MULIER Therapy for parents
Becoming a mother or a father is a life-changing and profound experience. Having a baby will, inevitably, impact every aspect of your life.
Babies need their parents so fully that you might feel that you have no time for yourself or that you have lost your sense of who you are. Being a mother or a father can also feel isolating for some parents.
Becoming a parent could bring up, among other things, difficult feelings about your own experience of being parented, changes to your body, difficulties in your relationship with your partner, sexual changes and concerns, feelings of loss of your own freedom, sleep deprivation and difficulties in making a time or space for yourself.
Sometimes the process of becoming a mother is problematic in itself and you experience postnatal depression, difficulties in bonding with your baby or even, devastatingly, the loss of your baby in miscarriage or still birth.
Therapy is a space where you can take time to talk about how you feel, get support for yourself and express your feelings.
If you are a new mother I am happy for you to bring your baby with you to counselling for the first few months. This can get tricky once your baby is crawling and whether this is possible at all will depend on your baby’s temperament. You might be able (and prefer) to leave your baby in safe adult hands and enjoy the chance to have some time to yourself.
You are no longer a new mother and are perhaps experiencing difficulties in your day to day life. How do you balance your own needs with those of your children, partner, work and friends? How do you make space for yourself and say ‘no’? Some mothers find themselves overwhelmed as they struggle to balance mothering with work and/or keeping a home going. Perhaps you are a single mum and finding it tough. How do you get support for yourself?
Therapy offers a confidential and quiet place in which to talk, get support, express your feelings and think about what you want and how to achieve it.
