About Birth Integration Therapy

Your birth forms who you are.

With Birth Integration TherapyTM I support people of all ages in the process of integrating and healing their own birth experience as well as their earliest imprints from life in the womb.

This work is suited for babies, children, and families, as well as for adults, and for therapists who work with babies and want to discover more about their own early history.

New research in medicine and neurophysiology supports what therapists in the pre- and perinatal field already know: experiences before, during, and shortly after birth have a huge impact on how we see the world, how we act in it, and how we build our relationships. Since our brain builds connections at the fastest rate ever in these very special days and hours around our birth, everything we learn and encounter during this time leaves its mark in our being and personality.

The term Birth Integration TherapyTM emphasizes my unique way of utilizing the knowledge of pre- and perinatal psychology and therapy, while including craniosacral bodywork as well as my medical background and intuitive understanding of birth in the sessions.

This work embraces different layers, which I will use according to your wish and need.

Birth Integration TherapyTM:

  • Supports you in integrating, making sense of, and healing your own birth story.
  • Supports you and your baby, your child, and your family in integrating and healing what happened at the birth of your child – both in order to support you and your child, and in order to help you prepare for a new pregnancy, a new baby, and a new birth.
  • Helps you and your child to integrate and heal the early imprints from prenatal challenges. With other pioneers in the pre- and perinatal field, Ray Castellino and William Emerson found evidence that certain stages during the birth process reiterate stages from early pregnancy, such as conception, implantation, and discovery. By mirroring and reflecting what happened in pregnancy, birth itself is an integral process. Birth Integration Therapy considers the whole journey, from preconception to birth and beyond.
  • Helps you to prepare for birth in a way that it is not only the birth experience you wish for, but also an integrating experience and a wonderful start into life for your baby.
  • Builds a foundation for welcoming babies in a new way.
  • Supports your family in the process of healthy bonding and attachment.
  • Supports you in creating and maintaining healthy relationships.
This field of Birth Integration Therapy provides a huge opportunity for preventive healthcare as well. By teaching what we already know about babies, pregnancy, and birth, and by accompanying people through their journey toward conception, pregnancy, and birth, we can help the next generation to have a more gentle and loving, even sacred start into life. Each child brings a special gift for his or her family and the world. We as the parents and adults can make a difference by welcoming children in a way that allows them to remember who they are, to blossom, and to unfold their talents.

“Implantation” refers to the process of the only a few days old embryo, finding a nurturing place in the uterus, and connecting itself to the uterus wall.

“Discovery” represents the time when the parents find out about the pregnancy, including all of their feelings and thoughts.

“Natal” has its origin in the Latin word “natalis”, which means “around birth”. The Latin “prae” means “before” , the Greek word “peri” means “around, at, or during”.

These roots explain the meaning of these common words in obstetrics: “prenatal” describes the time period before birth. “Perinatal” relates to the time period at and around birth.

Birth Integration TherapyTM with babies and children

Babies and small children are still very close to their experience of birth. The transition from living inside the womb to the life outside, as an independent being, is the biggest adventure your child will encounter, next to the probably even bigger change at conception, the transitional journey from spirit into matter.

Even a wonderful, intervention-free birth is full of challenges for the baby: There is the experience of pressure from the contractions. Your baby also has to negotiate a very small and dark pathway. Because of the way mom’s pelvis and the baby’s head are shaped, humans are the only mammals who have to turn their head and body on the way out. This can be disorienting. And there might be periods of time when the oxygen gets low. On top of it is also all the adaptive work your baby has to do: coming from water to air, having to breathe by herself and to eat and digest, to deal with louder noises, brighter light, and gravity…

The adventure becomes even more challenging when interventions are involved. Each intervention – from medication up to vacuum suction or c-section birth – has its own specific impact on the baby, on mom, and on the whole family.

Our babies are mastering all of these transitions – and they need support from their parents, and sometimes from a therapist, to integrate it all and to fully enjoy their lives outside the womb.

First of all they want to tell us about their journey and want to share their adventure with us. Since newborns don’t speak our language yet, they communicate with body movements, facial expressions, and their voice, even with crying.

Like us, babies want to share what happened until somebody understands and acknowledges what they experienced and how they felt during it!

Sometimes providing a safe, empathic, and compassionate environment for the family is all that is needed. The baby can tell his or her story and will be truly understood – partly “translated” into adult language by the therapist – and a crying, sleepless baby becomes a happy and content one rather quickly.

Sometimes more work is necessary. For example, for a baby born by c-section, it might become essential to explore and express the body movements that happen during a natural birth, or to play with gravity in order to integrate the birth.

With babies and small children I can facilitate these movements with my hands. I also include you as the parents in supporting your baby during this process of re-creating and re-patterning the birth.

Older children can use additional material during the session, such as toys, cushions, mattresses, and so on, to express themselves and to be involved in birth games in order to integrate and heal their early experiences.

I usually include elements from Craniosacral Therapy in the session.

  • First, because our early imprints are stored in our body memory, it makes sense to use a gentle body work to integrate birth experiences.
  • Second, body symptoms, such as an imbalance in the alignment of the spine, or one-sided postures and movement patterns, are often related to or caused by the birth process. While including craniosacral work in the session, I can not only help to integrate the early imprints, but facilitate a new body alignment as well.
  • And third, Craniosacral Therapy provides a new, healthy balance for the autonomic nervous system, which is an important resource in dealing with challenging or traumatic experiences.

Children who have healed and integrated their first adventure are free to move on, to use their strength for exploring the world and expressing themselves. Without integration, children have to spend a lot of their time and energy to deal with these imprints, which might keep them from staying as healthy as possible or using their potential to the fullest.

Testimonials:“I learned so much, for myself, for my relationship, my profession, my family, my soul. Your work is wonderful, a pleasure, a blessing! It enriches my life.”
Ursula Walke, HP, Osteopath, Nürnberg, Germany“Thanks for this life-changing experience! I discovered – and still do – so many new layers of my being, feeling, thinking… And I learned to finally listen to my intuition. What a gift! Thank you so much!”
Angela Kloss, Physiotherapist, Craniosacral Therapist, Cuxhaven, Germany, web: stillpunkt.eu

“Life is wonderful! Thanks again for your magical guidance! I am finally experiencing myself fully arrived in my true life! And I am carrying a deep smile inside me, as my treasure and little sanctuary.”
Elke Overbeck, HP, Craniosacral Therapist, Berlin, Germany, web: elke-overbeck.de

Birth Integration TherapyTM with adults

As an even earlier step in the field of Birth Integration Therapy, I support parents-to-be in their journey toward conception and pregnancy, and in their preparation for birth.

According to your wish and intention, these sessions can include education as well as body work to help you to be as healthy and balanced as possible before or during pregnancy. It can also include work to heal your own early imprints, or sessions to support your healing from a miscarriage or from a traumatic birth experience with your first children. Integrating what happened back then helps you to experience the new pregnancy in a fresh and joyful way. And it prepares you for a different birth experience, without interference from previous traumas.

In addition, I use elements from the craniosacral work. During pregnancy this can not only alleviate pregnancy related problems, but supports mom and dad to form a bonding and loving relationship with their unborn baby from the beginning.

Communication with your baby is a major key in helping him or her to overcome all challenges during pregnancy and birth, and afterwards. Birth Integration Therapy can strengthen your contact and your ability to communicate with your baby – an important condition to achieve a wonderful birth for you and your baby.

Another part of my Birth Integration work with adults is supporting their journey of integrating early imprints as a powerful tool for personal growth and healing.

The preverbal recollections from birth and our life in the womb are stored in our body memory. From there they influence our behavior. Integrating these recollections from our cell memory into our conscious experience starts a deep and profound transformational process. By healing early traumas you will feel the connection to your inner core life force again. You will be able to create more options for your current behavior and for being in a relationship. The deep connection with your origin becomes a source of strength in your everyday life.

Since it is more effective, I usually offer this particular work for adults in small group settings with 5 to 7 people in a four day workshop. Private sessions are also available.

This work is very beneficial for health practitioners as well. Knowing your own birth story helps you to support and understand the babies you work with better. In addition, you will get new insights into adult clients by knowing more about the influence of early imprints.

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