This article puts forward the idea that in order to sufficiently meet the needs of very young children and thereby develop quality provision, early years practitioners must develop a professional approach that combines personal awareness with theoretical knowledge. It argues that the development of such abilities is enabled in process-oriented training over an extended period of time and describes the "Key Times" Project (London Metropolitan University with the London Borough of Camden, 2000-2005) as illustration of a process that impacted positively on practitioners' professional self-worth through valuing self-awareness in relation to the physical and emotional dimensions of practice.