All the Details


  •  Virtual workshop May 15th - 17th, 2022, 9 am - 5:30 pm CST.


  •  Participants will learn how to holistically support grieving parents who have lost babies during pregnancy, birth, or infancy.


  • This course is open to all practitioners who work with (or would like to work with) perinatally bereaved families. This includes therapists, psychiatrists, hospital chaplains, nurses, lactation consultants, physicians, physician assistants, doulas,  birth workers, and more.


  • 18 CE hours will be available for completion of this three-day course (more details below).


  • The cost of this course is $750 for three days of content with two trainers. Payment plans are available for this course and can be selected from the dropdown menu above. Scholarships of 10% off are also available, see more details in the FAQ section below.

Course Introduction

Hear from Mara and Debbie about this new training!

Course Summary

What you will gain from this training

Perhaps the most heart-wrenching and challenging aspect of your work is when a baby dies. Parents and families need your calm competence and compassionate support more than ever. And you may wonder:


  • What are the main ingredients of quality perinatal bereavement care?

  • What are the parent’s core tasks, and how do I provide developmentally supportive care?

  • What words and actions have the most positive, powerful, and lasting effect on families?

  • What are the therapeutic approaches that support healing?

  • How does the practice of mindfulness, curiosity, compassion, and holding space protect me from burnout?


In this informative, engaging course, you’ll explore this complicated landscape with clinician Mara Tesler Stein, PsyD, PMH-C and developmental psychologist Deborah L. Davis, PhD.


Drawing on Debbie's classic book, Empty Cradle, Broken Heart: Surviving the Death of Your Baby, which has provided evidence-based support to parents for over 30 years, you’ll learn how to think about 

  • perinatal crisis, grief, and trauma; 

  • providing quality bereavement care in and out of the hospital; 

  • evaluating, supporting, and interacting with parents and families;

  • attuning to the nuances of grief, trauma, and adjustment

  • therapeutic approaches that support healing; and

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


This course was created with therapists in mind, but is designed to be helpful to anyone who works with bereaved parents and their families. It can boost your competence and build your confidence in the important work you do with bereaved families. 

Payment Options

This course can be paid for using a payment plan or one-time payment. If you select a payment plan, you will automatically be charged monthly to your credit card on file. Please email us for information about our scholarship offerings - [email protected] .

Course Outline and Itinerary

All Times Listed in CST (Chicago's Timezone)

Day 1: Laying the Foundation


9-10:30am: Introductions and Orientation to Course


10:30am-1pm:   Therapeutic Principles


  • The Three Core Tasks
  • Relationship-Centered, Developmentally Supportive Care for Parents
  • Recognizing and differentiating grief, trauma, PMADs
  • Working with marginalized populations
  • Recognizing intersectionality
  • How to think about supporting parents as they grieve. 
  • How to think about supporting parents when there is also trauma.
  • How to think about trauma-focused treatment
  • How to think about making referrals
  • Clinical Q&A



1pm-2:15pm: Lunch


2:15-5pm: Self as Therapist


What do you find challenging about this work? 

  • this is where I get uncomfortable, scared, anxious, sad
  • these parents drive me crazy
  • this is where I run and hide
  • this is where I freeze
  • Your own experience of loss.
  • Your own experience of trauma.
  • Holding space for death, loss, grief, and trauma.
  • Defenses (reenactment, trauma maps, shutdown)
  • Biases
  • Oppression and perinatal loss – beliefs about marginalized populations
  • Intersectionality
  • Callings and limitations
  • Mindful inquiry about implicit assumptions and thoughts
  • Burnout
  • Clinical Q&A


5-5:30pm: Q&A and Wrap Up Day 1


Day 2: The Parent’s Painful Journey & Healing


9-9:30: Q&A from Day 1


9:30-1pm: The Parent’s Painful Journey


  • Grief and Mourning
  • Trauma and the Brain
  • Early Days and Months
  • Painful Feelings 
  • Making peace with agonizing decisions 
  • The special challenges that fathers and other partners face
  • Clinical Q&A


1pm-2:15pm: Lunch


2:15-5pm: Supporting the Parent’s Healing Journey 


  • Affirming
    • The baby
    • Parenthood
    • Enduring bonds
    • Decisions made
  • Finding meaning 
  • Living in Remembrance 
  • Therapeutic Approaches that Support Healing and Integration
  • Clinical Q&A


5-5:30pm: Q&A and Wrap Up Day 2


Day 3: Interfacing with Others; The Next Chapter


9-9:30: Q&A from Day 2


9:30-1: The Importance of Social Connection and Support


  • The Couple
  • The Family
  • Support Networks
  • How Connection Heals
  • Clinical Q&A


1pm-2:30pm: Lunch


2:30-5pm: The Next Chapter


  • Trying Again
  • Subsequent Pregnancy
  • Bonding, birth and beyond
  • Therapeutic Approaches supporting subsequent pregnancy and parenting
  • Clinical Q&A


5-5:30pm: Q&A and Wrap Up Day 3

About the Instructors

EMDRIA-Approved EMDR Consultant and EMDR Faculty Trainer for ICM Mara Tesler Stein

Mara Tesler Stein, Psy.D., PMH-C is a clinical psychologist practicing in Chicago and Jerusalem. 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 for the Institute for Creative Mindfulness, Dr. Stein is also certified in Emotion-Focused Family and Couple Therapy, Brainspotting, 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 co-author (with Deborah Davis, Ph.D.) of Parenting Your Premature Baby and Child: The Emotional Journey (Fulcrum, 2004) and Intensive Parenting: Surviving the Journey Through the NICU (Fulcrum, 2013). Her trauma work is grounded in her personal perinatal journey, which began 25 years ago taking her through infertility, twin pregnancy, prolonged hospital bedrest, the NICU, and years of raising NICU graduates.

Deborah Davis

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.

Frequently Asked Questions

Please read through all answers below

  • What are the prerequisites for this course?

    This course is open to all practitioners who work with (or would like to work with) perinatally bereaved families. These include hospital chaplains, nurses, lactation consultants, physicians, physician assistants, doulas, and other birth workers. While this course was developed with psychotherapists in mind, it’s designed to also support and guide other practitioners who work with perinatally bereaved families. 

  • If this course is open to non-psychotherapists, will it be too basic for me?

    No!  This course is meant for psychotherapists. However, because of how it's structured, those who are not psychotherapists but whose roles bring them into connection with bereaved families will ALSO benefit and find applications to their roles with families.

  • Do I need to be trained in EMDR to take (or benefit from) this course?

    NO!  EMDR training is NOT a prerequisite for this course. We are not teaching from a specific method or model, instead, taking a holistic, integrative approach and offering a framework that explores perinatal bereavement through the intertwined lenses of grief and trauma. Whichever models you already use in your work with families, there will be information and guidance here that you can integrate into your practice.

  • If I am trained in EMDR will I benefit from this course?

    Yes!  Think of this as an adaptive information processing informed training. EMDR applications will be addressed while also incorporating other methods and modalities (attachment focused couple's work, yoga therapy, Brainspotting, Hypnotherapy, as well as our tried and true foundational relational framework). 

  • If I'm not trained in EMDR will I be lost when you mention EMDR applications?

    NO!  While Mara is an EMDR trainer, she is also certified in a number of other models and methods. In addition, she operates from an attachment-focused, relational framework regardless of any specific additional model. Even when EMDR applications are mentioned, they will be in the company of other approaches and options as well.

  • Is there a registration limit or deadline?

    No registration limit or deadline.

  • Does this workshop count towards EMDRIA’s CE requirement for certification?

    The application for CE approval is in and we anticipate that it will be approved. The course offers 18 CEs. For more details about other CE approvals, see the CE information located at the bottom of this landing page.

  • Does this workshop count towards PSI’s CE requirement and/or advanced training requirement for the PMH-C?

    Yes! This course has been approved for 18-CEs towards the PMH-C advanced course requirement as well as to maintain the PMH-C.

  • Are there scholarships or grants available?

    Because of unprecedented need, we have decided to offer 10% off the training to a larger group of participants. Please email us at [email protected] for more information.

This course meets the requirements for 18 Continuing Education credit hour by the CE approval bodies

State of Ohio Counselor, Social Worker, and Marriage and Family Therapist Board

The Institute for Creative Mindfulness is an approved provider of continuing education by the State of Ohio Counselor, Social Worker, and Marriage and Family Therapist Board for counselors, social workers, and marriage/family therapists. Approval: #RCS091306

American Psychological Association

The Institute for Creative Mindfulness is approved by American Psychological Association to sponsor continuing education for psychologists. The Institute for Creative Mindfulness maintains responsibility for this program and its content.

National Board for Certified Counselors

The Institute for Creative Mindfulness has been approved by National Board for Certified Counselors (NBCC) as an Approved Continuing Education Provider, ACEP No. [6998]. Programs that do not qualify for NBCC credit are clearly identified. Institute for Creative Mindfulness is solely responsible for all aspects of the program.


EMDR International Association (EMDRIA)

This course is approved by EMDRIA for 18 CEs EC Program Approval Number: 10002-118.


Postpartum Support International  (PSI)

This course is approved by PSI for the advanced track requirement towards obtaining the PMH-C. It is also approved for continuing education towards maintaining the PMH-C.


A General Note About Approvals

Please also note that APA-approved sponsors are accepted by many state boards, such as California BBS and major licensure boards within the state of Pennsylvania. In both of these cases, separate paperwork does not need to be filled out. Many state boards also accept out-of-state providers, which is why our Ohio approvals appear on every training. In some states, pre- or post-program approval forms must be sent, and you are responsible for checking into the rules of the licensure board in your state as to what is required. Please let the Institute for Creative Mindfulness know if you need support documentation in any way for these pre or post-program approval applications.



This course was first published in February 2022.

Please contact us with any questions or concerns:  [email protected].



Refund Policy

If canceling prior to two weeks before a scheduled event, trainees are entitled to a full refund less a 5% processing fee OR the option to apply the dollar amount paid towards a future training with the Institute for Creative Mindfulness. If canceling less than two weeks before a scheduled event, trainees are entitled to a 50% refund, OR the option to apply the dollar amount paid toward a future training with ICM. 


Only medically documented reasons or family deaths are considered as an exception to this policy. No-shows are generally not eligible for a refund. If you terminate your training or need to leave it early for any reason, you are not eligible for a refund. Attendance at the entire training is required for our program to remain compliant with CE  standards. All other situations will be handled on a case-by-case basis.


Please contact us with any questions.

By Registering For This Training, You Acknowledge And Agree To The Following:

Technological Requirements: Attendance at all live sessions on the indicated dates is mandatory for the completion of this course. These live lectures and discussion blocks will be hosted by the video conferencing platform Zoom. Links for joining these live sessions via zoom are included in the course portals. By registering for this training, you acknowledge that you meet the technological requirements needed to participate.

Refund/Cancellation Policy: By registering for this training, you acknowledge you have read and agree to ICM's Organizational Policies, which stipulate the terms for refunds, cancellations, and resolving grievances and disputes. 

Professionalism: You will show up on time and be fully present for each session, acting in a professional manner. You will reach out to your faculty member or any assistants if any unexpected problems arise. 

Staying present for online learning can come with its unique set of challenges, and you agree to take full responsibility for addressing your needs in the area of grounding and self-care during the training. You agree to refrain from all alcohol and illicit drug use during the training and agree to speak with your faculty member or any assistant if you anticipate that your impairment due to prescribed medications might pose a problem during the training. 

The faculty and staff reserve the right to remove trainees at any time if trainee creates an unsafe environment for you or for other trainees, or for any other reason, at their sole discretion.

Confidentiality: There is no client relationship or other privilege that would create a duty rising to the level of clinical confidentiality in this training setting; however, you are expected to respect the confidentiality of other trainees in the group, and your trainer will explain the importance of confidentiality. Trainees who observe a problem with another trainee are expected to bring the problem to the lead trainer or other training staff. Similarly, if a staff member observes an issue with professionalism, they reserve the right to discuss that issue with the lead trainer.

Preparedness for Doing Your Own Work: Throughout the training, you will be invited to participate in reflective practices and group discussion. Please be prepared to approach these learning blocks with both openness and attention to your own emotional needs.

Correspondence from Training Organization: The Touchstone Institute regularly sends correspondence about the training, including an email confirmation at registration and several emails leading up to each training. The emails presently come from [email protected]. You are responsible for reading these emails in full. 

If you are not receiving these emails, you are required to check your Spam folder as correspondence from new organizations often ends up there. Once you receive your first correspondence, please save the email to your address book. If you have not received a confirmation email or other correspondence from the organization within seven days of the event, it is your responsibility to reach out to us by email or phone. 

Email [email protected] with any questions or concerns.