Certification Training in the Peterson Method of Perinatal Counseling and Birth Hypnosis

CE units and Certification: Licensed practitioners complete a post test OR syllabus assignments for ce units. Syllabus assignments must be completed for certification.Continuing Education for 12 or 36 units is approved for counselors, psychotherapists, nurses, social workers and other professional licenses. *

Certification/Non-Certification Tracks: Participants may satisfactorily complete assignments for certification, or complete the entire program without assignments to inform their work, without certification.

For information on continuing education visit: Psychceu

Gayle Peterson, LCSW, PhD will teach her method and philosophy of childbirth preparation, based on 30 years of research and clinical experience.  Case examples will serve to illustrate assessment of birth-related anxiety, and introduce her method of prenatal counseling and body-centered hypnosis for mastering anxieties related to this transitional period in the family life cycle. The goal of this program is to reduce anxiety that targets a woman's individual concerns, promoting smoother labors (decrease in complications of labor) and increased self-esteem and confidence in birthing women.

Participants will learn to identify birth related issues in a woman's personal history and apply principles of visualization, hypnosis and counseling to improve both psychological and medical birth outcomes. Primary focus will be on the woman's needs and development in relationship to her developing identity as woman and mother. Family history, past childbirth, present family support, the woman's own birth experience and realistic preparation for giving birth will be addressed. Supporting a woman's development through the psychological and physical transition to motherhood will be the goal of this orientation.

Furthering our understanding of the whole woman as we support her growth and development through this pivotal life experience is integral to the philosophical direction of this training program.  Participants will learn about themselves, the family life cycle and cornerstones of psychological growth and development that can be harnessed within the ordinary miracle (and ordeal) that is childbirth.

The four-part model will include:

Prenatal Assessment Interview

to assess birth, childbirth, and childhood history to identify issues that can affect the childbirth process. Relationship with mother, father and general family relationships, past childbirth, the woman's own birth experience and realistic preparation for giving birth, may impact her readiness or trepidation, for labor. Participants will learn to identify birth related issues in a woman's personal history.

Body-Centered Hypnosis

to address specific issues related to the individual woman's assessment (above) to achieve a sense of mastery necessary for this transition. Participants will learn how to facilitate normal birth through hypnosis and visualization technique, which address the woman's fears in a realistic manner that decreases anxiety of this life transition.

Identification of Individual Coping Styles

for effective pain management in labor. Participants will learn to identify visual, auditory, and kinesthetic coping to augment a woman's natural ability and style for coping with pain in labor. This session increases the couples' ability to master anxiety related to managing pain through effective relating to one another, and forehand knowledge of the woman's natural response to pain.

Postpartum Interview

to assess and support family adjustment issues in the period immediately following birth, including reframing traumatic birth, and incorporating the phenomena of the birthing event into the fabric of a woman's identity.

Participants who successfully complete this training will be certified to offer pregnant women educational counseling in Dr. Peterson's  model of childbirth preparation. The Online/ DVD training format allows participants to remain in practice while participating in the course.

Participants will learn to assess and address women's needs on an individual basis to effectively decrease anxieties related to pregnancy and childbirth and promote normal delivery. In-depth training will prepare participants to offer counseling to pregnant women and their families for mastering anxieties related to this transitional period in the family life cycle.

Click here to view complete viewing of the first seminar of six in the program.

Who are childbirth professionals?

Childbirth professional are practitioners working with birthing women and their families. This includes mental health counselors specializing in pregnancy and childbirth, childbirth educators, childbirth assistants, doulas, nurses, midwives, physicians, and other healing arts practitioners.

What will you learn in this certification course?

• Introduction to a holistic model for prenatal care: research and clinical application for healing
• The Birth Counselor Interview: assessing potential for complication in birth
• Body-mind integration for pregnancy and childbirth: beliefs, feelings and body memory and their effect on birth outcome
• The experience of pain in birth: yielding to the creative process of birth and incorporating pain as a healthy aspect of labor
• Exploring and reframing cultural beliefs and attitudes towards women in the childbirth process: how do our cultural beliefs affect our adaptation to the birth process?
• Family as the bridge to motherhood: how does the current crisis of family affect our biology for birth?
• Uses of visualization and hypnosis in prenatal care: for high blood pressure, breech presentation, vaginal birth after cesarean, prematurity, etc.
• The Birth Visualization: teaching the birth journey through metaphor, imagery and vocal intonation; impact on the limbic system.
• Assessment and treatment of post traumatic stress following a history of perinatal loss in the previous or current generation

What do graduates of the Prenatal Counseling Training Program say?

 $1,295.  for entire training

Certification Training in Prenatal Counseling and Body-Centered Hypnosis for Childbirth- Click for more info.

_{To apply for a space in the program and fee schedule: click here}

NOTE: Group discounts are available for qualifying
participants who sign up together:

2-4 10% discount each ($1,166.)

5 or more 20% discount each ($1,036.)

Groups should send inquiry related to discounts directly to: gp@askdrgayle.com

* Continuing Education is approved for 36 units for the following professional licenses through www.psychceu.com
BRN -Board of Registered Nursing (#13620), BBS- California Board of Behavioral Science (#1540), NASW- National Association of Social Workers (#886382116 covers most states that require ce for social workers), FL - Florida Board of Clinical Social Work, Marriage and Family Therapy and Mental Health Counseling (BAP #753),NAADAC - The Association for Addiction Professionals (#478),NBCC- National Board for Certified Counselors (#6055),OH - Ohio Counselor, Social Work and Marriage and Family CPE (#RCST090402),TX- The Texas State Board of Examiners of Professional Counselors (#52526),The Texas Board of Social Work Examiners (#CS3473)