PEMworks

September 26th, 2025 1-3pm online

Join us and our friends at the UK Association of Infant mental Health to hear about embodied relationships, and how we can identify parental mentalizing capacities using a nonverbal approach.

We are excited to share with you a recent meaningful clinical research paper led by Virginia Simon using PEMA.

Many moms with postpartum depression (PPD) also deal with other mental health challenges like anxiety or personality disorders. But how are these issues visible in the nonverbal way a mother connects with her baby—especially through bodily movement during everyday interaction?
To find out, researchers watched short videos of 68 moms playing with their babies (3 to 10 months old). They used a specialised tool - Parental Embodied Mentalizing Assessment (PEMA) - to see how well moms “tuned in” to their babies’ feelings and desires through bodily movement, touch, and physical presence.
They found that moms with only PPD were often still emotionally present. But when PPD came with anxiety or personality disorders, moms tended to struggle more to tune in to their baby’s emotional needs—with each condition affecting the parent-child bond differently.
This research helps us better understand how mental health shapes early parenting and the nonverbal embodied communication between parents and infants, so families can get the right kind of support from the start and professionals can provide tailored support to each mother’s need.

Here is link to the open access paper:
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jad.2025.04.030

Fascinating presentation last week on a PhD study of parent infant dyads in Columbia - thank you Blanca Ruth for sharing this wonderful work!

Training around the world!
We just wrapped up an amazing week of PEMA training around the clock and around the world —with participants from 10 different countries! It’s exciting to see a worldwide passion for parental mentalizing in embodied movement.
Great news! Due to popular demand, we're excited to announce another online training from June 9–13, 2025, hosted by Anna Freud. Don’t miss out—register now and secure your place!

Register via link:
https://www.annafreud.org/training/courses/mentalizing-the-body-in-research-and-clinical-practice/

הנה זה קורה: הכשרה מקוונת על מנטליזציה הורית גופנית - לנשות טיפול ומחקר - בשיתוף עם מרכז אנה פרויד, לונדון. ההכשרה באנגלית. כל הפרטים בפוסט

✨Upcoming training information✨

Would you like to learn about how to help parents understand their baby's nonverbal communication?
Are you a professional working with parents and young children and infants, keen to enhance your clinical / research skills?
Join our upcoming online training in collaboration with Anna Freud: Mentalizing the Body in Research and Clinical Practice: Parental Embodied Mentalizing Assessment (PEMA™) to transform your understanding of early parent-infant interactions!

Dates: January 27th - January 31st 2025 (Monday -Friday), 9am-12.30pm (GMT)
Led by the creator of PEMI, Dr. Dana Shai and Regional Director, Dr. Rose Spencer
Participants will also gain unique insights into how parents’ mentalizing unfolds in these nonverbal interactions, and how embodied communication plays a crucial role in the parent-child relationship and a child’s emotional wellbeing.
Visit https://www.pemworks.org/upcoming-professional-programs to find out more information about what the training includes and how to sign up.
For any enquiries, please contact:
[email protected]; [email protected]

-infant

✨Upcoming training information✨

Would you like to learn about how to help parents understand their baby's nonverbal communication?
Are you a professional working with parents and young children and infants, keen to enhance your clinical / research skills?
Join our upcoming online training in collaboration with Anna Freud: Mentalizing the Body in Research and Clinical Practice: Parental Embodied Mentalizing Assessment (PEMA™) to transform your understanding of early parent-infant interactions!

Dates: January 27th - January 31st 2025 (Monday -Friday), 9am-12.30pm (GMT)
Led by the creator of PEMI, Dr. Dana Shai and Regional Director, Dr. Rose Spencer
Participants will also gain unique insights into how parents’ mentalizing unfolds in these nonverbal interactions, and how embodied communication plays a crucial role in the parent-child relationship and a child’s emotional wellbeing.
Visit https://www.pemworks.org/upcoming-professional-programs to find out more information about what the training includes and how to sign up.
For any enquiries, please contact:
[email protected]; [email protected]

-infant

🌟It was amazing to be part of "Introducing Mentalizing: Working with Parents and Infants" training hosted by Anna Freud on 28th Oct and 4th Nov. The 2-day training programme dives into the principles of mentalizing and its application in supporting parents and their infants. Such a wonderful opportunity to introduce PEMA and connect with a thoughtful international group of clinicians, all dedicated to the wellbeing of families.

Join PEMworks online for an intensive training in collaboration with Trauma Centre Finland! A fantastic opportunity to learn how PEMI™ identify protective and risk factors by observing the movement patterns between caregivers and their infants.

🗓️ Dates: 12th - 15th August 2024
🧠 Led by the creator of PEMI, Dr. Dana Shai and Regional Director, Dr. Rose Spencer
✨ Ideal for professionals working in early years settings, including health visitors, social workers, nursery nurses, therapists, psychologists, and psychiatrists.

Visit https://www.pemworks.org/upcoming-professional-programs to find out more information about what the training includes and how to sign up!

In only 8 weeks, employing the Circle of Security Parenting group intervention, mothers demonstrated significantly higher PEM ratings!

So for all of you who do not have the time, mental space, or concentration to read the entire paper, here is an overview of this new paper, a result of a collaboration with absolutely lovely people and friends - Karin, Neil, Stig, Ida, Johanne, and of course Rose - We did it!

And if you want the article, just drop us a line.

Attachment is the deep emotional connection that forms between a child and their caregiver and includes how safe and secure the child feels to turn to his or her parent in times of need and distress. Research shows that the quality of the child’s attachment to the parent is very important and has been linked to children’s short and long term emotional, social, cognitive, and physical wellbeing.
One of the internationally widespread interventional programmes designed to help caregivers build secure attachment with their children is called the Circle of Security Parenting (COSP) intervention, an evidence-based, manualised 8-session group programme.
In this current research, the researchers aimed to assess whether the short group intervention programme could make a real difference in parents’ mentalizing - the capacity to recognise what is going on in their own and their child’s minds.
We examined 28 mothers from middle-class, well-educated backgrounds who reported difficulties with parental sensitivity, along with their infants. The focus was on their parental embodied mentalizing (PEM), which involves observing parents’ bodily movements and nonverbal behaviour which show how well parents can appreciate that the child has feelings and desires and that these are expressed through his or her bodily movements; and try to adjust their own nonverbal behavior to better suit the infant’s internal world.
The findings showed that participating in the COSP led to significant improvements in parental embodied mentalizing, which means that moms became more attentive and better at figuring out what their child needed emotionally on a nonverbal level. In addition, moms who took part in the intervention showed decreased number of embodied circles of communication (ECC). This suggests that they became better at slowing down interactions with their infant, staying present, and allowing their infant’s intentions to unfold, rather than trying to control over them.
Since the study had small number of participants and other design limitations, we must be careful about how we interpret the results. Still, it is promising that this brief attachment-based intervention was successful in helping caregivers and children with a more attachment by improving parental embodied mentalizing.

כששני העולמות - שלי ושל הילה ענבר נפגשו - החיבור היה מיידי. היה ברור לנו שמהחיבור הזה יצמח ויפרח משהו חדש!

מתרגשות להביא אליכן חיבור ייחודי בין המחקר והשדה הטיפולי למסגרות החינוך לגילי לידה עד 3. השתלמות למדריכות חינוכיות בנושא:׳הקשר בתנועה׳ מנטליזציה גופנית במרחב החינוכי במסגרות חינוך לגילי לידה עד 3 שנים. פרטים נוספים בפלייר ובקישור👇🏽

https://forms.gle/jhPJbdj853nFww258

Starting soon - An online PEMA training with the Anna Freud!

Parental Embodied Mentalizing Assessment (PEMA) Training - with Anna Freud National Centre for Children And Families, London

29 Jan - 2nd Feb 2024 - ONLINE

09:30-12:30pm UK time

Come join us for this upcoming intensive clinical training for professionals working with caregivers and young children and infants at the Anna Freud National Centre for Children and Families on: Mentalizing the Body in Research and Clinical Practice: Parental Embodied Mentalizing Assessment (PEMA™).

We are delighted that Professor Peter Fonagy will be providing an "Introduction to PEMA in Context" in the morning of the first day and Drs. Dana Shai & Rose Spencer will deliver the full clinical training.

PEMA™ assesses nonverbal risk and protective factors in parent-infant (0-2 years) dyads. The training uses video examples as well as uses experiential means to explore key features of caregiver-infant nonverbal communication and their significance in child development.

The training is suitable for professionals working with caregivers and their infants in early years settings, including health visitors, social workers, nursery nurses, psychologists and psychiatrists.

Direct message for further details or contact us at
[email protected]

Book here https://www.annafreud.org/training/health-and-social-care/mentalization-based-treatments-mbt/mentalization-based-treatments-with-children-young-people-and-families/mentalizing-the-body-in-research-and-clinical-practice-parental-embodied/