About Christine L'Abbé
Relational Approaches to Care, Development, and Healing
I’m Christine L’Abbé — founder of Evolve Movement and The Conscious Practitioner, educator, pediatric Anat Baniel Method® NeuroMovement® Practitioner, parent coach, and emerging researcher in pediatric rehabilitation and caregiver experience.
I am also the mother of two incredible daughters, Juliana and Gabi, who lives with Rett syndrome. My journey alongside Gabi has profoundly shaped both my life and the work I do today.
Walking beside a child with complex medical and developmental needs transformed how I understand resilience, participation, healing, and the environments that allow children—and families—to truly flourish. Through both the challenges and the extraordinary moments of connection, I began to recognize that development is shaped not only by therapies and interventions, but also by the emotional, relational, and environmental conditions surrounding a child.
This realization changed the direction of my life.
It led me on a path of learning, exploration, and service—seeking to better understand how parents, professionals, and communities can support children in ways that nurture possibility, participation, and connection rather than reinforce limitation.
Over time, I came to see that when caregivers feel supported, grounded, and empowered, they are better able to create the relational conditions where children can grow, engage, learn, and thrive.
Today, my work bridges lived caregiver experience, neuroscience, pediatric rehabilitation, relational practice, and health professions education. Through clinical work, coaching, education, research, and advocacy, I support families and professionals in moving toward more relational, family-centered, and human-centered approaches to care.
I am currently completing a Master of Education in Health Professions Education at the University of Ottawa and will begin a PhD in Rehabilitation Sciences in Fall 2026. My emerging research explores how caregiver experience and relational environments influence child participation, development, and rehabilitation outcomes.
Through my podcast, writing, speaking, and educational work, I hope to contribute to a broader shift in how we understand neurodiversity, disability, complex health needs, and the relational environments that shape development and wellbeing.
Above all, my greatest hope is that every child—and every family—feels seen, supported, and empowered to discover what is possible for them.
A Message For Parents
If you are raising a child with neurodiversity, disability, or complex health needs, I want you to know that you are not alone.
I understand how deeply a diagnosis or period of uncertainty can shake the ground beneath you. It can bring grief, fear, overwhelm, and the sense that the future you imagined has suddenly changed. These experiences are real, and they deserve compassion and space to be processed.
Over time, I have come to believe that supporting our children also requires learning how to support ourselves.
When we begin to process our emotions with greater awareness and compassion, question the assumptions we have been taught about disability and limitation, and reconnect with our own inner steadiness, something begins to shift. We start to see our children more clearly—beyond labels, expectations, and fear.
This work is not about becoming a perfect parent.
It is about becoming a more present, connected, and attuned one.
As we grow in awareness and self-understanding, we help create relational environments where children can feel safe, valued, supported, and free to discover their own unique strengths and possibilities.
There will be moments of grief along this path, and those moments deserve to be honored. Letting go of the future we once imagined is often part of making space for a different future to emerge—one that may hold connection, meaning, growth, joy, and possibility in ways we could not yet see.
The moment we begin to see our children beyond limitation, we begin to create a different experience of this journey—for them and for ourselves.
From My Heart To Yours
In this short video, I share more of my journey as the mother of a child with Rett syndrome—a journey that profoundly transformed how I understand parenting, healing, resilience, and the environments that shape a child’s development and wellbeing.
There have been moments of immense joy—watching my daughter grow, learn, connect, and express her unique spirit—and moments of deep uncertainty, when her health was fragile and the path ahead felt overwhelming. Through these experiences, I came to understand that the strength we need as parents is not about having all the answers, but about learning how to care for our own inner and emotional world along the way.
Over time, I began to see how the environments we create through our presence, regulation, connection, and perception of our children can profoundly influence how they experience themselves and the world around them.
My hope is that this video offers not only a glimpse into our journey, but also a reminder that even in the most difficult moments, there can still be connection, growth, meaning, and possibility.
