2012 Focus Groups
These special interest groups will gather on Friday afternoon for discussion and networking to begin an exchange that will flow through the weekend, culminating in a report from each group to the entire congress on Sunday morning. We hope these connections will deepen and continue, exploring possibilities from this congress to the next. The overarching focus is of course APPPAH and New Frontiers in Birth Psychology and how we can grow and have more of a presence in the world.
The goals and objectives of this group are to address how Birth Psychology and Health advocates can look at the potential pros and cons of Birth Technology, specifically, Assisted Reproductive Technology, and help the baby feel WELCOMED. How can we identify areas of support that are not currently being filled and gently move into those aspects of conception and birth to bring more LIFE to the process for the various people involved. This can include, sperm and egg donors, fertility doctors and personnel, surrogates, intended parents, lawyers, etc..
Ellynne Skove, MA,LCAT, NCC, BC-DMT, RPP, is a licensed therapist whose work encompasses somatic practices and creative arts therapies with a focus on pre and perinatal psychology and health. Ellynne is the founder and director of "GoGo Babies" programs which include pre-conception counseling, bonding and attachment in the womb, soothing, settling, & centering for new parents and babies, baby massage, and the very popular Tummy Time & Baby Yoga groups. She also does birth trauma resolution work for babies, parents, & adults. Ellynne teaches professionals in continuing education trainings in the States and abroad. She is the co-chair for the 2012 & 2013 International Birth Psychology Congress. Ellynne is especially passionate about helping babies conceived in artificial conception practices or gestated via surrogacy to feel WELCOMED.
The goals and objectives of this group are to investigate the "New Frontiers" in attachment and bonding theory that incorporate bonding before birth and during the transition from womb to world.
Jeane Rhodes is a licensed professional counselor in the State of Colorado, current editor-in-chief for the Journal of Prenatal and Perinatal Psychology and Health (PPN), an APPPAH board member, and adjunct faculty (online) for The Chicago School of Professional Psychology. Jeane worked in the foster care system for ten years in various capacities, including as a therapist for children in foster care and as executive director of a foster placement agency. She has published a novel (The Birth of Hope) based on her experiences in the foster care system. The book also incorporates pre and perinatal psychology principals in this story of teen pregnancy in foster care
This group will be a forum for exchanging important developments in PPP from different parts of the world and to figure out methods and ways to bring forward our aims on a global (and local) level. This can be by exemplary actions, promoting of our most relevant knowledge and/or bringing it forward on social levels. It also can include moving forward on organizational questions and improving our background of resources and competences.
Rupert Linder, MD, practicing Obstetrician and Gynecologist in Birkenfeld, Germany. He also practices psychosomatics and psychotherapy and was President of The International Society of Prenatal and Perinatal Psychology and Medicine (ISPPM). In his European office for gynecology, obstetrics, and psychotherapy, he has developed a method that has resulted in significant reductions in the rate of premature births.
This focus group will deal with the various ways Pre and Perinatal issues surface in Therapy. What are the tools we have to uncover and deal with early wounds? In the therapeutic dyad attachment patterns surface in the therapist as well as the client. How do we apply what we know relating to this often ignored stage of development?
Barbara Findeisen is a psychotherapist with over 28 years of experience. She founded Pocket Sanctuary and created and is Clinical Director of the STAR workshop, a profoundly transformative 10-day retreat designed to accelerate self-healing and personal growth. Ms. Findeisen is trained in a variety of experiential therapies, and is regarded as one of the world's leading experts in the field of Pre-and Perinatal psychology, the study of the psychological impact of birth. Barbara is a past-President of APPPAH and a founding member of the International Association for Regression Research and Therapies.
Phyllis Klaus, MFT, LMSW is a licensed psychotherapist, marriage, family, therapist, and social worker. Formerly at the Milton H. Erickson Institute in Santa Rosa, California, she currently practices in Berkeley, California, providing psychotherapy, hypnotherapy, and counseling to individuals, couples, families, children, and groups. She has worked with the concerns, both medical and psychosocial of pregnancy, birth, and the postpartum period for the past 30 years, and has been involved in research and training of maternity caregivers.
Much of her clinical management in the perinatal period has focused on the following: 1). women with a history of childhood sexual abuse and its effects on childbearing; 2) the use of hypnosis and brief psychotherapy to alleviate clinical symptoms of pregnancy such as premature labor, hyperemesis gravidarum, bleeding; and the psychological issues of anxiety and depression; 3) attachment disorders; 4). issues of birth trauma and loss; 5) postpartum mood disorders: and 6) methods of pain relief in labor with self-hypnosis. In addition, she has a general practice with extensive experience working with grief and loss; trauma; abuse; dissociative disorders; anxiety, depression; somatic and medical disorders and conditions; family of origin; attachment, and parent-child issues.
She is a National Board Certified Diplomate in Clinical Hypnotherapy and in the American Psychotherapy Association, as well as the American Academy of Experts of Traumatic Stress. She is an EMDR Institute Facilitator, Approved Consultant, and Trainer, and has incorporated EMDR into her work for the past 13 years. She consults and gives lectures and psychotherapy, hypnotherapy, and EMDR workshops nationally and internationally. She is co-author of several articles as well as Mothering the Mother, Your Amazing Newborn, Bonding, a video, The Amazing Talents of the Newborn, The Doula Book; and When Survivors Give Birth.
Our objectives are to identify ways in which we can get our message out to people through the media (mass media, independent media, and social media); and how to organize locally, nationally, and internationally to get governments to take the necessary steps to promote APPPAH's goals (including the Health Baby Project).
Dedicated to women’s empowerment, Deb helped draft the legislation that licensed midwives in Alaska. She is a founding member of MANA, the Midwives Association of North America. Deb joined APPPAH in 1983. She now lives in California and is PR chair for California Association of Midwives and APPPAH. Deb is currently working on her Masters in Midwifery at The Midwives College of Utah. She is a member of Association of Midwifery Educators. Deb sits on the Board of Directors of The Institute of Feminine Arts and Sciences. Her goal is to see birth psychology include in midwife education.
