Birth Experience Peer Support Circle

This six-week course is for you if you have had a difficult birth experience which is still troubling you six weeks or more after your birth. There is no time limit on when you can attend - whether your birth was six months ago or six (or sixty!) years ago.

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The course is facilitated by Catherine Forrester (SMC director and facilitator, trauma-informed yoga teacher, and psychotherapeutic counsellor) and Oli Silverwood-Cope (NHS midwife, birth debrief practitioner, trauma-informed yoga teacher). They will hold space for you and a small group of others (maximum group size of eight), taking you through a process to explore the impact of your birth experience and learn tools to begin to process and integrate it, lessening the impact that it has on your daily life.

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The course will include:

• Psycho-education to learn more about trauma and the nervous system

• Dedicated time to explore somatic tools (mindfulness, yoga, somatics) to reconnect with and find greater safety in your body

• Guided journalling to help you explore your own birth story in small, manageable ways

• Group sharing to reflect on shared themes​

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Every participant will be offered a 1:1 birth debrief with Oli, which is an opportunity to explore the story of your birth in greater detail. This is completely optional.

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Please note that this is not group therapy, but an educational and peer support space. In order to maintain safety for individuals and the group as a whole, we will not be encouraging the sharing of birth stories in detail or at length.