About the Presentation

What do we remember, and how do we remember? These are the questions that are at the basis of Pre- and Perinatal Psychology, that which explores the time before and around birth.

We are seeing clinical sessions where children, adults, and infants are remembering and responding with awareness of what influenced their early arrival. We call these neuronal imprints. They are the records in the nervous system, and record our first experiences; they often create templates of behavior and response.

As therapists, understanding the influence on the newborn or prenate’s body in terms of shock and trauma is essential. By exploring the earliest imprints of what occurred in the energetic field around the time of birth, therapists can help clients reduce anxiety, repair intimacy issues, and settle the heart. This is true whether the client is an infant, child, or adult. Understanding that infants are capable of freeze, dissociation, or fragmentation responses helps clients repair consciousness and integrate into wholeness.

About the Presenter

David Sawyer, MA, LPC has been practicing body-centered psychotherapy since 1988. He is the founder of the Center for Somatic Psychology, LLC through which he teaches 500-hour certification training programs in Switzerland and the United States. His work is an empowerment based approach that blends the fields of trauma and shock, pre & perinatal psychology, self-psychology, family systems theory and the body based modalities of aquatic body work and cranial sacral therapy. David is known for his strong emphasis on healthy interpersonal boundaries and his ability to use somatic skills to cultivate strength in the present and to navigate traumas of the past.

David is a graduate of Wesleyan University (B.A. Psychology, 1985) and Naropa University (M.A. Psychology, 1988), a Licensed Professional Counselor (State of Colo., 1996), a certified practitioner, trainer, and former institute director of Integrative Body Psychotherapy of Boulder, LLC (1990 – 2000), a certified practitioner and instructor of the Watsu method of aquatic bodywork (2000). David has developed and taught CEU approved trainings for licensed psychologists in the State of Nevada and has been a course consultant for the graduate psychology program of Regis University and an internship supervisor for the graduate psychology programs of Naropa University.  David is a Buddhist Seminary graduate and spent six months as an inter-faith student at the Findhorn Community in Scotland.

David has a private practice in Boulder, CO where he lives with his family.

Additional Resources

David Sawyer can be reached at:
[email protected]
(303) 440-9725

Annie Brook can be reached at 720.839.4332. or www.coloradotherapies.com