Upcoming Events:
Brie teaches an infant massage class every Tuesday morning at Scripps Mende Well Being located in UTC.
Contact her for more information on this overview course.
Click Here For Map
Brie also teaches a more comprehensive 4 week course at the
Lawrence Family Jewish Community Center
Contact her to learn when the next program begins.
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Infant Massage within San Diego’s homeless community
Brie served as a mental health intern at St. Vincent de Paul Villages while in graduate school. Following completion of her infant massage certification, she returned to the residential homeless shelter to share her infant massage knowledge with families1.
A mother gently rocks her newborn; a father offers a finger for his infant son to grasp; a 4-year-old strokes her baby brother’s cheek – these interactions all use the power of touch to communicate love to an infant.
Nurturing touch is essential to a baby’s well being – he or she literally can’t survive without it. Through soothing touch, voice, and eye contact, a parent and infant form the secure attachment that is the basis of a child’s social and emotional development.
Promoting this secure attachment is the idea behind a new Infant Massage Class offered through St. Vincent de Paul Village’s Project SAFECHILD. Brie Hollingsworth, a former clinical services intern at the Village, was introduced to infant massage while working on her master’s in psychology. As an early childhood interventionist, she has a keen interest in how parent/child attachment develops and ways to facilitate it.
“The more I learned about the benefits of infant massage in this area, the more excited I got,” says Hollingsworth. She became a certified infant massage instructor thorough the Foundation for Healthy Family Living (www.healthyfamily.org) and spoke to Ruth Newton, Ph.D., Project SAFECHILD director, about starting a class at the Village.
Four mothers and their babies participated in a pilot course in July consisting of three weekly sessions. Hollingsworth began with an introduction to infant massage, describing it as a two-way interaction in which the mother learns to recognize and respond to her baby’s cues. This attunement, or sensitive response, is the most important part of the massage.
Hollingsworth makes a distinction between bonding – the loving feelings a parent has for her child, and attachment – the two-way, trusting relationship that develops between parent and child. Attachment is not automatic. It must be nurtured through consistent, sensitive and respectful interaction.
According to Hollingsworth, the first step in a massage session is to ask permission or invite the baby to participate. She explained that this shows respect for the baby, which is important for building trust. She instructed the mothers to ask permission by stroking the baby’s face to get attention and speaking in a soothing voice. If the baby turns away or otherwise indicates displeasure or disinterest, try again at another time. If the baby responds with quiet awareness and eye contact, begin the massage.
Hollingsworth demonstrated massage strokes using a doll while the mothers followed along with their babies. The mothers also watched and learned from each other. One mom, who had practiced massage with her baby for several weeks before the class, was a wonderful model of the attuned relationship that can develop through infant massage and touch communication.
Newton plans to continue infant massage as a regular course at the Village. “Probably no other class has the impact that infant massage has on the mother/child relationship. We consider attachment and mother’s sensitivity critical to development, and to what we are trying to achieve with Project SAFECHILD.”
Hagey, B. (2005, Fall). Building attachment through touch communication. Village News, Vol. 15, Issue 3, p. 18.
Village News story used with permission. © 2005 S.V.D.P Management, Inc.
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