Prenatal Trauma Healing

In this lecture, Jaap van der Wal will present a phenomenological view of our existence as an embryo, with the question in the background: What are we actually doing when we are an embryo? Is there awareness or consciousness? Does the embryo experience itself and its environment? Is this even possible for a being that today is usually considered "brainless" and has to be valued as a kind of "not yet (adult) being"?

It will be shown (or at least an attempt will be made to defend it) that the embryo shows that there are two ways for your soul/mind to be involved in or connected to your body. The body-forming soul on the one hand, and the experiencing soul/mind through organs such as the brain, nervous system, and sense organs on the other. So, consciousness is not a product of the body, but the spirit/soul does not come through the body! In fact, just as our consciousness is not produced by the body, our body is not the product of a single "fertilized" egg cell and thus the sum of cells. No! "The body evolved out of us, not we out of it. We made the body, cell by cell we made it" (Rumi).

The lecture will also include a warning not to reduce the humanizing act of healing trauma to a kind of brain repair. As has been said: The brain is a necessary condition for consciousness, and so life is deeply connected to the mind, but it is not a causal principle: consciousness through the brain not from the brain.

Our most formative experiences take place before we are born. Our life in the womb is our matrix of becoming. During this time we are in constant relationship with the biological, psychological, emotional, historical and social environments of our parents, in particular our mother.

Our psyches and the cells of our developing bodies are marinated in these environmental matrices. As such, we imbue a sense of the world and who we are in the world. This formative sense of self shapes the foundations of who will we become.

This talk focuses on the needs of the prenatal person and how we can support these to nurture healthy foundations to the emerging self.

The ancestral Maya philosophy takes us into the world of pregnancy where the baby is conscious and receptive. In this talk, Tat Apab’yan Tew leads us into the sacred feminine and construction of being. We receive an introduction to millennial knowledge, zealously preserved, that reveals the approach of Maya medicine — and predicts individual human character from the womb.

Consulting the Maya Calendar, the Cholq’ij offers a frame of understanding, diagnosis and therapy within health sciences and spirituality. The feminine is revealed in its true magnitude: we are an expression of the Universe and our mother shapes the content.    

Topics  
- What the ancient Cholq’ij is?  
- Understanding the Cholq’ij as a tool for pregnancy tracking.  
- Reading the Cholq’ij and dynamics of interplay.
- Consciousness in a baby, Maya epistemology.  
- Healing prenatal trauma.  
- A development of a universe: understanding a baby character and personality.

A large part of his presentation will be devoted to your questions. The meeting is suitable for therapists as well as wider public who want to better understand themselves and those around them.

The focus will be on the Polyvagal theory which emphasizes the role of the autonomic nervous system in regulating our health and behavior. The theory describes physiological/psychological states that underlie our everyday behavior as well as the challenges related to our mental well-being and health.

By applying polyvagal theory to our personal lives and to fields such as medicine, education, and management, we can understand how safety, coregulation, and connection are paramount to a healthy human experience. Our autonomic nervous system evolved to keep us safe and alive.

As mammals evolved from reptiles, our autonomic nervous system adapted to automatically communicate with other mammals and engage various self-defense systems when necessary. When our self-defense systems are repeatedly or chronically engaged or we are unable to communicate effectively with others, our body systems can become stuck in certain maladaptive states.

Porges' theory also offers effective tools to help people overcome the lasting effects of trauma.

A preview of the imprints of difficult to regulate situations on the body system, its different layers from the perspective of philosophy and knowledge of Cranio Sacral Therapy, Osteopathy and Biodynamics - Polarity Therapy.

The implications of the imprinted themes on the anatomy, physiology and vitality of the sentient being and how to help achieve optimal alignment and functionality approaching the original matrix of health. Making visible how imbalances and discomfort are connected at different layers of the body - manifesting connections at all visible and even seemingly unrelated areas of functional units and creating segmented areas - disconnection. 

My list of questions that lead me to practical experiences and that we also ask together, for example:

• Can trauma and the demands of life be prevented?
• If I don't "want" something in life, what do I want instead?
• What is it that limits me and how can I understand these limitations in my life?
• In what ways can places of disconnection be found?
• How do I reconnect the layers - the mind-body and vitality?
  
  I will share my perspective on these questions and many others that will become visible during our session, based on my more than 30 years of practice. The theoretical part will be accompanied by a practical insight into getting answers from the body system itself.

One of the most important things in life is the art of regulating your nervous system in everyday life. This ability brings greater peace and joy, a release of tension and stress, and a more conscious approach to decision making.

The E-motion concept is about clearing and healing trauma and working with the body. In this session, we will explore theoretical and experiential techniques that focus on regulating our nervous system, releasing old traumas that we are often unaware of that are stored in our bodies.

The trauma is not what happened to us, however painful and challenging such a situation may have been, but what is stored in our nervous system from that situation. We discover a whole new way of healing that uproots deeply stored cellular memories, ingrained traumas and injuries that we have not had access to before.

This Duše K special talk show on Dissolution, Letting Go and Forgiveness will take place this time in Moravia as part of the International Congress of Intelligent Movement - Healing Prenatal Trauma. Some of the speakers of this congress will also be part of the discussion, which will be led as always by Jaroslav Dušek, this time with Maroš Vago and Helena Máslova. Other speakers are Ellynne Skove and Radek Neškrabal.

This morning workshop will be very playful, hands-on and experiential.

We will focus on:

• Embryology and developmental patterns and evolutionary contexts
• Tensegrity and embodied anatomy
• Emotions - Energy - Breath - Spine
• Quality of neutral - grounding and centering Nervous system (NS) in a playful and practical way
• Breathing practices to regulate the ANS (autonomic nervous system)
• Posture and quality of movement as mirrors of our nervous system or the body never lies

Stress, trauma and in the Pre- and Peri-natal Period

• Exposure to stressful or hostile conditions in utero is associated with compromised development and a lifelong risk of adverse health outcomes. 
• In utero maternal stress factors are more likely to produce detrimental health outcomes for males compared to females.
• The effects of the trauma persist because the traumatic event is locked into the cellular structure of the body.
• Traumatized people react to reminders of the trauma with emergency responses that were relevant at the time of the original threat but are not ego syntonic in the present.
• Traumatic events imprint the genetic material in germ cells and may be thus passed on for several generations.  

Trauma is generally defined as an event that induces severe fear, helplessness, or horror. Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a particular type of trauma that has been much in the news. Essentially, PTSD occurs when a person feels overwhelmed and helpless in a life-threatening situation. PTSD has long-lasting and often debilitating effects.

Transgenerational Transmission of Trauma The idea that a parental traumatic experience could be passed on to subsequent generations gained acceptance in scientific circles in the late 70s and early 80s. Since the mid-1980s, controlled studies on the children of Holocaust survivors (in reality – adults) showed increased vulnerability to PTSD, distrust of the world, impaired parental function, chronic sorrow, inability to communicate feelings, ever-present fear of danger, separation anxiety, boundary issues, and other psychiatric disorders. Adults with a childhood history of unresolved trauma are more likely to develop lifestyle diseases (heart disease, cancer, stroke, diabetes, skeletal fractures, and liver disease) and be likely to enter and remain in the criminal justice system. 
Such people suffer from the highest unemployment rates, poverty, alcoholism, and suicide in the country. All are factors associated with adverse neurodevelopmental outcomes in offspring. And let us remember: abuse begets abuse for many generations until the chain is interrupted. In the same way, parents pass on genetic characteristics to their children. They also pass on all kinds of “acquired,” that is, epigenetic characteristics, especially if these originated in powerful emotionally charged experiences like exposure to starvation, violence, or the tragic loss of loved ones. Such traumatic events leave an imprint on the genetic material in germ cells of individuals and may be transferred to their children and their children’s children.  

Cellular Memory of Trauma The effects of the trauma persist because the traumatic event is locked into the cellular structure of the body. Chronic trauma is another example of body memory. In such cases, a touch, smell, sound, even certain types of weather can act as triggers and bring the past suddenly into the present again.
The writer Aharon Appelfeld, put it this way in his memoirs: Everything that happened at that time has left its mark in the cells of my body. Not in my memory. The body’s cells seem to remember better than the memory, which is intended for this. For years after the war, I did not walk in the middle of the pavement or path, but always close to the wall, always in the shade, always in a hurry like someone fleeing...Sometimes it is enough to smell food, feel the dampness in my shoes, or hear a sudden noise to bring me back to the war...The war sits in all my bones.
In the above example, it is not a particular episode but an entire segment of a person’s life that has left its mark on the body, more deeply and permanently, than autobiographic memory could ever do. Traumatized persons react to reminders of the trauma with emergency responses that were relevant at the time of the original threat but, alas, no longer apply to the current situation. Individuals afflicted by PTSD exhibit enduring and pervasive symptoms of depression, survivor guilt, anger, intense fear, self-destructive behavior including substance abuse, hypervigilance, dissociation, low self-esteem, dreams of being violated, involuntary and intrusive memories of the traumatic event, memory loss for other parts of that event, lack of ability to concentrate, impairment of social functioning, and feelings of detachment or estrangement from others.  

Representative Research McGill researchers and their Swiss collaborators have discovered that histones are part of the content of sperm transmitted at fertilization. The researchers created mice in which they slightly altered the biochemical information on the histones during sperm cell formation. The offspring were adversely affected both in terms of their development and in terms of their survival. These effects could still be seen two generations later. Their findings are remarkable because they indicate that information in addition to DNA is involved in heritability. The study highlights the critical role that fathers play in the health of their children and even grandchildren. In a Tufts University School of Medicine study, male mice exposed to chronic social instability stress during adolescence transmitted stress-associated behaviors to their female offspring across at least three generations even if these children never experienced significant stress themselves or interacted with their fathers by way of the male lineage. One mechanism for this effect was found to be sperm miRNA.

Sperm miRNA expression in humans has been affected by environmental factors, such as smoking and obesity. However, this is the first study to demonstrate sperm miRNA changes in response to stress in humans and raises the possibility that sperm miRNA could be a biomarker for early abuse as well as elevated susceptibility of offspring to psychiatric disorders.

Healing Traumas, whether physical or psychological, are locked in the whole body. Health professionals such as osteopaths, chiropractors, craniosacral therapists, massage therapists, and others working with their clients’ bodies generally subscribe to the belief that it is the physical, sexual or emotional trauma that has created localized, compressed area or areas of foreign, disorganized energy in the body, walled off from consciousness. Working on these areas will often uncover and liberate traumatic memories and/or free the person of chronic pain. In addition to personal counseling or therapy, sharing one’s dreadful memories with other members of one’s community in traditional ceremonies provides a cathartic release of painful emotions. It initiates grief resolution, including a more positive identity and a commitment to individual and community healing. This has resulted in less shame, guilt, stigma, anger, sadness, and an increase in joy, a sense of personal power and valuation, and respect for one’s familial origins.

Consider the role which altered states  such as sweat lodges, Mesmerism, hypnosis, sodium amytal and psychedelics have played over the centuries in clinical and cultural efforts to transcend psychological trauma. Psychedelics have long been employed by traditional healers to promote physical and mental recovery. The US Food and Drug Administration recently granted MDMA and psilocybin Breakthrough Therapy designation to accelerate study of their efficacy in psychiatric disorders while ketamine clinics multiply apace.

Bonding is the intense feeling a mother has for her baby in utero and after birth.  IT is the “glue” that creates the strong mammalian instinct to protect and care for her young.  

All mammals bond with their young and the babies then form attachment to their mothers.  Bonding and attachment are crucial to survival. Trust, sense of self, ability to relate to others, work with others, and enjoy life are the key aspects of bonding and attachment that can influence thriving in life.  

This thriving is both emotional and physiological.   In pregnancy and birth there can be bonding disruptions that influence the health of the mother and baby.  Post partum mood and anxiety disorders can result, colicky and inconsolable babies, babies with asthma, as well as children who are cold, distant, and abusive.  Later in life, we see adults who are unable to sustain healthy relationships in marriage, work, and social endeavors.

Being able to assess clients and patients can alert health professionals to bonding disruptions and enable them to refer to proper care.

In this workshop we will learn about pre and perinatal psychology and health, and focus on bonding, bonding disruptions, and bonding repair interventions.  We will examine conception, gestational, and birth imprints.

The Cradling ritual provides a way to view one's own prenatal and perinatal experience from the level of the body's memory.

In a safe space, with enough time for everything, it is possible to reframe these experiences of ours and give the body and soul the opportunity to experience this unique liminal time of birth differently. The key approach is kindness to ourselves, compassion and loving attention, which we may have lacked at the beginning of life. The workshop will include a hands-on demonstration with a mannequin who has already gone through her own Ritual of Cradling process.

For those interested, this will be followed by a deepening workshop for a small group of 10 people (19.00h - 21.00h) - The Ritual of Cradling - will bring a creative part, an initial meditation "The Way of Birth" followed by wrapping in a "birth sheet". All this with kind supportive live music. 

If you have a preliminary interest in this deepening workshop, please send us email: [email protected]. We will then send you additional information, including cost, and you can then make your decision.