Welcome to Castellino Prenatal & Birth Therapy Training

The next Foundation Training

We plan to begin our next Foundation Training in 2009. Once we secure a site and set firm dates, further information will be available here on the web. We are interested in hearing from anyone who may intend to apply. Please contact Sandra at Sandra@CastellinoTraining.com.

Prior to applying to the Foundation Training, applicants are required to take at least one Process Workshop and a 5-day introduction to biodynamic craniosacral work. If you are interested in applying to the next Foundation Training you may wish to begin completing these prerequisites now. We are planning to sponsor a craniosacral introduction with Anna Chitty once our training dates have been set.

The next Foundation Training may be back to back with a full biodynamic craniosacral training in Santa Barbara, Sandra is currently in discussion with Anna Chitty This is for the convenience of those traveling from a distance who wish to participate in both. Please let Sandra know if you are interested in attending a c/s training. Information will be available here as soon as we have it.

For logistical information about the last training, completed in 2007, please see the bottom of this page.

Who Benefits from the Training?

Trainees in the Castellino Prenatal and Birth Training come from a wide range of professional backgrounds and skills. They have included bodyworkers, polarity therapists, cranial workers, chiropractors, osteopaths, acupuncturists, nurses, medical doctors, midwives, doulas, childbirth educators, infant massage therapists, regular and special education teachers, counselors, and psychologists. Many of these practitioners were already doing some form of prenatal and birth work. Others were very new to this form of work. They all share a profound interest in working with babies, children, families, and/or adults for the purpose of resolving prenatal and birth trauma.

About the Foundation Training

Prerequisite to Applying:

• Take at least one Process Workshop (recommended that this is within the past two years). Taking 2 process workshops is recommended.
• Take at least a five-day introduction to biodynamic / fluid tide craniosacral therapy or the equivalent.
• Ray does not train anyone who uses nicotine or recreational drugs in any amount for any reason. Applicants must have a commitment to themselves and the people they work with that they will be nicotine and drug free from the time of application through completion of the Foundation Training and must have the intention to abstain for the rest of their lives.
• A commitment to abstain from alcohol the day before and during all workshops and training modules including breaks & evenings is required.

Components:

• The training is 8 modules of 6 days each spread over 2 years.
• Four Process workshops:
  • At least 1 is required before application to the training program, more are recommended.
  • At least 1 to be taken after beginning the training.
  • At least 2 must be taken with Dr. Castellino. All 4 may be if you chose to.
  • Up to 2 may be taken with a Certified Process Workshop Facilitator (See the bottom of the Process Workshop page for information about them.)
• Creative Home Projects between the training modules.
• Communicating with other trainees between modules for peer support.

Designed to teach or enhance your skills in:

• Holding therapeutic presence;
• Tracking somatic, energetic and fluid tide rhythms to assess and facilitate the resolution of prenatal and birth stress and trauma;
• Identification of your own prenatal and birth countertransference issues so you can develop the skill of effectively translating the energy of your activations into effective and compassionate therapy;
• Relating the client's present experience, behavior and emotional states to prenatal and birth imprinting in function and structure;
• Recognizing prenatal and birth imprinting in body language, body structure, movement, personality and character structure in babies, children and adults;
• Developing the client's internal resources so they may effectively explore and resolve early traumatic imprinting;
• Recognizing the way prenatal and birth imprinting affects family dynamics, and knowing how to work with infants and children within their family systems;
• Holding clear and effective therapeutic boundaries in the context of prenatal and birth therapy;
• Using therapeutic verbal, energetic and touch skills in the context of prenatal and birth therapy;
• Making contact with others from your own experience, and identifying and working with your own prenatal and birth patterns;
• Facilitating babies, children and their parents in BEBA style family sessions;
• Facilitating adults in small group Womb Surround Process Workshops;

Skills Assessment:

Click here to view a Skills Assessment trainees fill in near the beginning and the end of the training for the purpose of reflecting on their own development.

Trainees begin with a myriad of different skills. Exercises, homework and small and large group discussions are designed to enhance those skills. Some of the craniosacral skills are listed for the benefit of those who have already taken a full c/s training.

Module Details

Each training module covers a specific area of learning. The curriculum is designed to give you an overview of the work and to build specific therapeutic skills in a progressive and layered manner using didactic instruction, facilitation skills and personal experiential exploration. Skills for facilitation of adults in small groups and families in infant/child- centered settings are emphasized throughout the training.

• Module I - The Preconception and Conception Journey

  Including the Polarity Paradigm, shock imprinting and developing the internal reference structure for prenatal and birth therapy are this module's primary subject areas. Dr. Castellino will introduce you to an integration of energetic, somatic, physiologic and psychotherapeutic principles which form a foundation for the prenatal and birth therapist. The skills introduced in this module include therapeutic centering, orienting, tracking autonomic cycling and related fluid tide dynamics, modulating therapeutic pace or tempo, identifying resource behaviors, recognizing the therapeutic leading edge, and differentiating between trauma and shock imprinting.

• Module II - Bonding and Attachment

  Covers the bonding process from early prenatal through post-birth time. The issues of connection and separation are primary themes as are issues of receiving nutrition and emotional nurturing. This module covers:

  • How early imprinting affects future relationship formation, and individual motivation patterns.
  • Prenatal implantation dynamics, the development of the placenta and the umbilical cord.
  • Energetic umbilical dynamics, and related movement imprinting.
  • Birth dynamics, the cutting of the umbilical cord, newborn self-attachment behaviors and the nature of the baby's first contact with her mother and father after birth.
  • The baby's ability to attach to his/her mother emotionally, at the breast and the establishment of healthy nursing patterns.
  • Specific therapeutic protocols for resourcing, resolving and repatterning bonding and attachment trauma and a means for establishing nursing with babies who are unable to nurse or having difficulty with nursing.

• Module III - Birth Imprinting

  Covers the vaginal birth process, birth stages, pelvic types, cranial molding, birth movement patterns and an introduction to infant craniopathy. It introduces tracking fluid tide dynamics and tracking stage specific birth movement patterns. By the end of the workshop, each of you will describe your personal birth passage to a small peer group. Your birth passage session will be videotaped and you will receive a copy for your personal studies.

• Module IV - Chemical Imprinting

  Covers imprinting from anesthesia, nicotine, fetal alcohol and drug syndromes. We will look at the effects of chemical imprinting on prenates and babies' psyches, their movement patterns, their energy patterns and the development of the central nervous system. Specific protocols for resolving and repatterning of chemical imprinting are covered. A new theory is presented explaining the way chemical imprinting affects the function of the cerebral spinal fluid system. Your understanding of the cranial / sacral fluid tide system and the embryonic development of the brain will be enhanced so that you can use your visualization, energetic sensing, fluid tide palpation, and bodywork skills to support the resolution of traumatic chemical imprinting.

• Module V - Surgical Imprinting

  Covers forceps, vacuum extraction, cesarean section, circumcision and prenatal and infant surgery. You will learn how to identify signature cranial molding patterns, movement patterns and psychological impacts of each birthing style. You will learn the cranial impacts of forceps and vacuum extraction as well as specific treatment protocols for each type of surgical intervention. We will explore the effect of these procedures on physical structure and on the expression of the body's energy and fluid tide systems.

• Module VI and VII - Life Death Loss and Double Binds

  Double bind or paradoxical imprints provide the most complicated dynamics in the PPN field. Double binds amplify practitioner counter-transference issues and complications for facilitating groups and families. This subject matter is saved for the sixth and seventh Foundation Training modules because the dynamics of these trauma impacts provide the practitioner with the greatest counter-transference challenges in the prenatal and birth therapy field. The curricula of the first five modules is designed to build the trainees' understanding, perception, presence and therapeutic skills so that they are more prepared to explore the effects of double binds in effective and compassionate ways.

  Having two modules devoted to developing skills for facilitating double binds give plenty of space to explore the depth of these early complicated imprints. Special attention is given to how double bind imprints affects families and group dynamics.

  • Module VI

    Focuses on ancestral influences and twin dynamics and twin loss. Ancestral influences on individuation are explored to differentiate twin and ancestral imprinting. Twin embryonic and placental development are correlated with twin behavior later in life. Lost twin syndrome affects on singleton behavior is covered. You will learn to identify twin psychological imprinting, the counter-transference / transference issues involved and twin dynamic therapeutic protocols. Breech birth presentation is covered in this module because a high percentage of breech presentations have occur during twin births.

  • Module VII

    Focuses on adoption, previous abortion and miscarriage, abortion attempts, traumatic impacts of death in the family during pregnancy, stillbirth and infant sibling loss, A.R.T. (Assisted Reproductive Technology) and NICU experience. The skills for facilitating double bind dynamics are further developed and refined in this module.

• Module VIII - Family and Group Dynamics

  This module is designed to transition the practitioner from foundation skill building into a model for family and small group practice. Module VIII covers:

  • The structural components for a process session both with adults in a Process Workshop setting and with families in infant/child-centered family settings.
  • Organization of BEBA: A Center for Family Healing.
  • Questions about clinical practice.
  • Demonstration session by Dr. Castellino including a complete debriefing which focuses on recognizing the principles utilized.
  • Each trainee will give and receive a supervised process session in a small group setting.

Testimonials

Trainees Comment...

"Ray's training has brought a deep level of compassion and sensitivity into my life and my work. Ray's ability to teach from a learner's perspective makes the work easy to absorb. A kinesthetic 'knowing' seems to grow spontaneously. His work with babies and families is truly awesome. In accessing the brilliant clear consciousness of the prenate, the birth work gives a powerful resource for resolving early trauma."

-Anna Chitty, R.P.P., RCST®

"My experience of training with Ray Castellino has been both personally transforming and professionally rewarding. Through his remarkable skills as a therapist I have been able to reconnect with my earliest emotional imprints in a way that has been deeply healing and now guides my work with clients. Ray's teaching skill is to blend complex cross-disciplinary information with personal process and integration in a way that is exciting, comprehensive, systematic, hands-on, effective and downright fun. He models for me how to be self-honest, knowledgeable and deeply contactful yet respectful of boundaries. Being with Ray as he works with babies and their families has shown me what remarkable potential there is for understanding what babies have to tell me and how I can support their process of liberating the energies bound up in prenatal and birth trauma."

-Claire Leverant, Childbirth Educator

"The Castellino Prenatal and Birth training is a rare opportunity to be in the vanguard of the exploration of a mysterious and largely uncelebrated frontier of human understanding. There is an exciting sense that one is participating in the birth of a new body of knowledge and practice, one with far reaching consequences for the way we live. For me it has been important that the excitement is not only intellectual: the knowledge and practice are integrated, and the trainee must draw on her or his whole life experience for understanding a survey which offers fresh vistas and unexpected connections. This means the training itself is transformational, yet brimming with multidisciplinary information brought together in a newly coherent form. Ray is both a visionary and an extraordinary teacher who is passionately committed to a single process that encompasses research, healing, and the training of professionals. His attunement and the format he has created ensure that the emphasis is on the process of assimilation rather than content; in practice, I've found that means the knowledge is not something I must remember, but rather a part of my experience that becomes available as needed."

-Jim Thomas, M.A.

Colleagues Write...

"Ray Castellino is at the forefront of a healing movement that is taking us into the next century. In his work with infants and children, Ray extends a sensitivity and grace in healing early trauma that is revolutionary, compassionate and effective. It is a privilege and a gift to study with this man."

-Peter Levine, Ph.D., Author of Waking the Tiger, Developer of Somatic Experiencing

"I have been associated with Dr. Castellino for many years. His warmth and integrity have always touched me deeply. He has become one of the world's leading lights in the field of Prenatal and Birth Psychology. His work in his area of special interest, the healing of prenatal and birth trauma in infants, is elegant and insightful. His training in this is easily the most in-depth and sensitive available. His teaching is done with humor, clarity and the highest standards. I highly recommend his training to anyone interested in healing the foundations of our defended and damaged selves at the very beginning of our journey in this world."

-Franklyn Sills, Craniosacral teacher, author of The Polarity Process, Director of the Karuna Institute

The last Foundation Training

All information below this relates to the 2005-2007 training, T9 and is posted here for reference only.

Information for T10, beginning in 2009, will be posted as soon as it is available. It will not be at the same location since that location is on the market.

Dates for the last Foundation Training were as follows:

(the first day, Monday, starts at dinnertime for people staying on site; commuters start Tuesday morning. Each module ends Sunday at 3 pm)

• February 14-20, 2005
• May 16-22, 2005
• Sept 26-Oct 2, 2005
• January 16-22, 2006
• April 24-30, 2006
• Sept 11-17, 2006
• December 11-17, 2006
• March 12-18, 2007

Location

The training will be located at Laurel Springs Retreat Center on Laurel Springs Ranch, 20 minutes up 154 from Santa Barbara. The beautiful, natural site is designed to be a nourishing setting, offering you an opportunity to focus on what you are learning/ processing and connecting to yourself and other participants. The training is designed to be residential except for local parents who need to spend time at home with their children and a few others, by application.

Residential / Meals and Day Use Fees

The Foundation Training at Laurel Springs Retreat is designed to be residential. It will be held at Laurel Springs Retreat, a beautiful, natural site designed to be a nourishing setting, offering you an opportunity to focus on what you are learning/ processing and connecting with yourself and other participants.

Residential Fees include 3 meals a day from Monday dinner through Sunday lunch as a room Monday through Saturday evenings. Options include vegan, vegetarian and regular. Dairy-free and wheat free are also available. No other special diets are accommodated for. For regular, one meal a day (either lunch or dinner) will include either fish or chicken. Eggs will be available for breakfast.

The cost for residential ranges from $700/$735 for a shared room to $890/850 for a single (1st price is credit card, 2nd is check on American bank, cash, money order, travelers checks.

We realize that some people will not be able to attend the training unless they can stay off site, primarily because they have small children at home or for financial reasons. There will be a limited number of spaces available for those who wish to commute.

In order to secure the site, we have guaranteed that a minimum number of participants will be staying on site. We are planning to accept up to 33 people. The site has 15 rooms, which can be single or double occupancy.

In accepting you, we will specify that we do so as one of the following:

• Participant who plans to stay on site every module. At least 14 participants will share a room. We can accommodate a maximum of 8 participants in single rooms.
• Participant who is willing to stay on site but will have the option of commuting if we have met our minimum requirement for residents.
• Participant who is guaranteed a place as a commuter.

We do encourage you to stay on site and enjoy the ease of settling in to a nourishing space with the opportunities for casual contact that residency affords.

In considering applicants for commuting, we will give priority for commuting to parents of small children for whom separation from the parent at night would be detrimental to the child or the parent/child relationship. We will accept some people as commuters who cannot stay on site for other reasons. The commuting option is available by application only.

We have received many more requests to commute than we expected. In order to guarantee a few more of you that you can commute and also to meet our commitment with the site, the commuter rate will has been raised somewhat from the originally advertised rate.

Commuter fees will be between $300 and $378, depending on if you pay by check or credit card and whether you stay for dinners and the evening Tuesday-Friday.

There will be 2 programs for commuters:

Lunch only plus Saturday dinner costs $315 / $300. The commuting fee includes use of the facilities during the day, lunch every day and dinner plus use of the facilities after class on Saturday only. Use of the facilities includes hiking, enjoying the lawns overlooking the ocean, hot tub, swimming pool as well as receiving private sessions with assistants.

Those with immediate family in the area will be able to invite family members to join us on Saturday after 5:45 for dinner and to play/socialize. This is designed to help you integrate your family life with your life in the training. Cost is $15/adult, $5/child to be paid a month in advance when you pay for your meals. This offer for family members to attend is true for the first module only. The management is concerned about children being properly supervised. We will be able to do it for other modules if the children are supervised and appropriate the first module. We have explained that the course is about parenting and being with children and have every expectation of the children being invited back. Payment for this is due 4 weeks before, when your food/ day use fee is due.

Please note that lunch-only commuters are asked by the site manager to arrive at class time and to leave after class is finished except Saturday. Commuters are asked not to use the hot tub, swimming pool, hiking trails, etc or to schedule private sessions with assistants before or after class except after class on Saturday.

Lunch, dinner and use of the facilities after 5:45 for 6 lunches and 5 dinners, starting Tuesday lunch and going through Sunday lunch costs $378/ $360. For an additional $60 ($15/dinner-evening), not only can you eat dinner with all the residents, you can use all the facilities and schedule a session with an assistant. This option is not available on a daily basis, only for all of the evenings. You can pay for this program and use it for less than the full four extra evenings, Tuesday-Friday.

This option may be available to people who sign up originally as lunch-only commuters if the kitchen has enough food. The cost of adding any Tuesday-Friday dinners/facilities use/sessions later than a month before the module is $85/ $80. This is true even if you stay only one evening whether you eat or not so we encourage you to plan ahead if you'd like to do this.

There is no option to pay less and bring your own dinner. You can request to bring your own dinner if you have special dietary needs. can provide a cooler and do not need refrigerator or storage space. The fee would be the same as for people eating Laurel Springs' food and would give you use of the facility and the option to schedule a private session.

There is no discount for meals not eaten or staying less than 6 nights. However, if you are planning to miss meals we would like to know as far ahead as possible so the kitchen staff doesn't prepare food that is wasted.

A non-refundable DEPOSIT of one half of whichever plan you are accepted for will be due before the first module (DEC 30 for those already accepted). This deposit will be applied to your food and accomodations for the last module or will be a cancellation fee for any module you miss with less than 1 month's notice.

These prices are PER MODULE due on a Monday four weeks in advance of each module, and are shown though 2005. For 2006 & 2007 they will go up at the beginning of each calendar year by no more than 5%. There is no discount for making payments prior to the deadlines.

Late fees of $5/day up to 5% apply to all late payments. Payments are considered late if they are not received by the due date or postmarked by 4 days before (US) or 1 week before (outside US).

Due Dates	Single Credit Card	Single Cash or Check	Shared Credit Card	Shared Cash or Check	Lunch + Sat dinner Commuter Credit Card	Lunch + Sat dinner Commuter Cash or Check	Commuter Add'l Evenings
2004-12-30 (Deposit)	$447	$425	$368	$350	$158	$150	+$32/$30
2005-01-14	$893	$850	$735	$700	$315	$300	+$63/$60
2005-04-16	$893	$850	$735	$700	$315	$300	+$63/$60
2005-08-16	$893	$850	$735	$700	$315	$300	+$63/$60

Tuition Cost

(This is separate from residential and commuter lunch / day use fees)

The first number is for credit cards (Visa and Mastercard), the second number is the discounted price for using check, cash, MO or travelers checks. Wire transfers add $15 for our bank charge.

Deposit required to hold your place (This is non-refundable) $1740/$1655 due December 15th 2005.

• Plan A

  Deposit + 7 payments of $800/$760 due one month before each module.

  Total is $7340/$6975.

• Plan B

  Deposit + 2 payments of $2735/$2600 due January 14th, 2005, Jan 2, 2006.

  Total is $7210/$6855.

There is no further discount for making any payments in advance.

Late fees of $5/day up to 5% apply to all late payments. Payments are considered late if they are not received by the due date or postmarked by 4 days before (US) or 1 week before (outside US).

	Plan A Credit Card	Plan A Cash/Check/MO/TC	Plan B Credit Card	Plan B Cash/Check/MO/TC
2004-12-15	$1740	$1655	$1740	$1655
2005-01-14	$800	$760	$2735	$2600
2005-04-16	$800	$760	N/A	N/A
2005-08-16	$800	$760	N/A	N/A
2005-12-16	$800	$760	N/A	N/A
2006-01-02	N/A	N/A	$2735	$2600
2006-04-24	$800	$760	N/A	N/A
2006-08-11	$800	$760	N/A	N/A
2006-11-06	$800	$760	N/A	N/A
Total cost	$7340	$6975	$7210	$6855

For Sale Items

The only other required cost is for a doll and cloth pelvis that are available for sale the first day of module III for approximately $140-150.

Ray recommends you buy or have access to an obstetrics book or a nursing book on birth. He provides a list from which to choose and assigns readings for each module.

There is a handout each module of about 50 pages that is covered by your tuition.

There will be a list of recommended readings and videos on the website. Some of these are available for sale at the training modules.

Application Forms

Applications are available for download here. (UPDATED October 25th, 2004. Applicants who downloaded earlier versions will need to download this supplemental form as well). Applicants are required to be able to download PDF files for the application and throughout the training. We do not mail hard copies. You may need to download Adobe Acrobat Reader to view and print these documents.

Application Timeline for Foundation Training 9

With February fast approaching, I'm hoping those of you who want to apply will be able meet our deadlines and enjoy the process. It is your opportunity to tell us more about yourself.

The purpose of the deadlines is to encourage you to apply as soon as you know you are interested. Applications will be reviewed by Ray once all documents, your photo, and application fees have been received.

Email Sandra to say you are planning to apply. If have told Ray or Sandra that you are planning to apply and have decided not to apply, please email that also. Please email Sandra unless you have communicated your intentions in September, 2004.

We respond to your email stating your intention to apply with one of the following:

• We welcome your application. We will notify you if you have been accepted by early November. We may accept some applicants prior to November.
• Ray does not expect to be able to offer you a place in the training. We are telling you this now to save you the time of compiling an application. You may call and request a phone consultation with Ray about his reasoning and your next steps. Calls are considered consultations, charged at $2.50 a minute. If the call is less than 10 minutes, there is no charge.

You mail us payment, photo, cover sheet and answers to questions. Recommenders, c/s teacher and other facilitators mail or fax us the appropriate forms directly.

Applications will be considered once we have received all parts, including payment, picture and letters from c/s teacher, other facilitator(s), and recommender.

• October 25

  Application deadline for all those who have taken a process workshop before Oct 21-24. We welcome receiving your application sooner.

• October 30

  Application deadline for those who take the October 21-24 process workshop as their first workshop.

• November

  Formal letters of acceptance and contracts will be sent out.

• Ray leaves the country for 3 weeks in early November so any applications received after Oct 30 will not be responded to until after November 26th.
• If we cannot accept all qualified applicants, we will have a wait list.
• If the training is not filled with people applying by the end of October, we will continue to accept applications until the training is full. Information about openings will be posted on our website.

One month after mailing acceptance notification or December 15, whichever is earlier: Signed contract and nonrefundable deposit due for both tuition and accommodations/meals/site fees. Both contract and payment must be received to reserve space.

Mail application to:

Sandra Castellino
1105 N. Ontare Road
Santa Barbara, CA 93105

Faxed or emailed applications (805 687-4719) will be accepted only from overseas applicants who should also send hard copies with a picture and check.

Letters and forms from others

The letter of recommendation, forms from your c/s teacher and other facilitators should be mailed or faxed by the recommender directly to the above address.

Questions

For all logistical questions, contact Sandra Castellino at 805 687-2897 or sandra@castellinotraining.com. If you have questions for Ray, contact Sandra to set up a time to talk to him.