About Us
We believe every child deserves the best “first” relationship, in order to develop a strong emotional well-being and sense of self. But attuning to newborn babies is not easy for most mothers; from breastfeeding, interacting, to understanding how to care for or respond to them, due to their pre-verbal condition.
MPC (Movement Profile for Chidren was created based on Kestenberg Movement Profile (KMP), originated by Judith Kestenberg, a child psychiatrist, with Anna Freud’s child development theory. The KMP profile was developed to assess infants and children based on the non-verbal behaviour, or movement patterns they exhibited.
What is Zero To Two
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Our work is about early detection and intervention.
Research shows that attunement between a mother and her baby is crucial to the child's development. Most mistakes in attunement often occur within the first 3 months and the impact can last a lifetime.
Based on Kestenberg Movement Profile theory, we have invented "Movement Profile for Children”: an easy to understand developmental movement rhythm analysis tool to detect early signs of misattunement and clashing between mothers and their babies, which could later result in emotional disturbances, developmental and behavioural issues.
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The sooner a mother learns to understand the basic needs, feelings and how to care for her pre-verbal baby, the faster she is able to create a safe holding environment, necessary for building empathy and trust.
Detection and Interventions are directed at improving adaptation by fostering mutual reciprocity and attunement in a mother-child relationship.
How we do it:
Pre-verbal children reveal their internal states through their movement, during feeding and play. Assessment done through videos during daily interactions, in a child’s own environment gives us a clear sense challenges mothers face and changes required.
Common problems mothers face with their newborn:
Why my baby does not look at me during breastfeeding?
How do I know if my baby is latching correctly?
Why does my baby fall asleep after just 5 minutes of breastfeeding?
What should I do when my baby makes sound during breastfeeding?
Why my baby cries so much and is difficult to calm down?
When should I start putting my baby on tummy time?
How do I get my baby to stay in tummy time longer?
My baby has been on tummy time for 3 months and is still not crawling. How do I get my baby to start crawling?
What to do if we do not have much space for our baby to crawl?
What kind of toys should I get for my baby for different developmental stages?
When should I start reading to my baby?
What should I do if I have to go back to work after maternity leave and my baby has not switched to bottle?
What is structured play?
What is unstructured play?
How do I foster my child’s curiosity?
Why can’t my baby play alone?
Why is my baby slow to adjust to new environment or strangers?
What are the visible signs of anxiety and stress in pre-verbal children?
MEET THE TEAM
ALISA LOHITNAVY, Ph.D.
FOUNDER
Alisa spent 12 years working with senior executives and entrepreneurs on first impression management, presentation and non-verbal communication training through her company, "Image Matters Asia” (www.imagemattersasia.com). From past working experience she has learned that we are all shaped and formed by our early relationships and how early conflicts and clashing experienced between mother and child could instill a sense of failure, affecting one's self-image and restriction of movement.
Her interest in movement led her to Kestenberg Movement Profile, where she teamed up with Yukari Sakiyama, her KMP instructor turned partner. After 3 years of working with parents, advising them how to attune with their pre-verbal babies, Alisa and Yukari created MPC© (Movement Profile for Children), based on the KMP theory.
MPC© Profiling is used to assess a child’s specific early developmental progress or delay, and areas of psychic conflict due to misattunement or lack of safe “holding environment”.
Alisa is based in Bangkok and Vienna.
To get in touch with Alisa please email: dralisa02@gmail.com
YUKARI SAKIYAMA, Ph.D.
FOUNDER
Yukari has been involved in Dance/ Movement Therapy, a psychotherapy using movement, for over 30 years and is Borad Certified Dance/Movement Therapist of the American Dance Therapy Association. She became involved with KMP (Kestenberg Movement Profile) about 20 years ago when she began working as a university teacher in the training of childcare professional.
In 2015, she became the first Certified KMP analyst and Trainer in Asia and met Alisa while teaching in Japan as well as in Bangkok. As a researcher, she is a primary investigator of the automation of KMP with IT specialists funded by Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, and has authored several KMP-related papers. At the same time, as a therapist, she found KMP useful in supporting parents and children, where she and Alisa together created MPC©.
Yukari is currently a professor at Mukogawa Women's University and Vice President of the Japan Dance Therapy Association.
Yukari is based in Japan.
To get in touch with Yukari’s please email: dryukari02@gmail.com
