Birth Psychology – Creating Safety: Understanding Early Trauma Resolution and Resilience

This course is 11 lectures offered the fourth Monday of each month that support the understanding that prenatal and perinatal psychology and health is necessarily a somatic or bodily felt paradigm. Inherent in somatics is an understanding of how early memory forms in the body, and how our earliest memories inform our world view and sense of safety. Our somatic course helps professional educators who teach about baby consciousness to recognize early imprints in themselves and their audiences so that they can be more effective. Our course includes:

• The elements of Creating Safety for your audiences
• Deep understanding of the autonomic nervous system and threat/stress responses
• A special focus on the freeze response in human beings, especially babies and its implications in pregnancy and birth
• Understanding transgenerational and intergenerational trauma and the skills of differentiation
• Listening and reflection as a tool
• Facilitating story telling in your audiences, especially when they occur spontaneously
• Exercises for you and your audiences to recognize nervous system states
• Tools for recognizing states and how to work with them as an educator
• Practice in embodiment, or feeling and noticing your own body
• Understanding hot topics, or activation in your educational programs and what to do about it

Dates, Topics and Speakers:

September 24: The Science of Safety, Trauma Resolution and Resilience: Stories from the Field with Kate White

October 22: Overview of Skills and Tools for Prenatal and Perinatal Educators with Kate White

November 26: Life on the Ladder: An Experiential Journey with Polyvagal Theory and the Work of Deb Dana by Kate White

December 24, 2018: No Lecture

January 21, 2019: The Stoplight Approach to Understanding Autonomic States, Rebecca Thompson Hitt

February 25, 2019: Creating Safety and the Importance of Presence with Janae Weinhold, PhD

March 25, 2019: Creating Safety Using Conflict Resolution and Mediation Techniques to Support Your Best Birth Experiences with Sally Dear-Healey, PhD

April 22, 2019: Creating Safety

June 24, 2019: Lessons Learned from the Vagus Study Group with Lisa Elliott

July 22, 2019: Play as Polyvagal Health and Healing: A Presentation by Deb Dana

No Lecture May and December

This program is included in the PPNE program, but is a stand alone course as a prerequisite for professionals taking our Tools for Facilitators course.