Respectful Care™ for parents and caregivers

Respectful Care®

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Danielle McLellan-Bujnak developed the Respectful Care™ approach to support parents and caregivers

MEDIA INquiries:

Book an INTERVIEW CALL with Danielle McLellan-Bujnak:

Click here to book

Please email info@respectfulapproach.com if you don't find a workable interview time on Ms. McLellan-Bujnak's online calendar.

Overview of Respectful Care®

Respectful Care® brings a unique blend of traditional knowledge and cutting edge research to children and their families and caregivers.

The wisdom of generations has been distilled into many popular pedagogies, and many techniques from the Montessori method, Steiner/Waldorf® Education, Pikler®/RIE® and the Reggio Emilia Approach® match up well with current research in the field of developmental neuroscience.

Respectful Care® brings these diverse worlds together to benefit families with straightforward, personalized consults for parents and in-depth professional development training for educators, nannies and newborn care specialists, and elder care professionals.

What does Respectful Care® mean?

Respectful Care® is a registered trademarked term. Respectful Care® refers to Danielle McLellan-Bujnak's unique perspective on human development, education and care throughout the lifespan.

Respectful Care® depends upon a complex understanding of multiple dimensions of respect in the partner relationship of caring.

It consists of original, cutting-edge expertise which indexes elements from popular classic educational and child care philosophies with current research in the neuroscience of human development, in a context of constructivist teaching and learning.

This results in a unique and cohesive set of inter-related knowledge and practices that can be used intentionally by educators, professional caregivers, and parents.

Fast Facts about Respectful Care®

Respectful Care® as a teaching program was developed by Danielle McLellan-Bujnak in response to a need articulated in the nanny and newborn care specialist community of home-based early childhood carer-educators.

The course is intended to prepare care and education professionals to offer a higher level of care, blending current research in the neuroscience of human development with familiar, established programs and practices.

The first course cohort met in Cancun, Mexico in January 2018 for a full day of teaching and learning, and the full course has now been taught in 13 cities in 3 countries on 2 continents.

This grew into the introductory course "Respectful Care® for Newborns, Infants & Toddlers" which was filmed by Newborn Care Solutions in the summer of 2018 and is still available via video streaming on their site.

Many professional carer-educators wanted to take the course in person, so Ms. McLellan-Bujnak traveled to teach the full day course a total of 16 times with cohorts of local (and sometimes out-of-state) nannies and NCS. Some students flew across the country to take the course, and one course date was held in London, U.K. for British and European carer-educators.

These cohorts also co-created a brand-new data set with Ms. McLellan-Bujnak for her Master's thesis action research project, compiling never-before-documented information about professional development in the nanny profession.

At the end of these long and intensive days, students came up to Ms. McLellan-Bujnak asking for "more" and asking when there would be an "advanced course." In January 2021, the inaugural cohort of the Advanced Course in Respectful Care® was launched, and the first-ever Digital Cohort of the Advanced Course in Respectful Care® is currently underway.

In the meantime, Ms. McLellan-Bujnak provides targeted advice and support to many families through remote consults (recorded via Zoom), and in-person support to select families as well.

Fast Facts about Danielle McLellan-Bujnak

Danielle McLellan-Bujnak is an experienced and highly qualified lifespan development specialist, and early childhood expert.

She has worked as an educator, consultant, and college adjunct instructor.

She has amassed many years of experience guiding and caring for infants and children and their families in a wide variety of settings, including individual family homes, home schooling, day cares, preschools, and Montessori, Reggio-inspired and Steiner-based early childhood programs. Her many years of experience teaching and learning with professional adults has recently expanded to include teaching and learning with preservice educators, and to working with elders and their families, thus extending her range of expertise throughout the human lifespan.

Danielle also writes books and articles under the pen name Amy Huntsman, which is much easier to remember, pronounce and spell - and that is ideal for books that are intended for a general audience.

In addition to her master's degree in Early Childhood Inclusive Education (specializing in Infant & Toddler Mental Health, Educating Infants & Children with Special Rights and following the constructivist approach as inspired by Reggio Emilia), Ms. McLellan-Bujnak has also committed herself to intensive in-person training from the American Academy of Pediatrics in Developmental & Behavioral Pediatrics and Pediatric Emergency Medicine, and the AMI Montessori for Elder Care & Dementia program.

She has pursued formal trainings in Nonviolent Crisis Prevention & Intervention (CPI), Positive Behaviour Intervention (PBI), Nonviolent/Collaborative Communication, Orton-Gillingham (Multi-Sensory Education), and the RIE® Foundations for Professionals course.

She has long-standing familiarity with the Montessori and Waldorf® approaches to early childhood. She is also a licensed Emergency Medical Technician (E.M.T.) with specialized training for pediatric patients.

Additionally, Ms. McLellan-Bujnak has achieved licensing by the state of California at the “Master Teacher” and “Site Supervisor” levels (with school-age emphasis), permitting her to run a multi-classroom daycare, preschool, or out-of-school care program for ages birth to 12 years, and to guide and mentor other teachers in best practices for these ages.

MEDIA INquiries:

Book an INTERVIEW CALL with Danielle McLellan-Bujnak:

Click here to book

Please email info@respectfulapproach.com if you don't find a workable interview time on Ms. McLellan-Bujnak's online calendar.

Workshop & Conference Presentations

Southern Early Childhood Conference: Houston TX (2025)
NAEYC Annual Conference: Anaheim CA (2024)
Zero to Three LEARN: Long Beach CA (2024)
World Association for Infant Mental Health: Tampere, Finland (2024)
World Forum on Early Care & Education: Vancouver BC (2024)
California AEYC Annual Conference: Pasadena CA (2024)
NAEYC Professional Learning Institute: Portland OR (2023)
NAECTE Annual Conference: Nashville TN (2023)
Nannypalooza conference: Washington DC (2023)
interNational Nanny Training Day: Boston MetroWest MA (2018), Denver CO (2019), Southern California (2020)
International Nanny Association Annual Conference: Tucson AZ (2018), New Orleans LA (2019), Orlando FL (2023)
Great British Nanny Conference: London UK (2019)
Pacific All-Star Nanny Conference: Olympia WA (2018)
Nannypalooza West conference: Santa Ana CA (2018)
Nannypalooza East conference: Philadelphia PA (2018)

Services Offered: Parents + Professionals

Respectful Care® provides personalized consulting by Danielle McLellan-Bujnak (both remotely and in person) for families, and offers video-based professional development instruction and remote consults for professional educators and care partners.