Sensitivity Training during Pregnancy: Key to Bonding and Possible Prevention of Neurosis of the Child?

Authors

  • Christa D. Ventling

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.30820/0743-4804-2007-17-81

Keywords:

Pregnant clients, sensitivity training, awareness exercises, newborn signals and body language, bonding quality

Abstract

The prime importance of the quality of mother-child bonding has been known for many years among psychotherapists; however, this is not common knowledge for most mothers-to-be. Thus a pregnant client is a chance and a challenge for a body psychotherapist: 1.We can assist the mother-to-be to form a deep bonding with the baby before birth already by educating her about the neurobiological changes occurring during pregnancy and the expected degree of development of the infant at birth. 2. We can offer special awareness exercises (described here in detail) which improve perception of all senses (seeing, hearing, touching and smelling) and thus sharpen the mother-to-be’s sensitivity for her environment, especially for the signals the baby will send out. The work described here aims to help the pregnant client to tune into the body language of the baby as a prerequisite for a deep and loving bonding. It could also be a preventive measure for a later neurosis of the child. Two short case vignettes will illustrate the approach.

Author Biography

Christa D. Ventling

Christa D. Ventling is a clinical psychologist (Lic.phil.), a certified bioenergetic therapist (CBT 1995), a member of the teaching faculty and supervisor of the Swiss Society for Bioenergetic Analysis and Therapy (SGBAT), presently working in private practice in Basel. Prior to becoming a bioenergetic psychotherapist, she had been engaged for over 25 years in various medical-biological research projects, following her original studies of chemistry and biochemistry (DPhil Oxford University). Her interest in research has continued and includes two major studies on the efficacy of BAT as well as several single case studies notably of chronic or incurable diseases. For her investigation on the efficacy of BAT in 2002 she received the First Prize for the best research awarded by the US Association for Body Psychotherapy (usabp). She is editor/author of »Childhood Psychotherapy: A Bioenergetic Approach« and of »Body Psychotherapy in Progressive and Chronic Disorders«, published in 2001 resp. 2002 by Karger, Basel.
081-103 36149

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How to Cite

Ventling, C. D. (2022). Sensitivity Training during Pregnancy: Key to Bonding and Possible Prevention of Neurosis of the Child?. Bioenergetic Analysis, 17(1), 81–103. https://doi.org/10.30820/0743-4804-2007-17-81

Issue

Vol. 17 No. 1 (2007)

Section

Articles

License

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0). This license allows private use and unmodified distribution, but prohibits editing and commercial use (further information can be found at: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). The terms of the Creative Commons licence only apply to the original material. The reuse of material from other sources (marked with a reference) such as charts, illustrations, photos and text extracts may require further permission for use from the respective copyrights holder.