Prenatal and Perinatal Somatics
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The term "prenatal and perinatal somatics" was coined by Ray Castellino, DC (retired), BCST, RPP, creator of the Castellino Training Corporation and the Castellino Foundation Training. His training of practitioners developed out of his years in training with William Emerson, Franklyn Sills, and Anna Chitty. Over many years of working together, the pioneers in the field of prenatal and perinatal (PPN) study captured the essence of human development in our bodies starting preconception. They also were able to name the layers of our human experience as we come into form, including preconception, conception, prenatal life, birth and after birth. Prenatal and perinatal somatics combines earliest experience, the study of energy medicine, somatic trauma awareness and healing, and bodywork approaches.
Ray used to say that prenatal and perinatal experiences are somatic, implicit memories in our bodies. This past decade has seen the acceptance of these implicit, bodily felt memories. Therapies and medical approaches now include our earliest experiences. |
Ray Castellino
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We work with layers of experience. Within each of our earliest layers there may be more layers and sequences that are coupled together. Prenatal and Perinatal Somatics practitioners are able to discern the layers and experiences within them, and help adults slowly integrate them. We work with Ray Castellino's Form, and ask each adults what their intention is, what they want for themselves. Often these patterns that want to integrate are relentless. The person seeking integration has been to other therapies that don't seem to touch it. This approach is touch, movement, and sensation based, a bottom-up approach that adults can begin to put words to, understand and feel more whole.
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The study and practice of PPN Somatics includes learning to recognize challenges in earliest development. The skills include:
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In an effort to answer so many questions about prenatal and perinatal somatics, I created a Patreon site filled with blogs, vlogs, podcasts and more. These posts listed the skills and process for learning PPN somatics:
Exploring Your Early Layers
I stand on the shoulders of many who come before me. My principles influences are Ray Castellino and John and Anna Chitty, but I have grown from relationships with all these master instructors, and my midwife partner, Lois Trezise.
Acknowledging the Lineage
Healing from earliest trauma is a journey of exploration, discovery and deep process because it is a forage into implicit, somatic memories often with little cognitive story. Each step is a felt-sense experience because our memories lie in our bodies and happen before language comes online. Memories are there from our early childhood, family dynamic, adolescence and adulthood, too. If we have a map and a facilitator, we can traverse the earliest territory with relative ease. Even still, it may be hard work for a traveler in those lands, as each layer may have a survival feeling based on the conditions of the time.
We have learned to recognize the early layers through years of working with adults, starting with Otto Rank in 1929 with his slim book, The Trauma of Birth. It is my hope that texts like this one will help the enthusiastic traveler in healing find their way in a thoughtful and more expedient manner. I have been working hard to understand the layers of earliest experiences since 1999, when a client in my craniosacral practice remembered her birth on my bodywork table. She said she felt the trauma from her birth created her lifelong depression, and she wanted to heal it. I did not know that people could remember their births, and so began my own journey to understand what happens for us as babies, and how the memories of what happened (or didn't happen) could still be impacting us as adults.
We have learned to recognize the early layers through years of working with adults, starting with Otto Rank in 1929 with his slim book, The Trauma of Birth. It is my hope that texts like this one will help the enthusiastic traveler in healing find their way in a thoughtful and more expedient manner. I have been working hard to understand the layers of earliest experiences since 1999, when a client in my craniosacral practice remembered her birth on my bodywork table. She said she felt the trauma from her birth created her lifelong depression, and she wanted to heal it. I did not know that people could remember their births, and so began my own journey to understand what happens for us as babies, and how the memories of what happened (or didn't happen) could still be impacting us as adults.
We now accept that experiences during the prenatal and perinatal period lay down a template for patterns of behavior, understanding, perception, and worldview because of our deeper understanding of trauma and its lasting impact unless it is healed. Having been a practitioner of prenatal and perinatal somatics for over 25 years, I have benefited from therapeutic discoveries such trauma-informed care, epigenetics, polyvagal theory, social neuroscience, fetal brain research, attachment and so much more (see Supporting Families to Integrate Their Birth Experiences) . Our soft and hard sciences make it clear that trauma impacts our bodies and therefore our minds starting preconception.
Healing the early layers is a somatic practice because we seek to integrate early implicit memories that are still alive in our bodies. I deliberately use the work "healing." In his book, The Myth of Normal, Gabor Mate says writes about how healing is about returning to our natural state, what we in prenatal and perinatal somatics call "The Blueprint." Our natural state is one that is in balance, coherent, connected and feeling whole. Gabor Mate writes, " . . .once we resolve to see clearly how things are, the process of healing--a word that, at is root, means 'returning to wholeness'--can begin" (p.11). So, I am going to help you see "clearly how things are" with stories, tools, maps, and processes, and a lot of encouragement to do your own exploration, discovery and healing so you can feel a return to wholeness. That is your birthright. That is the birthright, the human-right of us all.
