Bridging Social Work & Holistic Sleep Across the Lifespan
Meet Maya Garbuz, MSSW, CISW, social worker, family and senior services leader, sleep professional and educator, and graduate of two International Parenting & Health Institute certification programs: Holistic Pregnancy & Child Sleep Consultant and Integrative Adult Sleep Coach.
Based in Madison, Wisconsin, Maya’s professional journey spans an extraordinary continuum: from early childhood education and pediatric sleep to adult sleep, social work, family services and support for older adults.
Her career brings together:
Early childhood development.
Social work.
Infant and child sleep.
Adult sleep.
Family services.
Community education.
Senior services.
Few professional journeys illustrate the concept of support across the lifespan quite as clearly.
Today, Maya serves as Director of Family and Senior Services at Jewish Social Services of Madison (JSS), where she supports individuals and families through case management, community resources, advocacy and other social services.
Yet sleep represents an important chapter in Maya’s professional story and one that began more than a decade ago.
From Preschool Education to Social Work
Before Maya entered professional sleep consulting, she worked as a preschool teacher.
That early experience gave her firsthand exposure to young children’s development and behavior, knowledge that would later intersect naturally with her work surrounding sleep. Historical conference materials documenting Maya’s work specifically identify her as a former preschool teacher before she entered graduate school for social work at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.
Maya attended the University of Wisconsin–Madison from 2003–2005, completing graduate education in social work. When Jewish Social Services welcomed her to its team in 2016, the organization reported that Maya already had more than 10 years of experience as a social worker, including significant experience in service coordination and previous work as a lead case manager and supervisor.
Today, her professional credentials include MSSW and CISW — Certified Independent Social Worker.
This social-work foundation is particularly relevant to holistic family support.
Children do not exist separately from their families.
Families do not exist separately from their environments.
And health and wellbeing can be influenced by relationships, resources, stressors, developmental needs and circumstances extending far beyond one presenting concern.
That broader lens would eventually become particularly valuable when Maya moved into sleep.
Expanding Into Holistic Pregnancy & Child Sleep
Maya pursued professional sleep education through the International Maternity Institute, the earlier organizational identity associated with today’s International Parenting & Health Institute.
Her professional profile documents that she earned her Certified Maternity and Child Sleep Consultant credential in March 2013.
Today, we proudly recognize Maya as a graduate of IPHI’s Holistic Pregnancy & Child Sleep Consultant Certification Program.
Maya subsequently developed Madison Sleep Consultant, serving families in Madison, Wisconsin.
Her practice became established within the professional sleep community and was publicly listed as a Wisconsin pediatric sleep practice, with Maya identified as a member of the Association of Professional Sleep Consultants.
But Maya’s work wasn’t limited to private consultation.
Education became an important part of it.
Teaching Professionals About Healthy Child Sleep
By 2014, Maya was presenting professionally about children’s sleep.
At the Wisconsin Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health Conference, Maya presented on preventing sleep problems and developing healthy sleep habits in young children. Her presentation addressed the importance of sleep, the effects of sleep deprivation on children, potential causes of sleep disruption and prevention and intervention strategies.
Another 2014 professional conference featured Maya presenting “Developing Healthy Sleep Habits and Preventing Sleep Problems in Young Children.”
The program specifically emphasized that young children spend a significant portion of their lives asleep and that understanding sleep therefore deserves attention alongside children’s waking development. The presentation was designed to help participants identify causes of sleep disruption and explore strategies applicable to educators and parents.
This is an important part of Maya’s story.
She wasn’t simply applying sleep education privately with individual families.
She was translating that knowledge for parents and other professionals working with young children.
Sleep as Part of Child Development
Maya’s early childhood and social-work backgrounds created an especially valuable foundation for this work.
Sleep doesn’t exist separately from child development.
Children are growing physically, neurologically, cognitively, socially and emotionally.
Their families have different circumstances.
Their environments differ.
Their needs evolve.
And what parents observe overnight may sometimes intersect with what is happening throughout the rest of the child’s life.
Maya’s background allowed her to bring together perspectives from early childhood education, social work and sleep rather than viewing the child through only one professional lens.
And eventually, that sleep lens expanded beyond childhood.
Expanding From Child Sleep to Adult Sleep
Maya’s professional sleep education didn’t stop with babies and children.
She also expanded her education through IPHI and graduated from our Integrative Adult Sleep Coach Certification Program.
This gave Maya an especially valuable combination of professional sleep education:
Holistic Pregnancy & Child Sleep Consultant + Integrative Adult Sleep Coach.
Rather than understanding sleep within only one developmental stage, Maya developed professional education addressing sleep across the lifespan.
Her public professional profile independently documents both her maternity and child sleep credential and her Certified Adult Sleep Consultant credential through IPHI’s earlier International Maternity Institute era.
This broader education complemented her background in social work particularly well.
People don’t stop being influenced by their environment, relationships, stress, health and daily circumstances when they reach adulthood.
And sleep doesn’t suddenly become an isolated biological event.
Maya’s combined education in social work, child development, pediatric sleep and adult sleep provided multiple perspectives through which to understand the person behind a sleep concern.
Infant Massage & Family Connection
Maya’s professional education also includes certification as an Infant Massage Instructor through the International Association of Infant Massage (IAIM).
This adds another complementary dimension to her early family-support work.
Her professional development has never existed within one narrow specialty.
Instead, it has repeatedly brought together education surrounding children, caregivers, relationships, development and wellbeing.
That multidisciplinary foundation became increasingly valuable as Maya’s career evolved beyond private sleep consulting.
Returning More Fully to Social Services
In November 2016, Maya joined Jewish Social Services of Madison as a social worker.
At the time, JSS reported that she already had more than a decade of social-work experience, including significant work in service coordination and experience as a lead case manager and supervisor.
Her responsibilities continued to grow.
By 2022, JSS identified Maya as its Director of Social Services.
Today, she serves as Director of Family and Senior Services.
It’s an important professional evolution.
Maya’s current career is much broader than sleep.
But the knowledge developed throughout her earlier professional chapters hasn’t disappeared.
It has become part of a much larger professional toolkit.
Supporting Families Through Real-Life Challenges
Maya’s current work illustrates just how broad that toolkit has become.
The Family and Senior Services Department at Jewish Social Services assists people navigating circumstances involving housing, financial stability, healthcare, mental-health and treatment services, community resources, advocacy and longer-term case management.
In a 2024 overview of the department, Maya described serving people who can sometimes fall through the gaps of other community systems and outlined the organization’s intensive case-management work with individuals and families.
This work requires looking beyond a single presenting problem.
What is happening financially?
What is happening socially?
What resources are available?
What barriers are present?
What does this particular person or family actually need?
There is an interesting philosophical connection here to holistic practice more broadly:
Look beyond the surface concern and understand the larger context surrounding the person.
From Early Childhood to Older Adulthood
Maya’s current position brings another population into her professional story: older adults.
Her work with JSS includes family and senior services, and she has helped facilitate programs such as the organization’s Memory Café, a community gathering for people experiencing memory changes, dementia or Alzheimer’s disease and their caregivers.
Think about the professional continuum represented by Maya’s career:
Preschool children.
Infants and families.
Children’s sleep.
Adult sleep.
Family services.
Older adults and caregivers.
Her professional experience genuinely extends across the lifespan.
And because Maya graduated from both IPHI’s child and adult sleep programs, that across-the-lifespan perspective applies to her sleep education as well as her broader social-work career.
Leadership, Supervision & Mentorship
Maya’s current work also involves leadership.
Her professional journey has evolved from direct service into supervision and mentorship of other social-work professionals.
A recent social-work intern at JSS publicly credited Maya’s guidance, compassion and investment in her professional development with helping her become a stronger and more confident social worker.
This represents another progression in Maya’s career:
Practitioner → Educator → Supervisor → Leader.
She has gone from working directly with children and families to educating parents and professionals, supervising developing practitioners and leading family and senior services.
A Career That Grew Beyond Sleep
One of the most valuable things about Maya’s story is that it demonstrates what professional education can become over time.
A certification does not have to define someone’s entire career forever to remain a meaningful part of that career.
Maya used her sleep education.
She built Madison Sleep Consultant.
She worked with families.
She taught other professionals about children’s sleep.
She expanded her education from child sleep into adult sleep.
And then her career continued evolving.
Today, Maya applies her broader social-work expertise through leadership, case management, family services, senior support and professional mentorship.
Her IPHI education remains one meaningful chapter within a much larger story of human services across the lifespan.
Professional Profile
Maya Garbuz, MSSW, CISW
Social Worker | Family & Senior Services Leader | Holistic Sleep Professional
Location: Madison, Wisconsin, USA
Current Professional Role
Director of Family & Senior Services
Jewish Social Services of Madison
Education
Graduate Education in Social Work
University of Wisconsin–Madison
Maya’s professional background also includes earlier work as a preschool teacher.
Professional Credentials
MSSW — Master of Science in Social Work
CISW — Certified Independent Social Worker
Certified Infant Massage Instructor
International Association of Infant Massage
IPHI Certifications
Holistic Pregnancy & Child Sleep Consultant
Integrative Adult Sleep Coach
International Parenting & Health Institute
Her public professional profile documents the corresponding earlier-era credentials as Certified Maternity and Child Sleep Consultant and Certified Adult Sleep Consultant through the International Maternity Institute.
Previous Sleep Practice
Madison Sleep Consultant
Madison, Wisconsin
Professional Focus
Social Work
Family & Senior Services
Infant & Child Sleep
Adult Sleep
Early Childhood Development
Family Support
Case Management
Community Education
Professional Supervision & Mentorship
Infant Massage
An Inspiration in Professional Evolution
Maya Garbuz’s career reminds us that professional journeys don’t always move in straight lines.
She began as a preschool teacher.
She became a social worker.
She pursued holistic pregnancy and child sleep education.
She built Madison Sleep Consultant.
She expanded her education into integrative adult sleep.
She taught parents and professionals about sleep.
And eventually, she returned more fully to social services, moving into increasingly significant leadership roles supporting families, older adults and other social-work professionals.
Yet the common thread is remarkably consistent:
Understanding people within the context of their whole lives.
That principle matters in social work.
It matters in child development.
It matters in adult wellbeing.
And it matters in holistic sleep.
More than a decade after Maya began her professional sleep education, we’re proud to recognize not only where that education began, but all the places her career has taken her since.
💙 Congratulations, Maya!
We are proud to recognize you as a graduate of both IPHI’s Holistic Pregnancy & Child Sleep Consultant and Integrative Adult Sleep Coach Certification Programs and celebrate the remarkable professional journey you have built across social work, child development, sleep education, family services and community leadership.
