about us

It was the day when Apple met John that inspired the birth of Nurture Collective. As a feeding specialist at a local children’s hospital, she recognized that the mothers of the babies referred to her often felt overwhelmed, anxious, sad. Her training did not equip her to assist these mothers to help but she knew she had to. Desperate to help the mother, she sought ways to get the mother connected to the community for services. Without any success, John’s mother felt the burden of going to the clinic to see me and stopped showing up to therapy services. After meeting so many Johns in her clinic and feeling defeated. Apple felt that she did not only fail John’s mother but also failed John. She then recognized the need to address maternal mental health in occupational therapy. By integrating maternal mental health in OT, Dr. Sepulveda has found her services to be more effective in not just the therapeutic intervention for the children but also in increasing parent-child attachment, and family well-being.

Because of this experience, Apple went beyond the clinic and deeper dive into the problem at the public health level, where she volunteered and joined the leadership of a nonprofit organization to help address the problem at a national and state level. She recognized the root cause of the problem – the broken healthcare system and the lack of operationalizable solutions that reach her communities in greatest need. Apple took part in learning the systems, frameworks, models of care and found the intersections between early intervention and maternal-infant mental health as a viable solution to help families thrive.

Meanwhile, Endenne, who served the community as a solo early intervention practitioner, recognized the importance of fostering the child’s social-emotional development as the first step to assist a child in meeting their developmental milestones. In 2013, the need for improving the outcomes of children and families participating in early intervention services was brought to the forefront at the federal and state level. In response to the federal mandate to improve the state’s performance, California developed an Early Start Improvement Plan. Endenne became involved in this process by participating in a variety of learning opportunities for early intervention providers in the area of social-emotional development. In her role as a consultant for a Regional Center, it became evident that early intervention providers continue to lack an understanding of the role of social-emotional development and more importantly, the role of the parent-child relationship in assisting young children to meet their developmental milestones. Recognizing this gap, Endenne wanted to practice therapy for the young family differently, incorporating a relationship-based approach with the parent at the forefront of therapy sessions instead of the therapist.