2013 Training Sessions
Birth is a foundational experience that is replayed throughout life. A traumatic impact from the prenatal period, or birth, can affect an individual from infancy through old age. When one understands these traumas, and can identify them, it can be a powerful aid to improving outcomes in all types of patients. A number of illnesses and developmental disabilities can be traced to many forms of birth trauma. The ability to identify these can provide empathetic responses that help release the initial trauma. The potential for profound and fundamental healing increases tremendously by applying the knowledge and techniques associated with the resolutions of birth trauma.
In this training we will look at the vital role of Sensory Integration and its part in birth trauma. We will learn about Sensory Integration development and history. We will see how birth trauma behaviors develop in the Sensory Integration Process, and we will learn a variety of treatment techniques and how they impact clinical outcomes. We will focus on play techniques that support Sensory Integration and healing of birth trauma.
Peg Bledsoe is an Occupational Therapist has been involved in working with birth trauma since 1988. She has been involved in birth training with William Emerson and Ray Castellino is training in pre and perinatal psychology. She also has had Craniosacral Training by Upledger Institute and John Barnes(Myofascial Release Training). Another training that supports the release of trauma in the body is NIS (Neurolink Integration System by Dr. Allen Phillips, DO). This has led her down a fascinating path of training and practice to incorporate development and treatment principals and psychological human development. A hand on approach to treatment.
The fist part of training session: Healthy babies and mothers belong together in the uniquely special time immediately following birth. There are many well-documented short- and long-term benefits for both mothers and babies when they have uninterrupted skin-to-skin contact after birth, including increased physiologic stability for both, increased maternal bonding behaviors, protection from the negative effects of maternal-infant separation, support for optimal infant brain development, and increased breastfeeding initiation and duration. When babies are placed skin to skin with their mothers, there are nine observable stages of newborn behavior that lead to the first unassisted breastfeeding. During this presentation, these nine stages will be illustrated and described and practical ways to change the culture of hospitals to support uninterrupted skin to skin after birth will be discussed.
The second part of the training session: Being together immediately after birth gets babies off to the right start, but it is only the beginning of the support mothers need to achieve the optimal goal of exclusive breastfeeding for six months and continued breastfeeding for at least the first year after birth. We will explore the research supporting this goal as well as practical ways to help mothers overcome common challenges in the first few days postpartum such as infant crying, fear of inadequate milk supply and painful nursing. We will also discuss the risk for some babies of hypoglycemia, hyperbilirubinemia and early weigh loss and how best to support exclusive breastfeeding for these babies whenever possible.
After raising three children as a stay-at-home mother, Dr. Phillips received a Masters degree in Developmental Psychology, became NIDCAP certified as an Infant Developmental Specialist, and then attended medical school at University of California, Davis. She completed her pediatric residency and neonatology fellowship at Loma Linda University Children's Hospital in Loma Linda, CA and is currently an attending neonatologist in the same NICU.
Dr. Phillips is also an International Board Certified Lactation Consultant. Her primary areas of interest are maternal-infant attachment, breastfeeding education and support, and developmental protective care of premature infants.
Research/Publications
Dr. Phillips’ research on “Analgesic Effects of Breastfeeding or Pacifier Use with Maternal Holding in Term Infants” was published in Ambulatory Pediatrics in 2005 and was included in a 2006 Cochrane Review on the analgesic effects of breastfeeding for procedural pain in neonates.
Dr. Phillips also conducted a study, published in the Journal of Perinatology in 2011, that focused on mothers who had quit smoking during or just prior to pregnancy and had newborns admitted to the NICU. The results of the study demonstrated that providing support for maternal-infant bonding during the infant’s NICU stay significantly increased the duration of breastfeeding in the first 8 weeks postpartum and decreased the rate of postpartum smoking relapse.
Mavis Gewant will present an overview of how Sacred Imagery can be used as a way to go inward and connect with the Divine Feminine. Mandalas, a sacred circle that connects us to our unconscious, helps bring forth the stories we carry about our births, whether they were our own or the birth of our children. In this workshop, Mavis will use Mandala, sharing, meditation and the creative process as a way to heal our stories, move forward, and create new ones.
This workshop is suitable for those working with women that were overwhelmed by their birth experience, women that had a c-section and want a VBAC, and women that had an unexpected outcome or loss. It is also important as birth workers to heal our own birth trauma, so we don’t bring our stories to our client’s births. The techniques in this workshop will help you and your clients release the energy and fear around their birth story, experience the power of forgiveness, recover trust, learn stress coping techniques and help those that need to reconnect with their baby.
Learning Objectives
1. Participants will gain hands on knowledge of how to make and use a mandala as a healing tool
2. Participants will experience the importance of healing ones own birth trauma when working with others
3. Learn how our birth stories impact our future births and relationships with our babies
Mavis Gewant, MA, CD, CLC has been working for more than 20 years as a birth and postpartum doula, doula trainer, mentor, birth educator, and baby intuitive and is the mother of two grown sons. As a Sacred Artist, she bridges art and birth to help women on their healing journey. She teaches Sacred Painting Workshops worldwide, including a yearly intensive in India. Her Womb Stories groups use Mandalas as a tool to heal birth trauma, as well as prepare women for birth. Mavis received a Masters Degree in Pre & Perinatal Psychology from the Santa Barbara Graduate Institute. Her Birth Yantra is featured in Pam England’s book, Labyrinth of Birth. Founder of Gentle Care Doula Service, Mavis teaches birth-related classes and workshops in the Hudson Valley region of New York and is a Doula Trainer for Birth Arts International. Her artwork can be seen on her website: www.sacredmotherarts.com.
Recent neurobiological research (Perry, 2009, 2006; Porges, 2011; van der Kolk, 1991; Siegal, 2003) of early developmental trauma emphasizes the effectiveness of repetitive and rhythmic movement used in creative arts therapies to repair neuropsychological patterning. Though it may be argued that these fields have long known the healing power of repetitive movement patterning, it seems now is when the greater psychological community is awakening to the effectiveness of these approaches to repair traumatic/developmental injury. Drawing from neurobiological research, intrautero and extrautero developmental movement research, and dance movement therapy research (Caldwell, 1996; Levy, 1992; Schmais, 1985), we will focus on exploring experientially/didactically, studies that addresses how/why repetitive movement is suggested for healing trauma, including when movement repetition may be contraindicated and how to work with movement repetition and addictive behaviors.
Learning objectives:
1. Integration of key developmental /neurobiological markers for understanding trauma etiology
2. Identification of repetitive movement that facilitates re-patterning neurological circuitry
3. Experiential opportunities to embody repetitive movement phenomena and defensive responses
4. Recognition of where repetitive movement patterning may be contraindicated
Patricia Lucas holds a PhD in clinical psychology specializing in prenatal /perinatal psychology (Santa Barbara Graduate Institute), an MA in dance movement therapy (Naropa University). She presents her work with a somatic focus on early development and relationship nationally. She is book review editor for JOPPPAH. She has a private practice (Golden Valley, MN). She is the mother of Jane (22), and Georgia (19), Raines (9), & happily married to John, (25 yrs). Discovering her love of dance at an early age, Dr. Lucas still teaches and takes dance classes regularly. She is a long time member of APPPAH.
The after effects of pre-and perinatal trauma reside in preverbal sensation cues in the autonomic nervous system. These aftereffects include dissociation, rigidity, constriction, helplessness and alienation. The somatic experiencing technique of ‘Pendulation’ softens the body’s immobility response in one’s natural defenses against a perceived danger.
Combining art process with pendulation (between imagery and sensation, feelings, thoughts or behaviors) invites fluidity, spaciousness and an effective way to reach preverbal experience. An alignment with right hemispheric processes like art and movement is essential to the release of traumatic aftereffects. By working directly with the hard copy image of the experience one can shift sensations, feelings, rigid body patterns and images of the event. This integrative model shifts the preverbal cues in the nervous system and creates a felt sense of fluidity in the bodymind. Because cognitive understanding is often absent with preverbal trauma, somatic shifts can restore cognition and a sense of well-being.
Participants in this workshop will learn to:
1. Describe the 5 channels of experience (SIBAM Model).
2. Understand how traumatic experience is stored in the autonomic nervous system.
3. Use the technique of 'pendulation' via lecture and experiential exercises.
4. Understand somatic resourcing and titration in the resolution of trauma.
Meagan Pugh, D.MIN., ATR-BC, SEP, author of the book and CD, The Spiral of Healing, is an Internal Family Systems therapist, a certified Somatic Experiencing® Practitioner, a graduate school educator, and transpersonal counselor. She is the director of the Somatic Art Therapy Trauma Institute (SATTI) in Northern California which teaches professionals in techiques of Somatic Art Therapy for healing and living in joy. She works with individuals, couples and groups
The presenters join forces to present a dynamic workshop that explores the relationship challenges new parents face and ways to enrich the couple bond as they step over the threshold into parenthood. The impact of a new baby on the parental relationship is profound. Creative strategies that strengthen the bond for couples before the baby arrives are a powerful antidote to relationship stress and are also the basis for healing, growth and stability in the years ahead. This experiential workshop will blend demonstrated energy medicine techniques, visualization tools and role play activities that the presenters use in private counseling and in The Birth Empowerment Workshop® couple’s retreat. Using creative art expression and energy healing exercises, participants will gain:
1. Confidence in facilitating the couple bond as new parents confront a range of issues
2. Awareness of how attachment theory applies to couples and how this influences adult relationship patterns
3. Appreciation of how understanding the ‘energy’ of relationship can help in fundamental ways
4. Knowledge of different sensory types with their signature energetic styles and how utilizing this can build bridges to each other
5. Experience in using energy medicine techniques to foster relationship solidarity
Before immigrating to the UK in 1998, Diane was the founder and director of The Family Tree Center for Parents in New York for 15 years. A certified childbirth educator since 1978, Diane used her case notes as the data for her PhD research (The Childbirth Educator as Ethnographer, University of Manchester, 2002). As a perinatal psychologist, Diane created THE BIRTH EMPOWERMENT WORKSHOP® as a weekend intensive for pregnant couples seeking a mind/body/spirit approach to birth and parenting. The workshop evolved into a couple’s retreat that deepens their intimacy while empowering the family space.
Elly is a perinatal relationship counselor, researcher and writer from Sydney, Australia. Her passion is facilitating family bonding: between mum and bub, dad and bub, and mum and dad. Elly also supports birth professionals by researching, writing and speaking on perinatal relationship issues. Elly created the Becoming Parents and Being a Mum programs for Interrelate, writes a monthy relationship column in Australia’s largest parenting magazine, Practical Parenting, writes the weekly “Dear Elly” column for the Sydney Morning Herald and Daily Life website and is the author of the book Becoming Us, Loving, Learning and Growing Together.
