Cravings
Roots of Addiction and Chronic Pain in Early Adoption
NOW CLOSED
Friday 9 December 2022
A Live Webinar with Lucy Hill, Dr Marilyn Sanders and Dr Frances Sommer Anderson
CPD Credits: 3.5 hours
- Includes a subtitled recording of the event and a transcript, with access for a year (14 days post the event)
- Bookings close at 9.00am GMT Tuesday 6 December 2022
Skin-to-skin contact between the newborn and birth mother helps to lay a foundation for secure embodied attachment. Conversely, dysregulation in the wake of early separation in the form of a suboptimal postnatal environment can predispose the adopted baby to the risk of addiction and chronic somatic pain in adulthood.
READ MORE...Our presenter, Lucy Hill, was born in the early 1960s in a mother and baby home and was relinquished by her mother at the age of two months. On seeking treatment for a 10-year history of chronic back pain, she engaged a psychoanalyst who specializes in treating chronic pain from a relational, trauma-informed perspective. At the outset, she experienced “craving” for her analyst, similar to yearnings she had for alcohol and sugar. Exploration of this desire for body contact with her analyst, led her to initiate a successful search for her birth mother. Their reunion revealed the complexities of the disrupted early attachment, and it stimulated latent grieving for the loss of mother.
Lucy and her analyst will present the adoptee’s perspective as it unfolded in the safe holding space of psychoanalysis. Commentary by a neonatologist and pediatrician will elaborate the optimal conditions for mother and baby during pregnancy and discuss the impact on the baby after birth and relinquishment.
We acknowledge that adoption arrangements have changed a great deal since Lucy was adopted in 1962 in London, UK. There are birth mothers, now called First Mothers by some, surrogate mothers, carrying mothers. We welcome women, men, and gender non-conforming parents, clients and therapists to join us to learn more about cycles of addiction and chronic pain in cases where there has been early separation.
FULL PROGRAMME
14.00 GMT
Introductions
14.05
Dr Marilyn Sanders
Whisked away
The human newborn has an evolutionarily-based biological expectation of the mother’s presence. The newborn expects mother’s physical and emotional proximity, her sensitivity and attunement, her contingent responsiveness and social connectedness. Sadly, there may be disruptions of the newborn’s expectations by anticipated or unanticipated events. Examples of physical separation may include maternal illness requiring separation, relinquishment for adoption, or the baby’s medical need for intensive care services. Others may be in physical proximity but unable to emotionally access their mothers due to maternal stress and distress. Marilyn’s talk will describe the neurobiology of early maternal-infant relationships and the impact of disruptions of early connectedness on short- and long-term infant and maternal well-being.
14.45
Lucy Hill
Finding my voice in my own adoption
Lucy sought assistance from Dr Frances Sommer Anderson following over ten years of unresolved chronic back pain. During initial in-person sessions, Lucy made only brief reference to her adoption at two months old as she had no access to emotional experiences that she could connect it to. The analytic couple developed their relationship online, physically separated in different continents and time zones which, in between appointments, quickly began to feel torturous for Lucy. The cravings for Fran became so overwhelming, she sensed that she needed to disclose them to ensure the efforts in therapy continued to be authentic. These feelings were tinged with shame and conflict and tangled with increasing urges to use sugar and alcohol. To raise them felt perilous. The disclosure however proved to be a transformational navigation tool, an entry port into the heart space of longing that Lucy’s Birth Mother had left in her wake.
15.25
Q&A
15.45
Break
16.00
Dr Frances Sommer Anderson
Like mother… alive, but out of reach
The flexibility of the analytic holding space for Lucy, an international client who came for treatment of chronic back pain, facilitated the emergence of her cravings for contact with her analyst’s body. Prior to experiencing back pain, she had similar cravings for alcohol and sugar and was in recovery from alcohol addiction five years when they met. Through implicit embodied communication, her analyst’s willingness to receive and elaborate Lucy’s cravings for her analyst’s body enabled Lucy to view cravings for alcohol and sugar, and chronic back pain, as proxies for craving her birth mother’s body. This process evolved into a successful search for her birth mother. The unfolding of her reunion and the vicissitudes of the attachment relationship will be elaborated.
16.45
Q&A
17.00
Discussion with Q&A
17.30
End