MamaBebe story

MamaBebe was born in 1993 when I began creating applications of my extensive somatic training. My experience of birthing and mothering my daughter inspired me to offer my first prenatal class. My son’s conception and pregnancy coincided with giving my first prenatal MamaBebe class. I realized new mothers would want to help their babies fulfill their development movements, so I created the MamaBebe developmental playgroup.

As I helped babies in the playgroup, I saw that some of them needed more time and individualized support. In the birth community women began coming for private session work also. Gradually I built on my educator skills and trained to become a somatic movement therapist. Along the way I wrote and published articles for families and professional peers. From the beginning I began teaching peers what I had learned, and offered staff workshops to share the essential principles, practices and powerful benefits of somatic developmental movement.

Somatic movement therapist  •  Birth Doula  •  Spinning Babies® Aware Bodywork Practitioner

Savvy Birth, Evidence Based Birth® Instructor  •  Spinning Babies® Parent Educator  

Craniosacral therapist  •   Lactation counselor  •  Infant developmental movement educator & therapist

I offer somatic therapies, including developmental movement therapy, reflex integration, craniosacral therapy, myofascial toning, therapeutic massage and birth doula services supporting women during childbearing and life transition, and children from newborn through school age. Therapies for children address birth trauma, developmental challenge, delay, cerebral palsey, learning challenges, attention deficit, autism and brain injury.

I partner with numerous practitioners to serve families. I am on call for referrals from doulas and midwives to provide newborn breastfeeding support. I also offer families craniosacral therapy and developmental movement therapy at my Minnetonka Boulevard center in St. Louis Park shared with other therapists. When a woman or child needs health care along with developmental and somatic therapy, I team with integrative practitioners, including naturopathic doctors, Chinese medicine doctors, homeopathists, herbalists and others.

Teacher and parent educator

  • Created curriculum and led MamaBebe Developmental Playgroups for parents to provide them with developmental movement patterns and their influence on baby’s developing body, brain and mind. 1999 to present
  • Created and presented to parents with the MN Childbirth Collective on topics of Active role of the baby in birth, Your amazing baby, Comfort measures for birth, and Breastfeeding. Biannually or quarterly 2004 to present
  • Created and presented Movement and the Emerging Mind: Resources for NeuroDevelopment. Series for parents at Holland Center for Autism.  Dec 2009 to Mar 2010
  • Created curriculum and taught MamaBebe Pre-natal classes for pregnant women to access their own physiological rhythms, kinesthetic connection with baby, and internal resources of movement and mindfulness in preparation for natural birth. 1993 to 2002

Registered staff development trainer and conference presentor

  • Developed and presented an in-service training on Craniosacral Therapy in the Midwifery Model of Care for doulas and midwives. 2011 – present.
  • Co-presented with Martha Eddy on Moving Hearts, Engaging Brains for somatic movement therapists and students. Oct 2011
  • Designed curriculum and presented on Reflex Integration for Infants with Autism and Neuro-Developmental Challenge and Reflex Integration for Early Childhood with Autism and Neuro-Developmental Challenge. Sponsored by Health Dimensions Resource, a training center for occupational therapists and physical therapists. Fall 2010
  • Designed curriculum and presented Developmental Movement:  Inner World & Outer World for elementary teachers at Four Winds Waldorf School in Warrensburg, IL. July 2010
  • Redesigned curriculum for staff development on Movement and the Emerging Mind. Presented to MinneApple Montessori Schools and to Minds in Motion Symposium. 2008 to 2010.
  • Designed curriculum and presented staff development workshops on Movement & Brain Development. Included how developmental movements form brain, mind and physical development in early childhood. and numerous training programs for childcare providers and early childhood family education including  the Childcare Resource and Referral Network, Minneapolis Public Schools , St Paul Public Schools, Ramsey County, Washington County, Anoka County and Dakota County, at Winona State University, Hamline University, Perpich Center for Arts Education and Minneapolis YWCA  1999 to Present
  • Co-presented with Deborah McLaughlin and Sara Longacre on Complementary therapies for post-partum depression. North America Mental Illness (NAMI), Beyond the Baby Blues conference. June 2008.
  • Conference presentations for Body Mind Centering® Association:  Co-presented with Lenore Grubinger on Tummy Time: Comfort and Challenge, April 2003. Presented on a curriculum: Tummy Time for Play for Childcare Providers,  April 2001. Presented on MamaBebe Pre-Natal Body Mind Explorations,  April 1999
  • Co-presented Baby Movement, Baby Mind with Margie Fargnoli, Suzanne River and Rebecca Frost. Midwest Association of Pre & Perinatal Psychology conference, the Baby Summit. August 1998. Published The Active Role of the Baby in Birth for conference. August 1998.
  • Co-created and taught Developmental Dance classes for primary school teachers and children with dance educator Ric Watson. Created and co-led staff development workshops on kinesthetic learning and brain organization.

Published works and authored articles

  • Active Role of Baby in Birth. Published in Exploring Body-Mind Centering. Editors Gill Wright Miller, Pat Ethridge and Kate Tarlow Morgan. North Atlantic Books. Berkeley, CA. 2010
  • She’ll be coming around the mountain. Published in Belly Button Bliss.Editor Jennifer Derryberry Mann. Fairview Press, Minneapolis,MN. 2010
  • Autism: Child Interrupted. Parent and staff training handout. 2009
  • Infant Movements and Touch Create Secure Sense of Self. Childbirth Collective newsletter. 2009
  • ABCs of Learning Readiness. Parent and staff training handout. 2008
  • Brain Maps. Parent and staff training handout. 2008
  • Tummy Time and Crawling. Parent and staff training handout. 2007 
  • Movement and Developing Vision. Parent and staff training handout. 2007
  • Meet the Learning Challenges: Neuro-Development in Action. Healthy Beginnings newsletter. 2007
  • Our Amazing Babies: Movement and the Developing Brain.Healthy Beginnings newsletter. 2007
  • Movement and the Emerging Mind: Attention and Cognition. Catherine Burns, author, with Lenore Grubinger and Martha Eddy. Professional article.  2007
  • Tummy Time. Co-authored with Lenore Grubinger. Staff training handout. 2004
  • Understanding Developmental Movement. Co-authored with Linda Vetruss, special education teacher. Parent handout. 2005
  • Additional articles on the active role of the baby in birth and on prenatal preparation for natural birth, 1996 to 2003.