Baby/Child-Centered Family Sessions

In Child Centered Family Sessions I support your baby or child to tell us their journey into life stories and feelings, and I teach you how to listen to those early places in your child. Stressful, difficult or traumatic prenatal or birth experiences can cause many 'symptoms'. Even if there has not been a trauma, it can really help children to have some time to be heard so that they integrate this incredibly powerful and intense experience of coming into life. This work supports the healing of family relationships, and improves bonding.
Shocked and traumatized babies can be experiencing difficulty with sleeping, bonding, suckling, latching on, toileting, tactile sensitivity, certain movements and noises, anger, emotional over-reactions, being comfortable in their body, inconsolable trauma crying, and more (see Signs of Trauma).

Children can express a need for support through unexplainable anxieties and activations, anger/rage, separation anxiety, disturbed sleeping and eating patterns, hitting, inconsolable crying, an inability to settle down, sadness and grief. Provided with an empathic play environment that is here just for them to express their feelings and needs, with supportive empathic listening, and clear boundaries, they can really begin to integrate and heal their experiences, increasing their ability to bond within the family.

Give your child the opportunity to integrate their journey into life. Being held in a safe space with understanding and empathy, and supported to tell their story with all its feelings, joys, trauma and stress helps them to feel more comfortable in their body, be more present, and increases bonding and attachment with parents. This is a gentle way to heal past hurts and trauma, and the ‘symptoms’ that can arise out of unresolved issues.

The benefits of this work:

• Healing your child's early imprints can help with real problems such as feeding, sleeping, continual crying (trauma crying), discomfort being present in their body, tactile sensitivity, and many other issues. These struggles are your child's way of communicating with you that something is wrong that needs attention.
  
• Your whole family, and especially your baby/child, will appreciate the empathic and deep listening given to your experiences.
  
• Learn new ways to listen to your baby/child, at deeper levels.
  
• Prenates, newborns and children have their own experiences, and need to be heard in a way that they can digest them emotionally and somatically.
  
• Early support for your child mean that they won’t have to develop their psyche around unresolved and unheard pain and trauma.
  
• This is an opportunity for the whole family to integrate what can sometimes be a very difficult and traumatic journey, allowing everyone to move on in a healthy and creative way. There may be something that happened during pregnancy that is unresolved, some ongoing stress or difficult feelings in the family, or a traumatic birthing experience.
  
• This gentle healing work a greatly enhances bonding and fosters closer relationships within the family.
  

We will co-create a space together in which your baby/child can tell us about past hurts. Our children have their own experiences in their prenatal life, and during their birth. As we empathically attune to them they can tell us their story, and as they do so they are met with sensitivity and understanding by all present. Just like us, babies and children need to express and have their feelings heard, and it helps a lot if the adults around them listen. Being heard validates our experiences and helps us to integrate them. Everyone is supported to resource and re-pattern in the challenging places. Attention is paid to the connection between the parents, and they are encouraged to have supportive contact with each other. This is very gentle work and is carried out at the baby’s/child's pace.

Practical and Intake Information:

FEE: $80.00 per hour (Babies and Kids session's are one hour only)
Pre-payment for 10 sessions in advance is $675. This only covers the session hour, and not the phone check-in's before sessions, and the phone debrief's after sessions that are so important to this work (see below). As they vary in length depending on the need, and how much is going on, it is not possible to pre-pay for these.
Fees are negotiable
Visa, Master Card, Discover and American Express are all available.

Initially I will have a conversation with the parents on the phone to discover if this work seems right for you and your child.
Next I would ask you to fill out some intake forms for me, and we would make some appointments. It’s great to have both parents present.

In the case of a couple living together in the same home, I like both parents to come in for at least the first session, and to come to all of the sessions together if possible. If a single parent home, the parent not living with the child is welcome if appropriate. If there is a significant other person who cares for the child we may need them to be present for at least some of the time too.

Pre-session Phone Call: I will arrange to speak to both parents on the phone before you come in with your child for your first appointment. We discover what your intentions for the session are, and what your concerns are. We will discover your child’s intention in the session/s.

Meeting with the Family: The next step would be the first session with you and your child. The first session with the family is usually observational, an opportunity for me to sit with you all and see what the dynamics are and what your child is wanting to tell us. It is also a time for the family to orient to the space and to meeting me. We will discover if your child is ready to do this work at this time, and if they are willing to trust me to help them with it.

Phone Calls in Between Meeting’s: Shortly after our sessions we will talk on the telephone to debrief and discuss what went on in the session. This is necessary so that both parents understand what is happening in the family sessions, and have a chance to process their experiences and feelings. These in between phone sessions can be anything from 10 minutes to an hour, are charged at the same hourly rate and are paid for at the following session.

If you wish to bring other family members to a session, e.g. a grandparent, sibling, other important person in the child’s life, etc, please let me know in advance.

I work in Sebastopol, but in the case of families with very young babies I will come to the family's home, as long as it’s not too far away.

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"Our unborn babies are conscious feeling human beings. Prenatal and birth experiences effect our relationships, intimacy, sexuality, connection to spirit, how we parent our children, our stress levels, holding patterns in our body, the kinds of illnesses we get, bodily aches and pains, and movement patterns. They also affect how we experience giving birth to our children because our own unresolved trauma's often re-surface during pregnancy and giving birth, for both the mom and dad."