Infant Massage / Touch Communication with
Itsy Bitsy Yoga®

Class Description

Are you looking for something new and fun and loving to share with yourself and your baby?  I invite you to learn the ancient arts of infant massage and yoga through respectful touch and movement interactions with your baby. Nurturing touch in the early months is vital to health and wellbeing and is an important component in brain development. You will learn methods for connecting with your baby through touch with strokes and movements for legs/feet, tummy/chest, arms/hands, back and face while respecting baby pacing and cues. You will also learn to weave baby yoga “poses” and activities into the massage interaction, which support your baby's natural development. The yoga poses and movements are based on Itsy Bitsy Yoga®, which include unique “sing and do” methods to help baby (and parent) calm and relax.

The class setting provides a supportive environment for moms, dads, grandparents and caregivers to connect with peers and allows them to slow down and hang out with baby. You will learn to keenly observe and be present with your precious child to enhance and deepen your relationship through touch and gentle movements. This relationship deepening can last a lifetime.

• New ways of communicating are learned
• It is relaxing and fun for parent/caregiver and baby
• Baby sleeps better and releases daily stress
• Baby has an improved sense of his/her body in relationship to the world around himself/herself
• Supports baby’s developing digestive system and can provide relief from gastric discomfort
• Parents have greater confidence in their parenting abilities
• Group classes provide the opportunity to connect with other families and time to be in a slower paced environment
• The bond/attachment and attunement are deepened

Class Schedule

Bio

Carol has worked with hundreds of families over the past eleven years, serving in a variety of roles: doula, instructor, massage therapist. Carol specializes in prenatal and postpartum massage as well as gentle, family-centered bodywork for newborns and infants, including CranioSacral Therapy and prenatal/birth trauma resolution. Carol has shared massage, yoga, movement and song with her own child for the past three years. Go here to read Carol's expanded bio.

The Power of Touch Communication: Changing the World One Family at a Time
by Kalena Babeshoff, Director/Trainer, Foundation for Healthy Family Living

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I am currently in one of Carol's infant yoga/massage classes and it’s wonderful! The “curriculum” is great, and Carol is a total natural at this stuff. She has inspired me to get closer to my 2 month old son via touch and the special relationship that develops out of that. Carol is very sweet and attuned to the babies. The class gave me time dedicated solely to my baby. I learned songs and rhymes that I use everyday with him now. This class emphasized/modeled the kind of parenting I hope to emulate—sensitive, attuned and kind.
J.B., Mom, Pediatric Nurse Practitioner

Carol has been a friend for all the years I have lived in Portland, and I have been privileged to experience her many deep facets.  As a bodyworker, a Reiki practitioner and as Craniosacral Therapist her touch is kind and aware, subtle and at the same time very grounded and deep.  As an Infant Massage instructor she connects both with parents and baby and creates an energy in the room that everyone feels comfortable with. Babies relax in her presence and express needs and emotions because they know she can help them facilitate and support their process.  Carol has a fantastic sense of presence that calls your own to be there as well. She is intuitive and knows what your needs are almost better than you do! I can hardly wait to experience what she's going to become an expert in next!
V.P., Yoga Instructor, Licensed Massage Therapist