
The SEAO® Method
Across the years, SEAO has developed an innovative way of teaching physiology. Dealing with biopsychosocial events, training is, in turns, articulated on three levels: cognitive, psychophysical experiential, and symbolic anthropologic, for the personal- and professional development.
What is the SEAO® Method
The SEAO® Method introduces a physiology teaching- and learning modality based on salutogenesis, PNEI and Schmid’s salutophysiology, through an innovative training process articulated on three levels: cognitive, psychophysical experiential, symbolic anthropologic.
What does the SEAO® Method consist of?
The SEAO® Method consists in offering a training that involves all the body mind systems of the trainee: the cognitive plan, the physical- and emotional plan, and lastly the symbolic- and anthropologic plan. It is meant for group work, as the group is the pillar of the Method, the structure that allows learning.
The cognitive plan: the physiology of pregnancy, birth, exterogestation, ovarian cycle, menopause, feminine sexual- and pelvic perineal health and midwifery care practices regarding these fields are taught. Physiology is taught based on the integration between biological systems (PNEI and Schmid’s salutophysiology) and the proposed healthcare is based on the bases of Aaron Antonovsky’s salutogenesis and the Midwifery Care model. It consists of frontal lectures, lectio magistralis, brainstorming, dialogues, case study discussions and group works. It offers information, refresher courses, intellectual confrontation, sociocultural orientation, meant to favour the acquisition of notion, theoretical competences, reinforce clinical reasoning and connections with the learners’ professional experience. The group is an essential working tool on this first level.
Psychophysical plan: it consists in the offering of bodily- and movement experiences, relaxation techniques, grounding, visualisation techniques, dancing, singing, vocalising, massage, roleplaying, creative expressions, object-, figurine- and image-making, individual, intimate or group artistic representations and their free sharing in the group. The proposed activities are meant to let the professionals’ past experiences and interior representation about the handled physiology topic emerge, in order to humanise the notional plan, experience the handled theme through body, memory and emotions and let the interior knowledge of the biological processes emerge, which can express its complexity and personal resources. The group as a safe place of free individual expression turns into a training ground for the development of relational competences: empathy, active listening, working on oneself to recognise one’s own prejudices, non-judgmental welcoming of the other.
Symbolic and anthropologic plan: it consists in the offering of coded ritual moments, guided by the teacher and the use of symbols, archetypes, and metaphorical representations of physiological processes. The use of ritual tools is headed towards building a group meant as an entity and reinforcing cohesion among the professional, carried out through shared action for opening and closing sessions, also meant to reinforce the motivation to learn and put oneself into play. The most commonly used ritual is the intention-, goals-, wishes- and needs sharing circle. The offer to use symbols and archetypes is meant to favour creative channels for an analogic learning and to expand the professionals’ look on the handled topic, with particular attention to the anthropologic and spiritual aspects, which involve the communion of human- and feminine experience. The symbol also has the function of facilitating the transmission of intuitive knowledge, and of the sharing of the knowledge emerging from experience. SEAO uses the metaphor of natural elements as proposed by Verena Schmid (and as similarly proposed in many euroasiatic cultures): air, water, earth, fire, ether, to convey complex physiology concepts; yet, it also uses, among others, the Jungian symbols and -archetypes as proposed by Clarissa Pinkola Estes and feminine archetypes as proposed by Elizabeth Davis, for a complex anthropologic outlook on the feminine biological processes.
What are the goals of the SEAO® Method?
- Teaching physiology from a PNEI- and salutophysiological viewpoint (Schmid)
- Teaching an approach to midwifery care based on salutogenesis (Antonovsky) and on the Midwifery Care model.
- Forming cohesive learning- and sharing groups with shared motivation and strong alliance
- Humanising the factual-knowledge-based midwifery plan.
- Letting past experiences and internal representations of the professionals about the handled physiology topic emerge
- Letting the learners experience the topic through their bodies, memories and emotions
- Letting learners experience the topic through artistic representations
- Letting an interior knowledge of the biological processes emerge, which can express its complexity
- Letting the learners’ personal resources emerge, which can further enrich the professional level
- Favouring the free individual expression of the learners.
- Favouring the creative channels of analogic learning
- Favouring free sharing among the group members
- Expanding the professionals’ look on the debated topic, with particular attention to the anthropological- and spiritual aspects involving the communion of human- and feminine experience
- Allowing the transmission of intuitive knowledge
- Strengthening the individuals, making them feel part of a group
- Strengthening the sense of belonging to a group through the sharing of linguistic codes, symbols, archetypes
- Favouring the internal re-elaboration through the empathetic and solidal relationship among the group members
- Strengthening the learners’ relational- and empathetic competences, empathetic listening and active listening
- Providing a training ground for the development of the relational competences: promoting working on oneself to recognise one’s own prejudices and non-judgementally welcome others
- Favouring professionals’- and families empowerment with regards to biological processes
- Promoting the respectful care of feminine- and reproductive health through a biopsychosocial approach
In what the SEAO® Method is different from other teaching methods?
The innovation in the SEAO® Method lies in both the content and the training proposal modalities and in the goals.
SEAO® is, as a matter of fact, the first training reality that teaches physiology on three levels: cognitive, psychophysical, and symbolical anthropological, integrating PNEI, salutophysiology and salutogenesis with a focus on relational midwifery, that is to say, on the relational- and communicative competences that can be acquired by working on oneself in confrontation with the group. The Model has been and is still being exported around the world and is required for the training of professional in the maternal and child area.
In a nutshell, the SEAO® Method is an innovative, organic proposal, that rejoins:
– Learning about physiology from a PNEI integrated viewpoint
– Learning about care models through salutophysiology and salutogenesis applied to Midwifery Care
– Analogic learning through the use of shared symbols and elemental metaphors
– Evoking of personal intuitive representation conveyed by artistic expressions
– Experiential learning through the body
– Development of the empathetic- and relational competences within the training pathway
– Function of the group as a tool to learn efficient non-violent communication techniques
– Integration of anthropological-, spiritual-, and sacred aspects of the feminine experience, beginning with the in-the-classroom experience
Who uses the SEAO® Method?
The SEAO® Method is used by professionals of midwifery and other disciplines who teach physiology at SEAO® and other disciplines connected with midwifery. Midwives acquire the SEAO® Method at the end of a long training pathway (annual or biannual) at SEAO® that certifies its acquisition.
Who is the SEAO® Method addressed to?
The SEAO® Method applies to two targets: training- and refresher courses for the professionals of the maternal and child area and/or who deal with feminine sexual health; courses for women and/or families facing pathways focused on health in the same fields.
In which environments and with whom is the SEAO® Method used?
The SEAO® Method applies to advanced professional training environments, professional specialization- and refresher courses. It also applies to courses devoted to accompanying through pregnancy, to getting ready for birth, to the accompanying through exterogestation, to groups devoted to sexual-, reproductive- and pelvic health of women, children and girls.