Teaching parents to massage their babies is incredibly important. Meet Linda Storm. 

Linda Storm has dedicated her career to supporting parents and infants. In search for the answer of why children have behavior problems Linda found infant massage and became a Certified Educator of Infant Massage (CEIM). She quickly saw that more CEIMs were needed in the country to support parents. In 2002, she became a trainer with the International Association of Infant Massage (IAIM) and is now a Trainer Consultant to support the education of new Trainers. In 2005, she helped form Infant Massage USA and was the Executive Director for 8 years. Linda is still very active with the IMUSA Board and other project. She co-authored the Sensational Baby program provided through IMUSA. To promote the many benefits of infant massage Linda has spoken at numerous state and national conferences and written articles for magazines and professional journals.

To learn more see: https://www.infantmassageusa.org/

About Michael Trout

Michael Trout graduated from Alma College (B.A., cum laude, honors in Philosophy) and Central Michigan University (M.A., Psychology), and did his specialized training in infant psychiatry at the Child Development Project, University of Michigan Department of Psychiatry, under Prof. Selma Fraiberg.

In the mental health field since 1968 and in private practice since 1979, Mr. Trout has, since 1986 directed The Infant-Parent Institute, which engaged in research, clinical practice and clinical training related to problems of attachment.

He was the founding president of both the Michigan and the International Associations for Infant Mental Health; was on the charter Editorial Board of the Infant Mental Health Journal; served as regional vice-president for the United States for the World Association for Infant Mental Health; and served on the board of directors (and as editor of the newsletter) for APPPAH — the Association for Pre- & Perinatal Psychology and Health. In 1984 he won the Selma Fraiberg Award for “ . . . significant contributions to the needs of infants and their families.” For more information see his website: https://www.infant-parent.com/

About Rebecca Molitor, LCPC, Prenatal Bonding (BA) Facilitator

Rebecca Molitor considers herself fortunate to do what she is most passionate about…partnering with individuals and families. Her career started with family preservation programs before starting Compassionate Growth Counseling in 2000. With over 25 years of experience as a counselor in infant mental health, attachment, trauma, and mindfulness, Rebecca frequently provides training and consultative services within Illinois, nationally and internationally. More recently, Rebecca is a certified Prenatal Bonding (BA) Facilitator and U.S. trainer-in-training, as well as exploring the world of writing haiku.

Rebecca's website: https://www.compassionategrowth.net/

Their presentation on February 1, 2022

Supporting Connection Between First Mothers and Their Unborns as an Antidote to Dissociation

How does a first mother prepare to release her soon-to-be-adopted baby into the arms of another? Has it been naïve (or even co-conspiratorial) of us to imagine that she has no mental life of consequence, or that her mental life is of no relevance to the developing child within? Based on a growing literature linking trauma and dissociation, this workshop will consider the possibility that dissociation is sometimes used by first mothers as a defense against impending separation and loss. Further, we will consider whether such dissociation is perceived by the baby both prenatally and at the time of birth. Finally, we will propose that the baby may mimic his first mother’s emotional withdrawal, with implications not only for the attachment with adoptive parent(s), but also for the baby’s optimal development. Could a strategy for enhancing connection between mother and prenate reduce dissociation in both parties, and set the stage for more affective vibrancy in the newborn, who is then perceived as more accessible by the adoptive parent(s)?

https://prenatal-and-perinatal-healing-online-learning.teachable.com/p/adoption-and-the-baby-s-experience

Prenatal  Bonding (BA) and the work of Gerhard Schroth: https://www.schroth-apv.com/PrenatalBondingBA.html

Another Podcast with Gerhard Schroth

Book by Michael Trout:
Audio Book through the Michigan Infant Mental Health Association
Hardcover<

Becky Zal-Sanchez, LCSW is a clinical therapist and passionate advocate for children’s mental health. She has over a decade’s worth of experience supporting youth within the systems of child welfare, foster care, juvenile justice, schools, community mental health, and developmental disabilities. Becky has successfully collaborated with the National Association of Social Workers (NASW) and the Colorado Legislature to write and pass several laws regarding the emotional wellbeing of children. Becky may be reached at www.intamentalhealth.com.

Karen Doyle Buckwalter is one of The Knowledge Center’s most requested speakers. She is known for captivating audiences with her passion and energy. Some of her most popular workshops are Engaging Parents in Child Therapy, Clinical Application of the Adult Attachment Interview and Working with Adoption Issues in Therapy. Karen is also a Theraplay® Trainer and Supervisor as well as a Registered Play Therapy Supervisor. She provides consultation to both individual and organizations both nationally and internationally related to attachment and trauma issues in clinical work.

Karen hosts the Attachment Theory in Action podcast, which has had over 400,000, downloads. She has interviewed many well-known researchers and clinicians in the field of attachment including Daniel Siegel, Bob Marvin, Howard and Miriam Steele and Stan Tatkin. She also hosts the Attachment-Based Therapist Facebook group comprised of over 10,000 members from 100 countries. Karen is a published author having most recently co-authored Raising the Challenging Child. She’s written for specialty magazines such as Adoption Today as well as contributed to peer-reviewed journals. She’s been interviewed by numerous radio stations, newspapers and podcasts. Outside of work you will find her hiking in the Blue Ridge Mountains.

Attachment Theory in Action Podcast 

Raising the Challenging Child 

Chaddock 

In this podcast we explore attachment and Theraplay, the Adult Attachment Interview, working as a therapist with Theraplay and so much more. Enjoy!
What She Shares:

• Stories of working with adoption issues using different therapeutic models
• Clinical applications of the Adult Attachment Interview
• The evolution of Attachment Theory
• The difference between child-centered, non-directive therapy models and attachment-based, directive therapy models
• Who influenced her along the way: Michael Trout, Phyllis Booth, Sandra Lindaman, Miriam Steele
• Parenting insights you can gain from her most recent books

Molly Caro May is an author, teacher, and writing coach. For over 12 years, she has facilitated personal story workshops for hundreds of women across the country and, recently, online. Her focus is voice and where language meets the animal body. Her memoir, Body Full of Stars: Female Rage and My Passage Into Motherhood, was named a “searingly eloquent memoir” and led to her TEDx talk about modern female rage. She has coached postpartum storytellers for the stage and is at the end of her third and final year of Somatic Experiencing trauma resolution training. Her mission is to democratize expression, work with story as a healing tool and explore the powerful intersection of narrative and nervous system. After a childhood spent in five countries, she now lives in Montana with her husband and their two children. You can read more about her work at mollycaromay.com

Kimberly is a Sexological Bodyworker, Somatic Experiencing trauma resolution practitioner, yoga teacher, postpartum advocate, birth doula, and single mom. She is the author of Call of the Wild: How We Heal Trauma, Awaken Our Own Power and Use It for Good as well as the early mothering classic, The Fourth Trimester: A Postpartum Guide to Healing Your Body, Balancing Your Emotions and Restoring Your Vitality, The Fourth Trimester Cards, and The Fourth Trimester Journal. For a decade, she has been helping women heal from birth injuries, gynecological challenges and sexual boundary ruptures. She is the creator of Activate Your Inner Jaguar, an online course ushering thousands of women into their full voices and sexual expression and the host of the Sex Birth Trauma podcast.

See more about Kimberly at: www.kimberlyannjohnson.com

She did a podcast with me last year that really helped many people understand the impact of difficult births and how to heal them. 

She works hard to help women through her podcast and online courses, and her Book Call of The Wild (my review) is a game changer for women to understand their nervous system responses. She is joining me at the upcoming Birth in Pieces event. 

Kristin Sipley is a somatic wellness consultant, facilitator, educator, and mentor who assists individuals, couples, families, groups, and other professionals across the globe to connect with the wisdom and health within themselves and the field around us. Her integrative, holistic approach recognizes the inherent intelligence and health that supports each of us and combines aspects from her training in pre- and perinatal (PPN) somatic health, parent-infant mental health, lifespan development, trauma integration, Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapy, Polarity Therapy, Reiki, and adult education. Kristin is an approved Castellino Womb Surround Process Workshop Facilitator and Supervisor, as well as contributes to various PPN and bodywork trainings throughout the US and Canada.

Eileen's work is based in the recognition that our body is more than muscles, connective tissue, bones and organs. We exist in many layers of physical anatomy, mind, emotions, subtle energy; even further, in connection to living family, our deceased ancestors, local community and nation; and, finally, in relationship with nature, the planet, as a drop in the ocean of totality of existence, in whichever way each of us connects with essence, spirit or intelligence of life.

She recognizes that each individual has an inner guidance system to their own optimal health; so in a very practical, commonsense way she supports each client by listening receptively to what is needed in each individual session. Through a wide variety of training and practical experience working with clients she continues to gain deeper understanding of the balance needed between stability/strength, fluidity/flexibility and clarity/understanding to support a direction toward health.

She has worked for 26 years as a practitioner and teacher in the holistic health field with bodywork, yoga, Breema® Bodywork and Self-Breema; She is now focusing on Pre-and Peri-Natal Education and Health, Craniosacral Therapy and am a Certified Womb Surround Process Workshop Leader. For 30 years She has been a leader in many communities -- facilitating communication and transformation toward health within the organizations. The direction of my work is connecting, in health, families with each other and the larger community.

In my practice she works with adults, individually and in groups and families with babies, children and teens. To support connected families she offers classes for parents and professionals (teachers and in the health field) in person and on-line. The intention of the work is to restore connection to individual health as well as the thriving of the family system. Her work is very attuned to the wants and needs of each particular individual and family. She endeavors to create a safe non-judgmental space where adults and children can feel the “welcome” we all want and deserve from the start. Together we help transform challenges to more resilience, connection and mutual support and cooperation.

https://www.eileensendrey.com/

Nancy Greenfield, Ph.D., has been passionately and successfully helping children, families, individuals and couples, since 1998, uncover and transform the deep, invisible core patterns that cause their struggles and pains.

She has both a Masters and Ph.D. in clinical psychology, with specialties in Pre and Perinatal Somatic Psychology and Trauma. She is an educator, a certified facilitator of Identity Development; a Vanishing Twin expert; a Family Constellation facilitator with special training in couples work and systemic medicine; a past adjunct professor teaching therapeutic skills at the graduate level; a training supervisor; and a registered Biodynamic Craniosacral therapist.

She presents a case study in our online program: Twin Dynamics and The Baby's Experience in the online school: Prenatal and Perinatal Healing Online. Of this case, she says:

In 2000, I worked with a 3-year-old little boy who was suffering from a series of restrictive behaviors and who was diagnosed by his chiropractor as suffering from a Vanishing Twin loss. We did 19 therapy sessions together that were all videotaped; and during that process he told the story of his twin loss and freed himself from the pain that he was carrying. My talk will be about those sessions and his courageous journey. His story became the subject of my Ph.D. dissertation in 2007.

Her dissertation is a description of her work and this case study. We have attached it for you if you wish to see it.

Dr. Emerson is a pre- and peri-natal psychologist, a renowned workshop leader, writer, lecturer, and pioneer in the field of pre and perinatal psychology. He is Emeritus President of APPPAH, the US educational corporation representing professionals, para-professionals, and consumers in birth psychology. 

Dr. Emerson is a world pioneer in developing and implementing treatment methods for infants and children, and a renowned expert in treatment for adults. He is the author of five self-published books, 15 published chapters and 20 video training programs, only available to trainees.  He holds graduate degrees from Vanderbilt and San Jose State Universities, graduating with honors. He has held university appointments as Honorary Faculty, Director of Clinical Training, International Lecturer, and Assistant Professor of Psychology. As an acknowledgment of his contributions to psychology, he received an honorary fellowship from the US National Science Foundation. Dr. Emerson practiced psychotherapy for 25 years, specializing in regression therapy, and lectured domestically and internationally on these topics. Dr. Emerson is is currently conducting training seminars, personal workshops, and finishing a book on trauma caused by the maternity care system as well as conducting training programs in the U.S., and Europe.

In terms of treatment protocols, he is widely known for his innovative and pioneering treatment of trauma in unborn and newly born babies, and in children. He first published articles on infant and child treatment in the APPPAH journal in 1989, volume 3, issue 3, and in the IPA primal therapy journal (Aesthema) in 1987, issue 7. After researching infant treatment methods for decades, he subsequently researched applications to the adult trauma population, and discovered increased efficiency and success with adult patients. He found that adult patients who completed birth trauma protocols once a week for six months, reduced their psychotherapy completion rate by 3.2 years. In other words, resolving pre and perinatal trauma greatly reduced the need for psychotherapy, and also improved its efficacy when patients engaged in psychotherapy.

Our twin dynamics series is in October. You can see more here: https://prenatal-and-perinatal-healing-online-learning.teachable.com/p/twin-dynamics-and-the-baby-s-experience/?preview=logged_out

Olga Waters is the Facebook administrator for the Womb Twin organization, and hosts Womb Twin Chat. She has been a member of Womb Twin since 2009, and has facilitated the Healing Path Ritual at the annual Womb Twin conference in London in 2011 at the request of Althea Hayton. She founded the Womb Twin Dublin Survivors Facebook page in 2013. In 2014 Olga became the Ireland representative, additionally offering free professional development for therapists new to this field. In that same year and in 2015 she organised the Womb Twin conference in Dublin, the proceeds of which went to the Womb Twin organization.

Olga facilitates Womb Twin workshops and is a life and soul coach. She also facilitates family constellations using dolls which is a very powerful way of working with womb twin survivors. Olga’s interests are theatre, music, and travel. Olga is also a womb twin one of three (triplets) a co – joined sister (Amy) & brother (Rory) a pair and a spare. Olga’s son is a womb twin.

Please listen to our conversation about our mutual passion, Womb Twin Dynamics. Not many people seek our Womb Twin healing at first. They often come to the dynamic after listening to what people who study early dynamics might say about their dynamics and patterns. Olga has years of experience.