Perinatal Psychotherapy and Relationship Counseling

  • Are you struggling with your emotions as a new mother? Or a new father?
  • Are you finding that your expectations in no way match your real-life experience?
  • Are you experiencing relationship issues now that you are parents?
  • Do you need help to heal from a traumatic birth?
  • Would you like some assistance in managing these issues around the transition to parenthood?

Perinatal Relationship Counseling

When partners become parents, especially for the first time, they are often unprepared for the unexpected challenges to their relationship after a baby is born. Sometimes called ‘baby shock’, new parents wonder why nobody told them it would be like this?

What if it didn’t have to be that way? What if you could baby proof the relationship while navigating this life changing moment?

Becoming us logo

As a Certified Becoming Us™ Facilitator, I love to support couples in preparing for parenthood using this relationship program that fosters a strong connection through pregnancy, birth, the postpartum period, and beyond.

The Becoming Us™ evidence-based counseling model helps couples remain a team, creating realistic expectations, accepting the complexity of feelings, and facing new realities together as they cross the threshold of the transition to parenthood.

couples therapy

Relationship stress is a common occurrence after birth, when 92% of couples experience conflict in the first year after birth. Before or after birth, Becoming Us™ is the way to strengthen the relationship while developing a deeper understanding of the common issues that confront parents, with practical ways to work through and around them.

Birth Trauma Care 

While researching a chapter I wrote on ‘Birth Trauma’ in the edited collection, Transforming Infant Wellbeing: research, policy and practice for the first 1001 critical days (2017, Routledge), I learned that 33-45% of new mothers feel traumatized by their birth experience.

As a birth and postpartum professional and psychotherapist, I provide comprehensive trauma-informed care to mothers (and partners) who are struggling after a traumatic birth. Feeling broken by the experience, traumatic distress gets parents off to a tentative start and can interfere with establishing a bond with their baby.

This specific therapeutic care is designed to defuse the emotional charge around the birth experience, assist in making sense of what happened, and find ways to integrate the broken pieces, to restore a sense of wholeness.

This naturally leads to the recovery of both physical and mental health, allowing parents to embrace their baby and positively move ahead with their new family life.

transform wounds into wisdom

Testimonial



(virtual client)“Speaking to Diane about the traumatic birth of my daughter was life-changing.  She provided me with a safe space to talk about what had happened, to understand my reactions and most importantly for me, gave me practical advice and avenues to explore on every aspect of my physical and emotional recovery.  She followed up our sessions with useful emails and was always available if I needed to talk about something in particular.  Her help was, without doubt, the most important in my recovery from the ptsd symptoms and pnd I was experiencing.  Thank you so so much.”  


E. Catteau

Perinatal Mood and Anxiety Disorders (PMAD)

As a perinatal psychotherapist and relationship counselor, I work with women and/or couples who are struggling with perinatal mental illness during pregnancy and the postpartum period.

Up to 20% of women experience perinatal mood and anxiety disorders, and up to 50% of their partners can also experience symptoms of the same issues. This can have a profound impact on their relationship with each other, well beyond the common stresses of the transition to parenthood, and on the bond they develop with their babies.

PMAD

In addition to the loss of function that occurs with PMAD, the evidence says that depression and other mood disorders in the parents can have a harmful impact on children, including cognitive difficulties, insecure attachment, and behavioral problems.

This specialist psychotherapy can be a vital link to working through issues and challenges and restoring a healthy balance to family life. If you feel that you are experiencing PMAD, please get in touch and we can see if therapy is the right option for you.

PMAD

Perinatal Mood and Anxiety Disorders include:

  • Postpartum depression
  • Perinatal anxiety – during pregnancy and after birth
  • Prenatal depression
  • Postpartum PTSD after traumatic birth
  • Postpartum OCD
  • Perinatal Bipolar Disorder 1 & 2
  • Paternal depression / anxiety / PTSD
  • Postpartum psychosis (puerperal psychosis) – a medical emergency

Some people think that seeking professional mental health care is a sign of weakness, but this is incorrect. These are all treatable conditions, and it is an indication of strength to reach out for help. The sooner you get help, the sooner you will be on the road to recovery and health.

The pandemic of 2020 and 2021 made virtual therapy a common phenomenon of psychotherapy. The options for virtual, using Zoom or Skype, or in-person therapy are available, and telephone support is also offered. As a mobile therapist, I come to your home or office at your convenience.

How can I help?

Contact me for psychotherapeutic support that can begin the process of healing and restore the balance of life that you want as a family.