Noa Zelman was born in Ecuador to Uruguayan parents and raised in Barcelona, Spain. After university in Spain, she decided to continue her personal and professional path and moved to Israel, then Germany, and finally Madrid. Having grown up as a third culture kid while attending International Schools (within the American system including IB) has greatly influenced Noa. Home is what she builds with people around her, not a physical place. Because of this, creating a nurturing context is something she has always thought of as an essential anchor in her own upbringing and in her work with children. As a global citizen, wherever she went, Noa was always in the minority. Whether it was her different accent, or culture or religion, she often felt different from those around her. Throughout her upbringing and work with children, she has come to deeply embrace diversity. As the universal saying goes, we are all “Same, same, but different.” Noa learned how essential it is to deeply understand the child’s context and local culture in order to offer the best support.

For her whole life, Noa has worked with children in different settings. After obtaining her BA in Psychology (Blanquerna, URL), MA in clinical psychology (MUPGS Blanquerna, URL) and later on an MA in Child Development in University of Haifa, Israel, she continued to work as a teacher with progressive learning approaches (Reggio-Emilia and RIE/Pikler) in the Early Years and in the Walworth Barbour American International School. It was during her work there that Noa gained a wider approach on how she wanted to continue to support children’s mental health as she was working closely with learning and emotional difficulties as well as maladaptive behaviors. Noa believes that evaluation and diagnosis are a step closer to understanding how we can better support children. Nurturing and authentic child-adult relationships, adapting responsive learning environments to children’s interest and needs, and partnering with adults in children’s networks (families and other professionals) are principles of Noa’s approach.

Both her experiences of having previously worked as a therapist in mental health, and her time as a teacher have inspired Noa to identify gaps in how child development is supported. After 5 years in Israel, Noa moved to Germany and dedicated her time to building a project that is very close to her heart. Through social media platforms, Noa shared resources and offered workshops for both families and educators on important topics, such as teaching about consent, assisting in conflict resolution, brain development, and the importance of risk-taking through play. She aspires to continue to support grown ups through workshops and training programs, and children through mutual respect, deep relationship-building, and playful exploration in more therapeutic settings. During that time, Noa also decided to become a student in the European Institute of Perinatal Mental Health and discovered how much Perinatal Psychology resonated with the way she works with parents and children and their family history. As an expert in Early Development she can support parents who are navigating changes at home (divorce, a new baby coming, grief…) as well as identifying possible developmental delays (communication, motor and coordination…) and finding tools to stimulate and guide their child.

Trained in the RIE/Pikler approach Noa has experience working with groups of mothers and their babies in building a playful and natural communicative environment.

Deeply understanding and educating others about the capabilities of young children and their right to quality experiences has become one of Noa’s greatest blessings. More importantly, it is a way of thinking not just about children and learning, but about bettering our world and ourselves.