The Parental Brain for Professionals
During parenthood, the brain undergoes the biggest changes of its adult life.
Learn how support these brain changes to unlock parental inner wisdom and well-being!
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What you will learn
- Types of neuroplastic changes in the parental brain
- What happens to the brain during pregnancy
- How the networks in the parental brain support caregiving
- The sensitive period and experiences that can shape the wiring of the parental brain
- The role of biobehavioral synchrony in the parental and infant brain
- How oxytocin wires the parental brain
- How the emotion regulation and empathy networks allow to parent in challenging conditions
- How the parental brain sets the blueprint for the infant’s socio-emotional development
- How intergenerational parenting practices influence the parental brain
- The brain of alloparents and the importance of a community of care
- How to apply all of the above to your practice
About the Facilitator
Hello!
I’m Rocío (pronounced Roseeo).
I am a mom and a neuroscientist with a passion for the brain and parenting. For more on my education, read here.
Blending my two passions has given rise to the parental brain professional certification, which I am very excited to share with you!
I genuinely believe bringing awareness about the parental brain workings can illuminate the journey of many parents so that they confidently do exactly what they are meant to!
The knowledge in this course will allow you to use this powerful science to bring your practice to the next level!
Are you ready to join me?!
This course is perfect for you if
- You work with families with infants (0-3 years old)
- You work with pregnant and birthing persons
- You are curious and open to new information
- You love science and are fascinated by our brains
- You are looking for evidence-based resources to support parents
The certification format
Six live classes
These will be classes of approximately 1 to 1.5 hours. We will meet once a week. You can't attend in person or want to re-watch the classes? You will have LIFETIME access to recordings.
Manuals for each topic
You will receive a PDF manual accompanying each topic. The classes are structured around the nine principles that I derived from the parental brain science and come with a complete list of references.
Practical resources
You will receive over 18 PDFs with practical resources to use with your clients. They apply the parental brain principles to real life.
Online community
You will have access to a private group where we can discuss parental brain science and find support while supporting parents.
Office hours for one-on-one sessions
In these sessions, you can ask further questions, ask for mentoring advice and ideas on how to apply the class material to your work, and share your experiences in supporting families! You can schedule a total of 2 hours of one-on-one with me.
BONUS! Guest talk: Nurturing the Infant Brain with Dr. Greer Kirshenbaum
Dr. Kirshenbaum is a neuroscientist, a doula and an infant and family sleep specialist. She is on a mission to teach the science and art of nurturing infants. She is the founder of Nurture Neuroscience, a movement to bring the science of the infant brain into the lives of families. In her guest talk, you will get to learn how to nurture the infant brain and support families in their journey.
With the parental brain knowledge you are getting from this course plus infant brain knowledge from her amazing talk, you will become extraordinary in your practice and help shape the mental health of the next generation!
This course is Different from any other because
It is focused on the parent´s brain and the massive transformation that is going through.
Understanding how this huge transformation is here to serve parents is something that you will not find in other professional certifications.
You benefit from me doing the research for you.
I read hundreds of scientific papers not easily accessible or understandable to derive the parental brain principles and course content. I translated complicated scientific language to everyday language so that science serves its ultimate purpose of making life –in this case, parenting—meaningful, joyful, and easier for your clients!
What´s inside?
Type of changes in the parental brain, anatomy of the parental brain and a model of how it works.
Brain areas that change during pregnancy and its importance.
The parental caregiving network and its sub-networks. Function of each sub-network (motivation, vigilance, emotion regulation and empathy networks). How the human parental brain differs from the rest of the mammals. The brains of mothers and fathers.
How experiences during labor, birth, the golden hour, and mode of feeding the infant influence the parental brain. Time dependent plasticity in the parental brain.
How infants and parents coordinate their physiology and behavior. Importance of biobehavioral synchrony and how it develops over time.
How oxytocin functions during the sensitive periods. Oxytocin pulsatility and imprinting of experiences. Oxytocin and the calm and connection system. Intergenerational transmission of oxytocin functionality.
Role of the emotion regulation network and how to fine-tune it. Importance of co-regulation. Role of the empathy network and how to fine-tune it. Parental reflective function: how it works. Mindful parenting.
Attachment and hidden regulators. Attachment formation and implicit memory. The role of the right hemisphere and limbic system in the parental brain. How right hemisphere communication shapes the infant brain.
Epigenetics and how it shapes the brain. Intergenerational transmission of attachment styles. Attachment styles in the parental brain. Adult attachment stance and its influence on caregiving.
The cooperative breeding hypothesis. Cooperative breeding and the brain.
- Bonding with your unborn baby
- Preparing for labor and birth
- Your parenting values
- A commitment to your baby
- Feeding your baby
- The importance of touch
- Mindfulness of emotion
- The parental brain method
- Developing your parental reflective functioning capacity
- Top-down emotion regulation
- Bottom-up emotion regulation
- Examining your childhood
- Examining your attachment figures
- Your infant’s memories
- Guide to create an attachment environment with extended family (with extra resource to give to extended family member)
- Create your support network
- Choosing a caregiver or daycare
- Attachment formation with a new caregiver
Class Schedule for Spring 2023
All classes are scheduled once a week on Tuesdays at 6:00 pm Central European Time (noon Eastern Time), they will last approximately 1 hour plus Q & A. You will get the recordings to watch at your own convenience if you can’t make it to the live.
- Class 1: April 18th
- Class 2: April 25th
- Class 3: May 2nd
- Class 4: May 9th
- Class 5: May 16th
- Class 6: May 23th
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Registration choices
Investment: 500 EUR
BLACK FRIDAY DEAL OF THE DAY = 397 EUR
With this deal you will have access to both the hybrid version and live classes in the Spring 2023
Hybrid version (recorded classes plus one-on-one sessions)
Register here to watch the recorded classes on demand. They are fresh from October and November 2022.
With this purchase, you have the choice to schedule two one-on-one sessions with me to talk about the material or anything else related to parental brain science.
This choice is great for you if you can’t make it to the live classes, and you don’t want to wait until Spring 2023.
This course was so interesting. Rocío explains the research with simple words, very easy to understand, even if it was in English and I’m a Spanish speaker. The course is based on scientific evidence and it has an applied research part on each topic. I will definitely be able to apply all the information I’ve learned in my day-to-day practice as a pediatrician. I would 100% recommend this course. Thanks Rocío for sharing all your wisdom.
The Parental Brain course was everything I expected and more. On both a personal and professional level, I grew so much.
After having premature babies, and holding a lot of guilt around their start to life - the information Rocio shared was such a vindication and so healing for me.
On top of that, I have so much to share with parents I'm working with - and I know that clients will receive so much more value after everything that Rocio taught us.
Although parts can get technical, we always felt comfortable asking Rocio for clarification, and she made really complicated things so much more simple.
I would recommend this course to any professional working with parents - this information is quite literally life changing ❤️
This course is truly life changing. As a professional who works intimately with families, the focus is often solely on the baby- making changes, optimizing sleep, and looking as things holistically but even still the parents are often “second”. With Rocio’s course and information I am thrilled to have the tools, strategies and knowledge to empower parents with tangible ways to nurture their own brains and well-being while responsively parenting their little ones. I think that this course would benefit any practitioner working with parents, and is impactful for even their own knowledge. I’m thrilled to have had this opportunity and would encourage anyone considering this course to take the leap!
It was an absolute pleasure learning from Rocio. Being as highly educated and well-versed as she is as a neuroscientist, she is incredibly humble and down to earth too. She is approachable, flexible and accommodating in her approach in the course. She has provided excellent resources and is always open to seeing what else she can incorporate into her programs to make them better and is open-hearted and open-minded enough to learn from her students too. I truly appreciate having been able to learn from her in a small cohort. I recommend her programs to anyone seeking this important information.
I cannot say enough good things about Rocio's Parental Brain course. It is well put together, concise, and full of useful information. Not only does Rocio gather and explain the research around parent-baby neuroscience, she also makes it easy to implement. She provides helpful guides to use with clients and discusses ways to apply the research in our practice. If you work with parent-baby dyads in any capacity, Rocio's course is an absolute must-have! Thanks Rocio!!
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FAQ
The course takes 6 weeks but you can do it at your own pace. There are 6 classes of approximately 1 to 1.5 hours, once a week and a pre-recorded guest talk. The course requirements do not have a deadline. I designed this course thinking of busy professionals that are probably also juggling parental responsibilities, so no deadlines to stress about!
You get: 6 classes of 1 to 1.5 hours each, access to my office hours (one-on-one with me), 1 guest talk, manuals for each topic (10 manuals), over 18 practical resources to use with clients and access to an online community.
Tuesday October 4th at 6 pm Central European Time.
It is live (except for the guest talk) but the classes are recorded for those who can’t attend or want to re-watch them.
Yes, you will get all the support you need during my office hours and in the online community.
You will get a full refund if you are not satisfied with the course as long you ask for it BEFORE the 3rd class starts.
Yes, you will get lifetime access to them.
Yes, you can pay in two installments in two months.
To write a review/discussion of a scientific article on parental brain science and write a case study where you applied the science and/or use the resources from the course.
No. I know how busy you are, you can do it on your own time. The course materials and knowledge acquired in the course can be used by you without submitting the course requirements. When you complete the requirements, you will receive a certification of completion of the course.