Helping grown-ups understand little ones – with connection, compassion and confidence.
Parenting young children can feel overwhelming (I completely get it!)— especially when behaviour, sleep, or emotions leave you doubting yourself. I help parents and early years professionals understand what’s really going on beneath the behaviour, with warmth, expertise, and real-life understanding.
I’m an early years specialist/consultant with a background in infant mental health and children’s mental health, supporting parents and early years professionals to understand what’s really happening beneath children’s behaviour.
I have spent over 9 years working with the NHS within a specialist 0–5 CAMHS service and the perinatal team, where I developed extensive experience in early development, attachment, emotional regulation, trauma, and the emotional meaning behind behaviour. Much of my work focused on supporting parents and professionals who felt worried, overwhelmed, or unsure whether what they were seeing was “normal” — and helping them feel calmer, clearer, and more confident.
Alongside my professional training, I bring significant lived experience. I am a parent to two young children and a full-time step-mum to two teenagers.
Becoming a step-parent to children who had experienced the traumatic death of a parent has deeply shaped both my personal life and my clinical understanding. I have first-hand experience of children living with grief, extreme anxiety, low mood, sleep difficulties, and the complexities of navigating neurodivergence assessments. Building secure relationships within a blended family has been eye-opening, challenging, and profoundly educational — teaching me as much about what doesn’t help as what truly does.
That combination of professional expertise and real-life complexity informs everything I offer. I understand, not just in theory but emotionally, how hard it can be to hold a child’s big feelings while managing your own uncertainty, exhaustion, or self-doubt.
My work is grounded in relationships, emotional safety, and curiosity. Whether I am supporting families directly or working with early years settings, I focus on practical, compassionate, evidence-informed approaches that respect the child and the adults around them. I am particularly committed to creating spaces where there is no judgement, no shame, and no assumption that you should already have all the answers.
You bring your lived experience of your child or setting. I bring therapeutic training, early years expertise, and a deep respect for the complexity of children and families. Together, we make sense of what is happening beneath the behaviour — and work out what will genuinely help.
If you are looking for support that is warm, grounded, and professionally robust, rooted in real family life and early years practice, you are in the right place!
Hello! I’m Alex Cross,
About Me
Support For Parents
If you are here, you may be carrying worries, questions, or a sense that parenting is currently feeling very heavy.
Many parents arrive feeling overwhelmed, anxious, or unsure of themselves.
You do not need to have it all figured out.
Parenting babies and young children can be emotionally demanding.
This space is here to help you slow things down, make sense of what is happening, and feel steadier and more confident in yourself as a parent.
I work with parents of babies and young children, including those who are:
Worried about their child’s behaviour and/or managing their emotions
Navigating anxiety, meltdowns, separation, or big feelings
Feeling overwhelmed, stuck, lacking in confidence and doubting their instincts
Together, we may:
Explore what your child’s behaviour is communicating
Support emotional regulation — for your child and for you
Make sense of sleep, separation, transitions, and big feelings
Look at development through a realistic, compassionate lens
Strengthen your confidence in responding in ways that fit your family
Discuss any queries you have around age appropriate behaviours/emotions, and any thoughts you have around potential neurodivergence
My approach is developmentally informed, relational, and offered without judgement or pressure. You are the expert on your child, my role is to think alongside you, not tell you what you should be doing. The support I offer is confidence building, respectful and collaborative, grounded in real family life. This is a blame and shame free zone!
Practicalities
1:1 parent sessions / consultations
Online sessions available (and in person, if relevant)
Support is focused, relational, and tailored to your concerns
If you are wondering whether this feels right for you, you are welcome to get in touch. We can take the next step gently, at a pace that feels manageable.
Support for Early Years Professionals
I work alongside early years settings/professionals to strengthen emotionally informed practice, support staff confidence, and deepen understanding of young children’s behaviour through an infant mental health and attachment-informed lens. My approach is relational, reflective, and grounded in the realities of early years systems — holding both children’s emotional needs and the pressures faced by practitioners and leaders.I support settings to move beyond behaviour management towards curiosity, containment, and connection, helping teams feel more confident, thoughtful, and resourced in their work with young children and families.Who I work with
I work with a range of early years professionals and settings, including:
Nurseries and preschools staff
School educators
Childminders and childminding networks
Early years practitioners
SENCOs
Leadership and management teams
My work can be with individual practitioners, small teams, or whole settings.
Areas of support
My areas of support draw on my background in infant mental health and 0–5 CAMHS, and are tailored to the needs of early years contexts:
Infant mental health and early attachment
Understanding early emotional development, attachment patterns, and the foundations of relational safety in the early years.Emotionally based behaviour
Supporting teams to understand behaviour as communication, including big feelings, relational needs, and developmental vulnerability.Trauma and bereavement awareness
Developing trauma-informed, compassionate responses to children and families impacted by loss, stress, or adversity.Staff confidence, reflection, and containment
Supporting practitioners to think, reflect, and feel more contained in emotionally demanding work, reducing overwhelm and burnout.Leadership support and supervision in the early years
Working alongside leaders to think carefully about how they support team leaders and practitioners, including how supervision is structured, delivered, and experienced within the setting. I support leaders to develop supervision practices that help staff feel heard, respected, and well cared for in their roles.Parent–setting relationships
Strengthening collaborative, trusting relationships with parents and carers, particularly where there is worry, complexity, or difference in perspectives.Support in line with EYFS and Ofsted requirements
Both have been reviewed and I can evidence how my approach compliments the requirements in both frameworks.
Ways of working
I offer flexible, systems-aware ways of working, shaped around the needs of your setting:
Staff training and CPD
Practical, reflective training sessions grounded in theory and real-world early years practice.Consultation and reflective practice
Ongoing or time-limited consultation spaces to support thinking around children, families, and team dynamics.Case discussions
Structured, emotionally containing discussions to support understanding of specific children or situations.Whole-setting support
Support that considers culture, systems, and relational dynamics across the setting.Bespoke packages
Tailored packages combining training, consultation, and reflective support to meet your setting’s specific needs.
Why work with me
I bring a depth of experience alongside a grounded understanding of early years practice:
Extensive experience working within the NHS with hundreds of parents and children
Therapeutic training, with a strong infant mental health and attachment focus
A trauma-informed, relational approach that is practical and compassionate
Lived parenting experience that informs reflective, realistic support for staff and families
Clear professional boundaries, safeguarding awareness, and systems thinking
I work collaboratively, respectfully, and thoughtfully — offering spaces that support curiosity rather than judgement, and confidence rather than quick fixes.
If you are looking for support that values emotional development, staff wellbeing, and relational practice, I would be glad to work alongside you.
How I Work
My approach
My work is relational and evidence based. I understand young children’s behaviour as communication, shaped within relationships and influenced by their emotional and sensory worlds.
I draw on attachment-based and infant mental health approaches including Video Interaction Guidance (VIG), Circle of Security Parenting (COS-P), Circle of Security Classroom (COSC), and Watch, Wait, Wonder. These approaches prioritise slowing down, noticing what is already working, and strengthening the adult–child relationship rather than managing behaviour through external control.
At the centre of my work is supporting adults to:
Make sense of children’s behaviour in context
Read and respond to children’s cues with greater confidence
Stay more regulated themselves, particularly in moments of stress or disconnection
The goal is not to change children, but to support the adults around them to feel more secure, reflective, and resourced.
What I am / am not
I am:
Relationship-focused rather than technique-driven
Curious, reflective, and compassionate
Grounded in evidence from attachment theory, developmental psychology, and trauma-informed practice
I am not:
A behaviour-chart or reward-system practitioner
Offering quick fixes or prescriptive solutions
Focused on compliance, control, or “perfect” parenting
Working collaboratively with families and settings
I work with families and professionals, not on them. You bring expertise about your child, family, or setting; I bring a relational lens, specialist knowledge, and space to think together. I am mindful of real-life pressures and aim to work in ways that feel realistic, respectful, and non-judgemental.
Boundaries, ethics, and safeguarding
I work within clear professional boundaries and an ethical framework informed by my training and experience in early years and child mental health services.
This includes:
A strong commitment to safeguarding and children’s welfare
Clear agreements around confidentiality and its limits
Working within the scope of my role and referring on when appropriate
My aim is to offer a space that feels safe, contained, and trustworthy—where complexity can be held thoughtfully, without blame or judgement.