The Art of Holding Perinatal Women In Distress™
6-hr IN-PERSON Core Training
This 6-hour IN-PERSON training is unlike any other. Now offered nationally, this training is grounded in the alliance-based principles of The Art of Holding Perinatal Women in Distress.™ This immersive clinical experience invites therapists to slow down, tune in, and hold space with challenging and meaningful strategies.
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The instructors for these trainings have received advanced clinical education through the AOH Teaching Fellowship / PPSC Holding Coalition.
This training is not just about acquiring knowledge - it’s about transforming the way you show up in the therapy room.
What is The Art of Holding?
The Art of Holding is a strength-based, loss-informed, heart-centered model of intervention for perinatal women in distress. At its core, Holding creates a steady, relational container where a mother’s emotional experiences can be acknowledged, integrated, and woven into her sense of self—rather than remaining overwhelming or fragmented.
This healing process unfolds through co-regulation and skilled, attuned attention to the nature of her suffering. When we meet her distress without fear, judgment, or urgency, her nervous system can begin to regulate in response to our presence. This is when meaningful connection and healing become possible.
Holding provides a framework for specific prompts that support synchronized and sustained attunement—to the client, to the therapist’s own experience, and to the therapeutic process itself.
What Makes this Training Unique?
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It is intimate and interactive, using clinical scenarios, group engagement, and reflective exercises.
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It explores the therapist’s internal experience, acknowledging how your presence, countertransference, and emotional labor shape the therapeutic process.
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It invites you to access your own emotional truths and cultivate a deep capacity to sit with suffering—your client’s and your own.
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It blends clinical depth with practical strategies that you can bring into your sessions immediately.
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It provides a safe space to practice attunement, build emotional endurance, and understand the nuance of perinatal resistance, longing, and distress.
“It changed the way I listen.”
“I didn’t expect to feel so seen—as a clinician, as a woman, as a mother.”
“Every therapist working with moms should have this training. It’s essential. I feel more confident in my ability to sit with suffering.”
What You’ll Walk Away With
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A deeper understanding of how to integrate the Holding model into your sessions.
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Strengthened self-regulation skills that support steadiness and clarity in high-distress perinatal sessions
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Enhanced attunement skills, including how to read emotional cues more precisely and respond without over- or under-intervening
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An enriched capacity to remain fully present with suffering—and a deeper understanding of why presence itself is a powerful clinical intervention
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Practical strategies for accessing a mother’s authentic suffering without reinforcing helplessness, fear, or pathology
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Clear guidance on how to protect yourself emotionally while staying deeply engaged, reducing burnout and compassion fatigue
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A more confident, grounded holding stance that fosters resilience, safety, and trust in the therapeutic relationship