Za informacije na hrvatskom jeziku kliknite OVDJE.
Before the first cry. Before the first embrace.
The roots of connection begin in the space where a child is imagined or longed for and unfold through conception, pregnancy, birth and the earliest moments of life. Living in the body and nervous system, these experiences shape our first sense of safety, belonging and relationship.
Yet they are not the end of the story. Even when early experiences were marked by stress, fear, grief, medical intervention or disconnection, the possibility of repair remains.
Embark on a deep journey into our earliest beginnings through the lens of Pre- and Perinatal Somatic Psychology. Together, we will explore how bonding and attachment can be nurtured from the very beginning of life, and how resilience, healing and repair remain possible throughout life.
Mary Jackson
In this workshop, we will follow the sequence of early life – from preconception to birth – exploring how these earliest experiences influence bonding, attachment, regulation and our capacity for relationship.
We will explore the factors that influence bonding even before conception, including:
We will consider the importance of integrating past experiences in order to create space for new bonding and connection.
We will explore the challenges and resources present in these earliest beginnings of life.
How are we first received? How might these initial experiences influence our capacity for attachment and belonging? And how can we create opportunities for understanding and repair when those beginnings were marked by stress, fear, uncertainty or disconnection?
In the womb, the baby is already learning the rhythms of life.
Focusing on both the physical and emotional dimensions of gestation, we will examine how positive prenatal experiences – love, support, safety, and regulation – can support healthy development. At the same time, we will acknowledge the impact of stress hormones, fears related to pregnancy and childbirth and adverse circumstances during this sensitive period.
We will also explore practical strategies for supporting pregnant mothers during times of stress, including talking to and differentiating for the baby as ways of fostering regulation and strengthening connection.
The experience of birthing and being born can profoundly influence bonding and attachment.
We will explore what supports connection during birth, how birth experiences shape relational patterns, and what can facilitate integration when birth has not unfolded as hoped or expected. Special attention will be given to the possibilities for repair following difficult or traumatic birth experiences.
Bonding and attachment continue to unfold long after birth.
We will consider how secure attachment is built through countless moments of attunement, misattunement and reconnection, and how parents and professionals can continue to nurture safety, trust and resilience during the early years of life.
This workshop is designed for professionals who support babies, children, parents, individuals, couples and families, as well as for expectant parents and parents.
It will be particularly valuable for:
Alongside theoretical presentations, participants will be invited into experiential and somatic explorations that deepen understanding through direct experience. Through videos and stories from birth and family healing sessions, we will explore how bonding, attachment and repair unfold in real lives, families and relationships.
Mary Jackson & her husband Alex Lobba
Mary Jackson has been married to Alex Lobba since 1987 and is the mother of 2 children who were born at home. She has been a home birth midwife since 1975. Offering prenatal, postpartum care, home and water birth, as well as birth trauma resolution, somatic experiencing, cranio-sacral therapy and Circle of Security group work, she serves families in the Ojai Valley, Ventura and Santa Barbara areas of California. She has attended over 2,500 births and is now attending the home births of her second generation of babies.
Mary was one of the pioneers to bring midwifery back to California in the ‘70s after decades of persecution. A co–founder of the Santa Birth Resource Center, a Board Member of the National Midwifery Institute and current President of the BEBA Clinic (Building and Enhancing Bonding and Attachment), she is a legend in her region. She was an adjunct faculty member at the Santa Barbara Graduate Institute, Co-founder and co-facilitator with the late Ray Castellino, at ‘About Connections’ where they supported families who wanted to conceive, prepare for birth and integrate the birth experience.
She is co-teaching the Castellino Prenatal and Birth Training in the United States and Spain. In the first year after incorporating these pre and perinatal approaches in her midwifery practice, her hospital transfer rate went from 20% to 6%.
Mary has been featured in 11 books and 5 films including “What Babies Want” and “Guerrilla Midwife”. In 2024. she was inducted in the Hall of Honor of Prenatal Sciences, along with Gabor Mate, Otto Rank, Ludwig Janus, Akira Ikegawa, Thomas Verny, William Emerson and other pioneers of prenatal and perinatal sciences.
Mary Jackson & Ray Castellino
Mary is currently participating in cutting edge research about imprints that occur around the time of conception, pregnancy and birth and how they affect us throughout the rest of our lives and what it takes to heal from challenges in these experiences. She is a frequent speaker at national and international conferences and leads trainings throughout the world.
Mary Jackson and Carme Renalias
Carme lives in Fontcoberta, a small village near Lake Banyoles in the north of Catalunya, where she has made her home for more than thirty years and where her two children grew up. It is also here that she offers her therapy and training work.
Originally trained as a professional dancer, Carme danced for over twenty-five years, allowing movement and embodied experience to become her primary teachers. Her body has always been her home, her school and her source of inspiration, shaping a deep sensitivity to presence, perception and relational awareness.
She has been teaching Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapy since 2014 and has been offering BCST sessions for over 23 years. She has trained extensively with Robert Harris, Paul Vick, Franklyn Sills, Mike Boxhall, Michael Shea, Jim Feil and others.
She met Ray Castellino in 2012 and participated as an assistant in the Spanish Castellino Training alongside Ray Castellino, Mary Jackson and Tara Blasco from 2013 to 2020. Since 2022, she has been a member of the Castellino Training teaching team and is a approved facilitator of the Womb Surround Process Workshop.
She is deeply inspired by the integration of Pre- and Perinatal (PPN) Somatic Psychology and Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapy, and by the way this work fosters connection, compassion and a greater capacity for love, gentleness and peace in our lives.
Alex Lobba’ is a retired software marketing executive and a somatic maieutics coach and practitioner.
His approach combines Somatic Experiencing, a body sensation based practice, with re-evaluation co-counselling, Circle of Security attachment theory, neuroscience and pre and perinatal somatic psychology.
Alex has over 35 years of co-counceling experience and has co-facilitated men’s groups for over 30 years.
The maieutics method is inspired by Socrates’ art of drawing out (midwifing/midhusbanding) the essence or blueprint of a person, so that we can create relationships and respond to situations out of present-time choice and not out of survival strategies developed from early imprints.
Alex Lobba
Contact us: Have questions or need more information? Please feel free to reach out to us at: kontakt@perinatalna-psihologija.com
Za informacije na hrvatskom jeziku kliknite OVDJE.
Every child deserves to be welcomed into connection.
Every parent deserves to feel supported.
And every professional has the opportunity to help create healthier beginnings and stronger relationships for generations to come.
Whether you come as a therapist, a birth professional, a parent, or simply as someone curious about your own beginnings, we hope this workshop will inspire you to see yourself and others with greater compassion, understanding and trust.
To support connection where life begins.
To recognise the extraordinary resilience that lives within every human being.
And to remember that within each of us lives an innate blueprint for health, connection and wholeness – one that has been present from the very beginning and can be rediscovered, nurtured and lived at every stage of life.
