Join us for a six-week series for mothers and babies ages 0–12 months!
Whether this is your first baby or another chapter in your parenting journey, welcoming a child brings enormous love, unexpected challenges, and a profound sense of becoming. Becoming & Belonging offers a chance to quiet the noise of parenting advice and focus on what matters most: nurturing relationships, meaningful connection, and care for both babies and parents.
Over six weeks, mothers and their babies will gather in a small, welcoming group to explore infant and parent development, stress and nervous system regulation, and the everyday experiences of early motherhood. Through accessible neuroscience, reflective practices, intentional parent-baby connection, Jewish wisdom, and conversation, participants will deepen their understanding of their babies while making space for their own needs, emotions, and wellbeing.
Together, we’ll explore how relationships shape a baby’s developing brain, practice noticing what our babies may be communicating, and consider how awareness of our own nervous systems can help us respond with greater ease and compassion. The series will also draw on Jewish wisdom and Nurture the Wow to explore motherhood as a source of meaning, connection, and awe.
Babies are welcome at every session, exactly as they are. There is no expectation that they sleep, sit quietly, or participate in a particular way. Come with your baby, your questions, your experiences, and whatever this season is holding for you.
Lunch will be provided at each gathering.
Becoming & Belonging is an educational and community-based program, not a therapy group.
If you have any questions, email jbaby@jewishatlanta.org.
11:30 AM–1:00 PM
Sandy Springs (Exact location shared upon registration)
$54 per mother
JBaby | Jewish Federation of Greater Atlanta
Week 1: October 16 - Meeting Our Babies
Infant Brain Development and Connection
Explore the developing infant brain and practice mindful observation and connection with your baby.
Week 2: October 23 - Becoming
Parent Brain Development and How We’ve Changed
Explore how parenthood changes us, including our brains, identities, relationships, and sense of self.
Week 3: October 30 - Presence and Empathy
The Power of the Parent
Explore the role of nurtured presence, empathy, and responsive relationships in supporting babies and parents.
Week 4: November 6 - Emotions, Needs, and Stress
Caring for Ourselves and Our Babies
Learn more about stress and needs in babies and parents while developing greater emotional awareness and practices for self-care.
Week 5: November 13 - Growing SPACE
Supporting Emotional Regulation
Learn practical, in-the-moment strategies to support nervous system regulation and create more space between stress and response.
Week 6: November 20 - Self-Compassion and Awe
Finding Joy in the Everyday
Explore self-compassion, difficult feelings, joy, and the Jewish practice of radical amazement.
The curriculum draws from the Nurture Neuroscience Framework and The Nurture Revolution by neuroscientist Dr. Greer Kirshenbaum. The framework translates research about infant and parent brain development, relationships, stress, caregiving, and emotional regulation into accessible ideas and practices for everyday life.
The program also incorporates discussion and reflection inspired by Rabbi Danya Ruttenberg’s Nurture the Wow, exploring how the ordinary challenges and joys of parenting can become opportunities for spiritual practice, connection, and awe.
Emiliya is a licensed psychologist who specializes in working with children and parents. She received her PhD in psychology from Tulane University. She completed practitioner training in the Nurture Neuroscience Framework with neuroscientist Dr. Greer Kirshenbaum and is passionate about bringing accessible, research-informed ideas about early relationships and brain development into community settings. She is also a mom herself, currently parenting her three-month-old baby girl and three-year-old son.
Rabbi Lauren Henderson brings expertise in Jewish wisdom, spirituality, reflection, and community-building. She was ordained at the Jewish Theological Seminary in 2016, and she has served as the spiritual leader of Or Hadash in Sandy Springs since 2020. As co-facilitator, she will help mothers explore the spiritual dimensions of parenting and discover opportunities for meaning, connection, and wonder within everyday family life. Lauren is also a mother to two toddler sons.
Together, we bring complementary perspectives in child development, neuroscience, parenting, Jewish wisdom, spirituality, and lived experience.