Hi All
Thanks for reading this and considering the following request for mums to be and new mothers who would be interested in taking part in Mother and Baby observation.
Firstly, I am on a Masters Conversion course at an organisation called Terapia (which means therapy). The course is an child and adolescent training course - I am undertaking it to enable me to better work with children and young people as a psychotherapist.
I currently work in a primary school in London with children and parents. I have done so at the same school for 10 years now. I am now converting my psychotherapy qualification so I can work with a wider range of children and young people.
I am not a mother myself, I am 48 so it would be a bit late for me to me to start a family even if I could. I am female, live in London, and am wholly committed to working with young people.
My course requires that I observe the development of a new born baby, starting from as early after they are born as is possible, understanding their early journey through life, their coming to be in the world, their relationship to you as their mother and to the world. The idea of me observing a baby is so I can better understand human development - so I can better understand what we all go through at the very start of our journey as human beings.
If you agree, I would need to observe your baby's interactions with you and the world, and the process of development once a week, for an hour, at your convenience, in your home. An Observation requires that I sit in a still and contemplative state - not intruding or judging - simply observing your baby and noticing the subtle changes in how your baby is developing, growing and relating to the world around them.
Witnessing your baby's development and interactions with the world for an hour a week will help me understand better the changes that we all go through as human beings, enable me to understand so much better the journey all of us take through the first year or so of life. Ultimately, it would help me become a better therapist when working with young people because I would be able to understand better how we begin. Your agreeing to the observation process would be a gift to the troubled young people I already work with, as well as those I may work with in the future.
If that sounds still like something you could think about participating in, I can provide you with a letter of reference from my training institution. We could then meet in person to discuss it further.
Let me know what you think, any questions you have, I have included my telephone numbers if you would prefer to ask me questions in person before thinking about whether you would like to meet me further to discuss taking part in the observation.
I hope you will consider my accompanying you and your baby on your journey. My telephone numbers are ~ home 0207 690 6181 and my mobile is 0776 137 1088.
Kind Regards
Kris Barbara Black