Sacred Window Podcast: Nurturing Awareness in Postpartum Care Sacred Window Podcast

Welcome to the Sacred Window Podcast. I'm Christine Eck and I'm excited to be joined today by Jennifer Summerfeldt to discuss her unique approach to mapping out a mother's healing journey. Jennifer is the founder of Ask Therapy and author of Healing After Birth.

Jennifer's own birthing experiences ignited her passion for supporting mothers in their journey. She has trained as a holistic doula, midwife and counselor to provide trauma and childbirth informed support. Her goal is to contribute to the dialogue around maternal mental health and offer guidance to those navigating similar experiences.

We'll dive into Jennifer's therapy map approach, which aims to guide clients from a place of wounding to wisdom. She emphasizes understanding the mind, body, emotions and spirit as interconnected systems impacted by limiting beliefs.

I'm looking forward to our discussion on finding the way up and out of perinatal mood disorders. Thank you for joining us today, Jennifer.



Jennifer Summerfeldt is the founder of ASK Therapy and author of Healing After Birth. She is a mother, a therapist, a writer and a mentor. Jennifer’s organization is a virtual counseling clinic dedicated to providing trauma, polyvagal and childbirth informed support to mothers navigating the entire perinatal continuum. Their goal is to contribute to the dialogue around maternal mental health, break stigmas and offer guidance to those who may be navigating similar journeys.



Learn More about Jennifer’s beautiful work in this world:

https://linktr.ee/j.summerfeldt





Are you feeling the call to know more about Conscious Postpartum Care?

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Follow us on Instagram at @‌sacredwindowstudies

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This podcast discusses navigating professional identity and parenthood. Msulle shares their journey from working in finance to becoming a mother, noting lack of support for working mothers. They reflect on unexpected challenges of new parenthood and learning to embrace unknowns with flexibility.

Paragraph 2: Christine and Msulle discuss balancing work and motherhood, with Msulle's experience returning to work after maternity leave and feeling an emotional separation from their baby. They recognize the need to integrate different aspects of themselves to find richness in life. Christine reflects on compartmentalizing emotions versus seeking integration.

Msulle outlines a framework for self-discovery and personal growth with the four C's: clarify, communicate, commit, and celebrate. They emphasize the importance of self-awareness, community, and accountability in navigating life's challenges.

Christine and Msulle encourage new mothers to prepare for returning to work by reimagining their identity and communicating needs upfront. Msulle suggests reframing motherhood as expansive rather than restrictive, and approaching challenges with playfulness rather than fear. They discuss the importance of self-care, discipline, and embracing the unknown journey of parenthood.



Msulle’s Bio:

Msulle is a multidimensional being...she is a daughter, sister, wife to a beautiful soul, mama to three luminous boys and a friend.

She is an avid reader and lover of ancient traditional knowledege. She holds a masters in political economy of development and specializes in HR, Leadership Development and Coaching.

Msulle is passionate about helping women thrive as they navigate parenthood in and outside of the workplace.  She offers virtual one on one coaching to women in the postpartum window, and career and lifestyle coaching.

Msulle lives in Copenhagen, Denmark and has lived in many places around the world.



Are you feeling the call to know more about Conscious Postpartum Care?

Learn about our programs at ⁠www.sacredwindowstudies.com⁠

Follow us on Instagram at @‌sacredwindowstudies

Facebook at @‌AyurvedaForPostpartum

Join our ⁠Facebook Group⁠

Reach out! ⁠Schedule a time with Christine⁠ to find out if our programs are a good fit for you!

Here is the ⁠link⁠ to out free class

This episode discusses how to maintain loving connections with people despite differences in perspectives or disagreements. Lauren Pick shares a vulnerable moment from her therapy practice where a client felt misunderstood after an emotional outburst, but Lauren responded with even more love and empathy. She emphasizes the importance of drawing closer together rather than separating during conflicts.



Lauren discusses relationship dynamics and how disagreements don't need to divide people if they are willing to work through issues with curiosity rather than avoidance. Connecting during conflicts requires seeing the disagreement itself as a separate entity rather than each other. Speaker 1 agrees and notes this allows focusing on the relationship itself rather than individuals.

Lauren also provides an example of vulnerability in her own therapy session and how matching that vulnerability with openness and care can help clients release tension and connect on a deeper level. Postpartum care is discussed, highlighting the need to meet new mothers where they are at by providing information gradually to build trust and comfort.

The talk explores how prioritizing information over connection has imbalanced modern communication skills. Emotional intelligence is framed as a kind of wealth passed down through families via modeling communication skills. While these skills lie dormant within all people, conscious practices like eye contact and breath awareness can help activate deeper human connection.



Lauren's Bio:

Lauren Pick is a psychotherapist who focuses on grief, trauma and life transitions.

This is her story and what she has personally worked with.

She studied and is from Louisiana.

She’s been practicing for 12 years and works with clients in Lincoln NE.

She is a yoga teacher, a mind/body dance and fitness instructor.

She is a mom to two children and she is a passionate supporter of postpartum caregiving.

http://www.laurenpick.com



Are you feeling the call to know more about Conscious Postpartum Care?

Learn about our programs at ⁠www.sacredwindowstudies.com⁠

Follow us on Instagram at @‌sacredwindowstudies

Facebook at @‌AyurvedaForPostpartum

Join our ⁠Facebook Group⁠

Reach out! ⁠Schedule a time with Christine⁠ to find out if our programs are a good fit for you!

Here is the ⁠link⁠ to out free class

This episode discusses the importance of sustainability for both postpartum doulas and new parents. Guest Joanne McIntosh shares her journey providing postpartum support in Australia and the healing she has experienced through this work.

Joanne reflects on experiences with traumatic birth and lack of support for her own mother that inspired her career. Through bodywork, she helps clients integrate memories and feelings from their perinatal experiences to promote healing. Postpartum is a sensitive time when changes can happen naturally with guidance.

To feel nourished in her caregiver role, Joanne prioritizes self-care like nature time and rituals. She also built a supportive network including a birth doula partner. They provide continuity of care from pregnancy to postpartum and debrief together to avoid burnout.

Living rurally, Joanne sees the value for new families in community support like women's circles. Christine emphasizes the joy in collaboration versus shouldering responsibility alone. Simple acts of self-care like tea time uplift caregivers' ability to give.



Learn more about Joanne:

Hi, my name is Joanne and I am a mum to two amazing humans, Amberlily 11yrs and Cian 9yrs and wife to my wonderful husband Bill. We live in Newcastle Australia, close to the ocean and nature which are my two favourite places to be! I am a Postpartum Doula and Massage Therapist and I love supporting women in their journey through the sacred window of postpartum. My passion in life is to “bring the sacred into the everyday” as I have always been interested in spirituality and mysticism.  When I look back over my life journey I see the many threads that have led me here and understand now how they have woven together to create the tapestry of my work and life today.  Spirituality, different cultures, healing, nature, animals and babies. My studies have been focused on Energetic Medicine, Anthroposophical Nursing and Education, Yoga, Reiki and Bach Flower essences and now Ayurveda is opening up new ways of thinking to add to my repertoire. I honour stillness and reverence, holding space for others, nurturing through food and touch, healing through bodywork, yoga and breathwork and guiding families to find their individual rhythm.  



Are you feeling the call to know more about Conscious Postpartum Care?

Learn about our programs at ⁠⁠www.sacredwindowstudies.com⁠⁠

Follow us on Instagram at @sacredwindowstudies

Facebook at @AyurvedaForPostpartum

Join our ⁠⁠Facebook Group⁠⁠ 

Reach out! ⁠⁠Schedule a time with Christine⁠⁠ to find out if our programs are a good fit for you!

⁠Here is the ⁠link⁠ to our free class⁠.

This talk explores how community healing can be nourished through simplicity, intuition and herbalism. Guest Ayana Muhammad shares her journey from birth companion to community healer focusing on postpartum care. She discusses how even from a young age she was drawn to caregiving, and found various ways to support others through massage therapy and herbal remedies.



Ayana emphasizes how the small acts of self-care, like going outside, breathing and making tea can make a big difference. Through slowing down our nervous system we can center ourselves and intuitively know how to proceed. She applies these principles of simplicity in her one-on-one healing protocols, focusing on meal prep, breathwork and being in tune with what each person needs.



The conversation expands on how these concepts can benefit anyone, not just new parents. Men in particular are invited to practice more self-care and introspection. Ayana is interested in offering group circles in the future to broaden her reach. Her life is deeply intertwined with herbalism, passing this knowledge on to her kids and community through teas, remedies and education.



Ayana's long term vision is to create a Learning Hub empowering young men of color and those on the autism spectrum. Through teaching herbalism skills and job training, she hopes to cultivate future herbalists and entrepreneurs who can apply this in their own communities.



To learn more about Ayana's work, contact her through her website kehealingvibes.com, email wisdomofspices@gmail.com, phone 240-270-4988 or Instagram @kehealingvibes.

Are you feeling the call to know more about Conscious Postpartum Care?

Learn about our programs at ⁠⁠www.sacredwindowstudies.com⁠⁠

Follow us on Instagram at @sacredwindowstudies

Facebook at @AyurvedaForPostpartum

Join our ⁠⁠Facebook Group⁠⁠ 

Reach out! ⁠⁠Schedule a time with Christine⁠⁠ to find out if our programs are a good fit for you!

⁠Here is the ⁠link⁠ to our free class⁠.

Vera Skough is a doula based in Townsville, Australia. She runs a business called Mother Birth and Postpartum, supporting new mothers through pregnancy, birth, and the postpartum period. Originally from Sweden, Vera moved to Australia 10 years ago where she met her partner and had her son. Without family support in a new country, Vera's own birth experience led her to pursue helping other mothers.

In this podcast, Vera discusses two key aspects of her work. First, she explores the importance of honoring the placenta through practices like encapsulation, printing artwork with placenta impressions, and burial ceremonies. Vera shares why recognizing the placenta's vital role in sustaining the baby warrants meaningful acknowledgment. She describes how working with placentas has become a passion, from her own decision to encapsulate to creating prints that capture the placenta's intricate veins.

Second, Vera delves into how hypno-birthing techniques taught in classes can also aid the postpartum period. Hypno-birthing emphasizes managing pain through breathing, visualization, touch and affirmations - all of which Vera believes can smooth the transition to motherhood. She provides examples of adapting visualizations of birth to represent breastfeeding and using affirming touch to strengthen parental bonds.

For those seeking to learn from Vera's expertise, her website verathedoula.com offers more information. There, mothers can read about placenta care options and sign up for Vera's sacred birth rising hypno-birthing immersions. Vera is also on Instagram at @mother.birth.tsv and on Faceboook at Mother Birth Postpartum Townsville, where she regularly shares wisdom on supporting mothers holistically before and after birth.



Are you feeling the call to know more about Conscious Postpartum Care?

Learn about our programs at ⁠www.sacredwindowstudies.com⁠

Follow us on Instagram at @sacredwindowstudies

Facebook at @AyurvedaForPostpartum

Join our ⁠Facebook Group⁠ 

Reach out! ⁠Schedule a time with Christine⁠ to find out if our programs are a good fit for you!

Here is the ⁠link⁠ to our free class.