SIGN IN YOUR ACCOUNT TO HAVE ACCESS TO DIFFERENT FEATURES

CREATE AN ACCOUNT FORGOT YOUR PASSWORD?

FORGOT YOUR DETAILS?

AAH, WAIT, I REMEMBER NOW!

CREATE ACCOUNT

ALREADY HAVE AN ACCOUNT?

IAHIP

CALL: +353 (0)1 284 1665
  • Contact Us
  • Classifieds
    • Publications
    • Services
    • Training
    • All Ads
    • Submit Ad
  • News
    • IAHIP News
    • Blog
  • Members
    • AGM 2020 & 2019
    • Events Calendar
    • Professional Conduct
    • Continued Professional Development -CPD- For Accredited Psychotherapists
    • Accreditation
    • Re-accreditation
    • Supervision
    • Honorary Membership
    • Child and Adolescent
    • Garda Vetting
    • Resources
      • Members’ Resources
    • Payments
  • SIGN UP
  • LOGIN
  • Home
  • About
    • About IAHIP
    • Governing Body
    • Committees
      • Committees
      • Regional Development
    • Complaints
    • Constitutional Documents
      • Articles of Association
      • Bye-Laws of the Association
    • IAHIP in N.I.
    • Considering a career in psychotherapy?
  • Psychotherapy
    • About Psychotherapy
    • How Psychotherapy Can Help Me
    • Choosing a Psychotherapist
    • Useful Links
  • Join
    • Join IAHIP
    • Why Join IAHIP?
    • Benefits of Membership of IAHIP
    • Categories of Membership
    • Fees
  • Publications
    • Inside Out
    • Subscribe
    • Buy Back Issues
    • Buy Full Page Ad
    • Buy Half Page Ad
    • Advertising
  • Training
    • Recognised Training Courses IAHIP
    • European Certificate of Psychotherapy (ECP)
  • Find a Therapist
  • Home
  • Inside Out
  • Issue 74: Autumn 2014
  • Book Review: Fractals From the Womb

Book Review: Fractals From the Womb

A Journey through Pre- and Perinatal Psychotherapy

by Shirley Ward
Published by CreateSpace: Amazon, July 2014 ISBN-13: 978-1500187224
Reviewed by Sarah Kay

Book Review

Given our natural curiosity as humans to explore our environment, push the boundaries in pursuit of knowledge and expand our consciousness, it seems inevitable that psychology would follow an evolutionary trajectory.

Fractals from the womb: A journey through pre- and perinatal psychotherapy evidences foetal consciousness through scientific research and anecdotal material as well as case histories. It is a welcome and long-awaited addition to the lexicon of developmental psychology and is a useful and fascinating study for psychotherapy students and professionals in the field of psychological health. The author, Shirley Ward, has devoted most of her professional life to tracing the history of birth memories and traumas. She has worked internationally and nationally training psychotherapists in pre- and perinatal psychotherapy and, as a result of her experiences, believes that good pregnancies and calm births can reduce the risk of trauma to producing happier and healthier people. Carrying on the work of Dr. Jean Houston, Shirley believes each one of us embodies a ‘fractal’ or a pattern which starts very possibly before conception and carries through our lives and shapes who we are and what we do.

This book is a journey into our layers of history going back into the womb to understand how our environment, including our parents’ experiences, imprints on our bodies and minds, starting at a cellular level. We are introduced to the pioneers in this field. Shirley was lucky enough to work with one, Dr. Frank Lake, a British psychiatrist and she has not only continued his work but also developed it through her Amethyst training programme, along with Alison Hunter and Carmel Byrne.

I don’t want to spoil the book by disclosing too much about the contents but have three points to make: the first is to say that this is a must-read and that training programmes would be wise to add it to their reading lists. The book is small, compact, colourful and inexpensive, and an easy and engaging read.

The second point is an observation that the fractal dimension that Shirley writes about appears to be an area in which the medical profession and psychotherapists within this field are successfully collaborating; scientific research (through ultrasound or imaging) and experiential psychotherapy are coming up with similar evidence: that there is foetal consciousness and that birth memories and traumas experienced in utero are held in the body at a muscular and cellular level and are played out in life, either creatively and physically like sport, for example, or can erupt as violence, depression, addictions and physical ailments ranging from migraine to cancers. Two doctors cited in this book, Tom Verny, a Canadian, and the late David Chamberlain, an American, have written extensively in support of the importance of pre- and perinatal psychology and psychotherapy. The third observation is that developmental psychology has been slow to embrace the significance of birth memories and trauma as part of mainstream developmental theory; the most common theory still being that the earliest memory stage is the post-natal infant in relation to its mother, i.e., attachment theories. Could this be the psychotherapy fractal!

The good news is that with a deeper knowledge of pre- and perinatal psychology we can go beyond the generally accepted evidence that ‘smoking and drinking are bad for baby’, and see that an ‘anxious/traumatised mother and father’ can produce a traumatised child who may display symptoms of distress like aggressive behavior, excessive crying and anxiety. We can also do much more to educate our populations and so pre-empt some of the traumas and repair the damage postnatally.

The bad news is that the many war-torn parts of the world are a breeding ground for trauma, violence and addiction. Fractals From the Womb is a call to arms – not for the weapons of war but for the arms of healing and holding.

Attachments

  • Book Review (52 kB)

Search Inside Out

Latest from the Blog

Latest News

  • The CARI Foundation – Vacancy for National Head of Therapy
  • The Art of Wanting – Online Course, with Emma Philbin Bowman

Upcoming Events

Contact Us

The Administrator,
The Irish Association of Humanistic and Integrative Psychotherapy Ltd.
40 Northumberland Avenue,
Dun Laoghaire,
Co. Dublin

Telephone: +353 (0)1 284 1665
Email: admin@iahip.org

Office Hours

9.30am – 4.00pm Monday
9.30am – 5.00pm Tuesday to Friday

Telephone Line Answered
Monday – Friday 9.30am – 1.00pm.

Disclaimer

IAHIP Ltd. cannot be held liable for the services, products or information contained in ads posted on this website.

FIND A THERAPIST

Search in radius 0 miles
  • Contact Details
  • Privacy Statement
  • Code of Ethics for Psychotherapists
  • Company Registration

© 2018 All rights reserved.

TOP
This website uses cookies to enhance your browsing experience. Accept Read More
Privacy & Cookies Policy

Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience.
Necessary
Always Enabled

Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.

Non-necessary

Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.