Parent Coaching
Parent coaching for parents, caregivers and their children of all ages using a blend of neuroaffirming, nervous system-informed psycho-education along with somatic co-regulation practices that are developmental and relational
I can tell you that it takes great strength to surrender. You have to know that you are not going to collapse. Instead, you are going to open to a power that you don’t even know, and it is going to come to meet you. - Marion Woodman
What makes M-Bodied Parent Coaching unique?
We often say "our first opponent is our parent.” These kids aren’t bad or problem children, they are full of energy, charges, sensations, their unique life force! Parents, caregivers and elders, get to know in an experiential way how to better “catch, channel and guide.”
M-Bodied Parenting helps both the developmental dances of connection as well as developmental dances of separation, sometimes presenting as oppositional behavior. M-Bodied® Parent Coaching, a synthesis of many evidence-based trauma-informed and attachment-based approaches, integrates attachment theory, early developmental infant/parent dynamics that extend into later developmental stages, nervous system science, and relational somatic movement practices.
When early developmental rhythms are disrupted or inhibited, causing concerning "behavior" or symptomatic issues later, M-Bodied Coaching helps parents to somatically experience what their child needs in an effort for the parents to embody the necessary co-regulation to the child.
Multi-generational patterning, what our body, brain and bones know, often sets the course for how the next generation is guided. M-Bodied Coaching offers "relational somatic redos" for parents/elders/caregivers allowing more ideal support and co-regulation that benefits the whole family.
It's important for the parents to embody the "challenge" being supported, to re-experience the "ideal" in a relational way with a trained helper, to support the parents to become the "holding environment" that is present for their children through inevitable and healthy pushes and pulls (these can be either developmental and/or laced with trauma response).
Parents get to learn both psycho-ed from an intellectualized way as well as, and more importantly, an embodied experience of support in their core. M-Bodied Coaching supports a deeply embodied shift, rather than having to think through “steps.” This helps to normalize and and better move through the predictable messiness in the long road of parenting and family journeys.
Who Benefits from Parent Coaching?
Parents & their children of all ages: Babies, toddlers, kids, tweens, teens & adult children
Areas of support:
Clingy, fussy baby
Attachment concerns
Sleep issues
Toddler or teen tantrums
Focus problems
Neurodivergence
Oppositional or defiant behavior
Disordered eating and self harm
Chronic family tension
Addiction or substance use
Parent depression, anxiety, rage
M-Bodied guides parents and caregivers how to:
better recognize nervous system, developmental, and trauma responses
appreciate attachment as a relational practice
feel equipped to offer co-regulation to children
celebrate the unique energy and self expression of their children
For more about Parent Coaching throughout various parenting stages and journeys, see more below:
Motherhood: Birthing Yourself
The Perinatal Time Period: Before and after having a baby can be a whirlwind. So, how do you nourish yourself while nourishing others? How do you tend to that part of you that needs just as much attention as other loved ones in your family when growing your family?
Whether you are a parent-to-be (biological or adoptive), are experiencing baby loss, are trying to conceive or adopt, or are a parent with a colicky baby (plus toddler!), therapy can be a part of your support system.
From the anticipation of family planning and pregnancy and post-birth “baby blues,” to possible anxiety/depression, to physical recovery, and the list goes on—they all need support and tender care through psychotherapy, social support and sometimes other resources—and this applies to all parents or caregivers, biological or adoptive, regardless of sex or gender.
M-Bodied’s Caroline Gebhardt has experience and training in the perinatal period and perinatal loss/grief from Postpartum Support International (PSI). M-Bodied offers various techniques to find body-based presence and energy as well as cognitive approaches to help support your journey with yourself and with your loved ones. To learn more about M-Bodied’s cognitive and somatic healing modalities, read here.
You might have heard term “Good Enough Mother.” And you might have wondered, “am I good enough?” Or, you might have wondered why all the fuss about the mother? While pediatrician and psychoanalyst Winnicott coined the phrase “Good Enough Mother,” the word mother can be interpreted as primary caregiver(s). When M-Bodied Therapy references “Mother”, the “mothering quality of oxytocin” is the emphasized, which plays a major role in signaling safety within our Social Engagement system functioning as related to nervous system science. Therefore, those who identify as female, male, or non-binary may offer and embody that “Mother” quality.
Toddlers to Teens: Messiness, Mismatch, Tantrums and Ruptures
Toddlers and teens leaving you a little lost or frustrated? Do you say go left, but they only want to go right? Is their favorite word NO, or are their chronic eye-rolls triggering your own backlash or retreat? Or, perhaps there are explosions everyday along with defiant behavior, constant opposition and a general lack of disconnection or even fear for their well-being.
When we become aware of the significance of attachment, nervous system responses and relational, body-based practices, we can more clearly see the importance of celebrating and honoring each unique individual that makes up the family system. We can also become more capable of celebrating and honoring the ruptures, friction and messiness that inevitably happen!
Understanding the practice of attachment and how co-regulation supports healthy brain and self development also helps families to learn and integrate body-based techniques that help them to consciously move-through-the-messy. The mismatches, messiness, tantrums and ruptures that often arise from toddlerhood through the teenage years help children to differentiate and become their own unique selves over time. These messy relational challenges are also where the richness and potential for deeper connection, healing and individuation reside.
For more information on the developmental rhythms underlying what might present as opposition, check out this blog post: https://www.mbodiedtherapy.com/blog/fightingrhythmsdevelopmentalrelational
Family Coaching: Many Hands Make Light Work
Families come in all shapes and sizes, and like individuals, have their own strengths and areas that need support. Sometimes these show up as communication problems, chronic bickering, boundary issues, behavioral problems, eating disorders or substance abuse, school or learning challenges, job transitions, grief and loss, to name a few. Or, sometimes it might seem like there’s one person with the problem.
Inviting all members of the family into coaching can help shine light on areas that could use attention for the benefit of everyone, hence the saying many hands make light work. While all members are asked to be courageous, to invest in the healing process, the process of reconnecting together offers deep emotional nourishment and practical take-home skills to use at home.
While M-Bodied family coaching includes “talking-it-out,” adding body-based co-regulation practices offers a way to connect and heal that goes beyond words:
Psycho-education: Body awareness for self reflection, nervous system awareness, and the possibility for an expanded quality of regulation and Social Engagement System functioning for the whole family
Somatic practices for skillful communication, clearly defined roles, creative problem solving, boundary setting, and healthy connection
M-Bodied Coaching offers specific Chi for Two® relational practices designed to help rewire the deep nourishment involved in the early relational life—the important first tastes of connection: match and mismatch—with our primary caregivers. These body-based practices and symbolic redos help to shift nervous system functioning, and therein physiological and developmental functioning, to help reclaim deeper hungers, rebuild connection, and re-pattern healthy embodiment from the inside-out.
You Can’t Pour from an Empty Cup: Modern Parenthood and Feeding Yourself
Parenthood has a special way of handing over that bundle of joy with no instructions (except for the dusty, barely-opened pile of parenting books on your nightstand) and then dimming the lights to your own hungers, hobbies and hopes.
You might feel stretched thin, guilty for this or that, or like you don’t fit in with the other parents, or you wish you had more friends at this stage in life. Perhaps you’re wondering how not to let motherhood devour you but how to rediscover your deeper hungers and reconnect with your family. M-Bodied Coaching offers a way to bite into the richness of life, to healthily digest the ebb and flow of parenthood’s cycles, and to live in your body with satisfaction and energy. Relational coaching may be the safe, soft place to land to feed yourself.