Prenatal and perinatal body psychotherapy

Domain IV · Body-oriented psychotherapy · Ray Castellino, William Emerson, Thomas Verny · 1981

What it is

Prenatal and perinatal (PPN) body psychotherapy is a field and training tradition, not one manualised therapy. Verny founded the Pre- and Peri-natal Psychology Association of North America in 1983 (now APPPAH) and argued in The Secret Life of the Unborn Child (Verny & Kelly, 1981) that the fetus…

Format

• Format: parents and baby (often siblings too) attend together. Sessions open with the Principles. The practitioner may watch the family for a long stretch before intervening; one reported example is about half an hour of observed play before a single suggestion.
• Moving on: only when the system is settled. Startle, withdrawal or dissociation in the baby means slow down or stop (White 2013).

Who practises it, and how they are trained or regulated

• What it is. Prenatal and perinatal (PPN) body psychotherapy is a field and training tradition, not one manualised therapy. Verny founded the Pre- and Peri-natal Psychology Association of North America in 1983 (now APPPAH) and argued in The Secret Life of the Unborn Child (Verny & Kelly, 1981) that the fetus perceives and reacts, and that pregnancy and birth shape later character. Chamberlain collected reported birth…
• How change is thought to happen (the school's own theory). Practitioners hold that overwhelming experiences from preconception, pregnancy, birth and the first days leave "imprints": patterns in posture, gesture, autonomic state, relationships and belief. They are said to show up in the body (a baby's gestures, crying and movement; an adult's felt sense, posture and metaphor). Change comes from meeting these patterns…
• Scope warning. Use these methods only as an adjunct to standard assessment and evidence-based care. Never present them as treatment for physical disease, or for feeding, sleep or growth problems that have not been medically assessed. Touch-based work needs specific training, supervision and a check of what your licence and jurisdiction allow. Colorado and North Carolina outlaw birth re-enactment that uses restraint…

Questions to explore with your client

• What drew you to it, and what are you hoping it will change?
• Is there physical contact? Was it explained beforehand, and do you feel free to say no or stop at any point?
• Does it involve any substance, plant preparation, remedy or supplement? Has your doctor or prescriber been told, especially about any medication you take?
• Does it involve intense or unusual breathing? Have you been told about the medical conditions for which that is not advised?
• Does it involve fasting, a special diet or 'detox'? Have you discussed this with your doctor?
• Who runs it, and what training or registration do they hold?
• What actually happens in a session or meeting, and how often?
• What does it cost, and is there pressure to commit to more?
• How do you feel afterwards, in the hours and days that follow?
• Does it fit with, or clash with, the work we do here?

What practitioners of it watch for

• a mother who resists help, and signs of postnatal depression or risk.
• turning away, tensing, crying, spitting up or pushing away mean stop.
• softer faces and a calmer baby. Long fixed gazes that raise tension mean shorten them.
• parents pushing a child to "complete" an exercise means re-teach the boundaries principle.
• startle, stiffening or crying at contact or at withdrawal mean you went too fast. Go back a step.

When to involve someone else

• New or worsening physical symptoms, or advice to stop or change prescribed medication: involve the client's doctor or prescriber.
• Signs of coercion, isolation from family and friends, escalating costs or secrecy: discuss openly and consider safeguarding.
• A crisis or thoughts of suicide: follow your crisis protocol. In the US, call or text 988; in the UK and Ireland, Samaritans on 116 123.

Drawn automatically from the guide's own sections. Stay curious: neither endorse nor dismiss what the client values, and check anything that matters against the full guide and its sources. Not medical advice.