Sacred Window Podcast: Nurturing Awareness in Postpartum Care

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?

Learn about our programs at ⁠www.sacredwindowstudies.com⁠

Follow us on Instagram at @‌sacredwindowstudies

Facebook at @‌AyurvedaForPostpartum

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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 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:

Msulleis 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.

Msulleis 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 [email protected], 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 websiteverathedoula.comoffers 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 [email protected] on Faceboook atMother 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 at⁠www.sacredwindowstudies.com⁠

Follow us on Instagram at @sacredwindowstudies

Facebook at @AyurvedaForPostpartum

Join our⁠Facebook Group⁠

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

Here is the ⁠link⁠ to our free class.

Naomi Newlan, a seasoned practitioner of yoga and Ayurvedic massage, shares her profound journey of integrating these modalities into her practice spanning over two decades. Rooted in a lineage of yoga, Naomi's exploration led her to embrace the art of massage therapy, weaving together her passion for hands-on healing and ancient wisdom from indigenous cultures across various countries. With Ayurveda and yoga as constant companions, Naomi embodies a deep connection to nature and the profound wisdom inherent in the human body.

In this episode, Naomi reflects on her experiences during the postpartum periods of her children. Recalling her initial lack of understanding and support during her first childbirth, she candidly shares the challenges she faced and the profound impact it had on her well-being. However, the arrival of nurturing figures during her second postpartum period sparked a realization of the importance of postpartum care, igniting a desire to provide similar support to others. Through her work as a pre and postnatal massage therapist, Naomi discovered the sacredness of entering new mothers' homes and the profound honor it entails, fostering a deep connection to the transformative journey of motherhood.

It's through these experiences that Naomi emphasizes the significance of recognizing the inner shifts during major life changes. She discusses the importance of the postpartum period as a sacred pause before transformation, highlighting the need for presence and surrender during this pivotal time of rebirth. Join us as we explore Naomi's journey of healing, wisdom, and the serene power of nurturing postpartum care.

Learn more about Naomi:

"I am a Mother, a Kundadance and Yoga Teacher, an Ayurvedic Massage Therapist with 20 years Energetic Bodywork experience, a Womb Awakening Facilitator and Spirit Painter.

My passion is to hold space and share wisdoms with women so they may live empowered and joy-filled lives.

Serving the Mamma, Baby and Families in the sacred post-partum window is an honour and absolute joy. I believe that this is vital work for our future on this Planet.

My teaching style is to learn whilst having fun, yet be able to hold space in the depths of all experience. I seek to keep creating space to welcome in more love and more opportunities."

Website -

Instagram @whitesagehealing @nourishtoflourish108

Facebook NourishtoFlourish 10

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

Learn about our programs at⁠www.sacredwindowstudies.com⁠

Follow us on Instagram at @sacredwindowstudies

Facebook at @AyurvedaForPostpartum

Join our⁠Facebook Group⁠

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

Here is the ⁠link⁠ to our free class.

Lauren Pick MS LIMHP LMHP LPC CYT is a psychotherapist in private practice focusing on Grief, Trauma, & Life Transitions. She is currently located in Lincoln, Nebraska (of all places). As a certified yoga instructor, Nia instructor and mindbody fitness professional, Lauren enjoys weaving somatic modalities into her work with clients. Find out more atwww.laurenpick.com

In this episode, Lauren discusses the challenges of disconnection, grief, and the tendency to overlook the value of each day in the hustle of life. They reflect on the concept of going to bed to wake up again, finding a deeper purpose beyond the routine. The phrase "we've got to go to bed so we can wake up together so we can wake up again" is explored, highlighting the importance of finding a meaningful reason for one's actions.

The conversation shifts to life transitions, particularly the transformative experience of becoming a parent. The speaker emphasizes the significance of recognizing the inner shifts during major life changes and the need for a vital connection when designing care and support. The discussion touches on the importance of meeting people where they are, using mirroring, and creating a heart connection to initiate healing.

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

Learn about our programs at⁠www.sacredwindowstudies.com⁠

Follow us on Instagram at @sacredwindowstudies

Facebook at @AyurvedaForPostpartum

Join our⁠Facebook Group⁠

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

Here is the⁠link⁠to our free class

Roshni Kavate is an artist, grief educator, post partum caregiver and avid home cook. Roshni Kavate is the Co-Founder and Creative Director of Marigolde, and the co host of the podcast Mango and Gnocchi. She believes grief is a portal to wholeness. Marigolde is a wellness platform dedicated to reclaiming nourishing practices rooted in ancestral wisdom for collective liberation. Through rituals and storytelling, we can reconnect to our origins and be our wild selves. She sees the path to being whole as a radical art and political practice. The question that guides her is What is our grief craving? and how can we nourish and feed it? She is the co creator and faculty in the Marigolde Post Partum Ancestral Kitchen Certification Apprenticeship and Student Advisor and Guest Instructor at Center for Sacred Window Studies. She has recently published two cookbooks, Saffron Ginger Postpartum Kitchen and Mending a Broken Heart: Recipes for Nurturing Grief

In this episode, Roshni emphasize the idea that Ayurvedic cooking for postpartum is not limited to Indian cuisine but is tailored to individual needs for balance. They delve into the concept of ancestral foods, emphasizing that Ayurvedic and ancestral foods are closely connected. Roshni encourages listeners to explore their ancestral food by considering what brings comfort, nurturance, and resilience.

The conversation shifts to ways of reconnecting with one's ancestral line, especially for those who feel disconnected due to a lack of clear understanding or tradition in a Western context. Roshni suggests asking questions within the family about geographic origins and exploring documented archival culinary history, especially for those with European ancestry.

Links:

• Ancestral Postpartum Kitchen Apprenticeship Certification

Ancestral Postpartum Kitchen — Marigolde

Marigolde Postpartum Ancestral Kitchen Certificate Apprenticeship

• Book: Saffron Ginger Kitchen

Saffron Ginger Kitchen: Recipes for Nourished Postpartum Years, Rooted in Ayurveda — Marigolde

• Podcast: Mango and Gnocchi

‎Mango and Gnocchi Podcast on Apple Podcasts

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

Learn about our programs at⁠www.sacredwindowstudies.com⁠

Follow us on Instagram at @sacredwindowstudies

Facebook at @AyurvedaForPostpartum

Join our⁠Facebook Group⁠

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

Here is the⁠link⁠to our free class

Samantha Veitch is the founder of Emerging Wisdom Care. She is an Ayurvedic Postpartum Doula and Elimination Coach.

Elimination Communication (EC) is the practice of learning your baby’s elimination cues and being able to anticipate the process, thereby reducing the need for diapers. Essentially, it’s infant potty training, though Samantha explains why she doesn’t often use those words.

In this episode, Samantha shared how she explains Elimination Communication to her clients. She discusses how this is an age old practice rather than a new fad families are exploring.

We discuss incredibly valuable bonding and psychological benefits of this practice for babies, parents and how it integrates beautifully with the healing process in postpartum.

Samantha shares how this practice is so beneficial right after birth, and how it becomes even easier when started early. She also encourages it as a fun and relaxed practice, rather than a stressful project to be strict about.

In our conversation she shares cues to look and listen for, easy ways to get started, and the 4 entry points for elimination communication.

I loved this conversation and learned so much. I know you will love it too.

Below, Samantha shares some of the resources mentioned in the interview. Enjoy!

From Samantha:

This is a link to Andrea Olson's Book ---- really the bible for EC practicalities.

This is a link to Ingrid Bauer's book which was a lovely book more about the gentle bonding and communication building aspectBy Bauer Diaper Free: The Gentle Wisdom of Natural Infant Hygiene (CCARE): Amazon.co.uk: Bauer: 8601405993946: Books

This is a link to a book on Dunstan baby languageCalm the Crying: The Secret Baby Language That Reveals the Hidden Meaning Behind an Infant's Cry: Amazon.co.uk: Dunstan, Priscilla: 9781583334690: Books

This is a link to Tiny Undies which is where I send everyone for the basic tools (potties etc) , EC appropriate clothing, tiny underwear that is so hard to find-

If you use my coupon code SAMANTHA you get 20% off!

I am available for EC consultation 1:1 online or in person if you are in Nevada County, California area. I also run a free in-person monthly EC support group for local mamas -

Start EC with the Go Diaper Free BookTiny Undies: small underwear + training pants for babies and toddlersGo Diaper Free of Nevada City | Facebook