Christine Wilkinson (she/her)

Christine Wilkinson is the founder and director of The Early Years Nursery. With a career dedicated to advancing therapeutic practice in early childhood education, Christine has established herself as a leading thinker at the intersection of neuroscience, pedagogy, and embodied care. Drawing inspiration from the work of Emmi Pikler, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, Carol Dweck, and pioneers of somatic psychology, Christine has developed an integrated approach that situates respectful caregiving, nervous system regulation, and relational safety at the heart of early years education. Her framework aligns with the statutory requirements of the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) while pushing beyond compliance to cultivate deep, sustainable practice grounded in self-awareness, nonviolent communication, and therapeutic presence. In establishing the Therapeutic Early Years Practitioner Mastery Programme, Christine has created a rigorous three-year developmental pathway that supports practitioners to move from knowledge, to applied practice, to embodied leadership. This programme has positioned her nursery as a centre for reflective training, professional psychological advancement, and applied research into neuro-somatic education. Her research and practice foreground the conviction that children carry into their bodies and futures the quality of the relationships they experience in their earliest years. As such, she advocates for the highest levels of practitioner self-regulation, integrity, and trauma-informed alignment. Through publications, training, and speaking engagements, Christine continues to influence both practice and policy, with a vision of transforming early years education into a field rooted in trauma-aware embodiment and neuroscience-informed care and education.