Who I help
Parental Mental Health
and Emotional Wellbeing
Understanding how experiences within and alongside parenthood can shape your emotional and psychological wellness
Parenthood is one of the most emotionally complex
and meaningful stages of life.
You may find yourself managing daily life, caring for everyone around you and appearing to cope on the outside, whilst inside things feel far more difficult than others realise.
Therapy offers a space to make sense of your experiences, understand the impact they are having on you and find ways to support your own wellbeing alongside the demands of family life.
Parental Emotional Wellness
I support people across all the different stages of the parenthood journey. You may be hoping to become a parent, trying for a(nother) baby, pregnant, navigating the postnatal period, parenting toddlers, older children or teenagers, or have adult children.
The time of trying, becoming and being a parent can be a period when emotional and psychological struggles become more visible. Sometimes these challenges are directly related to parenthood itself. At other times they sit alongside it, or older experiences and patterns begin to surface in new ways.
My work centres around parental mental health and emotional wellness. I can help you make sense of what is happening in your life right now and support you to feel steadier, understood and resourced.
Let’s look in more detail at some of the experiences that can arise within and alongside parenthood and the impact they can have on wellbeing and parental mental health:
Experiences Within and Alongside Parenthood
Parents come to therapy for many different reasons. Some of the experiences I support include:
Fertility and Early Parenthood. Experiences related to trying to conceive, fertility treatment such as IVF and donor conception, pregnancy and infant loss including miscarriage and other pregnancy endings such as termination for medical reasons (TFMR), having twins or multiple babies, difficulties in pregnancy such as hyperemesis gravidarum (extreme nausea and sickness), traumatic birth, medical trauma, time in neonatal care (NICU), difficulties breastfeeding, early bonding challenges, and non-attainment of a parental preference for baby’s sex.
Parenting and Family Life. The transition into parenthood, matrescence (the physical, emotional and psychological transition into becoming and being a mother), identity changes throughout parenthood, adjusting to life with a new baby, pregnancy and parenting after loss or infertility, navigating the ongoing demands of parenting, a lack of family support, supporting children through different developmental stages, wondering about neurodiversity for your child or yourself, and the transition when children leave home.
Relationship, Health and Life Transitions. Changes within relationships after having children, separation or divorce, conflictual co-parenting, work stress, decisions about whether to have more children, facing the end of fertility, and the impact of health conditions, hormonal transitions and cyclical changes in wellbeing. This may include exploring patterns in emotions, regulation and energy levels across the menstrual cycle, as well as the emotional and psychological impact of conditions such as premenstrual dysphoric disorder (PMDD), endometriosis, adenomyosis, or polyendocrine metabolic ovarian syndrome (PMOS, previously PCOS), and of transitions such as perimenopause and menopause.
These experiences rarely occur in isolation. The period of trying, becoming, and being a parent can often be the context in which deeper struggles begin to surface or feel harder to ignore.
You might be seeking support not only whilst navigating these experiences, but also later, when life has settled enough for you to finally have space to look back, reflect on what has happened and begin to process its impact.
The Impact on Emotional and Psychological Wellness
These experiences can affect parental mental health and emotional wellness in different ways. You might notice changes in how you feel, think or cope.
Many parents, parents-to-be and hoping-to-be parents will recognise their wellbeing has been affected in several ways. You do not need to have a diagnosis or fit ‘neatly’ into any one of these difficulties to benefit from support.
Whilst some of these might be familiar diagnostic labels, they do not tell us the whole story. Therapy offers space to develop a psychological formulation – a shared understanding of how your experiences, relationships, circumstances and life history may have contributed to the difficulties you are experiencing today, and what can help.
You may be experiencing:
- Persistent anxiety, worry or feeling constantly on edge
- living in 'doing mode' - always planning, problem solving or pushing through
- finding it difficult to switch off, rest or feel safe enough to slow down
- feeling emotionally stretched, overwhelmed, burnt out, depleted or as though you are 'running on empty'
- feeling irritable, frustrated, resentful, angry or emotionally reactive in ways that feel difficult to understand or manage
- Low mood, sadness or depression
- feeling stuck, unable to move forward or finding yourself procrastinating, avoiding or feeling paralysed by decision making
- coping on the outside and going through the motions of daily life whilst feeling numb, exhausted, empty inside or disconnected to yourself
- people-pleasing, overfunctioning or putting everyone else's needs first whilst struggling to prioritise your own
- worrying about disappointing others or feeling responsible for how other people feel
- post traumatic stress (PTSD) or Complex Trauma (CPTSD) responses such as intrusive memories, flashbacks, avoidance or hypervigilance
- Grief, unresolved loss or struggling with the gap between what you thought would be and and what is
- Intense guilt, shame or self-blame
- harsh self-criticism, perfectionism or feeling you should be coping better
- A loss of confidence, self-esteem or sense of self - struggling to recognise yourself and questioning 'who am I now?'
- feeling isolated, alone, unseen or unsupported
My Approach
My work takes a structured and psychologically informed approach, while always considering the wider context of your life; your current circumstances, personal history, nervous system responses, and the realities of parenthood.
I draw on evidence-based approaches including Compassion-Focused Therapy (CFT), Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) and Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (TF-CBT), integrating these in a way that fits your individual experiences and needs.
Together we may work to make sense of complex emotions, understand patterns between past and present, process difficult experiences where needed, and strengthen your capacity to regulate and respond to what life brings.
The aim is not simply to reduce distress, but to develop a deeper understanding of yourself and what supports your wellbeing, helping you to care for yourself alongside your family.
Inclusivity
I aim to offer a respectful and thoughtful therapeutic space where different identities, family structures, and experiences are recognised and welcomed. Many of the people I work with identify as women and mothers. I also welcome fathers, non-gestational parents, LGBTQ+ parents, and parents from marginalised communities. If I believe another practitioner may be better suited to support your needs, I will discuss this with you openly and support you in finding the right care.
If you are looking for support
You may recognise aspects of your own experience here. Therapy can offer space to reflect, make sense of what you are going through, and move forward with greater understanding and support.
You are very welcome to get in touch to arrange an Introduction Call, where we can discuss what kind of support you are looking for and whether working together feels like the right fit.