Parent & Family Therapy
Parent and family therapy for parents, caregivers and their children of all ages using a blend of trauma-informed somatic and cognitive therapy techniques for repair, healing, growth and co-regulation that benefit the whole family
No one gets what is ideal. However, when we have somatic knowing of what is ideal, we become who we would have become if we had gotten what is ideal.
- Dee Wagner, originator of Chi for Two®
What makes M-Bodied Parenting unique?
We often explain "our first opponent is our parent.” Kids aren’t ever inherently “bad” or problem children, they are full of energy, charges, sensations, their unique life force!
Multi-generational patterning, what the body, brain and bones know from the longtime systems and environments in which raise each generation, often sets the course for how the next generation is shaped or supported.
Parents, caregivers and elders, get to learn, in an experiential way, how to better “catch, connect, and channel” their own energy in an effort to be the steady holding environment to their children through all the inevitable pushes and pulls.
M-Bodied Parenting helps both necessary relational dynamics of connection as well as separation, or “individuation,” sometimes presenting as defiance or oppositional behavior or other relational concerns.
Parents get to learn and experience both psycho-ed from an intellectualized way as well as, and more importantly, a somatic experience of support in their core. M-Bodied supports a deeply embodied shift, rather than having to “think through steps.” This helps to normalize and better move through the predictable messiness and mismatches in the long road of parenting and family journeys.
M-Bodied is a trauma-informed, neuroaffirming synthesis of many evidence-based approaches integrating:
attachment theory as an ongoing practice and process throughout all stages
early developmental infant/parent relational dynamics that extend into later developmental stages,
nervous system science, and
relational somatic movement practices that benefit the whole family.
When early developmental rhythms and patterns are disrupted or inhibited, causing concerning "behavior" or symptomatic issues later, M-Bodied helps parents to somatically experience what their child needs in an effort for the parents to embody the necessary co-regulation to the child.
These "relational somatic redos" help to resolve any inhibited movement expression in the parents and/or the children that is presenting as trauma response or relational distress. Instead of extinguishing behavior, or biting back, or aiming for just “calm,” M-Bodied helps parents to honor their own life energy in an effort to honor their child’s unique expression and development of self.
Motherhood: Birthing Yourself
Before and after having a baby can be a whirlwind. So, how do you nourish yourself while nourishing others? How do you tend to that part of you that needs just as much attention as other loved ones in your family when growing your family?
Whether you are a parent-to-be (biological or adoptive), are experiencing baby loss, are trying to conceive or adopt, or are a parent with a colicky baby (plus toddler!), therapy can be a part of your support system.
From the anticipation of family planning and pregnancy and post-birth “baby blues,” to possible anxiety/depression, to physical recovery, and the list goes on—they all need support and tender care through psychotherapy, social support and sometimes other resources—and this applies to all parents or caregivers, biological or adoptive, regardless of sex or gender.
Toddlers to Teens: Messiness, Mismatch, Tantrums and Ruptures
Toddlers and teens leaving you a little lost or frustrated? Do you say go left, but they only want to go right? Is their favorite word NO, or are their chronic eye-rolls triggering your own backlash or retreat? Or, perhaps there are explosions everyday along with defiant behavior, constant opposition and a general lack of disconnection or even fear for their well-being.
Understanding attachment as a practice and how co-regulation supports healthy brain development for each unique child helps families to learn and integrate body-based techniques that help them to consciously and more easily move-through-the-messy.
Parents can also become more capable of becoming curious about and honoring the ruptures, friction and messiness that inevitably happen!
Family Therapy: Many Hands Make Light Work
Families come in all shapes and sizes, and like individuals, have their own strengths, weaknesses and blind spots. Sometimes these show up as communication problems, chronic bickering, boundary issues, behavioral problems, eating disorders or substance abuse, school or learning challenges, job transitions, grief and loss, to name a few. Or, sometimes it might seem like there’s one person with the problem.
Inviting all members of the family into therapy can help shine light on areas that could use attention for the benefit of everyone, hence the saying many hands make light work. While all members are invited to be courageous, to invest in the therapeutic process, the process of reconnecting together offers deep emotional nourishment, practical take-home practices, and nervous system re-patterning that benefit the whole family.
Who Benefits from Parenting & Family Therapy?
Parents & their children of all ages: Babies, toddlers, kids, tweens, teens & adult children
Areas of support:
Clingy, fussy baby
Attachment concerns
Sleep issues
Toddler or teen tantrums
Focus problems
Neurodivergence
Oppositional or defiant behavior
Disordered eating and self harm
Chronic family tension
Addiction or substance use
Parent depression, anxiety, rage
M-Bodied Therapy teaches parents and caregivers how to:
better recognize nervous system, developmental, and trauma responses,
appreciate attachment as an ongoing practice, and
feel equipped to offer co-regulation to children.
“I would rather be the child of a mother who has all the inner conflicts of the human being than be mothered by someone for whom all is easy and smooth, who knows all the answers, and is a stranger to doubt.”
~ Donald W. Winnicott
“You are born to one mother, but if you are lucky, you will have more than one. And among them all you will find most of what you need....Your relationships with todas las madres, the many mothers, will most likely be ongoing ones, for the need for guidance and advisory is never outgrown.”
— Clarissa Pinkola Estés , Women Who Run with the Wolves
