2013 Post-Conference Workshops
This four-hour experiential session will forever change the way you tell or listen to birth stories. Participants will experience the paradigm-shifting power of Birth Story Medicine as Pam leads one or two of the processes.
Every birth storyteller needs a birth story-listener... but who is listening?
When you listen to mothers who are disappointed, guilty, upset, or sad about their experience of giving birth, do you feel angry, stuck, or speechless? Is it hard to listen deeply to them, because you only hear the judgments, advice, and confusion in your own mind?
These questions will open a lively discussion, demonstration, and practice as you explore the dynamic between the storyteller and the story-listener, and how to listen deeply to the heart of the story (rather than the details). Even when your interaction with a traumatized mother is brief, you can make a profound difference; Learn the single most important response you can offer to someone with emotional birth trauma, one that can become the seed of their healing.
Learning objectives:
• State the six seeds of emotional birth trauma.
• Explain the importance of identifying the archetypal voice of the storyteller.
• Demonstrate the most important response to someone with emotional birth trauma.
Pam England is a childbirth mentor, founder of Birthing From Within, and former midwife. Experiencing emotional birth trauma prompted her to earn a Masters in Psychology/Counseling and to make healing emotional birth trauma her life's work. Pam wrote the groundbreaking book Birthing From Within (1998), Labyrinth of Birth (2010), and Birth as a Hero’s Journey (2013), and has led workshops and conferences for thousands of birth professionals around the world. She helps integrate and give new meaning to birth stories. Pam brings fresh insight, awareness, compassion and humor to this subject.
Pregnancy, birth, and the early bonding period set in motion the foundation of life-patterns for baby, mother, the mother-child relationship and fathers too. Too often these experiences are not ideal. Many mothers carry unresolved and unspoken grief, disappointment, pain, trauma, or regrets from their pregnancies, births, and early mothering experiences. They see how difficult early experiences created a cascade of diminished opportunities, how events affected their child’s potential, or disrupted their relationship with their child or partner.
Whether in the midst of those difficult experiences now or decades have passed, this workshop is to provide mothers a healing process to help find greater peace, relief, and to allow the story of that earlier time to have new meaning.
Dr. McCarty will share her approach and experience of family healing incorporating prenatal and perinatal psychology understandings and energy psychology healing processes. Mothers have the opportunity to quiet into a guided reflective process to consider earlier experiences and discover what emerges for healing. Together, we do a group energy psychology TAT® healing process. A second reflective time and a TAT® surrogate healing process for your child or family follows along with time for integrative sharing.
Please arrange childcare for babies or children. Participants sign an informed consent. This workshop does not replace psychotherapy or medical care.
At the conclusion of this workshop, participants will be able to:
1. Identity 5 key elements in healing unresolved experiences from prenatal, birth, and the postnatal period for themselves and their children.
2. Describe their felt-sense healing experienced during the workshop.
3. Do the TAT® process for themselves and children at home.
4. Describe 3 key approaches at home to help their children heal from unresolved early experiences that effect them today.
5. Locate 3 follow-up resources to utilize TAT® and other energy psychology healing tools for their own family use.
A leader in the frontier to optimize human potential and relationships from the beginning of life. Author of Welcoming Consciousness: Supporting Babies’ Wholeness at the Beginning of Life–An Integrated Model of Early Development. Founding chair, co-author, and Associate Faculty of the first degree programs in prenatal and perinatal psychology at Santa Barbara Graduate Institute. Her innovative work incorporates prenatal and perinatal psychology, her ground-breaking consciousness-based early development theory, consciousness studies and energy
psychology healing modalities. Serving families for 40 years. International presenter, educator, and consultant to families, professionals, and organizations–bridging theory, principles and practice.
Thanks to new research in Neuroscience and Developmental Psychology we know that the gestation period of women’s pregnancies is vitally important for the healthy development of the child - physically, mentally, and emotionally.
During this information filled and experiential workshop, you will be introduced to new practices and modalities that will enable both parents to cultivate emotional self-regulation and stress reduction tools. These are essential additions to the healthcare provider’s toolkit for supporting parents during this often overlooked phase in the healthy development of the child.
You will learn some of the groundbreaking work of the Institute of HeartMath and how “coherence” can serve in a person’s well being. You will discover how one’s biochemistry can have a dramatic influence on the capacity for the parent and child to be fully present during the prenatal phase from the moment of conception to the birth. You will also learn how to support parents in cultivating their intuitive, imaginative capacities for connecting to their baby in the womb through the power of music-infused guided imagery. These resources – during this crucial time - can very well be among the most important health prevention practices for our future generations.
Learning Objectives
• Understand Heart Coherence as an important resource for intuitive bonding;
• Learn Exercises that facilitate a deep calm in the parent;
• Experience guided imagery practices as a tool for prenatal bonding;
• Explore ways to use sound and music strategies during prenatal development
Gary is an award-winning composer and public speaker dedicated to making a difference in the world by creating music-driven media and events that inspire the heart and catalyze healing. He is passionate about way music can reduce stress, and strengthen our emotional intelligence throughout the transitions of our lives, from birth to death. Gary is the co-creator of the acclaimed CD/book, Graceful Passages, which helps to traverse life transitions with greater mindfulness and compassion. He also recently co-authored (with David Surrenda, Ph.D. and Lisa Rafel) a CD/book called Safe in the Arms of Love, created to support parents and newborns during their bonding process. Gary has recently partnered with the former CEO of HeartMath, Bruce Cryer to deliver presentations and products entitled “What Makes Your Heart Sing?”. Gary has spoken at Google, Harvard’s Conference on Spirituality and Health, Scripps Integrative Clinic, and Kaiser Permanente, among many others. Gary stands for a greater understanding of the power of music as an essential resource for healing and inspiration
Lisa Rafel is a “sound healing” educator, songwriter and singer with four CD’s and numerous recordings. Lisa is co-creator of Safe In The Arms Of Love: Deepening The Essential Bond With Your Baby and founder of Resonant Sounds, LLC, creating music, books and products that support heartfelt connection between parents and their babies. An internationally recognized transformative teacher, performer and expert in Vocal Sound healing™, Lisa presents internationally on the use of sound as a tool for health and healing. Her innovative workshops focus on self-healing techniques using modern scientific principles and practices from ancient and indigenous cultures. Lisa has two children and six grandchildren.
Bruce Cryer has been dedicated to the evolution of humanity for the past 40 years. For eleven years, he served as CEO at HeartMath (USA), an innovative research-based firm offering unique products and award-winning technology to boost performance, productivity and health while reducing stress. He is co-author of the book “From Chaos to Coherence: The Power to Change Performance” and the Harvard Business Review article “Pull the Plug on Stress”. Bruce has been a faculty member of the Stanford Executive Program since 1997 and has worked on four continents with organizations as diverse as Kaiser Permanente, Mayo Clinic, The World Bank, Stanford Business School, and the UK’s National Health Service. He has been interviewed for or written in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Inc. magazine, Fast Company, Modern Healthcare, Leadership Excellence, as well as many other business and health publications. Bruce’s current passion is helping individuals and groups discover “What Makes Your Heart Sing?” through the heart’s capacity for inspiration, purpose, and beauty. He was recently named one of the Top 50 Thought Leaders in Personal Excellence. www.brucecryer.com
