Course Description

When a baby is admitted to the NICU, parents benefit from your calm competence and compassionate support. In this self-paced course, you’ll explore the complicated landscape of parenting in the NICU and beyond with clinician Mara Tesler Stein, PsyD, PMH-C  and developmental psychologist Deborah L. Davis, PhD. You’ll read Parenting Your Premature Baby & Child: The Emotional Journey and/or Intensive Parenting: Surviving the Emotional Journey through the NICU and learn how to think about: 

  • perinatal crisis, grief, and trauma; 

  • quality care of parents in the NICU and beyond; 

  • evaluating, supporting, and interacting with parents;

  • therapeutic approaches that support parenting, adjustment, and healing; and

  • the strengths, limitations, callings, defenses, and biases you bring to your job.


This informative, engaging course can boost your competence and build your confidence in the important work you do with NICU parents and families.

Whether you work with families during their NICU journey, or see them months or years later, this workshop will equip you with the insight and skills you need to understand, support, and therapeutically intervene with these families. 


This course utilizes recordings of a live training held in August, 2022. CEs are calculated only based on video runtime. Readings are supplemental.


For more information on our work at The Touchstone Institute, visit our website.


Course Overview

  • Recorded/Asynchronous Distance Learning

    This course is structured for students to learn at their own pace.

  • Prerequisites

    Open to healthcare professionals working with families with NICU experiences

  • CE Credits

    18 CEs are offered for this workshop. Please see CE coverage section below for specific approvals.

Continuing Education Credits

Participation in all training sessions and submission of a course evaluation is required to receive a CE Certificate for this course. Course evaluations are made available after all live sessions have been completed within the course portal. After completing the evaluation, participants will be able to download their CE certificates. This training offers 18 CE credits.

  • It is your responsibility to verify CE coverage in your State or Provence.

  • The Touchstone Institute for Perinatal Training is approved by the American Psychological Association to sponsor continuing education for psychologists. The Touchstone Institute for Perinatal Training maintains responsibility for this program and its content.

  • The Touchstone Institute for Perinatal Training, Inc. has been approved by NBCC as an Approved Continuing Education Provider, ACEP No. 7346. Programs that do not qualify for NBCC credit are clearly identified. Touchstone Institute for Perinatal Training, Inc. is solely responsible for all aspects of the programs.

  • This course is approved by the EMDR International Association (EMDRIA). The Touchstone Institute is an approved training provider with EMDRIA: approval #22021.

  • This course is approved by Postpartum Support International (PSI) for continuing education towards maintaining the PMH-C

  • The Touchstone Institute for Perinatal Training, [provider number 1876], is approved as an ACE provider to offer social work continuing education by the Association of Social Work Boards (ASWB) Approved Continuing Education (ACE) program. Regulatory boards are the final authority on courses accepted for continuing education credit. ACE provider approval period: [1/19/25-1/19/28]. Social workers completing this course receive 18 continuing education credits.

This course is also available live:

Join Mara and Debbie over Zoom, May 15th-17th, 2023

Note on Accessibility:

We include captions in all of our live and self-paced trainings. If there is anything else you need to make our trainings accessible to you, please reach out to us at [email protected]. We recognize that every person has access needs and we are happy to do everything we can to meet yours.
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Instructors

Mara Stein, PsyD, PMH-C

Instructor

Mara Tesler Stein, Psy.D., PMH-C is a clinical psychologist practicing in the United States and Israel. She is the founder and director of The Touchstone Institute for Psychotherapy and Training where she offers both EMDR Foundational trainings for perinatal specialists & advanced EMDR workshops which take a deeper dive into the intersections and applications of EMDR and perinatal mental health. Dr. Stein is a staunch advocate for trauma-focused care and is trained and certified in a range of integrative trauma therapies. A certified EMDR therapist, EMDRIA Approved Consultant and Trainer, Dr. Stein is also certified in Emotion-Focused Family and Couple Therapy, is a Gottman Certified Therapist, and continues to pursue training in Clinical Hypnosis, Yoga-Informed treatment, Advanced applications of EMDR, Brainspotting, and Ego-State therapies. She is the editor of the forthcoming book, "EMDR for Perinatal and Infant Mental Health" (Springer, anticipated 2026)

Deborah L. Davis, PhD

Instructor

Deborah L. Davis, Ph.D. is a developmental psychologist who writes books that support parents through heart-wrenching crises such as the death of a baby during pregnancy or infancy, premature birth, parenting in the NICU, perinatal hospice and palliative care, and making end-of-life medical decisions. She has also contributed to a number of other parent books, medical texts, and professional guidelines that inform and support health care practitioners on developmentally supportive, relationship-centered care, perinatal bereavement care, and medical ethics. She is best known for her books, Empty Cradle, Broken Heart: Surviving the Death of Your Baby (1991; 1996; 2016) and A Gift of Time: Continuing Your Pregnancy When Your Baby’s Life is Expected to Be Brief (2011; in press). She is forever inspired by the resilience of bereaved parents and the healing transformations they experience on their journeys.

Tiered pricing options for this course:

Questions? See our FAQ below.

More about our pricing:

We offer tiered pricing for all of our trainings in order to make our courses accessible to as many practitioners as possible. If you are unsure which tier of payment is right for your financial situation, please read through our FAQ section below or visit our website.


Please reach out to us at [email protected] if you are interested in a multi-month payment plan. We are always happy to create a custom payment plan to make it more feasible for everyone to participate in our courses. 

Learning Objectives

MODULE ONE—Laying the Foundation

  • Describe why relationship-centered care is key to providing quality bereavement care
  • List the three core tasks grieving parents face
  • Describe the therapeutic effects of practicing mindfulness, curiosity, compassion, and holding space with parents
  • Describe the value of accepting and connecting with parents, with the pitfalls of protecting and directing parents
  • Identify and differentiate grief, trauma, and postpartum mood and anxiety disorders
  • Describe the nuances of working with marginalized populations
  • Identify and describe intersectionality
  • Describe how to think about supporting parents where there is grief and trauma
  • Explain why being aware of their own experiences of loss and trauma is key to forming therapeutic relationships and holding space for parents
  • Identify their implicit assumptions and name their beliefs about marginalized populations
  • Identify biases in systems and discuss why understanding intersectionality is an important component of providing quality care
  • Describe and have strategies to address symptoms of burnout
  • Describe the importance of recognizing one’s own callings, strengths, and limitations, and how this fosters self-care, which boosts resilience and wards off burnout


MODULE TWO—The Parents’ Painful Journey

  • Discuss why having a baby in the NICU and beyond is so challenging for parents
  • Describe the ebb and flow of grief and mourning, and the value of grieving according to one’s nature
  • Describe how perinatal trauma affects parents’ brains
  • Explain the parents’ reactions to the barriers and challenges of parenting in the NICU
  • Explain how parents learn to become a different kind of parent to a different kind of baby, especially if the baby continues to be medically fragile and/or developmentally atypical after discharge
  • Discuss the relationship between a parent’s sense of control and painful feelings of anger, guilt, failure, or vulnerability
  • Describe ways to support parents in making peace with agonizing decisions
  • Describe the special challenges fathers or non-gestational parents may face as they navigate the NICU and beyond


MODULE THREE—Supporting the Parents’ Healing Journey

  • Discuss the therapeutic benefits of putting parents front and center as members of their baby’s collaborative health care team
  • Describe the value of parents being close to their baby and how to support parents as their baby’s primary caregivers
  • Describe the difference between “moving on” and “living with” post-NICU, and discuss which option is more realistic and therapeutic than the other
  • Describe a variety of therapeutic approaches that support adjustment, healing, and integration
  • Explain the difference between top-down and bottom-up treatments for trauma


MODULE FOUR—The Importance of Social Connection and Support

  • Describe common challenges couples  face as they become different kinds of parents to their different kind of baby
  • Describe strategies to suggest to couples in order to support their efforts to maintain connection and strengthen their relationship
  • Describe common challenges parents face with their own parents (the baby’s grandparents) and strategies to strengthen those relationships
  • Describe common challenges parents face with their older children
  • Describe strategies parents can employ to support their older children
  • Describe common challenges parents face with friends and acquaintances
  • Describe strategies parents can employ for dealing with others
  • Discuss how relationships and social connections are healing for parents


MODULE FIVE—The Next Chapter

  • Describe the common challenges parents face after their baby is discharged from the NICU
  • Discuss why the “best advice” for parenting is to support parents in voicing their observations and concerns, and making their own informed decisions
  • Describe the common emotional challenges parents face post-NICU
  • List and describe therapeutic approaches for supporting parenting, adjustment, and healing following perinatal crisis

Course Details

    1. Introduction

    2. Get to know Mara Tesler Stein!

    3. Get to know Debbie Davis!

    4. How to Use This Course

    5. Learning Objectives

    6. Anti-Oppression Statement from The Touchstone Institute

    7. Content and Activation Reminder

    1. Powerpoint Slides

    1. Lecture: Laying the Foundation & Self-as-Therapist

    2. Readings: Self-as-Therapist

    1. Lecture: Philosophies of Care and Therapeutic Principles

    2. Kangaroo Care

    3. Readings: Philosophies of Care

    4. Readings: Therapeutic Principles

    1. Lecture: Bonding & The Developmental Journey

    2. Born Too Soon Part 1

    3. Born Too Soon Families part 2

    4. Dying in Your Mother's Arms

    5. Readings: Bonding

    6. Readings: Three Core Tasks

    7. Readings: Grief and Trauma

    8. Readings: Pandemic Impact

    9. One woman’s quest to improve care for premature babies

    1. Lecture: Parenting After Discharge

    2. Ella

    3. Readings: Family Impact

    4. Readings: Sibling Impact

    5. Readings: Child Impact

    6. Readings: Therapeutic Intervention

    7. One year in, parenting has taught us about vulnerability and gratitude

About this course

  • $650 - $850
  • On-demand
  • 18 CE's - EMDRIA, APA & PSI

Frequently Asked Questions

  • Is this course EMDRIA-Approved?

    Yes, this course is approved for 18 CE credits through the EMDR International Association.

  • Is this course approved by PSI?

    Yes, this course is approved by PSI for 18 CE credits both for obtaining the PMH-C as well as for renewing the PHM-C.

  • Is the Generative Access tier right for me?

    Select this tier if you: Own the home you live in (even with a mortgage); live in a two-income household; have investments, retirement accounts, or inherited money; travel recreationally; have access to family money and resources in times of need; work part-time by choice, etc.

  • Is the Sustaining Access tier right for me?

    Select this tier if you: Have income available for recreational activities (going out to dinner, movies, concerts etc.); have consistent work compensated at a median income rate based on your region; pay rent that is not more than 25% of your monthly household income; do not own your own home, etc.

  • Is the Supported Access tier right for me?

    Select this tier if you: Are a graduate student paying tuition; have major medical expenses not covered by insurance; have been denied work, or experience discrimination related to ableism, racism, sexism, gender discrimination or other forms of oppression; are eligible for public assistance; have immigration-related expenses; have ever been denied work due to incarceration history; are supporting adult children, extended family members in need or have other adult dependents; are an elder with limited financial support; are primarily working in a setting with under-resourced populations and your income reflects this work, etc.

  • Are there payment plan options available?

    Yes! We are happy to work with you to create a payment plan that fits your needs. Please reach out to us over email with a brief description of the length of the plan that you are interested in using to pay for this course: [email protected].

  • How can I learn more about your pricing?

    Please visit our website for more information on our approach to pricing our trainings: www.touchstoneinstitute.org/pricing.

  • What is your refund policy?

    We require 30-days notice for cancellations to receive a refund, minus a 5% administrative fee. If you cancel within thirty days you will be able to apply your full tuition to any other trainings we offer.

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