The Team

Mary Esther Malloy is a certified Mindfulness-Based Childbirth and Parenting teacher who has supported thousands of families through early parenthood as a doula, birth educator, coach, lactation counselor, and parent group leader.  Over 2,800 families have come through her childbirth classes and she has supported over 800 families as a doula in the hospitals, birth centers, and homes of New York City and its metro area. Since founding MIndful Birth NY in 2005, she has offered families an expansive, holistic approach to childbirth preparation, labor support and parenting.

Mary Esther is a Tergar Certified Meditation teacher, offering Anytime, Anywhere Meditation courses. She is also certified as a Havening Techniques practioner, which has revolutionized how she coaches families to move through fears, negative emotions, blocks and limiting beliefs as they navigate childbirth and the first years of parenting. Mindfulness and Havening Techniques are unquestioningly helping Mary Esther’s clients experience greater joy and presence on the parenting path. Mary Esther holds a B.A. from Oberlin College and an M.A. from New York University. She regularly publishes about birth, parenting, and mindfulness. For more about Mary Esther.

Childbirth related coaching topics include: Healing birth trauma, Birth trauma prevention, Fear of childbirth, Miscarriage/Pregnancy loss, Fertility challenges, Mindfulness for childbirth and parenting, Cesarean healing, and VBAC readiness. 

For parents, coaching topics include: Getting off to a low-stress start to parenting, Parenting overwhelm and anxiety, Shifting intergenerational patterns, “Mama-rage,” Parenting high-emotion toddlers and older children, Setting limits, Breastfeeding challenges, Sleep challenges, Relationship change with parenthood, and more.

MBNY: Mindfulness-base Childbirth and Parenting Classes; Cov Pregnancy, Doula; New Moms Talk Group; Feed, Sleep, Poop, Love; Toddler & Up Moms Groups; White Parents Taking on Racism. Available for one-on-one coaching.

Dr. Aisha Williams is a seasoned executive coach, consultant, group leader and mother of two, with a deep-rooted passion for helping individuals develop sound approaches to building emotional health and resilience. With a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from Fordham University and a B.A. from Yale University, Dr. Williams brings a unique blend of academic rigor and practical experience to her work.

Prior to her coaching practice, Dr. Williams conducted research on maternal stress and mindfulness. This research provided invaluable insights into the power of emotional regulation and resilience building, which she now integrates into her approach as a group facilitator.

Over the years, Dr. Williams has honed her skills in various therapeutic modalities, including mindfulness, cognitive-behavioral therapy, hypnotherapy, and psychosensory interventions. Her broad clinical training spanned the treatment of trauma, addictions, depression, anxiety, and inpatient psychiatric care. Dr. Williams is particularly adept at leveraging her experience to guide mothers through challenging emotions and helping them develop effective coping strategies in parenthood. As a group leader, Dr. Williams combines her deep understanding of psychology with a compassionate and supportive demeanor, to create a safe space for mothers to find support.

MBNY: Mothering in Color, Sisters Supporting Sisters in Raising Healthy Black Children, Cov Pregnancy, Toddler & Up Moms Groups. Available for one-on-one coaching.

Jackie Stewart is an international meditation instructor and dharma teacher based in NYC. As an Alo Moves instructor, her warm and approachable style has helped many people learn the practice of meditation and art of mindful living.

Kristin Lawless is the author of Formerly Known As Food: How the Industrial Food System Is Changing Our Minds, Bodies, and Culture, which won the Green Prize for Sustainable Literature in 2019. Her journalism and columns have appeared in The New York Times, The Atlantic, Newsweek, and VICE.

Kristin is also a Certified Nutrition Educator and believes in the healing power of real food nutrition for optimal health. She offers individual and group counseling at special rates for the Mindful Birth NY community. She lives with her husband and son on the Northern California coast.

MBNY: Feed, Sleep, Poop, Love, our back-to-work-friendly course for new parents. Kristin is also a beloved and frequent guest speaker at MBNY parenting clinics and webinars on a range of topics from food and sunblock to sleep. Available for one-on-one coaching.

Dedicated to fathers and families, Jeremy Hopwood focuses on creating a safe environment for men to process emotions that society tells them to keep down. His background includes extensive work in the twelve-step recovery process, peer counseling, and meditation in the Buddhist tradition. In a support group setting, Jeremy works to identify the forces in our culture that challenge men to lead healthy, proud lives. He strives to give participants a free, authentic space to be heard and share their feelings, helping men discover a path towards their true selves.

The father of three wonderful children, Jeremy is a loving partner with Mary Esther Malloy in raising their family. Jeremy is dedicated to the mission of Mindful Birth NY to promote healthy, thoughtful lives for families of all kinds. He enjoys working in a group setting as well as one-on-one sessions that focus on new fatherhood, partner strategies, pre-natal father prep, and addiction. Jeremy was raised Buddhist in the Tibetan Kagyu lineage and is an awareness and compassion meditation practitioner.

MBNY: Dads Parenting Group. Available for one-on-one coaching.

Laura Wolfe is a compassionate, intuitive, informed and highly trained listener. She brings twenty five years counseling experience to her work supporting adoptive parents. Trained in a peer counseling model of support that emphasizes clearing root causes of present day struggles, she has led countless support groups, and classes assisting a wide range of individuals to gain greater clarity and awareness, heal and shift out moded behaviors, and live a more authentic fulfilling life.  Many great organizations have grown out of this model of counseling including; Hand in Hand parenting https://www.handinhandparenting.org/ which has served over 16,000 parents and professionals for over 30 years, and Mindful Birth NY serving over 2,800 couples in childbirth and parenting classes.  Since 2020 Laura has worked with Mindful Birth NY providing ongoing support to parents through support groups for adoptive parents, parents of kids with special needs, LGBTQ plus parents, and co-facilitating white parents taking on racism with Mindful Birth NY founder, Mary Esther Malloy.  As an adoptive parent herself Laura has been through the adoption process, and knows what it takes on every level to have a successful adoption placement. 

MBNY: Queer Parenting Group, White Parents Taking on Racism, Adoptive Parents, Parents of Children with Special Needs, Listening Partner Project. Available for one-on-one coaching.

Sarah Manton-Hollis was introduced to Mary Esther’s work after she attended an Inwood new mom’s group in 2016 with her daughter Gwen.  She loved it and repeated the class so many times that Gwen was walking around the newborns by the end!   Sarah found Mary Esthers work so vital and important that she begun training re-evaluation counselling and has been counselling and attending workshops since 2019.  She is delighted to be helping Mary Esther facilitate the parent support groups and is committed to helping parents get the support they need.  Sarah lives in Inwood with her husband Richard now six-year-old daughter Gwen.

MBNY – Listen: Toddler & Up Parenting Groups