Welcome to Heal Your Early Imprints: Baby/Child-Centered Family Sessions

Baby/Child-Centered Family Sessions

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.

Shocked and traumatized babies can be experiencing difficulty with sleeping, bonding, suckling, latching on, toileting, tactile sensitivity, certain movements and noises, being comfortable in their body, inconsolable trauma crying, and more. You may be asked to take your baby to see a cranial sacral practitioner who specializes in working with babies.

Children can express a need for support through unexplainable anxieties and activations, anger/rage, separation anxiety, disturbed sleeping and eating patterns, hitting, inconsolable crying, sadness and grief, etc. Provided with an 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.

Practical and Intake Information:

Fee: $80 per hour

Intake Forms: After the initial phone contact, I ask you to fill out the Child Intake Form, and for both parents to separately fill out the Parent Intake Form and to read and sign the Intake Information for Parents Form. In the case of a couple living together in the same home, I like both parents to come in to 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. Anyone coming to a session is required to fill out an intake form beforehand, unless they are a child and then the information will be provided by the parent/s. These forms must usually be returned to me before the first meeting. In the case of an immediate need, the forms may be filled out later.

I may need to talk to both parents on the phone before I meet with the whole family.

Length of Sessions: The first session can go up to an hour and a half, subsequent sessions are often shorter at an hour in length.

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.

Phone Calls in Between Meetings: 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 so that we can check that your intentions are being met. These in between phone sessions can be anything from 10 minutes to an hour, and are charged at the same hourly rate, which can be paid at the following session.

I may need to have a one-on-one session with either or both parents without your child/children present, and these will also be charged at the same rate per hour and can be paid for at the next scheduled 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. I will need you to inform me first, and I may need to talk on the telephone with that person before they come in. This would also be charged at the same hourly rate.

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."

Contact Karen Melton: 707 829 7816 starbear@sonic.net

All images used are from Marija Gimbutas' The Language of the Goddess

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Writings: Karen's Writings | The Vulnerable Prenate