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Welcome!

I'm Lara Elfstrand, MA ECSE, IF-ATMHP

I am a new parent sanity specialist that helps pregnant and new parents to experience parenting with less confrontation and struggle, so that they can enjoy more happy and joyful moments with their families.
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Less crying. More smiles. More confidence.

I am a new parent sanity specialist with a background as an early childhood special educator and endorsement as an infant family advanced transdisciplinary mental health practitioner…. which is a fancy way to say that I have years of experience and can help you to support your child’s learning and resilience from the very beginning. My wish for every parent is to feel nurtured and supported, rested and nourished, so that you can pass on that nurturing and support to your baby.

About

Lara Elfstrand, MA ECSE, CEIM, IF-ATMHP is a new parent sanity specialist and is the founder of Little Elf Family Services, located in Auburn, California (outside of Sacramento). Lara’s practice specializes in supporting new parents as they build warm, peaceful homes that build resilience and nurture their children’s development. She has a master’s degree in early childhood special education and is endorsed as an infant family advanced transdisciplinary mental health practitioner. Basically that means that she’s a child development guru who takes a whole-family holistic approach as she infuses mental health principles into her work with families through coaching, sleep support, infant massage, and fussy baby support. Lara is a Gottman Bringing Baby Home educator for parents and is a Bringing Baby Home trainer for professionals in the state of California. She enjoys teaching Bringing Baby Home classes and doing coaching that teaches parents the tools they need to build the peaceful, warm, nurturing home that they want to build. Lara has been featured on relationship podcasts such as The Heart Center and Finding Your Village . She is a member of the Board of Directors of the California Association for Infant Mental Health. Follow her on Facebook , Instagram and visit her website. Expecting couples will enjoy a free virtual date night with Lara at pregnancydatenight.com! 

Learn more about me on my website!

 

As a new parent sanity specialist, one of my primary goals is to help each of us as new parents to grow in our growth mindset, being able to ask for help, to make mistakes and learn from them, and to keep learning. We are all iterating our way to awesome!

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Hear from my families

Lara is a person who is always studying and striving to improve and inform herself - and whatever she learns and finds useful, she tries to share and impart on her clients. So our portfolio of tools and strategies for a healthier and happier marriage and family relationship grew with every session. We felt heard, understood and respected throughout, not stuffed into some cookie cutter program, but treated to a really individualized and tailored process... Lara is an amazing human being, who loves to listen and learn, but also spring into action and help and implement what she has learned. She won’t do the work for you - but she will give you resources, tools and support to do it yourself. And she will be cheering you on every step of the way to your goal - and beyond. She is not just a teacher or coach to us anymore, she is a friend, a part of our tribe. And we are better; better parents, better couple and better people, for knowing her and having worked with her. We still have a long way ahead of us, and we know it, but we also know we can keep leveling our relationship and our family up, step by step, day by day… and we will have someone always ready to celebrate a win with us (or lend a sympathetic ear and maybe a bit of advice for every challenge).
I learned that there are ways to strengthen a marriage through intentional rituals that involve listening to each other, getting to know each other, appreciating each other, being open to compromise, and starting to see how the other person may perceive the relationship. I consider one of the biggest wins to be becoming less afraid of the transition to parenting. Now I feel like I have a better understanding of what to expect or be flexible with when the baby enters the family. And that there are specific strategies to combat conflict and overwhelm, and rituals to make everyone in the family stay connected and feeling loved. I think the habit of thanking each other for the small things and for specific things is very helpful because it makes both of us feel appreciated on an ongoing basis.

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