (2022)
Three-time Contributing Author in the #1 International Amazon best-selling series The One Thing Every Mom Needs to Know and The One Thing Every Mompreneur Needs To Know (2019)
Won Red Tricycle’s Most Awesome Award for Parent Education Classes three times (2016, 2012, 2008) (2016)
Infant Mental Health (IMHP) - Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto (2018)
Wonder Weeks Training on Neurodevelopmental Leaps Continuing Education & Training (2019)
Member of the International Association of Child Sleep Consultants (2011)
Basic Counseling & Child Development (2011)
Secure Attachment Theory (2011)
Sleep Science & Behavioral Modification Techniques (2011)
Recognized on StartupNation’s Leading Moms in Business (2014)
English
As a tenured Pediatric Sleep Expert, I help sleep-deprived families get where they want to be: well-rested! There is no need to "cry-it-out". I provide Guilt-free, Gentle Sleep Coaching for children 6 months to 6 years. Easy bedtimes, peaceful nights, reliable naps and confident parenting and a harmonious household are all possible. Sleep Coaching is a big decision, I want you to feel secure in my philosophy. I utilize science-grounded Gentle Sleep Coaching® as the most effective, positive reinforcement approach to healthy, safe sleep coaching for your child. My proprietary Blissful Baby Stairway to Sleep™ is a step-by-step and child-led approach, where I help you tenderly teach the "skills of sleep" to your child. Over the past decade, I have helped over 1,000 families solve their child's sleep struggles. I am recognized as one of the top 200 Coaches in the US and I am 3x International Best Selling Author." Let me help your family achieve beautiful blissful sleep too!
"I HIGHLY recommend Joanna Clark!! Before sleep coaching, starting at 5pm like clockwork a meltdown process began. Fighting. Negotiating. Everything was being impacted. It was unmanageable from everyone's perspective. Now, our daughter is more calm, emotionally resilient, confident and content in the evening process. She knows what's coming next and she recognizes that she needs and enjoys some quiet time. This was a structured, methodical process that works. The way Joanna organized everything, seeing it on paper gave me hope that by a certain date we would be successful in the process. The condensed time frame helped us jump off and take the leap of faith. Having an expert we can surrender to, knowing we are totally aligned and knowing our roles was huge in why we were successful. We never believed we would be this successful this fast. I am so glad we didn't let our own ideas of what was going to work or not work impact our momentum, preventing us from seeing this success. We surrendered to the process and the chips fell and now we are on a better path. Thanks for holding us accountable and being flexible. She sleeps 11 hours a night and no more bedtime drama or anxiety!"
- Koetting J.
"When we first reached out to Joanna, our son was 4 months and I struggled to find ways to get him to stay asleep. I would try everything in the book, but anytime I put that little guy down his eyes would pop open and just start crying. I began googling everything and the amount of information that out there was just so overwhelming. When my husband and I met with Joanna, it was the best thing ever because she gave us step by step what we can do. Being a first time mom this was such a weight lifted off of me. After an hour-long Sleep Strategy session with Joanna, we had three years of beautiful sleep! When sleep struggles pop up like transitioning to the big kid bed, it's not even worth trying to figure them out on my own because I know the resource is there. It's not just for me, it's for my son as well. If I can help him feel better, then I'm going to take every avenue I can. The nice thing is I already knew where to go! My fear of figuring things out on my own is wondering if I'm doing something "wrong" that's making the situation worse then I'm gonna have to break that cycle. Instead I can go to the source and ask please help me! I cannot express how much just one hour of a conversation with you has lifted so much weight off of me. It's just life changing."
- Krysti M.
So worth it! We love Joanna. Our 3 year-old was always a terrible sleeper since she was a baby. We tried sleep training on our own a million times, but it never really stuck. When baby #2 came around, things got really hard with her. She started protesting bedtime, waking up overnight and early in the morning, tantruming, w and always needing me. Sleep was really hard. With the baby, she was nursing on demand all night and going to bed super late. We didn't really have a schedule. My husband and I were like ships passing in the night. Once we had the second baby, we just didn't have the mental bandwidth to conquer our 3 year olds sleep issues. My husband's work colleague recommended Joanna whom they used with their 2 kids. What helped me was learning the science behind sleep. That was something I wasn't fully aware of with our 1st kid so that helped me not only rationalize what was happening, but also take a step back and say "if we can help coach her through this, we're actually gonna get a happier baby overall." The baby is now sleeping all night from 6pm-6am. That's something that my first didn't do until she was 2/2.5. We started nap training and she is now napping in her crib for her first few naps of the day. And things are going really well with our toddler. The framework that Joanna provided really helped her. She's now alseep at 6:30pm, sleeping 12 hours in her own bed in her own room. Her behavioral issues during the day have really subsided. I think she was just operating in that overtired zone and we didn't realize that we were parenting when she was exhausted and it was the hardest. I have a little bit of time to myself during the day again. My husband and I went out on the front porch and had a glass of wine together and we realized that we had not done that since the 2nd baby was born. We can order dinner or hang out together, talk, and get to know each other again. It's possible for things to get easier. One of my hangups with sleep coaching was it will be too hard. No one can help us. We're just in it. Everybody does this. I just have to stick it out. That's not the case, we should have done it sooner. Once we started talking to Joanna, a weight was lifted off of our shoulders. Both my husband and I both said we would pay this amount of money anytime. I would hand it over in a heartbeat if someone could have just shown me how I feel now.
- Tyler G.
Joanna saved our sanity! Our 18 month old daughter was crawling out of her crib in the middle of the night so we started cosleeping with her. She would wake up every two hours in our bed. Everyone was miserable. Joanna used evidence based tactics to diagnose what was going on with her, and held our hands to guide us through a process of retraining her. Now our daughter has a dependable schedule, it takes 15 minutes to put her down to sleep, and she sleeps 11 hours through the night. Joanna even helped us nap train our daughter. We were so amazed with Joanna we also had her help us train our 5 year old son. You will not regret working with Joanna - she is the best!
- Sheena G.
We have two children and our first child had a medical condition so we had to wait until seven months for her to start sleeping through the night. One of my best friends connected me to Joanna Clark and it was literally the greatest blessing because we immediately learned all the information about sleep coaching and the science of sleep. We had out first child during Covid and there was literally no support in any department. With our 2nd, we had all access support so we got extra help, lactation, nanny, night nurse and then I had Joanna of course! Any support that I could have had with my second child was a given. Our son adapted to the strategies very well. Joanna just lays it out so perfectly and was always there and ready to jump back on a call and walk us through, make tweaks and work her magic. We found that starting at a young age was really effective for both children because it taught them the skills that they needed to put themselves to sleep. Even though I had been through it and had that knowledge, I very confidently can say that we couldn't have done it as well or as quick alone." Some people just let their children cry-it-out and that wasn't the way that we wanted to do it. During sleep coaching, we were literally here for them, Dad is in the room for the first several days to keep the baby comfortable. It it felt really natural and comfortable and just a perfect transition with zero guilt. Sleep coaching is like clockwork. As soon as you nail those wake windows and those appropriate times, it all just like flows like water. It's really amazing. You can just start to experience and learn about your child and tailor everything towards them. Be open going through the process and within a couple weeks your child will be sleeping, you'll be happy and it'll be the best thing ever!"
- Embry G.
With 2.5 year old twins it was overwhelming having to deal with both of their sleep issues at one time however, Joanna walked us through each kid, one at a time, and it was easier for us to grasp. Both children are sleeping EXTREMELY well. They are eating better during the day and also in better moods. I love the fact that we knew what to expect and how to handle it thanks to Joanna's advice.
- Gelsey H.
I'm a single mom with an intense job. I really wanted to have a smooth transition going back to work and I wanted him to have a smooth transition going into daycare so I started coaching with Joanna. Now after we built these sleep foundations for him, I'm able to be flexible. We travel, he's gotten sick, we have late nights out, spend time at relatives houses and all of this. Trust in this process, trust in Joanna, it's so customized to you, your needs and your baby's needs that it works extremely well.
- Lyssa T.
It was a challenge to get our son to sleep even for an hour. He was fussy, irritable, moving around all night and nobody was getting sleep. My wife had a nurse all night long, our son would wake up a lot and we ended up co-sleeping before we reached out to Joanna. In the daytime then he would have this incredible amount of energy. He was wired and tired and it was super challenging for us to do anything but entertain him. I did some research and met a few coaches before we decided to go with Joanna. What made this an easy transition is how much work Joanna has done to prepare her Stairway to Sleep coaching system. We could have tried doing the sleep lady shuffle on our own but I don't think we would've felt prepared without Joanna's support.The way Joanna explains things and the science behind it was comforting and that was really what got my wife to feel comfortable with sleep coaching. Having the coach to text you and to be able to talk to you the next day helps you feel good about things. It's more rewarding than we expected! Now, he's sleeping 11 hours at night so what else is there to say! Before sleep coaching we were always worried. If our son moved we had to jump up, check on him and get him back to sleep by crutching him. Now we don't worry. we know he's sleeping, we know he is safe. He gets to sleep faster, he stays to sleep longer and he's just calmer throughout the day. We have our nights back! There is another way, you don't have to live like that. The process Joanna uses allows you to be in the room and comfort your child and then slowly sort of transition to them sleeping by themselves.
- Christian A.
If you have any doubts about hiring a sleep coach, put that aside, Joanna is wonderful to work with. Joanna is so supportive and knowledgeable. If you think your baby is the toughest baby, rest assured, Joanna will work her magic and you will get your life back! You will not regret it!!I am a Family Medicine Doctor with a 7 month old daughter. With my medical background, I thought I could "do it alone" and so, I tried "cry-it-out" and I quit after one night and I felt heartbroken. I decided I needed help and someone to support me through this process that would be more gentle. Because of my "cry-it-out" experience, I was skeptical that it could work, but within a week, my daughter was sleeping through the night. Now, everyone is sleeping and I feel rested so I can be more present with my patients at work and more present for my husband.
- Farnaz P.
My favorite part of working with Blissful Baby sleep Coaching was the constant dialogue with Joanna!!!! I know my husband and I would not have made it through this process if it wasn't for Joanna. If we had a rough night, Joanna was talking us through it the next day and giving us the exact reassurance we needed to get through the new night. She was also able to explain to us why our daughter did what she did and also explain to us the tension we were feeling and why we were feeling that way. She knew exactly what to say and knew exactly what we needed to hear to push through. We couldn't have done it without her support. I also found that Joanna was able to make the exact change our daughter needed to make the next night even better than the previous. She is able to do this because she is so knowledgeable, she cares, and her attention to detail is impeccable. Joanna truly cares about parents and children achieving success so that we can be a strong, well-rested family unit. It is a team effort and Joanna makes that very clear and supports all along the way. Teaching us the behavioral science and sleep science has been instrumental in my daughter achieving success. It has all made perfect sense but I wasn't able to piece it all together without Joanna. Before Joanna, I researched and researched and tried sleep training on my own with zero luck. Joanna was able to put the pieces together for us.
- Kasie K.
Joanna is knowledgable, easy going, supportive and reliable. She is everything we could have asked for in a coach. I am looking forward to having her as part of my tribe/ birth team for my next baby due in a couple months! Knowing that we have her support makes the idea of having a newborn again SO much less stressful because we KNOW sleep won’t be an issue like it was with our first. With my first baby he was ALWAYS alert, NEVER slept and was the definition of a high needs child. After sleep coaching our lives completely transformed. He was a different kid, so much more relaxed, went to bed without a fuss AND NAPPED!!! We NEVER thought this kid would nap! We had time back and felt human again! It was life changing to say the least and taught us so much about ourselves and our children. We learned so much about sleep science that we will be using with our 3rd baby and we will absolutely not wait to reach out to Joanna this time! We highly recommend working with her!
- Kathryn L.
You helped us big time with Landon! We hired 3 other sleep coaches who believed in the cry out version and we never felt comfortable with it. Luckily we found you and you helped our son get sleep trained and it’s been such a blessing! You helped like about 2 years old when he was 8 months old and even up to this day we are grateful to you."
- Nalini M.
My son was 18 months old when we started sleep coaching. Until that point, he had only slept through the night a handful of times in his life. He slept in his nursery and would wake up multiple times per night. He needed milk and soothing to get back to sleep each time. His sleep got significantly worse when we moved to a new city, home, and daycare. He was terrified of being in his new room and would bang his head on his crib to the point of getting bruises. He also forced himself to throw up to force my husband and I to come into his room. For the first time in his life at 18 months, we started co-sleeping, hoping that would help him sleep through the night. The co-sleeping only led to worse sleep for my husband and I, because we were scared of squishing our son or having him fall off the bed. Although we were co-sleeping, my son continued to wake multiple times per night. Now, instead of one parent getting sleep...none of us were. We were at our wits end from not sleeping through the night for 18 months straight at that point, and every area of our life was suffering (marriage, parenting, work, home maintenance, home cleanliness, home cooking). I contemplated quitting my job and becoming a stay at home mom (something I never wanted to do). My husband thought about quitting his job for one that required less travel (and therefore paid significantly less). I even suggested selling our home and moving back to our previous city where we would be forced to be apartment dwellers. We would have taken any drastic measure to get my son to sleep through the night at that point. Luckily, we were introduced to Blissful Baby Sleep Coaching. Joanna dove deep into my son's sleep issues (all the way back to pregnancy!). Joanna is skilled at picking up on the tiniest nuances. She helped us develop a plan and tailored it at every session, until we narrowed down my son's exact sleep window. Joanna determined that my son is an alert baby (who has extreme FOMO and can get overstimulated extremely easily). Joanna's approach is different than the cry it out method or Taking Cara Babies, because you are actually in the room with your child in the beginning (that's why its considered gentle sleep coaching). We thoroughly enjoyed every call with Joanna, and after 18 months of not sleeping, Joanna did what no one else could...she got my son to sleep through the night! My husband and I feel brand new. Thanks to Joanna, our son is sleeping 11-12 hours a night. Many aspects of his life have improved following sleep coaching: His appetite has increased dramatically because he is not getting full off of milk anymore. My son was obsessed with eating hair prior to sleep coaching (gross). We think it was an overtired self-regulation coping mechanism. Now that he is getting full off real food instead of milk, there is no need to fill a deficiency, so he has stopped doing it. It also means my son doesn't have to deal with the constipation that is caused by eating hair. My son behavior has improved so much because he is well rested. His separation anxiety improved, which means daycare drop-offs have improved drastically and now he enjoys independent play. My son now gets in and out his car seat without protest. He has a solid routine, which helps with transitions because he knows exactly what to expect. He is happy at daycare, and has even made friends. My husband and are sleeping through the night. We have time to catch up on work, spend time together, have time for ourselves, eat dinner, work, and do projects at home. Our home is peaceful and tranquil because we are all well rested. I just can't rave enough about Blissful Baby Sleep Coaching. Joanna, the work that you do is truly life changing!
- Mayra L.
Doing Gentle Sleep Coaching with Joanna is a true professional service. Just like you might hire an accountant or a lawyer for expertise, Joanna is truly a master of her craft. She has a thorough and comprehensive professional strategy to get you results, akin to a lawyer's discovery process or a doctor's case history process. Consider this a professional service and realize the immense value you receive in solving your child’s sleep struggles. We are so thankful our friend referred us as we finally had hope. The sleep coaching with Joanna was literally life changing in every aspect of our family and personal life. Our son's mood, behavior, attention, eating, sleeping is all on track. We now have personal time and our husband/wife time. We hope our story will inspire any family to get the help and don't battle it on your own. Put your trust in Joanna, she is a true professional.
- Christian L.
Social Media