Content: Cost/Contact → Description → Benefits of Family Work → Common Ways Children Communicate Their Need For Support → Structure of the Work → Contact
GET A FREE CONSULT 07869 174405 (UK)
FAMILY SUPPORT: WOMB & BIRTH PLAY FOR CHILDREN
Cost
Contact me for my sliding scale. Sessions are one hour. PayPal, Venmo (US) and cards accepted
Available in online video sessions during Covid restrictions.
For a free 20-minute consultation text/call 07869 174405 (UK) or email starbear@sonic.net
Description
A child-centred play environment that supports children and parents to come into alignment, resolve early events and traumas and increase secure attachment. The pre- and perinatal period provides us with our foundations for life and can be eventful. Integrate unresolved experiences with support.
Parents are present for each one-hour session in my office (during COVID – in your garden or on Zoom). Children need to tell their story in their own way. They want to be heard and they can share deeply during supportive play, with deep listening from the adults. As early trauma is healed and processed children can release and integrate unresolved hurts, pent-up, stuck issues, and tell their story in their own way through play.
Benefits of Family Work:
- Learn deeper ways to listen to your child
- Get support for your child to unravel internal knots, build new resources and process unresolved trauma
- Integrate unresolved early experiences, and feel more connected and settled
- Develop parenting and attachment skills
- Clear unwanted ancestral influences
- Deepen attachment and connection
- More settled and calm children
- Increased connection between parents
- Learn to play with your child
Support for your child means that s/he won’t have to grow up constellating around unresolved and unheard events, pain and trauma.
My son, now 5 years old, was born at 25 weeks and was in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit for 3½ months where I met him as a NICU nurse. I cared for him, bonded with him, came to love him, and eventually adopted him. In the safe play environment provided by Karen he was able to process a lot of the trauma he had experienced in the hospital, and in the womb. I learned new parenting skills as Karen supported my parenting and strengthened our attachment. I am forever grateful!! Thank you Karen!
NICU RN, Sacramento, CA
Common Ways Children Communicate Their Need for Support:
- Tactile sensitivity
- Sleep issues/disturbances
- Struggling with transitions (going to sleep, getting up, leaving the house, going into school, etc.)
- Insecure attachment
- Power struggles (may be an alpha child – see article Are You Parenting An Alpha Child?
- Inconsolable or long periods of crying
- Inability to settle or rest
- A revved nervous system – always on the go
- Being overemotional
- Ungrounded, e.g. banging into things, not finding their feet, scattered energy, etc.
- Disconnection from self and/or others, or from Source
- Separation anxiety
- Anger/rage, grief and sadness
- Hyper-vigilant (on high alert towards, people, sounds, environment, etc.)
At a young age my son experienced bouts of deep sadness, withdrawal, and intense rage. In the first session with Karen Melton - to our astonishment - our son reenacted his entire birth without words, right there in front of our eyes. It was as if he knew just what he needed to do. This is because of Karen's presence, and approach. She always provided a space in which my son felt held, safe, and seen, which was a rare experience for him. Karen worked closely with our whole family to improve dynamics and create healthy attachments; she was a great support for me as a mother, and to my son in helping him feel safe enough to reach out and form deeper connections with others.
Alissa Coenen, Teacher, Sonoma County
Structure of the Work
- Free initial phone consultation
- Intake forms are filled in
- A one-hour play session is scheduled
- Within 1-2 days of the session a Zoom debrief with both parents to discuss and process the session together, check-in about what’s happening at home and discuss parenting. Parenting and attachment support is included. Debriefs are pro rated at the agreed hourly session rate and paid for at the next session.
Being flexible: It can help for one parent to come in for a session with their child, for both parents to come in without their child for parenting support, or for one parent to come in alone depending on what’s needed.
Karen was an invaluable resource for my daughter and I after I had an emergency c-section. Her skill and compassion created a safe space for my four-year-old daughter to work through her birth experience. I gained clarity about how it affected our attachment, and my parenting, and learned how to be more available for my daughter during difficulty. Karen's work is subtle and powerful. She creates an environment in which children can engage in exploration of their birth experience with play and movement. My daughter naturally revisited and recreated her birth experience, without any explicit prompting her play unfolded organically, and bought me to tears more than once. I’m immensely grateful for the time we spent with Karen, it was a gift. I highly recommend her to anyone interested in understanding, and changing, deeper patterns that interfere with connection and positive attachment.
Sasha Benedetti, Elementary School Teacher, Sonoma County
For a free 20-minute consultation text/call 07869 174405 (UK) or email starbear@sonic.net