Postpartum Depression therapists in Nottinghamshire, England ENG, United Kingdom GB
Postpartum Depression
Wellbeing Centre London
Registered Psychotherapist, Psychotherapy, Counselling, Psychology, CBT, EMDR and Therapy, Coaching
We provide effective Postpartum Depression counselling and therapy.
14 Years Experience
Postpartum Depression
Dr Aneliya Gonsard
Psychologist, DClinPscy, MSc, BA
Becoming a mother is a huge event in a woman's life, accompanied by profound changes - physical, emotional, social. Becoming depressed a after giving birth makes coping with and adapting to these changes very challenging. Many new mothers struggle in silence.
I offer a confidential space where we can talk about your experience of becoming a mother, its meaning and the impact that it has on your life - internal and external.
14 Years Experience
Postpartum Depression
Aleksandra Pamphlett - Cert. Coach & Psychologist
Life Coach, MAC, MSc, BSc Hons,
Welcoming a new life into the world is a profound experience, but the postpartum period can bring unexpected challenges. As a compassionate psychologist specializing in women's health (mums' in particular), I'm here to provide a supportive and understanding space for mothers navigating the complex landscape of emotions. Together, we'll gently explore the feelings that arise during this transformative time, addressing the unique challenges of postpartum depression. My approach is rooted in empathy, offering personalized strategies to cope, heal, and rediscover the joy in motherhood. If you're finding this journey overwhelming, remember, you're not alone. Let's embark on a path of healing together, embracing the support and understanding you deserve.
10 Years Experience
Postpartum Depression
Dr Hannah Levy, Clinical Psychologist
Psychologist, DClinPsy, BSc
You thought that becoming a parent would be exciting, but you've also felt overwhelmed, anxious and like you’re struggling to cope. There's been an expectation that you'd be happy and even ‘glowing’ but the reality has often felt very different. It has left you wondering if you’re failing or 'not doing it right' which can make it hard to say you're not OK or ask for help. If this feels like you, please know that you are not alone and that these thoughts and feelings are very common, even if they’re not often talked about.
As a Clinical Psychologist specialising in parental and perinatal wellbeing, I can support you as you adjust to becoming a parent, whether this is during pregnancy, after your baby is born, following a traumatic birth or when your baby has additional health needs or has required neonatal care. I also offer bereavement support when a baby has sadly died.
Asking for professional support when things feel difficult can feel scary and uncomfortable. I hope you'll find I offer a supportive, warm, friendly and non-judgment approach. Please feel you can contact me to arrange a free 15 minute telephone call so we can discuss how I can help. For further information please visit my website www.drhannahlevy.co.uk
12 Years Experience
Postpartum Depression
Sara Aicart-Pendlebury
Art Therapist, Human Givens Practitioner (HG.Dip.P), Member of Human Givens Institute, IFS therapist Levels 1&2, Narm Practitioner
Contrary to common belief, depression is not primarily a biological illness, inherited through the genes. Nor is it the setbacks, crises or tragedies in our lives that cause depression. It is our response to adverse events that determines whether we get depressed or not. Research shows that people most likely to suffer depression are those who react to adversity by taking it personally, seeing all areas of their lives as blighted by it, and the misery as going on forever. Depression is always a second and unnecessary problem, and just makes problematic circumstances worse. This is good to know because it means that, instead of feeling helpless or hopeless, people can learn to take back control over their lives. They may not be able to change certain circumstances but they always have options about how they react to them.
The symptoms of depression include low mood, loss of interest or pleasure in usual activities, loss of appetite and energy, sleep disturbance, feeling agitated or lethargic, worthless or guilty, difficulty in thinking straight and having repeated thoughts about suicide. Antidepressant drugs may help some people because they lift levels of a ‘feel-good’ chemical in the brain; unfortunately, they do nothing to change the underlying circumstances or thinking patterns that led to the depression. Depression is always related to unmet essential emotional needs and that is why the human givens approach, which focuses on helping people in distress find healthy ways to meet their emotional needs, is so successful.
Depressed people may seem deflated and flat but, in actual fact, they have raised levels of a stress hormone called cortisol, which means that they are in a state of constant high emotional arousal. When our emotions are aroused we can’t think rationally, so this is why people deep in the grip of depression can’t concentrate well or even make simple decisions. Learning simple relaxation techniques to calm themselves down will start reducing those cortisol levels.
The main reason that depressed people are so emotionally aroused is that they spend a vast amount of time worrying about the future or beating themselves up about past events. Perhaps they still feel guilty about something that happened recently – or years ago; perhaps they are frightening themselves with dire ‘what if?’ scenarios (likely or unlikely), in which loved ones encounter dangers or they themselves lose their jobs or their homes; perhaps they feel beaten down by chronic pain or anger (“Why did this have to happen to me?” “How could he have been so cruel?”); or maybe they experience a combination. They also have a huge tendency towards negative thinking – “I’ll never be good enough”; “I’ll never cope”; “nothing ever goes right”; “the pain will only get worse”. All this kind of negative imagining and thinking saps an enormous amount of energy – and makes people utterly miserable.
Far from feeling more refreshed after a night’s sleep, most people with depression wake up next day still exhausted and feeling totally unmotivated. It is hard for them to get out of bed and do anything at all. We now know why this happens. Psychologist and co-founder of the human givens approach Joe Griffin carried out research over many years which showed that, when we dream at night, we are discharging unexpressed emotional arousals from the previous day. If earlier we were upset about something our spouse did or didn’t do, but kept it to ourselves, we would later dream that out, perhaps in the form of getting angry with someone else (dream content is never straightforward); that would have the desired effect of lowering our levels of emotional arousal, so that we can start next day afresh, even though we are unlikely to remember we had the dream. (If we did express our feelings with our spouse at the time, we wouldn’t need to dream about it. And, of course, if we wake up and remember what our spouse did or didn’t do, we may get emotionally aroused about it all over again, requiring more dream discharge that night, if we still don’t resolve it.)
15 Years Experience