What is Birth Story Medicine®?
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Birth Story Medicine®, also referred to as Birth Story Listening®, is a medicine brought to us by Pam England, author of Birthing From Within. Birth Story Medicine® offers a unique, safe space to share your story and the impact it still has on you now. Birth is an extraordinary event in our lives, and it can bring up a lot of emotions and changes. Regardless of the outcome, birth may bring out some emotions that are difficult and/or challenging. Birth Story Medicine® sessions create an opportunity for you, the storyteller, to review the birth experience with no one judging, patronizing or coddling you. This holistic process uses thoughtful questions, validation and solution-focused dialogue to help the storyteller rediscover truths and answers about themselves and help them find some healing and peace. After a Birth Story Medicine® session, storytellers leave with new insights and uncovered beliefs, along with newfound self-confidence and love that can radiate into their lives.
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"If we break a bowl or cup, we might try to repair it with invisible glue in hopes that the cracks won't show and it'll look like new - or we might discard it altogether. There's another possible approach, though, as represented by the traditional Japanese art of "kintsugi." In kintsugi, a skilled craftsperson repairs damaged pottery with gold or silver lacquer so that the cracks are not only visible, but actually serve to enhance the object, rendering it more beautiful, unique, and precious than it had been before the damage occurred. In this way, kintsugi becomes a metaphor for living by showing us how to mindfully pick up the pieces and embrace our brokenness." (From the Birthing From Within Website)
Events in birth can sometimes bring feelings of brokenness, perhaps to your expectations, dreams, relationships, etc. In the Japanese art of Kintsugi, cracks in broken pottery are filled in with gold, which shows the added value and appreciation for the repair and history. Similarly, Birth Story Medicine® creates a space for you to recognize and pick up those pieces. This process can help you find the value and appreciation for your history and the path you're taking to rebuild.
What are sessions like?
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When you feel you are open to inviting a shift in perspective or self-growth from a difficult birth, you may be ready for a Birth Story Medicine® session. Trained and approved by Pam England, Allison offers private one-on-one sessions with anyone who has witnessed birth, whether you are a parent or birth professional. Using her background as a birth and postpartum doula, Allison works with you to help bring you new insights and perspectives by using a guided, natural flow of solution-focused dialogue.
As this is a different setting than ever before for sharing your birth story, the safe space you will be in is full of new discoveries, insights, and answers. Our sessions may be held in-person, or via phone or video chat, and each session is about 60 minutes. In our time together you can hope to come away with a shift in how you feel about your birth or the birth in which you witnessed. |
Working with Allison looks like:
Is a birth story, perhaps your own or one you witnessed, not sitting well with you? Is this story difficult for you? Are you affected by this today and would like to find a shift in how it affects you? Birth Story Medicine® brings you a safe space to tell your story in a way you probably haven't told it before. You and Allison gather in a private space for a session, where you gently dive into your story. Allison brings a calm, empathetic ear, along with solution-focused dialogue that helps you find the shift you are seeking.
Booking a Birth Story Medicine® Session
You have the power to heal and find the answers within you. If you feel ready for your Birth Story Medicine® session, Allison is here to facilitate the space and conversation for you to be able to discover those answers and power.
Some criteria:
1. You are a parent, birth worker, or anyone who has witnessed or experienced a birth.
2. You are willing to look at the birth story from a new perspective and be guided in a process that will invite you to learn more about yourself.
3. You will secure childcare for our time together (about 60 mins) so that you may focus 100%. Face-to-face is ideal, but sessions can be done by phone or video as well - so if you are far away, that's okay.
1. You are a parent, birth worker, or anyone who has witnessed or experienced a birth.
2. You are willing to look at the birth story from a new perspective and be guided in a process that will invite you to learn more about yourself.
3. You will secure childcare for our time together (about 60 mins) so that you may focus 100%. Face-to-face is ideal, but sessions can be done by phone or video as well - so if you are far away, that's okay.
Still not sure what Birth Story Medicine® is? Check out this video that explains in a different way:
https://animoto.com/play/RVG7V0XIaP0ZmOp3BeFlkA
https://animoto.com/play/RVG7V0XIaP0ZmOp3BeFlkA
Click this picture to go read the blog post I wrote on what it means to have an empowering birth story.
Resources:
Birth Trauma Support | Become a Certified Birth Story Listener. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://birthingfromwithin.com/birth-story-listening/
Birth Trauma Support | Become a Certified Birth Story Listener. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://birthingfromwithin.com/birth-story-listening/