First Session
During the first session, the focus is on information gathering and planning. We will discuss the difficulties you have been facing and what you hope to achieve from the sessions. It is also a chance for you to get to know me and decide whether we could work well together.
Hopefully, we can develop an initial plan for what we will focus on in therapy and how CBT may be able to help. We may agree on an initial number of sessions, but this is flexible and can be extended or reviewed as we go, depending on what you find most helpful.
During treatment sessions we will normally use a ‘formulation’ which is a diagram demonstrating the cycles between thoughts, emotions and behaviours. This helps us to have a shared understanding about what is keeping the cycle going and where it can be helpful to work on change.
Thought challenging and developing more compassion for yourself is key part of treatment. We can often become overly critical of ourselves and doubt our abilities, leading to increased anxiety and guilt. The aim is to develop a more balanced view of ourselves as parents and look at how we can parent more in line with our life values rather than what we think we ‘should’ be doing.
Trauma therapy
Trauma memories are experiences which are extremely difficult for us and feel either scary, threatening or painful. Sometimes these can be when you are scared that either you or you baby are might die or be seriously hurt, but it can also be when we feel out of control, vulnerable or helpless. In the perinatal period this can occur during birth, or around the new born phase when a baby or you may be unwell. It can also occur with breastfeeding experiences when feeding is not going as planned.
Trauma can also be related to previously difficult experiences from when you are younger. The experience of birth or becoming a parent can re trigger these for you.
Trauma memories can become stuck because they are so distressing and difficult to make sense of it’s hard for your brain to process it as it does with normal memories. They can then reoccur to us as flashbacks, nightmares or distressing memories. People often describe that it feels as if they are back there again and it can feel very real. They are often associated with strong emotions such as fear, helplessness, guilt or loss.
The aim of trauma therapy is to allow you a safe space to process and make sense of what has happened. This allows your brain to let go of the memory so that it feels like a past event rather than feeling like it is happening again. This should reduce the reexperiencing of the memory and allow you to move forward from what has happened.
How Many Sessions Will I Need?
There is no exact answer, as everyone’s needs are different, but CBT is designed to be a brief, focused therapy and rarely extends beyond 20 sessions. Most people in the perinatal period receive briefer treatments, typically between 6 and 12 sessions.
My goal is to help you manage your mood independently and not keep you in therapy for years. Some people may feel better supported with periodic reviews over longer periods after completing initial treatment, and I am happy to discuss whatever works best for you.