Would you like to be able to work with parents so that they can learn how to give massage and shiatsu to their baby?
Would you like to understand more about infant development, to understand more about your own development as well as to support you to understand more about the influences of infant hood in your work with adults?
This course is relevant for you if you are already working with parents and babies or if you are new to the field. It explores what is happening for the baby during their first year of life as well as teaching some practical skills. It will enable you to work one to one or run classes with parents and babies and how to integrate work with a baby into work with the parent.
Even if you don't work directly with clients during this period, understanding more about the changes we make during the first year of our life will help you with your work with all clients. It is such a fundamental time for us all and its effects imprint deeply upon us.
This course covers western theories of infant development as well as some eastern theory. It is presented in such a way that it is relevant to everyone. However if you are less familiar with the eastern approach then you might also want to do the on line shiatsu foundation skills for midwives and bodyworkers
This infant massage and shiatsu course can also be a good way to prepare or to review material from any of the in person courses.
You get feedback on your assignments from Suzanne and can ask her questions at any time. There are also occasional live sessions with Suzanne.
You get life time access for the course and a certificate of completion which you can use for your CPD.
What is in this infant massage and shiatsu on line course?
Includes over 2 hours of videos and 2 and half hours of audios with activity suggestions. Course certificate issued for 15 hours.
Overview of course
Over 9 hours of course materials with at least 6 hours of additional time to practice the exercises and techniques.
Suzanne supports you during this course and you get feedback on your assignments from her. You can ask her questions at any time. There are also occasional live sessions with Suzanne.
Infant massage and shiatsu course materials include over two hours of videos of Suzanne Yates teaching infant shiatsu and massage, postnatal mother and baby exercises and presentations on theory and 2 and half hours of audios of exercises, meditations and visualisations.
The Infant massage and shiatsu course is set up with 7 lessons. In in each lesson, there is a mix of videos, audios and text documents. At the end of each lesson is a quiz to check your learning and an assignment, which is either some practical work, or a reflective piece. You can work through these topics and the assignments at your own pace and review any material as often as you want.
Lesson one: adapting to life on earth: new born behaviour and infant development
In this lesson, you will learn about the main changes in the baby’s body from having been in the womb to emerging into the world and what is happening in the first few weeks. We will consider this from both an eastern and western viewpoint. Understanding the world of the baby/infant and how their body is different from an adult’s is important so that we can work appropriately with them.
We will touch briefly on the birth process (visualisation) to understand the movement from the womb to earth. We will look at the movements of birth and how they contribute to infant movement in lesson 3 and any considerations for working with babies after different types of birth in lesson 6.
Lesson two: Basics of practical work with baby
In this lesson you will learn about practical considerations to consider when working with a baby and the benefits of touch. You will also learn more about how the baby communicates. There are some exercises to help the parents to feel more comfortable working with their baby: positioning for parents. You will also learn the core techniques for working with a baby. These are suitable for a young baby and are always a foundation even for an older baby (lesson 5) or for a baby with specific issues (lesson 6). There is also an exercise for you to experience the foundation touch as, for all of us, whatever age we are, this is a foundation.
Lesson three: understanding infant movement patterns and cues
In this lesson you will learn about the different movements that an infant makes and how to use this understanding in your work. You will also experience these movements yourself through guided exercises. We will also be looking at how infants express themselves through different cues. This lesson will help you understand more about how to work with babies of different ages and how to support parents to respond to them.
Lesson four: Building on foundation techniques to create a series of lessons/sessions
In this lesson you will build on the foundation touch of lesson 2 and learn some more detailed work for each part of the body: these will be suitable for babies up to about 5 to 6 months. This is presented as a series of lessons with each lesson focusing on one part of the body. There is a mix of text documents and a video.
Lesson five: Movement style techniques and work for older baby
In this lesson you will learn how to build on the foundation touch and how to adapt and modify for an older baby. You will have some videos with work with older baby which include both shiatsu/massage techniques but also some exercises which parents can do with their older babies.
Lesson six: working with specific situations e.g supporting illness, infants with additional needs
In this lesson you will learn which of the techniques and skills you have acquired in the earlier lesson can apply to specific situations. It offers an opportunity to deepen the work.
You will be learning how to work with premature babies, babies with additional needs and understanding the potential implications of different types of birth.
Lesson seven: Professional issues: finding your way of working.
In this lesson you will look at your practice and reflect on how you are going to introduce your knowledge into your work.
More detail on the infant shiatsu and massage course
Suzanne has been teaching infant massage and shiatsu to parents since 1990 and to professionals since 1999. Suzanne includes infant shiatsu as part of the shiatsu practitioner and midwife/doula courses and developed an infant massage course with Anne Badger. This on line course includes the highlights of the in person professional trainings. It gives you key skills to be able to safely and effectively work with parents and their babies, linking exercise with touch based skills. You will also understand the implications of the first year on the rest of our lives. You will reflect on how you want to work with parents and infants and create materials to support you to do this.
Videos, audios, forums, documents, quizzes, reflective assignments: on line is a wonderful way, in some ways better than in person, to learn why and in what situations you can use your practical skills. You can work through the theory at your own pace and explore exercises and meditations to prepare you for hands on work. You can discuss with Suzanne and other students on the course forum. For hands on skills and techniques, on line videos and support give you useful tools to start integrating new work into your practice and get feedback about relevant issues. However, do remember, to fine tune your skills the best way is to have some face to face supervision to gain specific feedback of how YOU are working. If you like the practical work presented in the on line courses, I strongly recommend that you attend an in person course or arrange a personal supervision with me or a Wellmother teacher to take your work to the next level!
Entrance Requirements
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You are a shiatsu practitioner or massage therapist, who would like to learn more about the first year of life and how to support parents to connect with their baby through massage and shiatsu
You are already working with infants, with skills such as Baby Yoga or Infant Massage and would like to deepen your knowledge of work with infants
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Depending on your profession and your employment status, you need appropriate insurance if you want to put the skills into practice. Wellmother can support you in supplying relevant certificates of attendance and course syllabus.
