Elmer Postle will lead a seminar on:

Birth, Bonding and Attachment: Relating to Babies as Sentient Beings

You can book this as a single seminar here through the ‘book online’ link above. Seminars must be attended live on the day. To avail of the recording and full ‘Attachment & Children’ certificate or diploma course benefits and to find out more, click here: https://international-attachment-network.mn.co/

Abstract:

We join life in relationship at every level, growing inside the body of a woman, our mother. She is in relationship with others; our father, partner, family, work and the environment. As infants navigate the conditions encountered at birth, in the first 1000 days of life, there is a tremendous opportunity set by physiology, psychology and spirituality to support bonding and attachment. How this happens, how surroundings, people and environment relate coincides with key decisions made by the infant about the possibility and safety of relationship. Considering infants as sentient facilitates choices that enhance bonding and attachment as well as enables a healing dialogue that includes the earliest experiences.

The following questions are discussed:

To understand and appreciate:

• Ways in which the infant in the womb, newborn and baby are sentient.
• How breaks in bonding and separation between infants and their carers may happen and can take place in a systematic way in the conditions of almost universal mechanistic childbirth.
• How ‘separation’ as a convincing experience early in life informs cycles of disrupted bonding and attachment later in life.
• The kind of language used by babies to communicate needs, wants and desires.
• The way the pace of the ‘rhythm of relationship’ between babies and carers can be optimized for the healing of disrupted bonding and attachment.

To explore and discover:

• How the contemplation of the sentience of infants impacts the students own reflections on their early life.
• How the contemplation of the sentience of infants impacts behaviour towards babies and the process of birth in the experience of the student.
• Ways in which the contemplation of the sentience of infants is a first step to creating a healing environment for early wounds of attachment and bonding at any stage in life.

About

Elmer lives in West London, UK with his wife and son. He has a Biodynamic Craniosacral practice where he works with families to heal bonding and attachment issues. He has studied extensively in birth psychology and physiology and has diplomas in: Prenatal and Birth Therapy with Raymond Castellino (1999), Source Process and Breathwork with Binnie A Dansby (2006) as well as Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapy with Katherine Ukleja at the Craniosacral Therapy Educational Trust (2012).

Elmer has worked with the mythopoetic mens movement who teachers include the late poet Robert Bly, mythologist Michael Meade as well as the Jungian analyst James Hillman. He has studied Dagara indigenous cosmology with Sobonfu Some and Malidoma Some and trauma oriented therapies with leading international teachers. He directed the documentary film ‘The Healing of Birth’ (2005) and co-led ‘Healthy Birth, Healthy Earth’, a week-long international conference featuring a world-leading line-up of birth educators at the Findhorn Foundation, Scotland in 2016. Elmer co-led ‘Our First 1000 Days: An Applied Diploma in Pre and Perinatal Psychology’ at the NAOS Institute, London, 2018-2020 and in 2021 an online conference on the impact of Covid 19 on trauma informed care in the maternity field.

He publishes recordings with leading teachers in spirituality, psychology, Craniosacral Therapy, trauma Healing, birth psychology and physiology. Elmer has also worked in television as a cameraman, editor and independent film-maker and combines therapy and film worlds whenever possible.