Somatic Maternal Healing

Somatic Maternal Healing introduces a cutting-edge understanding of the body into the growing field of perinatal mental health. Chapters lay out a complete trauma treatment model for maternal mental health, integrating psychodynamic and somatic clinical techniques within a systemic perspective. The book applies a biopsychosocial conceptualization of mental health in the perinatal period with a special emphasis on trauma and somatic trauma treatment. Somatic Maternal Healing is for anyone working clinically with mothers and new families, specifically therapists, clinical social workers, psychologists, psychoanalysts, psychiatrists, researchers, academics, clinical educators, and graduate students and trainees within these fields.

Helena Vissing, PsyD, SEP, PMH-C, is a licensed psychologist and Somatic Experiencing® practitioner based in Northern California. She is certified in perinatal mental health and specializes in trauma treatment and psychodynamic psychotherapy.

Introduction: Why We Need Maternal Healing that Includes Self, Body, and Society Part I: Introduction to Part 1: Overview of Trauma in the Perinatal Period 1. The Question of Embodied Maternal Subjectivity: How Feminist Psychoanalysis Informs Clinical Work with Mothers 2. Understanding Trauma in Light of the Biological Changes of Motherhood 3. Resisting Patriarchal Motherhood: From Maternal Bodylessness to Maternal Bodyfulness 4. Rationale and Principles of Somatic Maternal Healing Part II: Introduction to Part II: Principles, Treatment Goals, and Key Clinical Skills of Maternal Somatic Healing 5. Working Somatically in the Perinatal Transferential Field 6. Maternal Bodyfulness: Working with Perinatal Sensory Awareness and Vocabulary 7. Expansion and Integration: Trauma Release During the Perinatal Period 8. Making Maternal Healing Whole with Clinical Creativity and Biopsychosocial Somatic Treatment Planning