Healing with Children is my jam! I have had the honour of learning with children for my entire professional career and my own children and parenting journey has been entangled in all of my breaking and healing processes- children are the best teachers for the journey.
My main areas of strength in educational research and practice were in addressing learning difficulties, honouring the wisdom of children and childhood. I have both a Post-Graduate Diploma in Education and a Masters in Education which focus on a range of areas related to my work now. I have worked in diverse roles in Inclusive Education and have deep respect and experience working with diverse families and children experiencing challenges that force them outside of the usual rites of passage of development and parenthood. This is a space to honour your expertise and I hope it offers the holistic support that is so frequently missing from our systems and the medical model. I respect all the perspectives and knowledge we gain from many different professionals when advocating for our child and navigating life with and for them. What I have seen far too often on that journey for all families is isolation and the concentration on what isn’t working. Unalome Therapy Dunedin is for families that seek some respite from that experience; Spinal Flow and holistic models celebrate what is working, even if that is small, that is where we start.
Spinal Flow is appropriate for babies, children and teens. Spinal flow is completely safe; it is as dangerous as deeply relaxing. Many benefits have been described by parents of children with a wide variety of diagnosis and challenges. Children may not require long sessions and for some tamariki with complex needs a little may be enough, this is also true for babies. To ensure no child or parent feels pressure to engage and comply with the session in any particular way (that is the opposite of healing) all children are treated free of charge when their parent is treated. We can adjust to the pace your child needs and in the meantime they receive the benefits via a relaxed care-giver.
Parents caring for children, especially those with additional needs must be healed for their child to heal or unhealthy patterns from exhaustion just keep everyone stuck. For this reason children and babies must be treated with a parent or caregiver. These joint sessions can be very bonding and can be particularly helpful following a difficult or traumatic birth (or other) experiences.
Healing in healthy relationship is how humans are wired to heal!
Unalome therapy has a small table that can be used for children and both a parent and child can receive spinal flow at the same time; actually it is a bit magic because your nervous systems work together and body movements can synchronise. Nothing is more beautiful to me!
Healing with children has both benefits and challenges; parents can model self-care and trusting the process to their children. Children make it all worth it and are amazing healers. The challenge, which is the ride of parenting is meeting everyones needs, finding ways to support parents and children with after effects and to make the changes to integrate healing insights into your life is a creative and empowering process and it has its low points. Another support person can come along to help with the session and we can plan and adapt as we go to make any accomodation that your family have learnt works best. A family journey takes a slightly different form and your expertise and experience is deeply valued.