About Claudia
Claudia is a senior teacher at the School of Images (www.schoolofimages.org) where she runs their DreamBirth® Program and is the Global Head of DreamBirth®. In that capacity Claudia has trained professionals world-wide and works with countless women and couples from all continents. She was one of the original 7 doulas who worked with Dr. Catherine Shainberg, for 7 years to help her create DreamBirth®. She is a world expert at facilitating communication between the parents and the baby in the womb or with the souls planning to come, still not conceived, and even those that were miscarried or aborted. It is these conversations that led to the writing of Messages from the Womb. The coming souls and babies insisted, pushed and prodded that the book be written!
As well, Claudia is Co-founder of The Birth Studio, the first center to offer Childbirth Education Classes centered around DreamBirth®. She is a Childbirth Educator, a Birth Doula, an Alexander Technique Teacher and a Biodynamic CranioSacral Practitioner, as well as a certified practitioner and teacher of DreamBirth®. She holds a Masters from NYU in Kinesiology and Dance from the Gallatin Division, and has assisted in over 300 births (as of August 2022). She has seen a great increase in positive outcomes since incorporating DreamBirth® both in her work as a doula and as an educator; her respect and awe for the power of DreamBirth® is infinite.
Claudia’s Unconventional Bio
When I was training to be an Alexander Technique Teacher a visiting professor came to one of my classes and suggested a very specific and quick “image.” I opened myself to the suggestion. Then, something happened. Instantly my neck and back released. My whole body felt free and easy, my spine deliciously long. Astonishing! All I had done was to imagine my top vertebra moving in a certain direction, and magic happened. One quick image was equivalent to months, or in some instances, years of work.
A few months later, at a CranioSacral Workshop, my life changed. After watching my work, one of the assistants told me about Catherine Shainberg and The School of Images. My heart leapt: a whole school devoted to the study of imagery! Little did I know what an adventure was about to begin.
In 2003, I asked Catherine to teach me imagery for pregnancy and childbirth, and so began a collaboration, soon joined by other doulas and birth professionals. A combination of Catherine’s expertise and genius along with our experiences in the field, (as well as our questioning and prodding),
created a system of short imagery exercises to facilitate, improve and address issues of pregnancy, childbirth, conception, postpartum, and early mothering. And thus DreamBirth® was born. Two years into the work I developed cancer of the uterine lining.
The discipline I was teaching my clients suddenly became life or death for me. I used imagery to help fight the cancer and to face the demons and underlying emotions that were emerging. I also used imagery to alleviate the side effects of both chemotherapy and radiation. When I beat the cancer, the very real benefits of the work became crystal clear to me. I often claim that because of my experience with cancer I got a PhD in Imagery.
My illness jump started me into the creative and revelatory aspects of the work, as well as forcing me to become a grateful recipient of the healing it promoted. As Catherine often says, I plunged in – and the work took on a life of its own, showing me the way. It still does. It is ever-present in my life and work; the imagery amazes me daily with what it can do, and the richness it gives all who work with it.