Trauma-Informed Parenting
Trauma-informed parenting and family therapy for moms, dads, caregivers and their children of all ages using a blend of cognitive and body-based psychotherapeutic techniques along with co-regulation practices
I can tell you that it takes great strength to surrender. You have to know that you are not going to collapse. Instead, you are going to open to a power that you don’t even know, and it is going to come to meet you. - Marion Woodman
Who Benefits from Trauma-Informed 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
Pandemic Stress
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 a relational practice, and
feel equipped to offer co-regulation to children.
For more about Trauma-Informed Parenting throughout the parenting journeys, see below:
Motherhood: Birthing Yourself
The Perinatal Time Period: 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.
I have experience and training in the perinatal period and perinatal loss/grief from Postpartum Support International (PSI). M-Bodied offers various techniques to find body-based presence and energy as well as cognitive approaches to help support your journey with yourself and with your loved ones. To learn more about M-Bodied’s cognitive and somatic healing modalities, read here.
You might have heard term “Good Enough Mother.” And you might have wondered, “am I good enough?” Or, you might have wondered why all the fuss about the mother? While pediatrician and psychoanalyst Winnicott coined the phrase “Good Enough Mother,” the word mother can be interpreted as primary caregiver(s). When M-Bodied Therapy references “Mother”, the “mothering quality of oxytocin” is the emphasized, which plays a major role in signaling safety within our Social Engagement system functioning as related to nervous system science. Therefore, those who identify as female, male, or non-binary may offer and embody that “Mother” quality.
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.
When we become aware of the significance of attachment, nervous system responses and relational, body-based practices, we can more clearly see the importance of celebrating and honoring each unique individual that makes up the family system. We can also become more capable of celebrating and honoring the ruptures, friction and messiness that inevitably happen!
Understanding the practice of attachment and how co-regulation supports healthy brain and self development also helps families to learn and integrate body-based techniques that help them to consciously move-through-the-messy. The mismatches, messiness, tantrums and ruptures that often arise from toddlerhood through the teenage years help children to differentiate and become their own unique selves over time. These messy relational challenges are also where the richness and potential for deeper connection, healing and individuation reside.
For more information on the developmental rhythms underlying what might present as opposition, check out this blog post: https://www.mbodiedtherapy.com/blog/fightingrhythmsdevelopmentalrelational
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 asked to be courageous, to invest in the therapeutic process, the process of reconnecting together offers deep emotional nourishment and practical take-home skills to use at home.
While M-Bodied family therapy includes talk therapy, adding body-based co-regulation practices offers:
Psycho-education: Body awareness for self reflection, nervous system awareness, and the possibility for an expanded quality of regulation and Social Engagement System functioning for the whole family
Somatic practices for skillful communication, clearly defined roles, creative problem solving, boundary setting, and healthy connection
M-Bodied Therapy offers specific Chi for Two® relational practices designed to help rewire the deep nourishment involved in the early relational life—the important first tastes of connection: match and mismatch—with our primary caregivers. These body-based practices and symbolic redos help to shift nervous system functioning, and therein physiological and developmental functioning, to help reclaim deeper hungers, rebuild connection, and re-pattern healthy embodiment from the inside-out.
Parenthood has a special way of handing over that bundle of joy with no instructions (except for the dusty, barely-opened pile of parenting books on your nightstand) and then dimming the lights to your own hungers, hobbies and hopes.
You might feel stretched thin, guilty for this or that, like you don’t fit in with the other parents, or you wish you had more friends at this stage in life. Perhaps you’re wondering how not to let motherhood devour you but how to rediscover your deeper hungers and reconnect with your family. M-Bodied Therapy offers a way to bite into the richness of life, to healthily digest the ebb and flow of parenthood’s cycles, and to live in your body with satisfaction and energy. Psychotherapy may be the safe, soft place to land to feed yourself.
You Can’t Pour from an Empty Cup: Modern Parenthood and Feeding Yourself
